Parentella

When I first started my current job, most of us had younger school-aged children, and we would all trade fundraising catalogs and buy each other’s chocolates or gift wrap for our schools’ fundraisers. As our children have aged these past 7 years, and many of them have progressed from elementary into middle school, the passing of such catalogs has waned from all of us.

One person from another department recently posted one on our common fridge. 5 years ago, we each would have bought at least one thing. This year, the form sat there for a week, and only one person signed up (I think it was his secretary).

We’re all done. We’ve all gotten “involved” enough to understand that these catalogs only give back a fraction, and that these private companies are making millions (if not billions) from well-meaning parents trying to do their best for their school. I went to a state PTA convention a few years ago, and could not believe the amount of vendors that all tried to convince me to sell their grossly overpriced DVDs, calendars, and food–in the name of saving our schools.

Fortunately, where I work, no one has lost their jobs, but our salaries have remained stagnant while the cost of living climbs. Everyone’s investment portfolios — if they had one — have taken a hit. One of my colleague’s spouse lost their job. With the state of the economy, we simply have less income available to participate in these fundraisers.

Each year we’ve seen more and more teachers get laid off, with our PTA and other parental groups unable to do a thing. So where is the incentive to buy?

This is not to say that fundraisers should stop, but it’s time to re-think them, along with almost everything else in our education system.

Fundraisers should complement our values, dreams and goals for our students. We can whine all we want about how obese our population has gotten, but is it any wonder when every year we’re asking families to buy chocolate and cookie dough? We can talk about saving the planet all we want, but how much waste do we create with the gift wrap sold by schools, most of which cannot be recycled?

Sarah recently posted a suggestion for a Green Halloween fundraiser: parents donate old costumes to the PTA and the PTA sells them at a low price. It is 100% profit for the school, a cheap way for parents to buy costumes for their kids, and recycling costumes is good for the planet. In a similar vein, last spring Eric wrote about how his community did a similar fundraiser involving formal gowns for Prom.

In the same spirit, a swap could be done with school uniforms or children’s clothing in general. Once or twice a year, families can bring in all of their child’s outgrown clothes and, yard sale style, all of the clothes would be priced at $5. This allows students to get clothes that fit at a reasonable cost to parents, and the proceeds all go back to the school.

Instead of being rewarded with cheap plastic prizes, let’s reward our children with a sense of accomplishment. Read-a-thons and talent shows are a much better way to get the kids engaged in enriching activities, and the reward is in the books they read, in the ovation of an appreciative crowd.

One of the most popular fundraisers at my younger daughter’s school is the jog-a-thon. While it’s not one of the biggest money-makers, it is a lot less work for the PTA, and we don’t have to share any of the proceeds with anyone! It also promotes physical activity and a sense of accomplishment for our children.

Instead of teaching our kids to buy consumer goods they don’t really want, instill a sense of giving. Teachers should just ask for cash! One colleague told me: I will write the biggest check to the first school that doesn’t want me to do or buy a thing. In response, our PTA sent a letter to all of the parents at the beginning of the school year, outlining the planned projects, and how much per student to do everything in our calendar. (It amounted to about$40.) Obviously, there are a lot of parents who can’t even afford that, but those that can appreciate it. And those well off may donate more.

While one teacher did use a catalog fundraiser for her project,  she also had the students write in the percentage and dollar amount that each purchase would amount to in raised funds. This encouraged prospective buyers to just write a check for the amount of that product without actually buying it.

Let’s teach our kids to be discerning. We should be putting more care into choosing companies we work with. One third-party provider that really does cut out the middle-man is DonorsChoose. This is particularly helpful for teachers that want to fund a specific project that wouldn’t follow the strict guidelines of a PTA-sponsored fundraiser. Teachers post the projects of their choice, and anyone and everyone (not just parents and friends of the family) could choose to fund that project.

These are obviously not the only ways to raise funds, but it is time for us to get more creative, and less reliant on selling overpriced and unwanted goods to bring in the funds. Most parents really do want our children, our teachers, our schools to have the resources they need. We just don’t want to see anymore waste. And we have enough gift wrap to last us a lifetime!

image credit: http://school-fundraisers.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/cookie-dough-tub-290×300.jpg

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April McCaffery is the single mother to two daughters, in 5th and 8th grade.

Related posts:

1. 3 Tips to for Green Halloween Costumes
2. A Parent’s Perspective on Homework
3. Parental Involvement Through the PTA
4. Obama Addresses Education Reform in Speech Today
5. Re-thinking Parental Involvement

Tags: April McCaffery, fundraising ideas, Parent involvement

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 3rd, 2010 at 12:01 am and is filed under April McCaffery, PTA, Parent Perspectives. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.