Fundraiser (not for electronics)

[godfrey]

Hello fellow engineers,

I don't really know if this belongs here, but I wanted to get this out to everyone I could think of.

I have created a fundraising page on Indiegogo to help raise the $2,000 (USD) my son's high school senior class of 2015 lost when the company we used for the party went bankrupt.  Many schools in the St. Louis, Missouri area out out of their deposits as a result, but I'm not sure if other individuals have setup similar fundraising pages.

I humbly ask that you at least give the page a look.  If you are able to donate, it would be tremendously appreciated.  The kids have been working hard for the past four years raising money for their 'Last Blast Party', and are now short funds.

Everything raised will go directly to the class of 2015.  If we are able to go beyond our goal, I will donate the additional funds to the other schools that have lost their deposits as well.  The campaign will be running for 30 days. 

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/fundraiser-for-mehlville-last-blast-senior-party/x/9442284


If the admins and mods feel this doesn't belong here, let me know.  I sure don't want to trample on anyone's feet.


Sincerely,

Phil Godfrey
St. Louis, Missouri (United States)

[miguelvp]

Not to sound too harsh, but say it's 20 students, and probably it's more than that.

As a parent I would come up for the $100 for my kid and I would expect the other parents to do the same, in exchange my kid would do extra chores around the house.

How many students is this party for?

[godfrey]

There are approximately 1,890 attending the high school.  My son doesn't know the exact number so I'm forced to divided that by four…so roughly 472.

I hope the parents contribute.  I'm just trying to offset those who either won't or financially cannot.

[miguelvp]

Maybe I'm not getting it fully, but you are claiming that if say, half of the parents can't afford it, the other half will have to come up with $10 each to recover the $2000 lost?

[godfrey]

A majority of the parents are strapped for cash and many have already contributed to the fundraising earlier throughout the years.  I know it's only $10 -- and to me that's not even something I'd give second thought to when spending it, but for some, $10 might have to go towards their mortgage, utilities, insurance, etc.  Some just don't have it…and that's sad.

It's my first go at a fundraising operation, and I have no idea where to take it.  I figured I would have a larger audience here.  I've seen many silly fundraising quests take in huge quantities of funds (Potato Salad recipe comes to mind) so I thought I'd give it a shot.  I certainly don't expect much, but everything helps.


Please keep the questions coming. 


Phil

[miguelvp]

So I grew up in Spain (my dad was US Air Force at the time and my mom is from Spain).

Anyways, in there on our high school senior year is customary to have a senior trip. There were two senior classes in my high school and I was president of my class, total of around 60 students boys and girls between both classes. We raised the money to go to Marbella for a whole week, that included train fare, hotel (a nice one too) and money for food and spending money while in there. And no parent had to contribute a penny (peseta), we all worked and raised the money including the stay for one of the teachers (our chaperon) and of course we were mostly unsupervised.

So you have 400+ students, they sure could work to raise the money for their party, after all from now on they have to learn how to be on their own.

My daughter graduated in 2013, our preparation for college for her was to send her back packing around Europe & South America (my wife works for an airline so it was cheap for us to send her) and our daughter enrolled in many workaway places  http://www.workaway.info/ so she could stay for a long time in exchange for her own work. So she spent a whole year traveling and discovering the world totally unsupervised, she even stayed with my parents for a bit but I told them to let her do whatever she wanted and that she had no curfew nor rules. After almost one full year of traveling at age 17/18 we now know that she is ready for college and that she can fend for herself.

So I guess what I'm trying to say is, if you want to teach your kid anything, teach him how to be independent. But I guess I'm the type to kick them out of the nest so they can fly because that's what I did myself, and I'm lucky my wife agrees and encouraged her as well.

First she went to stay with a friend of us in England and two days later she wanted to come back, we had several talks telling her to approach other people her age and make friends, once she did, the transformation happened and she saw what is to fly solo. It was hard to convince her to come back for college but she agreed. Independence and confidence are the best lessons you can teach your kid when making this transition.

Dependence is not a good lesson IMHO and that's what the campaign will teach them if it's successful.

BTW her favorite place, Italy taking care of chickens and collecting olives, feeding other farm animals and going to town at night. She actually learned quite a bit of Italian.

[iampoor]

400 kids cant raise 2000$!? 

[godfrey]

This shouldn't be their problem.  They've been raising money for the past four years.  I'm just trying to replace what was lost.

[kindablue]

Why not offer rewards in exchange for donations? Good learning opportunity