Double Fundraiser Madness!

The month of September has only just begun but already we are knee deep in activities and...FUNDRAISERS!!!

Isabella is participating in her first Girl Scouts Fundraiser: Candy/Nuts & Magazines!  This fundraiser is very important to my troop in particular, for several reasons:

The Girl Scouts are only allowed to have two fundraisers per year - Candy/Nuts & Magazines in the Fall, Cookies in the Spring.  The Girl Scouts are obviously notorious for their Cookie Sales BUT the troop only gets approx. .25 for every box of cookies sold.  The majority of profit goes back to Council, which is still awesome seeing as how Girl Scouts is an amazing organization -- but when you're running a non-profit troop run by volunteers (such as yours truly!) you really rely on any kind of donations that will go directly to the troop!  Now although the Candy/Nuts & Magazines sales are not nearly as "big" as the Cookie Sales, the profit is far greater!  For every Candy/Nut item sold $1 goes directly into our Troop Account.  For every Magazine subscription sold $1.50 goes to us and just for filling out the Magazine subscription Address Book each girl gets $2 for our Troop...giving this particular fundraiser serious potential to bring in a good amount of money for us!  So I am tackling this fundraiser head on with my Troop..setting goals for not only the girls, but for our troop as a whole!  I've even come up with some "extra" incentives too -- if we make enough money we will go horseback riding AND have a pizza party celebration!

But rest assured, I am only helping the girls with this fundraiser.  If they want to reach their goals they're going to have to work for it!  Isabella made a sign (I helped her with spelling the words correctly) so I could take a picture of her & e-mail it to friends & family on Facebook. 

On Friday she will hit the pavement and try to sell items door-to-door.  She is very excited to do this, but I'm hoping she doesn't get too discouraged.  As Kyle can tell you from experience, selling door-to-door is TOUGH!  And speaking of Kyle....his Boy Scouts Popcorn Fundraiser kicks off next week!  Ahhhh!  Of all the fundraisers I've ever seen I have to say that the Popcorn is probably the hardest to sell because it's expensive...but there's a reason for that.  The popcorn is expensive because the profit is HUGE!!  MORE THAN HALF goes DIRECTLY into Kyle's Boy Scouts Account.  From there that money is used to help us pay for his camping trips through-out the year.

Now, does it absolutely, positively, without a doubt SUCK that both kids have fundraisers going on at the same exact time?!   Yes, yes it does!  But it is what it is, right??  I've had to formulate a game plan in order to make this work.  Because I'm a Troop Leader for Girl Scouts I'm required to handle all of the paperwork and online work associated with the fundraiser for my Troop..which means I have to log in each and every item EVERY girl in my troop sells before submitting all of the paperwork to council by the deadline.  I also have to handle all of the money.  My point here?  I'm neck deep in this fundraiser whether I want to be or not.. Because of this Kyle will be handling the majority of his Popcorn Fundraiser.  I will not be sending out e-mails as I've done for him in the past.  He's old enough to tackle this all by himself.  He is going to e-mail, call, write letters and knock on doors in hopes to generate as many sales as he can.  He'll set his own personal goal and no doubt will work hard towards achieving it.

My little side note to everyone:  Please do not feel obligated to buy things from the fundraisers.  We know, first hand, how tight money is for everyone these days!