My son is in the schools drama department. Normally they are funded thru 1. the school 2. booster club 3. ticket sales.
When putting on a high school musical their are expenses like equipment, costumes, etc… But along with that is the performing rights to put on a show. Normally the rights to put on a show are about $4000-$10,000 for a basic show like say 42nd Street or The Wizard of Oz. Well they picked a show that cost $42,000! Add in the other expenses and they are looking at easily $50,000. And lo and behold, they cant raise the money!
So since they are desperate and have to suddenly raise all this cash, this year they have decided to use a new fundraising platform called Snap_Raise.com.What it is is the kids (meaning parents) give them a bunch of emails (we had to do at least 20) to them and then the company would send out donor solicitation emails. The idea is this is an alternative to normal fundraisers like say car washes or selling candy.
What do you all think about this?
My problem with this is twofold:
Emails to me are a very personal thing and I don’t think people on my email list want me handing it out to solicitors.
They picked a show that was too damn expensive! They know from past experience what their usual income is and should have stuck to that budget.
Well here is what I did. I went thru my Home Owners Association guide and pulled out 20 emails and turned those in. Most are gmail and yahoo accounts so they probably are not say work accounts. Also people get solicitations and junk all the time thru email. That’s why we have spam filters and delete buttons.
What do you all think?
Have you ever gotten an email solicitation or had experience with this company?
My gf’s nephew’s football team did this. She and I have gotten a few emails. We are both pissed off. Ordinarily she would have given a generous donation had the kid asked, instead we’ve both marked the sender as spam and are ignoring the situation.
I wouldn’t mind if I got email solicitations for my nephews/niece, that I knew about beforehand. But I’d be furious if some asshole in my condo association gave out my contact information like that. If I ever found out, it’d be very tempting to turn them in for every telemarketer and email spam scheme I could find.
I know fund raising has to be done, but I always hated it when my kid had to do it. My daughter was for a very long time the youngest grandchild on both sides of the family. My sisters and in-laws never asked me to support their kids fund raising a lot so I never felt comfortable asking. Not to mention the fact that my attitude was, they’ve already raised their kids and paid their dues. I always felt the same about neighbors. They had either been through it already or were in the same boat as us. I don’t like the email idea at all. Schools around here do a massive fund raising campaign where the kids (parents) are asked to send in addresses so mailers can go out soliciting funds. I know it’s necessary but I really think the kids need to be involved. They can help with things like car washes, bake sales, dance-a-thons, etc. The kids aren’t participating in gathering together emails. As has also been mentioned, I am not crazy about my email being given out without my knowing. This also makes me wonder does the company doing these mailings keep the information and build a database out of it so five years from now people are still receiving requests for funds?
Just out of general curiosity, what play are they going to perform and didn’t someone have the common sense to research what the costs might be upfront?
That’s a crazy expensive play. Just for fun I looked around and found these guys, Music Theater International, and their plays seem much more cost effective. Licensing fees all seem to be less than $10,000, and that’s assuming $45,000 in ticket sales and a two-week, 15 performance run. I couldn’t find anything anywhere close to $42,000.
Why?
Seriously. I support my local school via taxes. If that’s not enough, why don’t they raise taxes?
When my kids were in school and they “had to” sell crap, I purchased whatever the minimum amount was. I didn’t want my kids harassing friends/neighbors/relatives. Half of the stuff was garbage (gift-wrap, etc) and was thrown out. Some stuff I used, some I donated.
I’m wondering that too. Spending four to ten times what they previously spent on performance rights is a huge jump. Especially if they have no guarantee that they’ll be able to raise the money. And I would probably ignore a plea for donations received via email.
No, on as many levels as I can imagine. No, you shouldn’t be spending $42K on a high school musical. No, you can’t have even one email address so you can pester strangers. And especially no, you can’t raise my taxes so you can spend $42K on a fucking high school musical.
Where have you been? The schools absolutely will not give programs such as theater and music the money they need. Hell, even the athletic department has to fundraise. The money is just not there, and I’m in an area with pretty high property taxes. That being said, that’s one expensive show.
I teach part time at the local high school in the music department. The school pays the music director his salary and gives about $1100 a year to the department for sheet music, instrument repair, new instruments, busses, entry fees, clinician fees (that’s me), equipment upkeep, replacement drumsticks, reeds, valve oil, etc. And then there’s the uniforms for the marching band. A new set, which is only necessary every ten years or so, runs into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. As you can see, $1100 doesn’t go very far.
Hence, fundraising.
Thankfully, the direct sales of gift wrap and other crap has gone by the wayside. Our biggest fundraiser is the weekly bingo program, and it’s barely enough. We do hold car washes, but it’s hard to do that all year long when the weather’s bad. We sell ads in our concert programs, we have bowl-a-thons, and an annual festival where the various ensembles play and we have a silent auction and actually just ask outright for donations. It’s a constant hustle just to keep the program alive.
But, back to the OP. I read it and went right in and told my wife about this new emails program. She’s on the board of the music boosters club. I asked her to vigorously oppose this scam if it ever came up. Sounds horrible.
Slipping into geezer mode here - when I was in high school (class of '72) the school choir was invited to participate in a choral festival in Rome. It cost $33k to send the whole choir for the week.
We worked our asses off - car washes, bake sales, a spaghetti supper, a raffle, flea market, a dance, and singing everywhere we could followed by passing the hat. In 10 weeks, we did it, with enough left over for everyone in the choir to get a copy of the medal we won. All, by the way, while going to school and (for some) working part time.
It didn’t occur to any of us to expect people to just give us money. So why do our kids and our grandkids think that’s how it should go?? How did we fail them?
Because now they’re pushing those things as being the annoying stuff that parents and others would rather not have to put up with, so why not just donate?
But then they ruin it by asking for email addresses of strangers. Sounds to me like they need an ethics course. Unsolicited email is unwanted by pretty much everyone. And they are almost certainly selling these addresses to companies. Why would they even go this route at all?
I very, very much hope this backfires badly and gives them less money than they’ve ever gotten. I would not contribute, nor would I attend.
And another problem is often whoever is the top person in the booster club, guess who’s kid gets the lead role, most playing time, special treatment thing.
Now I have no problem in being a part of a booster club. I’ll buy stuff, volunteer, and pay dues. But the whole thing of 1. giving out emails, and 2. them doing too expensive of a show, really got to me.
Note - they will probably have about 2,000 people go to the show. Of those about a quarter don’t pay because they are students or staff. Normally tickets are $10 so figure $15,000 in ticket revenue with the rest from sponsors, program sales, and boosters so a decent budget per show is around $25,000. The school also does 3 other plays and musicals a year.
Yes, I did the same as far as doing the minimum purchase and didn’t have her harassing others. I support through property taxes but I am not sure those taxes support things like extracurricular activities, class trips things along those lines.
Yeah, I’m no doubt outing myself as a Rock-basement dweller, but am I understanding this correct? You have to pay to put on a play? :rolleyes:
Why not just stage a play about a girl named Doris who goes on a roadtrip, gets caught in a hurricane, meets The Straw Man, The Metal Man and Scardy-Cat? Who owns that?
And seriously, who gets this money for putting on a play? I don’t get it.
But at any rate, I would tag that email as spam and never look back.
:rolleyes: