A big problem with fundraising -- motivation

[Fat Old Guy 11]

For some reason, in my immediate area it seems that only the affluent are involved with Scouting. Most of the less affluent seem to have hitched their wagons to sports programs.

 

This creates problems when trying to motivate Scouts to do fundraising, popcorn or otherwise. If you say "you'll get money for camp," they say "so what, Dad writes the check." If you say, "you'll get money for gear," they say "so what, Dad writes the check." It also turns out that most of the parents don't get the idea that Scouting is supposed to pay for itself and that the Scouts are supposed to do the work. The parents would rather just write a check than worry about picking up popcorn or storing boxes of candy while they are being sold.

[Twocubdad 665]

You can set the table, but you can't make them eat. If that's the lesson the parents' want to teach, there's not much you can do about it. On the plus side, not having to deal with fundraising should make your life easier.

 

I think one factor the parents may be responding to is the total number of fundraising events the kids are involved in. Scouting and school are the only two activities my boys have to raise money for. Popcorn is our pack only fundraiser, but the school is constantly raising money. A couple years ago the PTA suggested that parents simply donate $100 per child to the school and they would eliminate the fund raising. I couldn't write the check fast enough.

 

 

[Fat Old Guy 11]

With what I pay in taxes and the amount that my school system gets from the county and state, I REFUSE to give the school another penny either directly or through the PTA. What money they have, they squander.

 

Last year, they found the money to run ethernet to every class room so that every teacher could have email and internet access. Oddly, they can't find the money for math textbooks. In a fit of insanity, they adopted a new math curricullum and are trying to teach it witout the textbooks.

[scoutldr 726]

I was once assigned the honor of escorting the School PTA president (my wife) to the state conventions every year. Oddly the national organization does not advocate fundraising for basic needs that should be funded by the state. PTA local fundraising is done by misguided but well-meaning volunteers that don't know what else to do to advocate for the children.

[VentureScoutNY 10]

FOG, A lack of motivation to fundraise was common in my former Troop as well. Why go out and fundraise, when Mom or Dad will pay?

 

Fundrasing helps the Troop as a whole, but depending on your Troop, can help the Individual Scout as well. If a Scout wants to fundraise, and is willing to fundraise all the power to him. He will prosper in his own right, and the Scout that does not fundraise will not. If his parents want to pay for him let them, it's their money. Obviously we want to teach Scouts to be Thrifty, but there is only so far you can go.

 

When I fundraised, sure there were some kids that did not, and when it came time for camp, my dues were paid, and theirs was not. You can only worry about so many people.

 

Playing Devils advocate to what I just said though... We know how what one scout does another is not far behind him. If one scout does not fundraise, it wont be long until others will not want to as well, creating an even bigger problem.

 

Maybe a talk to the parents and scouts about the goals of fundraising would not be such a bad idea?

[Bob White 20]

A couple of points to ponder. Doesn't the effectiveness of the person offering the motivation as well as the motivation itself have a lot to due with the response you get from the scouts and their families?

 

It would seem to me that the motivator has as much responsibility as the person they are trying to motivate. It is far t0o easy for the adult leaders to do a half baked sales job and then blame the youth for being "unmotivated".

 

Not that someone who doesn't like the uniform, the handbook, the current advancement program, professionals, parents or today's youth, couldn't be a fabulous motivational element but......

 

(This message has been edited by Bob White)

[Eamonn 61]

Wearing my parent hat. Very often I have in the past I have been guilty of being the check writer. The main reason being is that it is the easy way to go.

To be really honest I never gave much thought to to the idea of the Fund Raiser being the activity. I looked at it as a way to reach an end.The end might be to go to someplace the money was just the tool to get you there.In most cases the amount of money needed wasn't that much.

Now that His Nibs is older, I offer to pay half of anything and there seems to a lot of "Anythings" What with School, Scouts and the OA. How he comes up with his half is his choice. At present he wants a car. Being the green Meany that I am I have said that I will not pay for it and will not give him one of ours. He went and found himself a job at MacDonald's, but thanks to track isn't working very much. That is his choice. The troop is selling candy bars. He opted not to sell any again his choice. I was happy when he didn't arrive home with them as I end up taking them to work and the people there tend to forget to put the cash in the jar when I leave them in the break room. It is cheaper to send him then to feed them!!

Trying to teach him financial responsibility at this age entails more work for us his parents. We are charged with getting him to where he needs to be when he needs to be there. Which at times is a chore on our part.

Eamonn

[eisely 13]

We live in a fairly affluent area and virtually all of our scouts come from families who, if not wealthy, have no serious money concerns. Oddly, our scouts are highly motivated to participate in our two car washes. A lot parents participate too. We keep on setting new records. There are two things at work here. First, giving a Saturday to intensive work is ultimately easier than selling something, one candy bar at a time, or one container of popcorn at at a time. Second, our scouts have gotten very competitive in doing advance ticket sales for this.

 

Parents, self included, find it a lot easier to simply write checks than get too deeply involved in fund raisers. Somehow our troop seems to have hit its groove in these car washes.

[Fat Old Guy 11]

Once again Bobo Blanco shows us that his concept of the truth is variable. After proclaiming to one and all that he wasn't going to read my posts, he's reading them. Tsk, tsk, tsk.

[Fat Old Guy 11]

Bobo Blanco in his efforts to slam me makes an erroneous assumption, I'm not invovled in fundraising except to help my son deliver his popcorn so I can't be involved in the motiviation of the Scouts to sell.

 

Car washes, while financially successful, don't bring out the Scouts.

 

Wreath sales, while financially successful, don't get the Scouts involved with a few Scouts doing 75% of the sales.

 

Popcorn sales, the same story as wreath sales.

 

Eamonn said, "Trying to teach him financial responsibility at this age entails more work for us his parents. We are charged with getting him to where he needs to be when he needs to be there."

 

Oh for the good old days when the parents taught financial responsibility from a very young age and it was a child's responsibility to find his own way to get places. I used to hoof it or take the bus if I wanted to get somewhere as did most of my friends. Now parents drive their kids to school even though the school is less than a half mile away.

 

 

 

 

 

[fotoscout 15]

In our solidly middle class town we have the same problem with our CSs. I think that in part, the families are just apathetic to the cause. They are happier and less inconvenienced to write a check, than they would be to help out with a fundraiser. The other part goes back to my ongoing lament about time management, they dont want to take up another Saturday or Sunday with a fundraiser.

 

And, as FOG has pointed out, we are under a constant barrage of fundraising requests from the PTA. The PTA fundraising is shameless, and unending!!!! Couple that with fundraisers for Girl Scouts, Soccer, Baseball, etc, etc, etc., and our people are simple fed up with fundraisers and a bit sensitive about engaging in another one.

 

[evmori 11]

Motivation can be tough! Almost every group has their hand out for something! We as leaders have to try to instill in the Scout that this is their Troop & their responsibility. Not mom & dad. And that in a lot of cases is complete culture shock to the Scout AND his parents.

 

Ed Mori

Troop 1

1 Peter 4:10

[EagleInKY 14]

We have a mixed bag in regards to the motivation of our Scouts to do fund raising. They fall into three camps:

 

1) The interested - they seem to always be motivated, for no apparent reason. We give 1/4 of profits back to them in their unit account. But the biggest motivation seems to be the new gear we get for the troop.

 

2) The multiple-child family. These folks are fund-raised to death. About 1/2 of our troop has younger boys in the pack. The pack has lots of cool prizes for their popcorn winners, so the older brothers usually let their younger ones take the majority of the sales.

 

3) The lazy. I just can't figure these out. They are usually the ones who say "Hey, Mr. J, wouldn't it be cool to go to Colorado next year?", or "Man, I wish we had two of those stoves.". If one of these 'lazy' boys says something to that effect, I usualy just point out that it takes money.

 

 

The most effective motivation for the troop seems to be the new gear we get with the proceeds of a fund-raiser. Tying the fund-raiser to the equipment gets them excited. You can do it on both the front-end and the back-end. For example: Sell donuts and raise money for a new canopy! can be the rally call on the front-end. Then, after the fact (if you make your goal), buy the gear, and remind the boys that they made it possible through their efforts.

[frank10 12]

In my younger days I pushed for the idea of items that could only be earned. Things like a hooded sweatshirt with teh troop logo, buy as many Tshirts as you want but you must sell X number of candy bars to get a sweatshirt.

 

Now I'd lean towards letting the parents foot the bill if they want and use the time that would have gone to the fundraiser to do a service prodject.

 

 

Not sure if either is right but that's the way I'd go now and then.

[SR540Beaver 116]

Having been involved with my son's sports twice as long as his scouting, I can atrst to the fact that sports fundraising runs into the same problems as scouting. Many parents don't want to be burdened with the effort and want to write a check. We had parents and boys who flat out refused to participate in sports fundraising. I'd just as soon write a check, but don't. I bring my son's fundraisers to work with the stipulation that he has to sell as much or more than me on his own. I won't let him opt out of fundraising even if he wants to. On the other hand, he sold almost $800 worth of sausage and chicken fingers a month ago and we barely crammed (literally) it all into two freezers. If he had sold more, I don't know where we would have put it. I had to take a half day of vacation to go home and load all the sausage people at work bought and deliver it. I also had to take off work early to go pick the sausage up to store at my house. Then I had to drive him all over to deliver in our neighborhood....several times. Yes he earned $140 in his account and learned some valuable lessons....again. But I sur would have liked writing a check and being done with it. I've got enough aggrevations in life witout being the sausage king of OKC.