Christmas Tree fundraiser?

[Anonymous]

The tree fundraiser is a tough one -- the boy scouts at my son's school do one and it's a lot of work, like an auction but you have to stand outside in the cold and in the end you end up bugging your spouse to go load 3 trees into the Outback and drive them to your backyard for compost bc they didn't sell. Unless you really push push push the community, one day of sales in a low-traffic location is not going to make money.

A nice -- and more inclusive and cheaper -- way to bring in community and raise a small amount of cash is to host a winter get-together, all ages welcome, in the school's gym/caf/multipurpose room. You still have to pay the custodians et al, but you can rent some moon bounces or have indoor bowling or something, have non-Jesus is born crafts (snowflakes), sell hot chocolate and baked goods, collect donations to the toy drive (or whatever drive you do in the winter...mittens or winter pjs or whatever), show a movie...request cash donations at the door or sell tickets...

Good luck! Sounds like you have a good bunch of parents!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm not Christian. Don't start a new school tradition that alienanes Muslims, Jehovah's witnesses, Atheists and Jews (among others) all in one go. Start with inclusivity.

Huh. A non-practicing Muslim and non-practicing Jew started it up at our school. I think the returns are pretty good for EOTP if the neighbors are wealthy enough to support a slightly overpriced tree for the sake of helping the school.

You may be surprised at the number of Muslim and Jewish families that have their own Christmas trees. I know a few families that don't view them as religious and participate in the holiday.

[Anonymous]

It’s a fundraiser. At least for our (title 1) school, it’s about raising money from the relatively wealthy neighbors. We might raise a few hundred from school events that are meant to be inclusive and about community building. The tree sale is about raising a few thousand that can go a long way. There’s no loss if you don’t participate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm not Christian. Don't start a new school tradition that alienanes Muslims, Jehovah's witnesses, Atheists and Jews (among others) all in one go. Start with inclusivity.

Huh. A non-practicing Muslim and non-practicing Jew started it up at our school. I think the returns are pretty good for EOTP if the neighbors are wealthy enough to support a slightly overpriced tree for the sake of helping the school.

+1

I'm an atheist and I chaired the tree sale at my elementary for three years. I'm not a big scholar of religion but I'm not aware of any religion that prohibits profiting by selling things to people of another religion.

And please don't capitalize "atheist." We're not part of any movement, we just are. I realize that it's a hard concept for some people to get their head around, but we don't play for any team, we're just spectators.

[Anonymous]

Im a practicing Jew. While i have no problem with Christmas tree fundraisers it would exclude mu family. We would not help organize nor would we buy a tree. Our lack of participation would be noticed and we would feel guilty or we would constantly be explaining ourselves and be "those" people. No practicing Jew or Muslim I know, nor many non observant Jews I know would by a Christmas tree. I recognize that many see Christmas as an American holiday but it is not to many of us. PPs who suggested that it isnt religious ate wrong. And PP who saif there wouldn't be pressure has never been in the minority religion.

[Anonymous]

Where are you EOTP? Make sure the market isn't saturated. On the Hill, there's the Brent sale, the Miner sale, a boy scout troop sale and the Eastern Market sale all w/in relatively close proximity of each other.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You realize several EOTP schools already do them?

Are there actually trees EOTP?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Im a practicing Jew. While i have no problem with Christmas tree fundraisers it would exclude mu family. We would not help organize nor would we buy a tree. Our lack of participation would be noticed and we would feel guilty or we would constantly be explaining ourselves and be "those" people. No practicing Jew or Muslim I know, nor many non observant Jews I know would by a Christmas tree. I recognize that many see Christmas as an American holiday but it is not to many of us. PPs who suggested that it isnt religious ate wrong. And PP who saif there wouldn't be pressure has never been in the minority religion.

You could organize a bagel table at the Xmas tree sale. I would buy both!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Im a practicing Jew. While i have no problem with Christmas tree fundraisers it would exclude mu family. We would not help organize nor would we buy a tree. Our lack of participation would be noticed and we would feel guilty or we would constantly be explaining ourselves and be "those" people. No practicing Jew or Muslim I know, nor many non observant Jews I know would by a Christmas tree. I recognize that many see Christmas as an American holiday but it is not to many of us. PPs who suggested that it isnt religious ate wrong. And PP who saif there wouldn't be pressure has never been in the minority religion.

Less than 5% of parents are helping out at ours, so your volunteering would not be missed. Also, I know of no one who tracks who buys or doesn’t. It really shouldn’t be a big deal. That’s the problem that people are judging. Are you WOTP or cap hill?

[Anonymous]

When you're asked to volunteer for a tree sale, your job is to sell, not buy. That's kind of the beauty of it as a fundraiser.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's a good community-builder but not a great fund-raiser. If your PTA needs the cash I'd look elsewhere.

Interesting. This is the type of information I'm struggling to find online. Margins. So, in your experience you don't get out what you put in?

Honestly, most fundraisers that an EOTP school can do are a giant pain in the ass for not much money. The high-return fundraisers are premised on a wealthy student body that's willing to pay for stuff, where parents just give you money as "dues" without needing anything in return.

What I like about this fundraiser is the community aspect of it. Our EOTP school hasn't tapped into its surrounding community as well as we could, and I'd like to try and do more of that this year.

(But I'd also like to know effort/margins before I jump in).

It's been a few years, but I helped organize the sale at my old school. We sold about 400 trees, they were expensive, in the $80-90 range. When all the costs were added up the margin was less than 10%. It took 70+ volunteers to unload the trees on Friday, sell sell sell on Saturday, and sell the rest and clean the parking lot on Sunday. Plus put up posters and signs and take them down, man the cash registers, provide snacks for the other volunteers, etc.

A tree sale is not a tax-exempt event and the city is going to expect you to collect and pay sales tax. It's not a nice present for future PTA officers to neglect this bit and leave it for the organization to get busted in a few years and have to dig up back taxes and penalties. Trust me.

If you do it at the school DCPS may require a building use agreement. If they do, you have to pay overtime for custodians and security, it's in the union contract.

It didn't happen my year, but there is a real risk that you order too many trees. With the low margins just a few unsold trees eats up all of your profits. The guy who sold us the trees told me that once he had a school that had to rent a chipper to get rid of the unsold trees. That would be heart-breaking after all that work. Even if you can unload them at clearance prices you're still losing money. And it's not like you can return them or save them for later.

With the prices so high everyone assumes that it's hugely profitable, but it's not. If you're shoppers are price sensitive you'll have a hard time explaining why they should buy from you instead of picking up a tree at Home Depot for $19.99.

There are some good things about it:
1. It's a good community builder. It's fun to be outside on a brisk December day, you get a fire going, play some music and serve some hot drinks. It's particularly fun if your parents normally work office jobs and they can play at manual labor. If their normal job is working outside the novelty has probably worn off. It's an opportunity to invite the neighboring community into the school as well.

2. It's one of the few fundraisers you can do where you're not just hitting up the current parents. People who aren't at the school will buy a tree. The businessman in me though says that we were leaving money on the table, because people basically thought they were paying $90 for a $19.99 tree and thought they were contributing 70 bucks or so to the school when really it was more like seven. But I guess you take it where you can get it.

But basically you're getting into the retail business, and everyone will tell you it's just a terrible business right now.

This, OP. Think of what a giant pain in the ass it will be to load and unload all those trees and dispose of the unsold ones and clean up the needles and all that stuff. It's sooooo hard to get people to do things in December at all. And how do you think it feels to spend your Sunday disposing of un-sold trees for $0?

Other nearby schools selling trees is a great reason to NOT sell trees. Why don't you do a rec center cleanup in the spring, you can do a bake sale and sell plants. We did one and the kids had a bike parade.

[Anonymous]

My favorite PTA fundraiser is sign-up parties. One family agrees to host and people sign up and pay per head, $25-50 depending on the type. Use half the money for the party and the rest goes to the PTA. It's a community-builder too. It's fun to have separate parties for the moms and the dads.

We had a great sign-up party that was a poker tournament for the dads. Fifty dollars a head, half the money goes to prizes, BYOB. Dads are low maintenance so there weren't really any other expenses. You can sit around and drink beer and play cards with the other dads and say you're helping out the PTA!

The downside is you're hitting up the parents. If that well has run dry it may not work.

[Anonymous]

Really glad that the inclusivity question was raised. My kids had a very easy time understanding that religious holidays were observed in their (Jewish) preschool but would not be observed in their public elementary school because families there identify with a wide variety of religions (or don't identify with a religion). My kids were totally on board with this logic, until we walked past the Christmas tree sale in the elementary school parking lot. ~10 years later, I'm still not able to explain to them how this is allowed.

[Anonymous]

I sort of understand the inclusivity concerns, but not really. It’s not like the sale is an event or party at which only certain people are welcome. It’s a SALE — it’s aiming to trade trees for money with people who celebrate Christmas. I don’t see how it promotes Christmas as much as it exploits it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I sort of understand the inclusivity concerns, but not really. It’s not like the sale is an event or party at which only certain people are welcome. It’s a SALE — it’s aiming to trade trees for money with people who celebrate Christmas. I don’t see how it promotes Christmas as much as it exploits it.

Exactly.