school fundraisers

My son's Catholic school periodically has fundraisers where he can
sell $X worth of goods (calendars, cookies etc.) or his parents can
just write a check for some slightly lesser amount. I don't mind just
paying, since the overall costs are still pretty low. I wonder,
though, if kids can pick up important skills, in particular
salesmanship, by participating in fundraisers. How do people decide
whether to have a child involved in raising money or to just pay
directly?

On Nov 20, 8:28 am, Beliavsky wrote:
My son's Catholic school periodically has fundraisers where he can
sell $X worth of goods (calendars, cookies etc.) or his parents can
just write a check for some slightly lesser amount. I don't mind just
paying, since the overall costs are still pretty low. I wonder,
though, if kids can pick up important skills, in particular
salesmanship, by participating in fundraisers. How do people decide
whether to have a child involved in raising money or to just pay
directly?

It may teach him how to gracefully handle rejection. Give it a try and
let him decide whether he likes it or not. Since he's only 4, the fund
raising will be around for a while especially if you join him in Boy
Scouts etc. Do you want to sign a check every time?

I personally don't like buying things I don't need just because a
child is selling. I'd rather give a check (as a buyer, not as a
parent)..

In article ,
Beliavsky says...

My son's Catholic school periodically has fundraisers where he can
sell $X worth of goods (calendars, cookies etc.) or his parents can
just write a check for some slightly lesser amount. I don't mind just
paying, since the overall costs are still pretty low. I wonder,
though, if kids can pick up important skills, in particular
salesmanship, by participating in fundraisers. How do people decide
whether to have a child involved in raising money or to just pay
directly?


Let him try it and see what he gets out of his participation. Beware that for a
lot of these programs, incentives get pretty perverse. Prizes are touted that
can only be won by kids with at least one adult pressing their coworkers and
professional contacts; if he's motivated by that, that's the kind of
'competition' he'll be dealing with.

I long ago started throwing these fundraiser materials in the roundfile. But
efforts like manning a table outside the local grocery store, with adults
present and helping, can be reasonable.

Banty

Beliavsky wrote:
My son's Catholic school periodically has fundraisers where he can
sell $X worth of goods (calendars, cookies etc.) or his parents can
just write a check for some slightly lesser amount. I don't mind just
paying, since the overall costs are still pretty low. I wonder,
though, if kids can pick up important skills, in particular
salesmanship, by participating in fundraisers. How do people decide
whether to have a child involved in raising money or to just pay
directly?


It's not really a fundraiser if you have to write a cheque if you don't
take part. Ours have been genuine fundraisers, no obligation at all. We
haven't taken part yet, DH dislikes the inflated prices and says if we
want cookies we should get them from costco and donate instead. I see
like you that are benefits to the child, but I don't think he'd
understand yet what the purpose was.

Anne

On Tue, 20 Nov 2007 06:28:11 -0800 (PST), Beliavsky
wrote:

My son's Catholic school periodically has fundraisers where he can
sell $X worth of goods (calendars, cookies etc.) or his parents can
just write a check for some slightly lesser amount. I don't mind just
paying, since the overall costs are still pretty low. I wonder,
though, if kids can pick up important skills, in particular
salesmanship, by participating in fundraisers. How do people decide
whether to have a child involved in raising money or to just pay
directly?

I don't allow my children to participate in fundraiser's. I find the
companies that run them encourage too much competition by enticing
them with stupid prizes. Besides, I don't like a company using my
child for free labor. I either write a check directly to the school,
or I will purchase items that the PTO is selling directly, such as the
annual t-shirt sale.

Nan

Beliavsky wrote:
My son's Catholic school periodically has fundraisers where he can
sell $X worth of goods (calendars, cookies etc.) or his parents can
just write a check for some slightly lesser amount. I don't mind just
paying, since the overall costs are still pretty low. I wonder,
though, if kids can pick up important skills, in particular
salesmanship, by participating in fundraisers. How do people decide
whether to have a child involved in raising money or to just pay
directly?

The impact on *my* time. Young children cannot safely
do door-to-door without a reasonable degree of supervision.
Generally, it's a much better use of my time to write a check.
An older child who can do things more independently might gain
some skills, but there's also the issue that it's not likely
one of those things where doing it over and over results in
increasing skills commensurate with the time invested.
Finally, I object in principle to selling crap to
have only half the money go to the school. People generally
don't need more crap. On occasion there's a good fundraiser
that actually gets useful goods out there, but mostly it's
just an annoyance. If the only reason I'd buy it is to support
the group anyway, I'd rather have all my money go to the
group rather than half of it.

Best wishes,
Ericka

On Nov 20, 2:25 pm, Ericka Kammerer wrote:
Beliavsky wrote:
My son's Catholic school periodically has fundraisers where he can
sell $X worth of goods (calendars, cookies etc.) or his parents can
just write a check for some slightly lesser amount. I don't mind just
paying, since the overall costs are still pretty low. I wonder,
though, if kids can pick up important skills, in particular
salesmanship, by participating in fundraisers. How do people decide
whether to have a child involved in raising money or to just pay
directly?

The impact on *my* time. Young children cannot safely
do door-to-door without a reasonable degree of supervision.
Generally, it's a much better use of my time to write a check.
An older child who can do things more independently might gain
some skills, but there's also the issue that it's not likely
one of those things where doing it over and over results in
increasing skills commensurate with the time invested.
Finally, I object in principle to selling crap to
have only half the money go to the school. People generally
don't need more crap. On occasion there's a good fundraiser
that actually gets useful goods out there, but mostly it's
just an annoyance. If the only reason I'd buy it is to support
the group anyway, I'd rather have all my money go to the
group rather than half of it.

Who do you sell this stuff to, anyway? All of our friends have kids
in school, and all of the schools sell the same c**p. And anyone who
doesn't have kids in school has close relatives with kids in school.

Barbara

"Beliavsky" wrote in message
...
My son's Catholic school periodically has fundraisers where he can
sell $X worth of goods (calendars, cookies etc.) or his parents can
just write a check for some slightly lesser amount. I don't mind just
paying, since the overall costs are still pretty low. I wonder,
though, if kids can pick up important skills, in particular
salesmanship, by participating in fundraisers. How do people decide
whether to have a child involved in raising money or to just pay
directly?


I don't let the schools pimp out my kid. I choose to teach my kids the
value of a buck by showing them how much those things sell for, how low
quality they are, where to buy like items for less and the % of profit the
school makes on them.
We donate time and/or $$ in place of selling.

Beliavsky wrote:
My son's Catholic school periodically has fundraisers where he can
sell $X worth of goods (calendars, cookies etc.) or his parents can
just write a check for some slightly lesser amount. I don't mind just
paying, since the overall costs are still pretty low. I wonder,
though, if kids can pick up important skills, in particular
salesmanship, by participating in fundraisers. How do people decide
whether to have a child involved in raising money or to just pay
directly?

Well, my son is not yet old enough for this particular query to have
been an issue for me as yet. However, am I right in guessing that your
son is not of an age where he's likely to be taking out advertisements
and setting this fundraiser up as a small business where people can come
to him and buy stuff? In other words, are we talking about the kind of
selling where the child is expected to hassle friends, relatives, and/or
random strangers whose doorbells he goes and rings? Those are not
skills I'd be too thrilled about my child learning, and, in that
situation, I'd write the cheque.


All the best,

Sarah
--
http://www.goodenoughmummy.typepad.com

"That which can be destroyed by the truth, should be" - P. C. Hodgell

Beliavsky wrote:
My son's Catholic school periodically has fundraisers where he can
sell $X worth of goods (calendars, cookies etc.) or his parents can
just write a check for some slightly lesser amount. I don't mind just
paying, since the overall costs are still pretty low. I wonder,
though, if kids can pick up important skills, in particular
salesmanship, by participating in fundraisers. How do people decide
whether to have a child involved in raising money or to just pay
directly?


I can't think of anything important a child can pick up from selling
things until the child is old enough to do it entirely on his/her own;
say, at least 10 years old. Before then, I'd have to be involved, and
since I flatly refuse to try to sell anything, that's out.

At my kids' schools, I'll buy items I actually want (for example, I buy
a few poinsettias from my son's school and a Christmas wreath from my
daughter's school.) Beyond that, I send in a donation. My son attenda
a private school, which states up-front that each family is expected to
raise $150. You can write a check for $150; or, like me, you can buy
the few things you really want and pay the difference. My daughter is
at a public school, so there's no fundraising obligation.

Clisby