School band fundraiser

[Anonymous]

Our child’s middle school band class is holding a fundraiser so that students can help pay for a trip to kings dominion in the spring. It’s call “play a Thon”and u obtain donations from friends and family thru QR code and social media. Are these fundraisers an effective way to help the students or is there a middle man that takes most of the donations? This is our first child in band class so wanted to ask the experts at dcum for some advice.

[Anonymous]

Without knowing who is actually organizing it nobody can answer your questions.

[Anonymous]

Look up who the vendor processing payments is and go to their site. There’s a walk a thon company called Boosterthon that takes I think 49%. We did it once because the parents figured even if we only got half it was more than we’d get otherwise. But they also prohibited any fundraising a month before and after so you also couldn’t just donate outside the system.

[Anonymous]

You'd have to ask them. Often people choose to go through a company as it's easy and less work for them. Reach out to the band director and ask if you can just donate directly.