Let me give you the parent's perspective: A company comes into your school and tells your kids that if they don't sell ten items of overpriced crap they will not be able to get into the giant hamster ball. Then your kid wants you to buy said ten items rather than suffer the embarrassment of shilling this completely useless dreck to their friends and neighbors.
There has to be a better way to raise funds than to go through the motions of pretending to sell a product that no one really wants or needs. The only reason companies like this exist is to make big profits on cheaply made junk at the expense of the school and community.
Last year we were with kathry Beich which was purchased by Great American. This year we stayed and tried it out. Our experience from start to finish was not good. We're going back to innisbrook next year.
Don't like Great American. They have issues with reps. Giftco has affected them.
BelieveKids has not been affected by the closing of Giftco. They are Fantastic. We have used them for years. Great customer service!
Another new and unique fundraiser that we just started last fall is The Sock Fundraising Company: Fundraising, Fashion, Athletic, Novelty Socks . And yes, they sell socks!
They are high quality and sold like hotcakes. Plus we get quarterly profit checks for an entire year for anyone who purchases online through our account.
They make their own socks, so it takes less than a week to receive the orders.
Typically, we ask that site requests and feedback be emailed, but I'll leave this up for discussion.
Yes, I think two news events, in particular (Varsity Gold and Giftco), have elicited a fair amount of participation from the fundraising industry folks. And way too much of that participation has been self-serving. For the most part, I think the self-serving posts have come down or been edited fairly quickly.
But there's never been a blanket ban on these boards on getting the perspective of fundraising reps. There have been times when that experience and know-how is valuable. The discussion of pre-pay and post-pay above, for example, is an interesting insight. Similarly, a discussion of how GiftCo's bankruptcy could affect groups has been generally helpful.
It is fairly noticeable that the "professionals" don't take the time to try and match the spirit/tone of the boards when they write (middleageddad's "lighten up" above is a good example), and I think they would do well to do a better job of that. I suspect that aggressive tone prevents a lot of readers from actually getting to the content of their messages. (Perhaps theirs a sales lesson their for some of our industry posters.)
Anyway... we will continue to monitor the boards to make sure they remain the best web resource for PTO and PTA leaders. Appreciate the feedback.
what has happened on our site? If this is going to end up being a fundraising rep bash all, I must move on. This site has been the best place to come for any questions I have ever had. But for some reason over the last two months, it has been a fundraising rep haven for bashing and half truths. I do know that I have been a lurker and not a poster for some time, but I am not a rep, not someone who is looking to taint PTO's, but I look at the post a lot of these people have written and I do wonder. Tell me, is there a way to set up a site for fundraising reps to vent, to bash, and to taint? Hey, I could make a good living off charging for this. Middleagedad and mrmoney, please move on and let this site go back to being one of the best resources on the internet for all of us.
While it might be true to a certain extent that post pay sales net more than prepay sales, it can also be a disaster for the school. I know of schools that have not collected over $3,000 from their post pay sale. Since they still had to pay the fund raising company their part (how nice for the company to promote a post pay since they never lose a dime), that is the equivalent of $6,000 in retail sales. that is a lot of money! To bad you can't trust people anymore. One nice advantage of the prepay sale is that the order forms are usually much neater when turned in. Post pay order forms tend to be very messy. Another advantage of a prepay sale is that is pretty much over with after delivery. with a post pay sale, you can easily become the "ABC PTO" collection agency for the next six months!
