Over the last few years we have had a decline in students and fundraising. Our Fall Fundraiser used to be more than our budget required and our Spring Fundraiser gave us a little bit for the annual project. Last year we barely made the budget established the year before and this year, we wound up cutting programs in the middle of the year. We are a K-5 school with about 500 kids and operate somewhere around $10-12,000. After experiencing this fundraising shortage, we decided not to set our budget for next year until we are done with out fall fundraiser so we know what to cut. Yes, we are supposed to pay for field trips with this amount and it doens't go very far. It's really frustrating that the group before me felt it necessary to spend whatever they felt like because it was available and that school districts don't understand the importance of hands on experience outside of the classroom.
I think you need to take your concerns to your group. Most parents, including me, don't want to fundraise but we do it to help the school, maybe your group feels the same way and is willing to face this logically. Though, I hate talk of cutting projects in our school because everyone seems to take it personally.
My biggest issue right now is more and more kids telling me their parents don't allow them to fundraise. It's things like that that make me wonder why I'm doing all this work when other parents won't even buy a candle or tub of cookie dough so their child can go on a field trip, have music equipment, or even supplies for their classroom.
The irony of commitment is that it’s deeply liberating-in work, in play, in love. The act frees you from the tyranny of your internal critic, from the fear that likes to dress itself up and parade around as rational hesitation. To commit is to remove your head as the barrier to your life. --Anne Morris
Hi! We are beginning to face problems with what we need to raise and spend each year to do all the things our group does. We have a small school of about 375 students and our expenses this year alone will be close to $70,000. I just find this amount of money staggering. Plus with prices the way they are this number just goes up every year. The bus prices alone for class trips has skyrocketed due to the current gas situation. One class trip alone was $1,000 over budget due to bus prices.
I am not sure what the answer is. I have spoken with some members and the principal about starting to stop doing some of the events/programs we normally have each year. We can't possibly fundraise any more then we do (which is a decent amount of fundraising to begin with). No one wants to be looked at as a fundraising machine. But we all need to raise money to cover our budgets. I certainly do not want the kids to lose out on anything and to stop things that we have done for years, but again I do not know what the answer is. Where do you draw the line and just say this amount of money is outrageous and it can't be done. At the rate things are going in the next few years we will need $100,000 a year to operate.
