Gofundme for Team Travel?

[Anonymous]

That’s ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

My kids' teams have done bake sales, and certain clubs mandate some kind of fundraiser (selling t-shirts or something), which I am also not a fan of, but not that.

[Anonymous]

I’ve never seen this. Everyone funds their own team travel.

[Anonymous]

Baseball team did fundraisers as a team to raise money to help offset the cost of Cooperstown. We worked with restaurants to get 20% nights, had a bake sale, and did SuperBowl squares. A GoFundMe for travel sports is a hard no.

[Anonymous]

It would rub me the wrong way too.

Buuuuut .....
I've managed fundraisers for a non-profit group, and with most of the commercial fundraising groups (selling popcorn, wrapping paper, etc) only a tiny fraction of the money goes to the cause. If you buy $20 worth of wrapping paper, the group you are trying to support probably only gets a few dollars. I've mostly stopped buying from fundraisers unless it's an item I actually really want and would have bought from a store otherwise (which is rare), but I donate an equivalent amount of money. So instead of buying $20 of wrapping paper and the kids getting $2 of that, I give them a straight $20 donation. It's different if the fundraiser is truly straight from the organization itself, like a bake sale or car wash - I buy from those.

So I guess I can sympathize with why they would choose this over a fundraiser ... but it still feels icky. Travel sports are a privilege and there are many people who choose not to participate, due to cost. It seems awfully entitled to sign up for an expensive hobby and then expect others to fund it for you.

[Anonymous]

For a school team, it doesn’t bother me, especially as an alternative to support without having to buy popcorn or something else I don’t really want. For a travel/club team, I agree that it is tacky.