Boosterthon Fun-Run Fundraiser - NOT a fan

[Anonymous]

Interesting thread. Mirrors all our complaints about the Apex Fun Run scam now targeting the Denver, Colorado area elementary schools. Apex fun run 28-year old owner claims in magazine that it was his original idea brainstormed along with his wife in 2011, but in actuality, it appears to be identical to, and a direct rip-off of the Boosterthon Fun Run scam techniques that originated in Atlanta, GA in 2001 when he was 15 years old. Apex claims to teach leadership? Would that be how to captain a pirate ship? My kids love to play pirates! And the little boy who started the Apex Fun Run scam still gets to play pirates and make off with tons of booty. What a wonderful role model for impressionable young children.

[Anonymous]

In Denver, Colorado, the Apex Fun Run Scam's modus operandi is to conceal from student workers/solicitors, teachers, donors, parents, etc. the fact that it takes 48% off the top of all donation revenue. In absence of the fraudulent concealment, it is doubtful that any sane person would donate money to its causes. Does the Booserthon scam operate the same way in DC?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In Denver, Colorado, the Apex Fun Run Scam's modus operandi is to conceal from student workers/solicitors, teachers, donors, parents, etc. the fact that it takes 48% off the top of all donation revenue. In absence of the fraudulent concealment, it is doubtful that any sane person would donate money to its causes. Does the Booserthon scam operate the same way in DC?

Yes, but it has been in northern Virginia (not DC proper).

[Anonymous]

Our school did Boosterthon last year and parents were very unhappy with it. This year the school PTA organized its own copy cat Boosterthon and I was much more willing to donate and ask family to do so. Im sure it was a ton of work for the organizers, but our 500-student school raised about $30,000, and all goes to the school. I think with the real Boosterthon we made $25,000 after Boosterthon took its cut.

[Anonymous]

But it is important to remember that when your school puts on its own fun run, you are not pressuring parents to give everything they are planning on giving throughout the school year to that one event. Another part of the big lie is that Apex Fun Run and Boosterthon Fun Run have provisions in their contracts that compel the school to promote their fun run as the major fundraising event of the year which contributes to the higher dollar figures of donated money--and to stratospheric profits for apex and boosterthon. But that takes away from other fundraisers that parents might have donated to throughout the year, and, overall the school ends up worse off. So, there is no question that a school is much better off doing its own fun run, and letting parents give as they are able to afford here and there, or feel appropriate to every fundraiser throughout the year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our school did Boosterthon last year and parents were very unhappy with it. This year the school PTA organized its own copy cat Boosterthon and I was much more willing to donate and ask family to do so. Im sure it was a ton of work for the organizers, but our 500-student school raised about $30,000, and all goes to the school. I think with the real Boosterthon we made $25,000 after Boosterthon took its cut.

+1000. I don't understand why this isn't the case every time. Learn from the Boosterthon folks, send them on their way, and then pick and chose what aspects to keep for a home grown version. It doesn't take much work to run a fun run and it certainly is no where close to an effort schools should be paying $15,000 plus for.

[Anonymous]

Our school used Race for Education which takes a much lesser percentage for a couple of years. Our prizes were things like a day out of uniform (Catholic school), a homework pass, ice cream party. It raised a lot of money and it was minimally invasive.

[Anonymous]

I'm a teacher and I hate Boosterthon. I hate the interruption of class time, the sadness I see on the faces of the kids whose parents cannot donate (or who don't have enough English to know how to make a donation or navigate the website).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hey kids!! Tell all the grown-ups you know to give money to your school and we'll give you this cheap plastic toy!

Hey kids!! Those of you who couldn't bring in pledges today are not as good as those who could!!

Hey kids!! Put away those school books! We're having another Sales Pep Rally!!

Hey kids!! We're keeping almost half of the money the grown-ups thought they were giving to the school!!

Hey kids! Confront your parents for not participating.

[Anonymous]

Fortunately, there are some intelligent parents in the world who can see through the fun run scams, and they will teach their children well. If Boosterthon and Apex disappeared tomorrow, and their promoters were imprisoned, the world would be a better place, and the children in every school affected would be better off. It is sad to see the state of parent participation where a school's major fundraiser is taken over by corporate greedhead scammers. In these cases, the school's volunteer community is alienated and shattered, parent participation declines, and school spirit dies. This is exactly what fun run scams like Boosterthon and Apex Fun Run do to schools, and the scams turn the schools into dependent wards of outsourced fundraising. It takes forever to rebuild a sense of community and volunteer bases after a school surrenders to a fun run. Fun run scams are extraordinarily destructive to school communities, they steal half the money, they disable volunteer systems. Do not ever allow anyone from a fun run like Boosterthon or Apex into your school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our school did Boosterthon last year and parents were very unhappy with it. This year the school PTA organized its own copy cat Boosterthon and I was much more willing to donate and ask family to do so. Im sure it was a ton of work for the organizers, but our 500-student school raised about $30,000, and all goes to the school. I think with the real Boosterthon we made $25,000 after Boosterthon took its cut.

It would have been less work if you helped.

[Anonymous]

The solution is pretty simple. My school had a fun run that we organized without the help of Boosterthon. So we actually ran in a real fun run around the school and not around some mini tarp. Students did not miss out on instructional time to go to pep rallies and get plastic junk. The school got to keep all the money collected. Not too shabby

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Fortunately, there are some intelligent parents in the world who can see through the fun run scams, and they will teach their children well. If Boosterthon and Apex disappeared tomorrow, and their promoters were imprisoned, the world would be a better place, and the children in every school affected would be better off. It is sad to see the state of parent participation where a school's major fundraiser is taken over by corporate greedhead scammers. In these cases, the school's volunteer community is alienated and shattered, parent participation declines, and school spirit dies. This is exactly what fun run scams like Boosterthon and Apex Fun Run do to schools, and the scams turn the schools into dependent wards of outsourced fundraising. It takes forever to rebuild a sense of community and volunteer bases after a school surrenders to a fun run. Fun run scams are extraordinarily destructive to school communities, they steal half the money, they disable volunteer systems. Do not ever allow anyone from a fun run like Boosterthon or Apex into your school.

I think you are being a little dramatic! They are for profit companies. The PTAs are aware of this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The solution is pretty simple. My school had a fun run that we organized without the help of Boosterthon. So we actually ran in a real fun run around the school and not around some mini tarp. Students did not miss out on instructional time to go to pep rallies and get plastic junk. The school got to keep all the money collected. Not too shabby

That is a great idea for schools to do their own fun run. It is really simple to do. And besides, if a PTA hires a fun run company, then the "professionals" who want to take half the money still request that the school provide dozens of volunteers for them to use as free employees. It is a big hassle for the school and PTA. So what is the point of giving up half the cash to these scams when you still have to provide 95% of the labor force? Our school still had to have 30-40 volunteers out there to make the fun run happen, and then we got screwed out of half our money. Professional fun run companies are nothing but ruthless, morally bankrupt exploiters of schools, parents and children--Do not use them!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fortunately, there are some intelligent parents in the world who can see through the fun run scams, and they will teach their children well. If Boosterthon and Apex disappeared tomorrow, and their promoters were imprisoned, the world would be a better place, and the children in every school affected would be better off. It is sad to see the state of parent participation where a school's major fundraiser is taken over by corporate greedhead scammers. In these cases, the school's volunteer community is alienated and shattered, parent participation declines, and school spirit dies. This is exactly what fun run scams like Boosterthon and Apex Fun Run do to schools, and the scams turn the schools into dependent wards of outsourced fundraising. It takes forever to rebuild a sense of community and volunteer bases after a school surrenders to a fun run. Fun run scams are extraordinarily destructive to school communities, they steal half the money, they disable volunteer systems. Do not ever allow anyone from a fun run like Boosterthon or Apex into your school.

I think you are being a little dramatic! They are for profit companies. The PTAs are aware of this.

We are very aware that they are for profit companies, but found out to late that the Apex Fun Run was all about profits--and only their own! Pardon me for being so dramatic, but they sucked all the juice out of the oranges at our school, and the scammers fled with over $50,000 in pure profits taken from our families. That is $50,000 taken from our kids that could have gone to enrichment programs and equipment like musical instruments or something like that.