School Fundraisers... Helpful?

Hopefully you all had a very merry Christmas and are finished sleeping off the self-induced turkey coma.

If you have school aged children, or know people with school aged children, or for that matter live anywhere near a school, you are most likely familiar with school fundraisers. Chocolates, magazines, baking products, 50/50 tickets, calendars, cookies, Christmas decorations, and other things which can be easily sold to earn money for various class trips and projects. More often than not they’re purchased out of a sense of social obligation or guilt (pleading 6 year old eyes anyone?) I love chocolate covered almonds as much as the next person, but my waistline doesn’t need any more of them thanks, neither does my wallet.

I was pleasantly surprised by a school fundraiser for one of my coworker’s daughters recently; it was affordable AND useful. They’ve been taking orders for grocery store gift cards at the 4 largest grocers in the area. The denominations ranged from $10-$250 depending on the store, with no expiry date. For every $100 the kids sold, the store would donate $6 to their fundraiser. So basically, the stores received guaranteed patronage, the people who bought the cards received their full donation in groceries, and the kids received money for their fundraiser. It’s a win-win-win situation. I plunked down $200, and ordered 6 - $25 gift cards and 5 - $10 gift cards to the grocery store I most commonly frequent. It gives me one less reason to carry my debit card around with me, and if I’m careful it will look after my dietary needs for the next 2 months or do. They’ll be carrying on the fundraiser until April, so I’ll have the opportunity to order more cards when I run out again.

I figured I’d mention the fundraiser on here in case others hadn’t heard about it before (I know I hadn’t) and might want to consider suggesting it to their children’s schools. I’m sure there might be a mom or two out there who would like to look after some of their families needs while doing their fundraising rather than trying to split their money between the two.

How about you guys? Have any fundraisers caught your eyes recently that would be worth sharing?