High School Fundraising Buyouts

[Tealxblack25]

Good Morning,
I was looking for everyones thoughts about fundraising buyouts meaning.. You're given a minimum to sell say 10 qty of something. If you don't meet the minimum you have to buy the ones you didn't sell.

Does your program do fundraisers like this?
What do you tell your parents who say they cannot afford a buyout?

Does anyone have any other ways to promote mandatory selling without asking for money from parents?

Thanks!
Hanna

 

[alpaca]

Our gym does not do any mandatory fundraising.

Our gym provides gym sponsored fundraising opportunities for families who wish to participate.

They also provide information about outside fundraising organizations where you work at festivals, concerts, professional sports games etc and they send your share directly to your gym/other sports organization. In fact I think it is required. They wont cut you a check, it has to go to your kids activity fees. Make no mistake, a parent is working for that money and not asking family/friends to buy things.

 

[OldskoolKYcheercoach]

Good Morning,
I was looking for everyones thoughts about fundraising buyouts meaning.. You're given a minimum to sell say 10 qty of something. If you don't meet the minimum you have to buy the ones you didn't sell.

Does your program do fundraisers like this?
What do you tell your parents who say they cannot afford a buyout?

Does anyone have any other ways to promote mandatory selling without asking for money from parents?

Thanks!
Hanna

I’m not sure if it’s Kentucky state or IRS federal, but what you describe violates tax code.

I’m not saying everyone doesn’t do it, but be aware that, at least in some places (and I’m 90% sure federally), it’s against the law.

That’s why we do very little in terms of selling items. It’s much easier to mandate participation in a youth clinic than in selling items. The profit margin is usually much higher, and now with social media as a marketing tool, it’s easier to get people to purchase.

We would have to sell 3000 candy bars to match the income from one of our clinics.

 

[coacha]

Mandatory selling = unhappy AD in my district. So we mostly stick to clinics, car washes, Zumba-a-thons and other event type fundraisers.

As a parent, I HATE mandatory selling crap. It’s rare that anyone wants the overpriced stuff we’re selling.

 

[Tealxblack25]

Thank you, I'm going to look into the legalities of it

 

[OldskoolKYcheercoach]

Thank you, I'm going to look into the legalities of it

You might start by asking about “red book rules.”

Again, this may be a KY thing. I know the red book drives everything I’m able to do fundraising.

 

[Tealxblack25]

I am in NH, I don't think we are doing the buyout after all and will just be requiring people who didn't sell their 10 to do an extra tagging/canning shift but I am still curious for the future

 

[Nikki Moore]

Grr...in DD's MS cheer, they were required to sell 10 of these Dominoes gift cards - they weren't even useful. If you didn't sell 10, you had to basically just pay for them. I kind of bitched a bit about that one. I was already POed about the fact that we had to "pay" for uniforms that we were essentially renting just because they got a new uniform that year.
DD's HS cheer team did a cheesecake FR where all of the money goes towards your fees. Which is fine.
DD is now telling me that their fall FR will be selling chocolate bars and they are required to sell 2 boxes (which are $60 each).
I told her no way was I going to buy 2 boxes - unless that money goes directly into my account. We already pay so much for the year...FR really annoy me when they set mandatory rules

 

[catlady]

Most fundraisers provide an item at a selling price point of X amount and your fundraiser gets half. When my kids had to do this I would call whomever was heading up the fundraiser and ask how much they were looking for from each child. If the kids were encouraged to sell 5 cheesecakes at $30 each, I preferred donating the $75 they would make on them instead of purchasing 5 cheesecakes I didn't want.

I appreciate the gyms that provide fundraisers for the families that want to participate, but I could probably pay for a month's tuition with all the stuff I buy from other kids, so their parents will in turn buy stuff from my kids.