Why Are School Catalog Fundraisers a Thing?

To my poor grandma: I'm very sorry for forcing you to buy those cheap chocolates just so I could get the rainbow bouncy ball

As a low-income kid, these things were the worst. It seemed like the school almost penalized those of us who didn’t (couldn’t) participate or didn’t reach the goals. Yes, all of us “poor kids” WERE stuck in the classroom doing busy work during these fun prize days. And yes, it was humiliating & defeating.

I remember bringing the catalogue home to my mom, her chucking it straight in the trash, and then taking me to the dollar store to get one of the prizes that probably would’ve taken me 80 hours of brutal labor to achieve.

Definitely the strangest part of these is how they would hold assemblies about the dangers of talking to strange adults, and then a week later have an assembly encouraging us to go to strangers' homes to solicit overpriced garbage.

And we wonder why multi level marketing is such a prevalent thing...

As an immigrant kid from Japan, the school using kids as salespeople seemed so weird and felt wrong, even as a little child. Looking back, it was the most American thing ever; fostering competitiveness, rewarding kids who made the most money and withholding rewards from kids who didn’t, and glorifying money. It still feels weird, and I’m glad to learn that there are Americans who feel the same way.

I remember a quadriplegic girl in my grade would sit outside of Walmart and sell way more than anybody. They rewarded her with a Wii. A Wii she could never use.

These companies aren't always to be trusted. One year my two brothers worked together to sell a LOT of items, enough that they were supposed to win a cell phone. But I guess the fundraising company wasn't expecting anyone to actually sell that much. So instead they received two walkie talkies. That's not quite the same thing...

I like that you compared it to MLMs, because that's where my mind went. It really does sound like child's first pyramid scheme

My daughter is in kindergarten and this year they just sent us a link letting us know if we knew people who wanted to donate to the school, the kids would get prizes for raising a certain amount. I sent the link to her grandparents and she got a silly little drone. So much easier than what I remember doing in school.

I have a confession to make... I somehow lost a family's address who had ordered from a fundraiser that I had walked door to door to sell for. They ordered, like, $70 worth of stuff, and the lady that I spoke to, who ended up purchasing from the catalog, was incredibly kind and generous. I've held onto this for almost half of my 23 years on this Earth and it still weighs on me. I think about it a couple of times each year and still feel incredibly guilty about it. I remember feeling so sad that I couldn't make it right by the family. But, I neglected to tell the school that I had forgotten their address out of fear of serious repercussions. So I told no one. And no one from the school let on that they had known about it. So I have no idea if the family was refunded. I ended up having to throw away their order after holding onto it for a while, thinking that any day soon, the staff at my school would be coming to me and inquiring about what happened with the family's order. And that I would hand the order to the staff and then they would take care of it from there. But it didn't turn out that way, and I ended up having to throw the order away. As much as this really was my fault for being irresponsible and absent-minded, it really puts into perspective how strange it was to put the responsibility on literal children in the first place.

I always hated these stupid fundraisers. All they ever did was make me feel ashamed that I was poor. Ashamed that I couldn't get strangers to buy magazines or whatever garbage they had the students peddling.

A couple things that I realized about these fundraisers too was that they; 1. were basically just a competition to see who's parents had the most wealthy friends/relatives who would be willing to buy a bunch of overpriced stuff and 2. should never have been necessary, if we would properly fund our public school system in the first place we wouldn't have to turn 2nd graders into little sales people just for the chance at new library books.

Let’s be real - the chocolate bar fundraisers worked the best of all. You’re right - people don’t want wrapping paper or magazine subscriptions. But offer someone a giant chocolate bar for $2, and there is a way bigger chance they’re gonna say yes! Lol. Tbh I remember most of my money collected coming from my own family buying them to eat 😂

In 6th grade I had my heart set on getting the final prize, a ride in a Hummer stretch limo to a pizza party. The assembly man said that the limo had and xbox AND a playstation in it. Somehow my parents were able to get enough people at their work to buy stuff that I got the reward. The limo was cool, but there were no game systems in it and we didn't go to a pizza party, we just kind of drove around for a half hour with 5 kids that didn't really know each other just sitting in silence.

I have ADHD and autism, but I wasn’t diagnosed until I was 21, so remembering things like turning in the money envelope on time, approaching strangers to sell, etc. were just not things I could do without reminders or help. And it became REALLY stressful because my mom was obsessed with me being the “best salesperson” for some reason, and I was juggling hundreds of dollars and dozens of names and addresses at once, and if I asked for help, my mom would say “a REAL salesperson would problem solve.” Well, to no one’s surprise, I missed the deadline to turn in the money, just totally forgot. When my mom found out, she made me write an apology letter with every “refund” where I told them I’m “not capable of being a salesperson, and I’m sorry for deceiving them”. She reminded me ALL day how I COULD have been “the best”, but I’m not worth the title. And while driving to drop off one of them, my mom turned to me and said (and I’ll never forget it): “If I had the choice, you wouldn’t be my daughter. You were a mistake. I shouldn’t have to have your pathetic face associated with my family.” All that to say, public schools DRASTICALLY underestimate how many kids are being abused at home, and how something like these fundraisers could affect those kids.

The only reason I got the “good” seeming prizes is because my mom worked at a nursing/retirement home and the elderly LIVED for supporting these things. Hardly did any work and the kids who tried that hardest got the worst prizes if any at all

I remember my parents HATED school fundraisers and refused to buy anything (I really don’t know why) so I was always really sad when I’d see kids playing with the toys they had gotten at recess and I’d have nothing. However one year, the fundraiser company held a raffle for anyone who’d sign up for the fundraiser on their sight (you didn’t have to sell anything) the winner of the raffle got all the prizes they were offering, and somehow I won the raffle, and finally got to join the kids at recess.

I was humiliated in front of my jrotc class in high school for not selling anything during one of these fundraisers, and I legit didn't care about it but the girls who had to stand up with me as we were scolded did, so I've reviled these ever since.

The way teachers would guilt kids if they didn’t sell enough. And how some kids HAD to sell them in order to go on trips. Nasty.