Boosterthon - why is this company allowed in our schools???

[Anonymous]

Boosterthon works because the BT team comes into classrooms every single day for a "pep rally" where kids who raise money are lauded and the rest are encouraged to try harder. I've seen them. It makes kids feel terrible, and it's all packaged under the guise of "character education."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our school has done it 3 different ways. One with full boosterthon (bigger cut), limited boosterthon (smaller cut but less resources) and on our own (we keep all the money). Want to guess which raised the most money by a large amount? Want to guess which raised the least? I hate the idea of giving away half the money too, but the fact is, it works. When you’re collecting almost double over doing it yourself (after giving them half), there’s something to it. Yeah it seems cheesy today, but as a kid, I would go door to door for 2 hours a night selling magazines for my school’s fundraiser to get an eraser top prize. They’re in business because they work. Yeah a lot of money is given to them, but that’s the nature of fundraising in general. How many non-profits do you give to that take way north of 48% for “marketing and admin” or “awareness”? I bet it’s a lot more than you think. Remember the ice bucket challenge from almost 15 years ago? I still get regular letters asking to give more. My $10 donation has probably cost them $100 at least in mailings to my house over the years. It’s great to live in fantasy land where everyone will just open their pocket books with no marketing and no administration, but unfortunately we live in reality… and this stuff takes money and resources to be successful as most people need a reason to donate to these causes.

Most of you probably donate to charities or give money to the homeless, and never think twice about where the money is going. You’ve probably given to Gofundme and never stopped and said “I’m not giving them 33% of my money”. But Boosterthon and PTA’s are evil because it raises $60k (we keep $30k) instead of $15k for my kids’ school.

I use charity navigator and would never donate anywhere if fundraising expenses that high. Boosterthon celebrates the kids with parents who can afford to donate. It's not appropriate in a public school and it is downright horrible in a public school with a mixed SES student body

[Anonymous]

Someone should start a petition to ban Boosterthon and take it to the school board.

[Anonymous]

I'm the OP of this thread and it's funny to see it back. I still hate them!

[Anonymous]

Is Boosterthon related to Read a Thon?

[Anonymous]

Omg that is fantastic cut that the schools get 48%. Those girl scout cookies. Only 2% goes to the girls and the troop.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Omg that is fantastic cut that the schools get 48%. Those girl scout cookies. Only 2% goes to the girls and the troop.

Schools get 100% of a check written directly to the PTA

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Omg that is fantastic cut that the schools get 48%. Those girl scout cookies. Only 2% goes to the girls and the troop.

Schools get 100% of a check written directly to the PTA

But, years ago when I complained about them at our ES I was told -- 48% of something is way better than 100% of nothing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Omg that is fantastic cut that the schools get 48%. Those girl scout cookies. Only 2% goes to the girls and the troop.

It's more like 15-25% depending on the age of the girls and whether they take the rewards or not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Omg that is fantastic cut that the schools get 48%. Those girl scout cookies. Only 2% goes to the girls and the troop.

Schools get 100% of a check written directly to the PTA

But, years ago when I complained about them at our ES I was told -- 48% of something is way better than 100% of nothing.

Our school raises money through a PTA-run whatever-a-thon (sometimes it's dance, sometimes it's reading, sometimes it's a fun run) and raise a lot of money. In fact, I believe it's their only fundraiser each year. A neighboring ES does an "armchair fundraiser" in the fall and raises a TON of money from people who just want to donate cash and not ever give money for anything again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Omg that is fantastic cut that the schools get 48%. Those girl scout cookies. Only 2% goes to the girls and the troop.

Schools get 100% of a check written directly to the PTA

But, years ago when I complained about them at our ES I was told -- 48% of something is way better than 100% of nothing.

The truth is that the PTA would rather bring in this company to shame children into begging their parents to donate than to run a fundraising event themselves. It's not about how much money they earn, it's about how much work they want to put into it. Raise money however you want to raise money, but be honest about why you are doing it.