School doesn’t start here for a blessed 10 days? Thank goodness, because I’m not ready for that back to school rush. Have I told you how much I hate alarm clocks and mornings? But I’m also not ready for the piles of paperwork that accompany those first few days of school. Permission forms to take pictures. Emergency contact forms. Field Trip permission forms. Requests to join a hundred different volunteer committees. Sigh. One form I’ve never had in my mailbox? The one that this Mama from Texas did! Perhaps the strangest, or maybe the most brilliant School PTA Alternate Fundraiser ever:
Here’s what she had to say:
“My first thought was, ‘A fundraiser already?’” Heinz, a mother of three, told ABC News. “But after reading it, my husband and I got such a chuckle out of it and we thought it was so refreshing.”
The fundraising letter cheekily asks for straight monetary donations instead of asking parents to engage in the traditional school fundraisers like bake sales, galas and walk-a-thons.
“I do not want to hit up friends, family, and co-workers, so here is the money I would have spent buying wrapping paper,” the $25 donation option reads.
“I really wouldn’t have helped anyway, so here is $100 to forget my name,” reads the $100 option.
The last option on the letter was left open for a write-in donation of any amount.
“I am making this donation to express my appreciation for having nothing to buy, sell or do except fill out this form,” it reads.
Heinz says her family is new to the school district this year but that, with three kids in school, they saw it as a “good option.”
“We liked the idea that 100 percent of proceeds go to the school,” she said. “We have been run to the ground with fundraisers so this is a good option for us.”
Heinz posted a copy of the letter, with the school name blurred out, on her Facebook page Tuesday, thinking her circle of friends would get “a chuckle” out of it, too.
The letter has so far been shared more than 164,000 times, surprising Heinz most of all.
“I just shared it with my friends … because most parents can relate to it,” Heinz said. “When it started to go viral, I called the PTA person and she explained that they’d done this for two or three years and it was a big success.”
Heinz says she believes fundraisers serve a “valuable purpose,” but just thought the letter was a fresh and funny approach to raising money for schools.
“There have been a few critics saying if you do this, you don’t have an interest in supporting your child,” Heinz said. “That’s not the case.”
“I don’t want to diminish the value of fundraisers, but time is a valuable resource also, so I appreciated having the option,” she said. “With three kids, there’s never just one fundraiser and they’re never just that simple, so it does take a lot more time than you realize.” interview credit
So what do you think? My youngest has just graduated elementary school and although I enjoyed and treasured my hours volunteering in her school, I can admit that there are somedays it would have been easier to just hand over the money!
I do think that kids learn a lot from fundraising but honestly i think they spend to much time at it,seems here every other week they are fundraising for something
I do like this idea I must admit. I never liked fundraisers but fortunately there were no where near as many as here. With 7 children I could imagine the time consumed by fundraisers if I had to participate now. However that said cash would hurt a lot too. I do think that kids learn a lot from fundraising though, perhaps doing some actual fundraisers and some cash ones would be best. I also agree that really everything a school needs to function at a high level should actually be provided by the government. Children need a good education to be successful in life – they are the future of this country and have to be invested in.
I would do that, the days I had going door to door with my girls to sell chocolate bars was not fun, and sometimes a wee bit scary,
I love it! There are so many pointless products in my house from fundraisers we have no interest in! It would be a relief to just hand over some money and be done with it!
That is cheeky and fun way of going about it. It’s getting really annoying how there’s fundraisers almost every month from the school, it’s really getting out of hand, this alternative is pretty interesting.
fundraisers should be banned from schools. our taxes should be sufficient to cover all educational needs.
I don’t necessarily mind purchasing from regular school fundraisers, but do think they can get overwhelming. I think this alternative is awesome. Love how it’s worded.
I am not sure that the phrasing is the greatest…but this does offer parents other options if they don’t want to get out and fundraise with/for their kids. Our school does something like this and it is a fair alternative.
Oh my gosh! I would have snapped that up in a heartbeat if it had been offered when Man-Child was in school!! I despised fund-raisers (but did them anyway). And now that some of my co-workers have little ones, I am slowly re-paying the kindness they showed me by buying whatever it is they are selling.
This school is onto something big. Something that other schools should emulate.
Haha too funny 🙂 It really surprises me the amount of fundraising that schools DO do over the course of a year – I have supported friends children with so many events over the course of the school year.
While I can imagine it is a lot of work to put in, I think the time the kids spend learning about working hard to get a goal is important!
I am on the fence about it. On one hand it would be the easy way out but on the other hand I think it is important for kids to learn about volunteering and fundraising so by just handing the money over you are taking this teaching opportunity away.
I actually do think this is awesome. I would much prefer this than asking all friends and family to buy some chocolate, especially when they’re all getting hit up from others for the exact same thing. I don’t mind things like bake sales, those are fun and you have an opportunity to bake with your kids, and help out at the schools. But I would absolutely donate this way in place of kids selling candy or whatever else.
I would sign up for this in a heartbeat!