Echoage parties - anyone familiar with these and what would you do?
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Anonymous
| Actually, they do list the charities, but I had to dig around. Go to the bottom of the home page and click on How it works. A page with 6 simples steps, and 6 circles appears. Click on the top circle, choosing a charity, and you'll get the list. I still think there are better ways to teach a child about giving back. |
Anonymous
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If you're that offended or whatever, don't go. Done.
If you go, abide by the party rules. Otherwise, you're just being difficult to make some sort of statement. It's just not that big of a deal. You can use this as some sort of teachable moment for your child, if you feel that you must. I agree with the person who said to get a grip and that this is not a state dinner. Not what I would do and the whole thing seems bizarre. But, there are bigger things to occupy my time. |
Anonymous
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It may be a hard sell because too few people have heard of it. If you would like to give to charity, why not ask your guests to bring a gift or food item (shelf stable)
which you and your child will take to a shelter for families. Let them know in advance where you plan on taking it and the age of the children in the shelter. And then you can take your child to give the gifts. If you want your child to receive gifts then just don't put anything. If you want to give to charity, that is one way to do it. don't know how this will be viewed. But it allows people to buy gifts if they want and then the gifts are given to charity. |
Anonymous
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From the FAQs:
What will my guests see when they RSVP to my party? When your guests RSVP to your ECHOage party, they will be able to send you personalized and relevant information about their child. They also send your child a special birthday message. And finally, they can contribute to the gift portion. The contribution page offers guests an amount between $10.00 and $40.00. The amount is chosen by the guest and confidential to anyone but the host of the party. The guest enters their credit card information using the secure ECHOage payment system. It is simple and quick. A confirmation arrives by email as well as an ECHOage AWARD for the child who will attend the party. I am not feeling these echoage parties. I can kind of envision where they are going with this approach, the intention, etc....but the execution is just all wrong. Are we going to start seeing this kind of thing for weddings now, too? eh....not good. If my kid wasn't good friends with the birthday child, I think we'd decline. I agree with other posters who say that if you don't like the arrangement, better to simply decline the invitation. If my kid was good friends with the b-day child....hmmm....tough one. Not sure how we'd handle it ultimately. Maybe do the approach someone else suggested of a special playdate IOU "gift," or something like that? (Anything but a wrapped, new toy.) |
Anonymous
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OP here. Appreciate the different viewpoints, seems most people agree it's tacky. I still think it's tacky - you can't RVSP yes without entering your credit card information.
My son used to be close friends with the birthday boy, but now they're in different schools. Birthday boy's mom is a work colleague so I don't want to offend. Anyway I decided I will email the host directly to say we are coming because I can't RVSP using the website without submitting my credit card info and I'll tell her I wasn't comfortable with the procedure. I told my son that his friend wanted to support WWF and asked that part of his birthday gift be a donation to support endangered animals. I thought it was a good lesson to hear about someone sacrificing their birthday gift to help animals. I thought it was a good lesson to understand there are endangered animals and we need to help protect them if we want them to stay around longer. We went to the WWF website and made a donation in honor of his friend and they will receive a birthday card via email from WWF with a message that my son wanted to include in the card. He also chose the birthday design. I am ok with supporting WWF - but if had been a charity I didn't believe in supporting, I wouldn't have donated. This way I'll get a tax receipt for the donation. The gift...I really like the idea of a playdate instead of a toy. I think we'll set that up. |
Anonymous
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Why do I have to contribute money so that YOU can teach your child about charity?
How about: "No gifts, please" on the invite, and then the parents buy their child the dream gift? And, maybe one of you found something on the web I did not, but I don't think they are a 501(c)(3). |
Anonymous
Exactly. This teaches kids it's okay to tell others what to do with their money and demand specific types of gifts. If you want your child to learn about charity, then have your child give his OWN stuff to charity. Setting up some 50-50 deal (with 15%?!?! going to the administering company -- absurdly high) is tacky. People may have good intentions doing this, but there are far, far better ways to achieve the same goals. |
Anonymous
PP here who said you're damned if you do, damned if you don't. I'm now in the fully tacky camp. You can't RSVP without entering a credit card number? Wow. I hope the mom did not realize that when she signed up. She might be embarrassed when you email her that info! (She should be). Geez. I agree with a PP -- very poor execution. |
Anonymous
Echoage is NOT a 501c3. They are a business that is skimming 15% of the total donations to pay themselves. I'm sure the charities they support are 501c3s, but they themselves are a business. A greedy one at that. |
Anonymous
Since when do kids' parties have rules? |
Anonymous
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Anonymous says "A 15% fee is ridiculous! As someone who works in fundraising for a major nonprofit, I can tell you that that is a total rip-off. If you want to give a charitable gift, please make it directly to the organization. Don't go through a group like this that is skimming a significant portion of the money away from nonprofits who need it. "
Anonymous have you ever thought who is supposed to pay: - development costs for the site (roughly $50usd an hour) to ensure site is maintained and bug free. You dont just put a website up and leave it and expect it never to get a bug! - bank transaction fees - EVERY time a guest makes a contribution the site and its owners incur a bank transaction fee - hosting fees - can be about $300 a year depending on service - maintenance of site - the owners of the site have to make a living somehow so this can continue. If you want to ask people to donate directly to a charity - fine but this site is a part planning site. It simply handles all donations AND allows the party parent to get a tax receipt for amt donated. This would NOT happen if everyone donated individually. Get your facts right. And yes I too work for a large charity and think its a great idea. |
Anonymous
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Anonymous by you making the donation to the WWF directly YOU got the tax receipt NOT the birthday child's parent. And given it was rightfully the child's birthday gift in the first place it should be THEM that benefit from the tax receipt not you.
So, you effectively STOLE part of the birthday child's gift. Seems to me you dont know how the concept works and are putting it down out of ignorance. |
Anonymous
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an atlanta mom responding as i googled " echoage birthday party tacky" -
just got an evite from echoage, had never heard of it, and couldn't believe the greed, the officiousness, the condescension implicit in this 'invitation.' want to host a fundraiser? do it! but a child's birthday party? there is a time and a place for everything - a birthday party is a celebration and at best a learning opportunity for the honoree, in: graciousness and gratitude. attempting to control and manipulate your guests? too much, on so many levels! |
Anonymous
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Gee 03/06/2010 poster -- do you WORK for Echoage?
Give me a break. There are tons of free party planning sites. 15% is a humongous fee to be skimming away from charities. And to say that the birthday child's parents should get a tax-write-off for their guests' gifts is a giant load of crap. If someone else tries to claim my charitable donation on their taxes, I hope the IRS goes after them for breaking the law. |
Anonymous
| Hmm. I guess I have a different take. Although I wouldn't throw this type of party myself, and would probably silently judge the party thrower, if I planned on attending I would go along and do the charity and cash gift. If I felt strongly enough against the entire idea, I'd politely decline the invitation. To show up with a gift when they clearly didn't want a gift I picked out or a gift card from a store they didn't like, I'd feel very tacky myself. Two wrongs don't make a right after all. |