I needs your thoughts on this please. Upset with Brownie fundraising.

slummymummyof3

We usually have a sponsored event at my kids school where I am on the pta, every child takes part in the sponsored event which is held during school time and is given a certificate for taking part, regardless of whether they raise any money or not.

Yorkshire-Lady_3

Bring back sunny smiles!

Sally x

morg_monster

Another brown owl here ... wow there are a lot of us on MSE! ... I would never do this with my pack purely down to the circs of the members ... many of them have trouble paying subs let alone this! These fundraising things do fall out of Guiding magazine every month, though, so I can see it would be an easy way to try and get the girls that community spirit. I would talk to the leaders, I'm sure they would understand and may already be feeling bad as you said. I'm sure they now realise they could have handled this a lot better!!

There are other ways to raise money - perhaps you could offer to help organise something if you think it would help - eg one of our sixes organised a "cafe" in the park behind our meeting hall, they cooked biscuits and cakes and sold them to the kids and raised £29 for Great Ormond St Hosp (which is about 2 minutes from our hall), without even really trying, and we even got 3 new Brownies out of it (bribery with cake, the best way to recruit!)!!

On another note - I finally learned all about gift aid last night ... so am full of the joys of Brownies - £172 in backdated gift aid from subs we should get, will do the coffers no end of good, think I will take them ice skating at christmas with it!!

bylromarha

zebidee1 wrote: »

To be fair to the Brownie leaders, it wasn't their personal decision to give rewards based on how much was brought in. The sponsorship form was a glossy printed thing and already had all this on it with pictures of the rewards that were to be given, and I'm led to believe it came from Brownie Headquarters, so it must have been a biggish fundraiser? All their sponsorship forms had to be returned there for checking.

So it was Brownie HQ who gave the incentives? Should have thought they'd know better.

How can you subtly hand out prizes to a number of primary kids who will compare what they each got at the first opportunity?

***salutes all fellow current and ex-Guides on MSE ***:rotfl:

Abbafan1972

Haven't done any sponsorship forms for ages. I think the last one was for Children in need when my youngest was at nursery (she's at school now) and as we don't have many family and I only have 8 work colleagues, it's difficult to find people. I took the form into work and tried to get people to sponsor, but they just pretended not to hear. So there was only me and OH and my Parents who were prepared to give, so it wasn't worth it and the sponsorship form ended up in the bin.

The only thing I do now is sell raffle tickets at Xmas for the school, people are more willing to give to that and the funds go to the school.

mrcow

zebidee1 wrote: »

I've just spoken to one of the other Mums who said if they raised £50 they got a cap and more than £50 got them the calculator along with the cap and some badges etc. There's no way I could have given that much just so my DD got the same. :eek:

What did they get for £2 - as that's what mine would have brought in if I'd sponsored them.

I'm in no way tight with my money (except when this site is involved) and give to various charities each month direct, but I simply wouldn't be able to afford loads of money just to ensure that oneof my daughters got a free cap

tessie_bear

i often get on my high horse when my sons come home from school with demands for this and that (the school not the kids) but i always give in because it isnt me that is standing up for whatever principals....its the poor child and often they want to merge into the background and not be singled out for something they dont understand.......i would give a small amount or keep my kids away if i knew this sort of evening was in the offing....isnt there another kinder pack your child could join ?

its hard being a parent isnt it

djtonyb

bylromarha wrote: »

So it was Brownie HQ who gave the incentives? Should have thought they'd know better.

How can you subtly hand out prizes to a number of primary kids who will compare what they each got at the first opportunity?

***salutes all fellow current and ex-Guides on MSE ***:rotfl:

If its the Charity I'm know of (and have used in the past) it was not HQ who organised this event. The glossy brochure would have been included in our monthly information/guidance magazine. We get lots of offers/charity requests in this magazine and these are not endorsed by HQ, just distributed to those who may use the information. When I organised this charity event last time I order extra spares so that every girl received a gift.

Many thanks for the salutes bylromarha

fsdss

i would feel the same as you op- like most i dont like it when school does similar.

last year the kids at school sold paintings that they made to raise money for school the MINIMUM amount to pay was £2.

ok so it was only £2 - but on the way there, i saw a friend of mine who is on disability benefit and really couldn't afford it.....she was stood outside the door not wanting to go in - i spoke to her and she said that with 3 children it would cost her £6 + the usual donation of 50p for each tea and coffee, then the kids would also want a drink and a cake from the cake stall.....and so on....she was in panic as it would have been a huge burden on her weekly budget.....

on that basis i went in to the school and refused to buy my sons picture...(not before explaining gently why to my son) ....when asked by the teacher why i was not going to buy his painting i just explained that i thought it unfair to pressurise some parents into buying and suggested that they ought to consider some of the means of parents before setting prices.....i felt as though this was a form of bullying and told them so.

it really grips me.......

fsdss

I forgot to mention at about the same time - my friend was also feeling awful about the up and coming school educational trip to barcelona for 5 days, that 2 of her girls were entitled to go on (that weren't).......the school swimming lesson bill for the same 2.....school trip for the youngest.....budgeting in advance for the upperschool uniform that had to be purchased from said school.............

i know some would think that having 3 children would expectantly encounter some costs......but at 33 she never expected to be diagnosed with parkinsons either.