What's with door-door fundraisers anyway? PT. 2

Yesterday's post 'What's with door-door fundraisers anyway?' shared how we went from friendly to fearful as a nation.  We went from dropping kids off in a neighborhood to fundraise alone (sometimes at night) to being fearful when we visited people's homes we didn't know. 

Today, the purpose of this post is simple.  To explain that there may still be door-to-door fundraisers out there. Let's take a quick look.

Many schools still host their own fundraisers.  This is completely fine, but they are generally not aware that their fundraising efforts can encourage door-to-door fundraising.

A walk-a-thon or read-a-thon that encourages donations from many individuals is a door-to-door fundraiser if you head out into the neighborhood to collect sponsorships.  Generally, this is what's expected from these fundraisers so here's a suggestion.

As a school sponsor, principal or parent group member, make sure to have a 'DO NOT GO DOOR-TO-DOOR' disclaimer on your documents and collection envelopes if you believe it's a safer recommendation.

That way, people will be reminded to take the document to work, call relatives and collect sponsorships from people they know.

In an ironic twist, if you do not have that disclaimer, you're probably taking part in something you wouldn't allow your fundraising company to get away with.

Hope you enjoyed this one!  Probably took you by surprise a bit huh?

Ok, until next time!

______________

elementary school fundraisers

What's with door-door fundraisers anyway?

So, what's with door-to-door selling?

A common fear for parents and schools is door-to-door selling.  What is the truth of the matter?

30 years ago, parents would let their children loose on neighborhoods and would regularly drop them off in unfamiliar neighborhoods in the dark to promote various fundraisers. Times were indeed different but something changed in 1982.

Parents became afraid.

The thing is, I remember this vividly.  At 12 years old, my parents got very paranoid along with everyone else.  On Halloween night, my parent made me go through my candy with them and throw away anything that was loosely wrapped or was made by hand or was a fruit that could contain a razor blade and they inspected every packet, bar and bag. 

All of a sudden, there were random people out there that wanted to get us.

The Tylenol Murders (link) and a bunch of other stuff like the cold war (link) really scared the pants off everyone.  I'm not saying that bad things didn't happen, it's just that we became really paranoid as a nation.

So, what happened to school fundraising?

School fundraising companies began to suggest that people not go door to door.


Today, no professionally run fundraiser is a door-to-door fundraiser.  That person who spread the rumor of the razor blade in the Halloween apple put a stop to it.  No company will tell you to go door-to-door to sell.

But people still like to think product fundraisers are sold door-to-door.  They can be, but they are also sold in a number of other ways, including the ability to sell to out-of-state family and friends with an online component.

So, do door-to-door fundraisers still exist?

Up next What's with door-door fundraisers anyway? PT. 2


_____________

catalog fundraisers