Fundraising (Was Re: GEN: Popcorn sales)

We tried our hand at the Council-sponsored popcorn sales for the first
time this year. I offered it mainly to the crew going to Sommers Canoe
Base next summer, but only one of them took advantage of it, plus a
couple of other Scouts. It was fairly easy to implement, and we will
probably look at it again next year. One thing that it does is that
it allows the parents to take the popcorn order form to work and remind
the sellers of Girl Scout cookies of last March that what goes around
comes around.

One of the problems is that it comes right on top of our main fundraiser,
wreath sales. This has been our third year of doing wreath sales and it
has been getting better and better each year. First of all, as others
have mentioned, we give some of the money back to the Scouts in the form
of "Scout Accounts" from which any camping fees, registration, or other
fees can debited. We use a graduated scale so that the more cases of
wreaths a Scout sells, the higher the return to his account. It has
done so well that we have changed the allocation formula to give more
credits to the Scout accounts. For some of the families in the Troop,
this is a real, tangible benefit. One Scout has paid for the last two
years' summer camps entirely from his wreath sales.

Each Scout is obligated to sell one box of (12) wreaths, or in the case
where the family is not inclined to participate in this main fundraiser
(and we have a couple), they are asked to provide another fundraising
opportunity for their son(s) that would return an equivalent amount of
money to the Troop and Scout accounts.

Any fundraisers other than the main one for the Troop account, all
profits go to the Scout Account.

The Sommers Canoe Base crew is also collecting aluminum cans, and
asking all families in the Troop to bring in cans to each meeting.
The rebates are pooled and divided up among the accounts of the crew
members. Right now they are making about $25 a month, but we are hoping
to improve on that.

Also on tap for them may be a pizza night, which has been used
successfully by a couple of other troops in the district. This is
how it works: First, you find a pizza parlor that is willing to help.
Next you print up flyers and give them to everyone you can find. Then,
on a specified night (generally a weeknight when business would otherwise
be slow), anyone who presents the flyer will have $2.00 of the price
of the pizza donated to the troop. The catch is that the normal coupons
that they might use cannot be used in conjunction with the flyer. The
end result is that instead of the pizza parlor giving $2 back to the
customer, they give it to the troop. The other troops doing this have
earned as much as $400-500 for a single evening.

Now, what do you do for the Scout whose parents (like me) would pay for
any trip their son wants to go on? How do you interest them in getting
involved in the fundraisers? Well, that's kind of an individual thing,
but here's what I have done:

For my older son, he is responsible for his own fees (except summer camp)
through his allowance and other income sources (such as the Troop
fundraisers). We started that when he was 13 and looking at Personal
Management Merit Badge. We went over what a budget was and how to plan
for his expenses. We included in his allowance an amount that would
cover some but not all of his camping fees during the year. And he has
been responsible for them ever since. And two years later, he finally
finished Personal Management.

For my younger sons, I offer to match any fundraising they do --- beyond
the Troop obligation. They get to use their accounts for camping fees,
and keep the cash for themselves.

Alan R. Houser ** Scoutmaster, Berkeley Troop 24 ** troop24@emf.net
** WWW page ** http://www.emf.net/~troop24/t24.html **

• Messages sorted by: [ date ][ thread ][ subject ][ author ]
• Next message
• Previous message