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Candy
bars, pizzas,
coupon books and more!
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Fund
raisers a ‘reality of existence’ for Catholic
schools |
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Remember when school fund-raising activities involved
roller rink parties and selling goodies door-to-door in
your neighborhood? Well, times have changed.
For one thing, nobody actually rollerskates anymore —
at least not since inline skates hit the scene. And with
the explosive rise of two-career families in the last
30 years, it’s likely that no one’s home after
school to answer a knock. But chances are, if your child
belongs to a school group or club, he or she is still
coming home loaded down with catalogs, order forms, and
boxes of candy. Or samples of giftwrap. Or coupon books.
Grade school students are more likely to be called into
service as “mini-marketers,” according to
Chris Schulteis, director of development for Pius XI High
School in Milwaukee.
“A lot of schools on the high school level are moving
into overall development, the annual fund, for example,
and out of fund raising,” Schulteis said. “Fund
raisers can still be part of a comprehensive development
program, but I think that’s the way a lot of the
organizations are moving.”
Tracy Wayson, vice president of institutional advancement
for Divine Savior Holy Angels High School in Milwaukee,
said there is only one official student fund raiser at
the school, but different groups hold their own mini-sales.
The Dash-a-thon, as it’s known, is “essentially
a walk that students go out and solicit pledges for the
number of miles (they walk),” Wayson said. “It
is a fund raiser that nets about $60,000 a year, and that
is the students’ contribution to the annual fund.
It is in the budget, being contributed to annual operating
expenses. Many clubs run little things throughout the
year, but they’re not for budget purposes for the
high school, they’re really for organizational activities
above and beyond what’s provided by the school.”
Wayson said language clubs at the school participated
in selling Advent calendars, bags of chips, Krispy Kreme
donuts, and the like. There are two or three such sales
every month, and they are “almost always done over
lunch hour, almost always food, and almost always student
to student. There have always been mini-fund raisers for
service projects.”
Is it all necessary?
When parents are getting overwhelmed with requests for
their student’s participation, they may wonder if
it’s all really necessary. Wayson believes it is.
“I think that fund raising by every constituent
in Catholic education is absolutely necessary —
parents, staff, faculty, alumnae, it is a reality of our
existence to be able to fulfill our mission. What we do
with our student body is really help them to understand
the context of the fund raising: what are the skills used?
How are they applicable to other activities you’ll
be involved in, in terms of jobs, presentations in classrooms,
and the like. It’s a requirement to do what we’re
going to do, so we work really hard to put it context.
We have a system here to make sure we aren’t having
15 fund raisers in one day — we know that student
organizations know what each other is doing. We also really
work to make sure the consumer won’t feel inundated
by the preponderance of opportunities out there. We really
moderate the way things are getting sold. It’s a
real teaching opportunity for us and we’re careful
to make sure it’s not abused.”
Schulteis said that Pius XI students participate in a
three-pronged fall fund raiser, in which they sell magazine
subscriptions, raffle calendars, and coupon books.
“It generates a significant amount of money, but
in the grand scheme of things, it’s not like we’d
have to close the doors if we didn’t have it. But
obviously, tuition doesn’t cover the entire cost
of educating kids here. At the high school level, as opposed
to the grade school level, almost all the grade schools
are affiliated with a parish that gives them some support.
We don’t have that, so we rely entirely on tuition.”
Schulteis noted that students’ participation in
fund-raising events was not mandatory, and that “the
positive thing is that the kids are really having fun
with it, they work together with other kids to try to
earn these incentives.” (One of the bigger incentives
is a trip to the Old Country Buffet restaurant with a
student’s homeroom class.)
“It’s a way of building community in the school,
and makes kids realize that they have an obligation to
help out,” Schulteis said, adding that most Pius
XI students come from Catholic grade schools and are used
to fund-raising activities.
However, Pius XI “did away with student group fund
raisers a couple years ago,” Schulteis said. “It
used to be quite widespread. We made that part of the
tuition-inclusive program. Tuition includes books, field
trips, and retreats. Athletics has its own booster association,
plus the athletic association does fund raising for all
athletic teams. We don’t have student groups doing
fund raisers because it did get to be too much.”
Economy impacts fund
raising ability
Grade schools are more likely to rely on funds raised
by their home and school associations instead of by their
students.
“If parents are putting money on the table for tuition,
to keep asking them to continue — once or twice
is OK, but more than that is too much,” said Sr.
Sophie Leonardi, assistant principal at St. Mark School
in Kenosha. “The economy and everything is dealing
us in that direction.”
St. Mark has an auction at the end of the year which helps
raise money. But school administrators make a point of
getting students involved in things outside of themselves.
Students participate in physical activities such as “Jump
Rope for Heart” and a “track-a-thon,”
and support foreign missions. Again, participation is
not mandatory. It’s “urged,” said Sr.
Leonardi, “but again, we have to look at the economy
around us, and some people just can’t afford doing
things like that, and that has to be respected.”
Kathy Iggens, principal assistant at St. Matthias School,
Milwaukee agrees. St. Matthias parents have three options
when it comes to helping raise money: They can work the
concession stand at a Brewers home game (the stand is
on the main concourse, behind home plate). If they can’t
be at a game — which involves being at the stadium
at 4 p.m. to set up, working through all nine innings,
and staying an hour after it’s over to clean up
— they can take a $75 buyout. They also can participate
in selling gift wrap, but must make a $75 profit. Money
raised has paid for assorted things at the school, such
as a new computer lab or renovation projects.
Iggens said there is a parent commitment form that parents
must sign before school starts. It includes attendance
at weekly Mass, attendance at home and school meetings,
paying tuition on a timely basis, and participating in
fund raisers.
“We haven’t had any people complaining about
it, they accept it as part of having their kids in school
here,” Iggens said.
Some parents choose
buyouts
Ellen Burton’s daughter attends St. Roman School
in Milwaukee. St. Roman requires that families sell candy
bars at the beginning of the year, but all other sales
are optional. The Burtons choose to take the buyout option
offered them.
“Often we choose not to sell the items,” Burton
said. “We don’t bring forms to our workplaces
and don’t often solicit family members either. We
support the SCRIP program (certificates that can be used
as cash at area stores) at St. Roman’s and consider
it a very smart fund raising option for families and schools.
We think that the school should set a dollar amount of
money each family is required to raise, and however the
family chooses to raise that money is up to the family.”
Those companies that market products to schools, directly
or indirectly, believe that fund raising teaches children
valuable life lessons. Marylee Flannigan of Brookfield
is the Milwaukee-area sales representative for the Kathryn
Beich Company, the fund-raising arm of the Nestle candy
company.
Flannigan has been a schools fund-raiser for 16 years.
“My kids go to St. Dominic in Brookfield, and it’s
fun to watch from a parent perspective as well as a fund-raising
salesperson,” she said. “They learn so many
valuable things. Parents have come up to me and said,
‘that has been such a good thing for my child.’
Maybe they have the child do the math for the order and
then check the math, or it helps kids be a little more
assertive — if they are a little shy, asking grandma
and grandpa if they would like to purchase something can
help. Some had their children make homemade thank-you
notes. ...so there’s a lot of good lessons to be
learned through the fund raisers. The kids get excited
because they can win prizes, but they are getting some
educational experience. Even if they ask a neighbor for
an order and the neighbor says no, they’re learning
how to accept rejection. They have to be organized and
follow deadlines.”
Market Day, a food company, has been one of the more popular
companies in recent years. The company prides itself on
the fact that it is strictly order-based — children
do not have to solicit anyone.
“Doing that monthly food program, you are not asking
that child to go out and drum up business, you are asking
parents if they would like this product,” said Milwaukee-area
Market Day spokesperson Joan Reichelt. “In many
instances, schools don’t concentrate on the fund
raising aspect of Market Day, but they focus on the service.
It’s quality food.”
“We have schools that have funded a teacher’s
salary. They’ve bought computers, basketball backboards,
the list is endless,” Reichelt said. “In other
words, it’s not just fluff, necessarily, these are
substantial purchases a school can make.”
Schools are guaranteed a 10 percent profit on sales, but
there are other opportunities throughout the year to earn
more. Reichelt said that profits never dip below 10 percent,
but often go above. Children sometimes attend the distribution
day at their school and help fill orders.
“Our mission has been to help school kids, to make
their school experience better,” Reichelt said.
“It sounds a little altruistic, but that’s
been our mission for 28 years.” While the company
relies on word of mouth instead of on formal advertising,
“because we are in a school community, that word
of mouth travels easily,” Reichelt said. “People
will go to a PTA convention, or one principal will talk
to another. Occasionally we will send out a mailing, but
ordinarily that isn’t the way we solicit business.”
Cookie sales are legendary
If anyone knows about fund raising, it’s the Girl
Scouts, whose annual cookie sales are legendary. With
954 Milwaukee-area troops in 2003, the Scouts were able
to cover a lot of territory.
Girl Scout cookie sales differ a bit from most school
fund raisers because the cookies are available for only
a limited time each year — you can’t walk
into a convenience store and buy a box of Girl Scout cookies
like you can buy a bag of M&Ms. But the techniques
the girls use are the same.
According to Sarah Fuerstenau, chief operating officer
of membership and marketing for the greater Milwaukee
council, “girls very little go door-to-door anymore,
just because of the nature of today’s society —
people aren’t home. When girls take orders, some
of it’s done just over the phone. We do have parents
that take cards to work. Usually it’s the girls
getting on the phone and calling out. Lots of times they’ll
look up people who were customers last year. And the minute
I mention “Girl Scouts” to people, they say
‘how can I purchase cookies?’ I’m guessing
a lot of our girls get that also.”
Flannigan also noted the decrease in door-to-door sales.
“Primarily it’s supposed to be more like a
family project these days, that they take it home and
maybe mom and dad can take it to work and get orders —
church groups, Scouts, that’s the way they can get
orders. The safety is always a big issue. That’s
why you find the catalogs have become bigger and bigger
and are offering more items — instead of going to
lots of people and trying to get them to buy an item or
two, you’re going to fewer people and trying to
get them to buy more things.”
All cookie money raised stays within the local council,
and troops get a varied percentage of the profit to help
carry out their activities. Girls can receive a participation
patch to sew on the back of their uniform sash, or earn
recognition patches that go on the front. The earned patches
also come with bars that say how many boxes the girl sold.
Other incentives are cumulative, according to Fuerstenau.
“If they sell 100 boxes, they get something; if
they sell 150, they get (the reward) for 100 plus 150,”
she said. “Girls can also take their incentives
and go to camp with that instead of getting a stuffed
animal. We push that because part of the Girl Scout experience
means you went to camp.”
Liliana Esposito, spokesperson for Masterfoods U.S.A.,
the U.S. division of Mars Inc. (home of M&Ms and Snickers,
among other snack foods), summed up the benefits of fund
raising:
“I guess raising the money is the practical side
— the somewhat intangible side is teaching children
responsibility, a little about business, how to maintain
finances. And I imagine that if you raise the money for
the trip, it feels a lot better than if you wrote a check
for it.” |
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