Corporate Office Pet Peeve # 5,375: Fund-raising Parents

[Rage187]

meh, the private school I send my kid to is selling krispy kreme donut vouchers. At least you actually save money buying the vouchers.

I hate when they try and sell popcorn for $7 freakin dollars a bag.

 

[shocksyde]

wow, bunch of tight wad meanies. buy a little something it won't break your bank. The relatives already got hit up ten times so now the coworkers need to help out a bit.

No, we don't NEED to help out a bit. Your outlook on this situation bothers the shit out of me. Who is anyone to tell me I NEED to donate money to something? You're all a bunch of sheep if you just blindly say "oh, I need to donate something!"

 

[Bignate603]

I've joined the "quit selling overpriced shit that takes money out of your own community and puts it into the hands of companies taking advantage of young children peddling their wares for them" bandwagon.

If it's a worthy cause, i.e. most recently, it was youth football, I'll just write "$5 donation" or "$10 donation" on their form.

"Here's $5. Your group just made as much money as if I bought 25 candy bars from you."

Exactly, I hate these over priced crappy products that they sell. Hell, I could give them a donation for 50% of the price that they're asking for the junk they're selling and they'd still end up with more money for their cause.

 

[slag]

with boy scout popcorn, 70% of the money goes directly to your local troop with the other 30 percent going to the popcorn and distribution of it. Sure, its overpriced for what you can get at walmart, but it is to help the boyscouts pay for campouts, merit badges, outings, and the popcorn tastes pretty good too. It's roughly $1 a microwaveable bag. Personally, I think its overpriced, but you aren't buying the popcorn as much as you are supporting your local boyscout troop. Our local boyscout/cubscout troops pick up litter, clean up areas, and are a service to the community.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

actually, that's a good idea, except they are on to you. these companies now offer incentive prizes based on how many units a kid sells.

They've always offered incentive prizes, even when I was a kid 30 years ago. Of course I never won, because I hated selling the crap.

 

[nanette1985]

What I do is whip out my checkbook and write a check - and make it out to my favorite charity, the one I support. I show the check to the obnoxious coworker (it's almost always the obnoxious ones) and tell them thank you.

Later, I tear up the check.

 

[shocksyde]

What I do is whip out my checkbook and write a check - and make it out to my favorite charity, the one I support. I show the check to the obnoxious coworker (it's almost always the obnoxious ones) and tell them thank you.

Later, I tear up the check.

Haha, "Later that day..."

 

[DrunkenSano]

So is it okay if I hold a fundraiser to help fund my beer/bbq event I'll be holding this weekend while watching football? Or my trip to Vegas?

 

[ichy]

wow, bunch of tight wad meanies. buy a little something it won't break your bank. The relatives already got hit up ten times so now the coworkers need to help out a bit.

Trying to sell overpriced junk to your coworkers is obnoxious and unprofessional. Don't reward bad behavior.

 

[Vette73]

with boy scout popcorn, 70% of the money goes directly to your local troop with the other 30 percent going to the popcorn and distribution of it. Sure, its overpriced for what you can get at walmart, but it is to help the boyscouts pay for campouts, merit badges, outings, and the popcorn tastes pretty good too. It's roughly $1 a microwaveable bag. Personally, I think its overpriced, but you aren't buying the popcorn as much as you are supporting your local boyscout troop. Our local boyscout/cubscout troops pick up litter, clean up areas, and are a service to the community.

Yea; but thats like Jerry Lewis going on TV to sell shamwows for the kids.

As you can see people are not against giving, just they way they go about it. I rather give $5 and know 100% goes to the local/school/etc... then spend some and have a large chunk go to some group using kids as pushers.

 

[slag]

Yea; but thats like Jerry Lewis going on TV to sell shamwows for the kids.

As you can see people are not against giving, just they way they go about it. I rather give $5 and know 100% goes to the local/school/etc... then spend some and have a large chunk go to some group using kids as pushers.

Its not "some group using kids as pushers" The sole existence of boy scouts of america is to help kids become better people and to help the community, so yeah, it makes sense that the benefactors of the popcorn sales would be the ones interacting with the community.

Despite a few of you saying you would rather give money without getting anything, boy scout data shows the opposite. People are free to donate money without getting anything or sending popcorn overseas to the troops, but most would rather get something for their donation and buy the popcorn for themselves.

Newsflash.. your $5.00, which is hardly worth the time to process, wont go 100% to your local charity of choice. There's almost always overhead and costs of processing, etc. And its not a large chunk going to some other place, its only 30% and most of that is due to the costs of processing the popcorn.

 

[IcePickFreak]

wow, bunch of tight wad meanies. buy a little something it won't break your bank. The relatives already got hit up ten times so now the coworkers need to help out a bit.

Why do your coworkers "need" to help out whatever functions your kid attends? Were they in the room when he/she was conceived?

 

[mvbighead]

Personally, if I am remembering this right, most of those fundraisers had training that taught kids how to deal with denying straight donations. As a kid, I mostly just ignored the shit and did whatever sales were required to get the committee thing off my back, but looking back now... eff that shit. I dunno if I'll let my kids sell shit out of those catalogs or any of that nonsense.

As far as getting something back for your dollar, if that is in a giver's interests... why not the traditional car wash, lawn raking, snow shoveling, etc. bit. If a boy scout offered to scoop snow off of my deck or driveway or sidewalk, I'd be happy to give him $20 for a good 15-20 minutes worth of work, hell, maybe even more if he did a nice job. Much better than some nasty cookie shit that costs the same, gives them 2 bucks, and will possibly make its way into a trashcan.

 

[Delita]

http://www.bitterlawyer.com/index.php/webisodes/?id=1&sess=1&web_id=OTk=

 

[child of wonder]

There's this one little girl that trolls the soccer fields where my kids have practices and games. I've been asked at least 6 times by this same girl if I want to buy any candy bars. Last night she asked me two times alone.

The next time she asks I'll take her to the top ropes and hit her with my rolling DDT. Oh yeah! </Macho Man Randy Savage>

 

[kami333]

I work at a childrens hospital and there's some fund raiser going on every week.

I get paid out of grants from the same foundations that they're fund raising for so it makes no sense for me to donate back to myself.

I do buy Girl Scout cookies though🙂

 

[JS80]

you guys are either ignorant or self centered. I can't decide which.


The schools are broke and need help.

Then tell the teachers and administrators to stop raping the budget.

 

[dfuze]

Why do your coworkers "need" to help out whatever functions your kid attends? Were they in the room when he/she was conceived?

Some coworkers may have been... 😛

 

[Platypus]

The next time she asks I'll take her to the top ropes and hit her with my rolling DDT. Oh yeah! </Macho Man Randy Savage>

 

[PingSpike]

Not to threadcrap, but my biggest pet peeve would be the people who don't know when to end a conversation. Fortunately, my current job doesn't have many people like that, but my last job had TONS of them. You'd give them the non-verbal hints (look at your watch, look off in the distance, stand up if you were seated) and then move to the verbal hints ("Woah, it is getting late and I have a ton to do!") and they STILL would not get it. Finally, I just had to be rude and just get up and leave.

LOL...at my last job I had a particularly awful woman that was like this. I'd use every one of those tools to try to escape...before eventually just walking away. I'd say see you later or have a good day and she'd still be talking away until she finally was out of earshot.

 

[slag]

Then tell the teachers and administrators to stop raping the budget.

Then tell the teachers and administrators to stop raping the budget.

Administrators, maybe, teachers??? hell no.

Our teachers pay so much out of pocket so they can have the materials to help them teach the kids its not even funny.

Then there are other schools who get ipods and netbooks for their kids..

 

[LTC8K6]

you guys are either ignorant or self centered. I can't decide which.


The schools are broke and need help.

Stop wasting money and we'll talk...

 

[PingSpike]

Anyway, even when I was like 12 I knew these things were just huge scams where most of the money just went to some scumbag company. I took one look at the prizes, realized I could buy my own shitty boombox from Ames if I worked for a weekend to two and I wouldn't have to peddle worthless shit to my relatives, fleece confused old ladies out of their SS checks or generally piss all over my own conscience to get it.

It's worse than if they just asked you for money. At least when I give them money I don't end up with an magazine subscription that auto renews or a pile of awful plastic crap that I have to pay to throw away. I fucking hate nick-knacks and clutter shit...just filling up shelves and table space while collecting dust and looking hideous. My wife already fills the house with enough of that shit and she only gets away with it because I'm sleeping with her.

Again, I agree with the GS cookies at least being good. Although its not like I was suffering some kind of cookie deficiency before they showed up.

 

[Apathetic]

That IS pretty ballsy. Around here, we get one apologetic mass mail and the orderform/catalog posted in the kitchen.

That's pretty much what we do here and it works well. A lot of times, people don't even send the email (which I prefer). Just post the sheet in the break room and people will buy stuff if they're interested.

Dave