When we sell chocolates or anything that the kids sell that is cash and carry, we have the parents sign for the items and on the form it explains how they are accountable for the money if not turned in, or if items are not turned in. If you know who the people
are I would personally call all of them and let them know that they have until X time to turn in the money or unsold items and if not it comes out of their kids funds for new playground, school supplies, snacks or whatever the kids benefit from the fundraiser money..maybe that will make mom and dad feel guilty enough so that they will pay it.
I'm really feeling for you in this case. This isn't a case of a bad company or product but implementation of the fundraiser.
I would suggest having someone on the phone to notify the parents. A polite way of saying you've noticed that your money hasn't been collected, when do you think you can turn this into us because we'll need it by.....
What we usually suggest is getting a check from the parents upfront to cover the cost of the fundraising product. So in essence the chocolates, scratch cards, wrapping paper is just a way for the parents to recoup their investment. The PTO has the money, the parents can get their investment back.
Wow, the problem here is not what type of fundraiser was used, but how it was implemented. I say, if you feel you had a successful fundraiser using this company, then consider them for next year. Clearly, how funds were collected and product dispersed was not successful. Rather than hand out candy to be sold, hand out order forms for candy to be ordered. Orders should be turned in pre-paid. Once the forms have been tallied and money accounted for, you can send home a notice with parents confirming how much product and that you have received the correct amount in funds. If the company has a prize program, you can hold off on handing out any prizes until payment is received.
To offer an update on our efforts to collect past due fund raising money that is due. When parents were notified that their child/ren would not be able to participate in the 7th & 8th grade trips and individual class trips we received all money due with the exception of 1. These parents will be notified that their child wil not be ale to take part in the end of year field day activities and the money will be added to their tuition. If this is not taken care of they will not receive their end of year report card and possibly their admission card for September to start school. Again, we have the backing of the principal, pastor and parish financial committee.
We did a WFC fundraiser, w/ the agreements signed by the parents. Guess what?? We still ended up $2700 short. I called the Rep. and they did not offer anything except condolences.
He tried to play it off like he had never heard of this ever happening before. Of course, I am smart enough (hindsight) to realize that in his 20 years of selling WFC that we could not possibly be the worst school ever and it made me mad that he tried to play it off like this is first time that has ever happened.
He offered us free chocolate to sell at the beginning of our event to cover the costs of shortages like what we expereienced. It didn't even touch our loss.
Another thing I realized in dealing w/ them is that they offer free prizes and say they pay for everythign. Well, they do pay for all the prizes when you sell the free chocolate they give you. We paid for the "free" pizza party and the "free" Visa gift card, and used our own PTO money to offer the Jump for George. Had I known that the Rep. doesnt cover this except w/ his free chocolate then I would have offered different prizes.
Communication was poor w/ our WFC Rep. In my opinion. this was the worst, most disappointing fundraiser. I would not recommend anyone do a fundraiser where the money is not collected beforehand.
That is such a bummer about not being able to collect. It's hard to take the candy bar fundraisers out of your fundraising mix because they can be so profitable. I don't know what fundraising distributor you went with, but if something like that happens, I usually try and work something out with the school...maybe a discount on a future fundraiser or maybe sending some free candy bars to try and make up some of the loss.
Obviously the distributor had nothing to do with the loss, but small acts of kindness can go a long way in terms of on-going relationships and referrals.
