Why Fund Raising Isn't Child's Play

Jeff Opdyke:

A couple of times a year, my son comes home with an assignment that is supposed to warm our hearts: fund raising. But to be honest, it always leaves me cold.

It's always the same old, painful drill. My son carries a clutch of papers that, for all he cares, could be written in Sanskrit. The only thing he sees is the catalog filled with pictures of the prizes he can win if he raises a ton of money for some cause he can't even identify.

And it gets worse.

My son has no interest in peddling products door-to-door. I have no interest in letting him -- in part because we don't know every neighbor, and in part because I'm opposed to letting my son donate free labor to for-profit companies that run many of these nonprofit fund-raising efforts and keep a percentage of the money raised. Ultimately, the only thing my son cares about is winning some overpriced award. Since he hasn't the time to sell this stuff to begin with, he wants me and his mom to find buyers or to pony up our own cash. And when we won't, he wants to spend all of his money to buy ever more boxes of whatever the fund-raiser of the day is pitching.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at March 11, 2007 6:08 AM
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