Sports are not the only expensive activity or hobby. I would be so embarrassed if a family member did that. You don’t have to travel to play sports. Plenty of local places.

Treating normal costs of raising children, sports activities, as a charity fundraiser is a bit pathetic.

If it is a luxury trip to play sports, that is much worse and largely just shameful.

I hate these and will never donate to them. I have my own kids in travel sports, why should I pay for someone else's kids too? And all the ones I've seen are from UMC DCUM parents. I think it's so tacky!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have only seen this when a HS team earned some one-off travel honor.

For example, when public HS crew team won national championships and was invited to row at Henley in the UK.

I don't have an issue with something like that.

I am actually okay with HS sports doing this. Oftentimes, they are kids that don't have money and the school is supporting them so resources are limited. I would gladly give them $$$. But travel/club teams? That is a privilege area already that means you have more money, etc. That is a choice.

Not PP, and crew means you do have some amount of money (it's unfunded after all), but I certainly can imagine that heading to UK to row at Henley, which would be amazing, would be beyond reach for some.

Anonymous wrote:Have only seen this when a HS team earned some one-off travel honor.

For example, when public HS crew team won national championships and was invited to row at Henley in the UK.

I don't have an issue with something like that.

I am actually okay with HS sports doing this. Oftentimes, they are kids that don't have money and the school is supporting them so resources are limited. I would gladly give them $$$. But travel/club teams? That is a privilege area already that means you have more money, etc. That is a choice.

When my kids did club sports there was occasional general fundraising (not for a specific tournament) and I never hit up any friends/family. I just made a contribution myself.

Otherwise when you do club sports you need to have the expectation that you have to pay for any and all travel.

Have only seen this when a HS team earned some one-off travel honor.

For example, when public HS crew team won national championships and was invited to row at Henley in the UK.

I don't have an issue with something like that.

OP here.

Straight up Gofundme sites. I always buy from the fundraising (popcorn, wreaths, etc) and usually do straight donation rather than buy the item.

But the gofundme rubs me wrong. I generally save to pay up for my kids travel trips, and I know they are expensive. We have foregone family trips to make it happen etc. So paying for someone else's kid seems off.

Fundraisers, yes.
Gofundme, no.

I've been hit up to participate in fundraisers for travel sports teams that are just like fundraisers for PTAs.

Only seen straight GoFundMe requests for rare occasions.

It's possible the team may ask players to contact a set number of people. So they may not be expecting much if anything from you.

So tacky. Never seen this.

I’ve had two kids playing travel sports for over seven years and have never done any sort of fundraising. We did have to do fundraising for one of the high school sports.

They can sell popcorn, nuts, wrapping paper, have a carwash, or have a bingo raffle.

Still, when my kid was in a travel sport, we just worked to fund it (and I'm not DCUM rich).

I have been hit up a lot by friends for Gofundme donations for team travel. I have not experienced this before. Seems every kid has some sort of travel game/tournament and needs help funding fees and hotels.

Is this normal? Are there other ways to raise money?