Planet Money - The secret world behind school fundraisers

Episode Date: February 29, 2024

Fundraising is a staple of the school experience in the U.S. There's an assembly showing off all the prizes kids can win by selling enough wrapping paper or chocolate to their neighbors. But it's pretty weird, right?Why do schools turn kids into little salespeople? And why do we let companies come in and dangle prizes in front of students?We spend a year with one elementary school, following their fundraising efforts, to see how much they raise, and what the money goes to. The school – Villacorta Elementary in La Puente, California – has one big goal: To raise enough money to send every single student on one field trip. The whole school hasn't been able to go on one in three years. We find out what the companies who run school fundraisers do to try to win a school's business. And we find that this bizarre tradition is ... surprisingly tactical. That's on today's episode. Today's show was hosted by Sarah Gonzalez and produced by Sam Yellowhorse Kesler. It was edited by Jess Jiang, fact checked by Sierra Juarez, and engineered by Valentina Rodríguez Sánchez. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money's executive producer. Help support Planet Money and get bonus episodes by subscribing to Planet Money+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/planetmoney.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

For the seventh year on the Code Switch podcast, conversations about race and identity go way beyond the day's headlines. Because we know what's part of every person is part of every story. We're bringing that perspective with new episodes every week. Listen on the Code Switch podcast from NPR. This is Planet Money from NPR. This is Planet Money from NPR. Some of you may have had these assemblies in school, like in elementary school or in high school.

There's music, the lights are dim, and some non-school person is on stage like, don't you want this glow-in-the-dark bike? Or how about a limo for you and your friends to go to Peter Piper Pizza? Just look at all these prizes. He was just like, and this bubble blower. And then he's like, we have a dancing space duck. I don't know if you know what this is, actually. Nintendo Switch Lite!

I'm talking about assemblies like this one. My name is Mr. Cheesecake. I'm talking about assemblies like this one. My name is Mr. Cheesecake. Mr. Cheesecake, really Andrew Smith, known for getting students to sell cheesecake. Because, yeah, to win some of these prizes... We have the Radical Rocket Kid scooter. We're going to have what we call the Squish Ball. You have to sell stuff.

Like cheesecake. Or wrapping paper. Or little chocolate bunnies. We sold little popcorns and candies. There was chocolate bears with peanut butter inside. There was chili lemon peanuts. Chili lemon mangoes. I remember the jalapeno popcorn. And the more you sell? There was chili lemon peanuts, chili lemon mangoes.

I remember the jalapeno popcorn. And the more you sell, the better the prizes. So everyone put your hands like this, pump them up and say big money. Big money! A little weird, right? But this big money flashing prizes in little kids' faces is the start of the classic, beloved and despised school fundraiser. Every year, multiple times a year, schools all over the U.S., wealthy schools, private schools, low-income schools, have this kind of kickoff fundraising assembly. Now, the reason we're raising big money for your school is not only we're hoping to get a projector screen, a new one, but also we are going to be doing things like field trips. Now, let me ask you, do you like field trips? Awesome. More field trips, more fun, more activities, more

equipment, more supplies. Everything comes back to you here at the school. So you're only helping not quite everything, but yes, the point of these assemblies is to raise money for schools. Fundraising is kind of baked into the school experience. But why? Why do schools turn kids into little salespeople? And why do we let companies come in like this and dangle prizes in front of students. Hello and welcome to Planet Money. I'm Sarah Gonzalez and I have been following one school's fundraising efforts for over a year to see how much they raise and what the money goes to. The school, Villa Corta Elementary in La Puente, California, has one big goal this year.

To raise enough money to send every single student on one field trip. The whole school hasn't been able to go on one in three years. Today on the show, one year at one school to show us what it takes to send all of the first graders to the beach and fill the gaps in the official school budget. On the next All Songs Considered from NPR Music, we play and guide you through songs to slow the blood and calm your nerves. My stress level on a scale of 1 to 10 has been at an 11. Look for All Songs Considered every Tuesday, wherever you get podcasts.

While TikTok gets a lot of heat for addiction, security issues, and misinformation, there's one place that thinks it could be a force for good. Harvard. On the next It's Been a Minute, I talk to one influencer who was handpicked by Harvard to battle misinformation when it comes to mental health. Listen to It's Been a Minute from NPR. Okay, in order for someone like a Mr. Cheesecake, Say big money! Big money! or any school fundraising company rep to be able to get access to students at, in this case, Via Corte Elementary and recruit them as little salespeople. They have to go through the school's PTA, the Parent Teacher Association. Particularly, they have to go through this woman.

Hello, I'm Maria Larez. This is my 39th year of teaching. Maria Larez, longtime kindergarten teacher. My love is in kindergarten. Who recently started teaching first grade. And the first graders are bossy, they're opinionated, and she thinks it's super fun. They can do more. I can reason with them.

You know, it's a different ballgame. They run the show too. Her classroom is big and colorful. There's a playhouse, a writing station, and artwork all up the walls, basically up to the ceiling. How do you get up there? I have to climb up there on a chair. But that's okay. Don't tell anybody.

Maria is petite. She wears deep, dark purple glasses, and she has this smile that just like reminds you of your kindergarten teacher if you had a good one. Just watching her, you can tell she is a gem of a teacher, like the way she encourages her first graders in class. You are going to be readers. I promise you I'm going to teach you how to read, but you have to follow my directions. You have to do what I tell you. Maria has been teaching at this school for 30 years, and she's been on the PTA here the entire time. The PTA actually means a lot to me because when I was growing up, I'm an immigrant, and when I got here, my parents, they worked 12 hours a day, so they never attended any school things. So to me, I was, I always want to be part of the PTA.

I always want, and I could never because my mom couldn't come. But so as a teacher, I said, uh-uh, PTA is my baby and has been for all these years. And besides teaching, I do everything that I can for PTA, not just the treasury, but everything. Maria is arguably the heart and soul of this school. She's the one with the goal of sending every single student on at least one field trip a year. And without Maria and the PTA, it might not happen. Like zero field trips? You would not have zero? You wouldn't have any field trips? We're very limited into what we could do. This is the principal at Maria's school, George Herrera. You have a near school budget. Do you have a budget for field trips? So I do have a budget. So it's sort of a give and take.

You know, if I put it to field trips, then I shortchange somewhere. All right. Here's how schools get funded. A lot of the money comes from local property taxes, but also states and the federal government give money too. And technically, schools get more money per kid today than they have historically gotten. For Villa Corte Elementary, the district gets like $4.5 million a year. It's about $16,000 per kid at the school, which is a little more than the national average.

But it's not like the principal gets all of that money to spend, right? The district actually ends up spending almost all of it on things like salaries for teachers, benefits, the cost of running the building. What the principal gets to spend is closer to $1,200 per kid. And because it's public funds, there are a lot of rules about how he can spend this money. He does have to make choices.

And so I got to figure out, sort of give and take, kind of like a home budget. What am I going to cut and what am I going to have? Yeah, but when the PTA raises money from fundraisers like selling cheesecake or chocolate, that is not part of the official school budget. It is not public funds. So that money can go to anything, which is very, very valuable to a school. And the way Maria Laris, the gem of a teacher, PTA treasurer, sees it, the main job of her school's PTA is to fund the stuff that

keeps school exciting for kids, like field trips or a big reptile show for students, nacho parties. We provide all the fun stuff. I tell the kids to get them here and wanting to come and wanting to do better. Every year, this PTA's goal is to raise $20,000. And it goes to a lot. Oh, there's just so many things that we fund. The PTA helps pay for the sixth graders to go to an outdoor science camp for a week. They buy three books for every single student so that every single child could walk home with three books at the end of the year.

They really want to be able to buy risers for the new choir. But this year, the number one priority is paying for field trips. Since we've been gone for so long without field trips. Yeah, the school didn't fundraise in time to send everyone on a field trip last year. And they didn't go the year before or the year before that because of COVID. So it's been three years since the whole school went on one. But this year, Maria is determined to make field trips happen again. Every grade gets to decide where they want to go. But for Maria, there's really only one field trip she wants for her first graders. I like to take my class to the beach on a boat ride.

A boat ride at the beach. And people are always like, really? Are you sure? You're taking the little ones to the beach? But I've always done it and I've never had anything knock on what happened. So let's see. Her school is in Los Angeles County, but many of her students have never seen the ocean. They'll tell you, I've never been to the beach.

They have never been on boats before. They don't even know. How far is the closest beach to here? Well, the one we go to is Newport Beach. It's a good 40 minutes away. So it's not like the beach is so far away. It's not, but it's our community. Lots of them don't have cars. They work weekends, you know. When the little ones have gone on the big beach trip in the past, Maria says it's so worth it for them. We let them go on the sand, look for shells, build castles. I mean, it's not a long time, but they do get to ride the boat, eat their lunch, and play in the sand.

You know, it's not that expensive either. The boat ride, which is a little harbor tour, costs like $6 per kid. But Maria has found that that is too much to ask parents to pay. So she likes for the PTA to cover at least $3 of every boat ride. So if it comes to $3, maybe they can pay. And if they don't, we either have PTA or the teacher will just throw it in. She will. $3 makes such a difference. You know, like if it's $3, usually the parents will pay. If it's $6, I don't know. Anything after $5, they're like, hmm. About 90% of students at the school are economically disadvantaged.

20% are unhoused. They're not out in the streets, but they are living with other families and in the garage and places like that. Right. It is a low-income school. But I mean, offsetting the costs of field trips for parents happens at all schools. Even really, really wealthy schools will fundraise to help cover the cost of like a big fancy plane ride for students to visit the U.S. Capitol for a week. So okay, for Via Corte Elementary to send all the first graders to the beach and on a boat, they need like $120 for the boat ticket plus another $600 for the school bus to get all of the kids to the beach and back. So Maria and the PTA need like $700. But that's just for the first grade field trip, right? All

in for the whole school to go on a field trip, all eight grade levels, basically pre-K through sixth grade, they need nine school buses, plus the money to offset the cost of whatever play or aquarium or museum each class wants to go to. So really, they need like $8,000 a year for everyone to go on a field trip. But I mean, all year long, they are paying for many things, right? The science camp, the reptile show, three books for every student. So total goal, $20,000 raised. And the school organizes their own fundraisers to try to get there. They do jogathons, nacho sales, t-shirt sales, but those do not raise huge amounts of money. So once or twice a year, they'll also do

a big, we'll call it corporate fundraiser, where they go through a school fundraising company, you know, the ones that put on those flashy assemblies. And those companies, they like, go looking for PTA members. They go looking for all of the Marias in a school, and they find them. We've had people knocking on doors trying to get us to change companies. And are you committed to them? They'll say, you know, because we have something to get us to change companies. Are you committed to them? They'll say, you know, because we have something to show you. These companies do a lot to try to get a school's business. They take the PTA out.

At a restaurant, like Olive Garden, I remember going. Red Lobster, they go all out, and they invite you during the summer to go out, and they look at the new products that they're going to have. Like, what do you mean? Well, like, they invite you to Red Lobster, and then look at the new products that they're going to have. Like, what do you mean? Well, like, they invite you to Red Lobster and then at the table, and they feed you, of course. They treat us so nice to try to get our business because they know PTAs have big business, and they are, you know. But it didn't used to be this way. I worked at it for 30 years, and when I started, we had to go out and look.

Okay, so should we sell chocolate? What companies? We had to go looking for them. Then an offer to come and feed us. And then it just became a business, like, over the years. I'd say the last 10 years. Now Maria gets to, like, choose who gets her business. And for her, it is not about who takes her to Olive Garden.

It comes down to which company rep is going to make her work easier. Like recently, this one rep said, you know what? I'll hand out the hundreds and hundreds of bags of popcorn that your kids sell. So you don't have to. Sold. I'm a classroom teacher. I don't have time to be sorting things and putting them in teachers' boxes. And then the teacher said, I never got it. And I said, but I put it right here, you know. You can just tell she's done that many times. Once a rep said, I can give you 50% of the profit of everything that students sell,

which is not the usual split. Normally the company takes more. But for the school to keep 50% of the profit, there would be no prizes. And Maria was like, oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. We need the prizes. The kids will get motivated by those prices rather than say, oh, it's all for your school. Just keep selling. You're doing great. No, no. For Maria, there is something a little bit uncomfortable about all of this. You know, turning kids into little salespeople or promising them all these prizes that they probably won't ever get. Because you have to sell like $1,000 worth of whatever just to get that Nintendo Switch Lite that really just costs like $200.

Does it feel bad? Does it feel bad? Yeah, that they're looking at these little prices they wish they had. But, you know, we'll make it up to them in another way. There's always a way that they're going to get a treasure box and they'll get those little items that they want. This PTA does make sure that there are some fundraisers, like the one that Big Money Mr. Cheesecake was here for, Mr. Cheesecake was here for, where all kids got little prizes, like a magic pencil or a squish ball, even if they didn't raise any money or sell anything. After the break, we meet the little salespeople and find out why do schools fundraise like this at all? Like, why is this the system? or just trying to figure out. What you might check out this weekend, what you checked out last weekend, it's all fair game for good conversation.

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As Joe Biden and Donald Trump square off again, we bring you the latest news from the trail and dive deep into each candidate's goals for a second term. Listen to the NPR Politics Podcast every weekday. All right, let's meet some sales kids. Hi, I'm Sophia Fabella. Hi, my name is Samantha Nicolatan. Sophia and Samantha, 10 and 8 years old and best friends with the caveat that they have other best friends too. Because like my other best friend, her name is Violet.

Sophia wants to be an artist when she grows up. Ding, ding, ding. Samantha wants to be a doctor. To take care of kids. Or join the military. To, like, save people. Or maybe be a doctor in the military. Yeah, probably.

And both Samantha and Sophia consider themselves pretty good salespeople. I'm kind of trustable and understandable and also kind of funny. I agree. And understandable and also kind of funny. I agree. When I meet them, it is their big fall fundraiser from one of those companies. They're doing what is called a catalog fundraiser. It's a fundraiser where there's a catalog of popcorn and other treats. And Samantha's strategy is to explain why you might like the kettle corn.

Because it has like a sweet taste in there that mostly people like, but not all. Now, these kids are not out there like knocking on strangers' doors, asking them to buy treats. That is not really how the school fundraiser goes anymore. They're just like texting their favorite aunt, their grandparents, asking them to buy. They're giving the catalog to their parents. So my mom took it to work. They're giving the catalog to their parents. So my mom took it to work. I got a lot of money.

Sophia sold 83 items, which did add up. I almost got like $1,000 from the popcorns. Yeah, like $944. That is a lot of money worth of popcorn. Students at the school sold about $11,500 worth of popcorn stuff in total, but the school got to keep just like $5,000 of that because about 60% of the money goes to the fundraising company and for the cost of the popcorn. About 40% goes to the school. So it is not like a great, great deal for the school. This fundraiser brought in about a quarter of their goal. Remember, the goal is $20,000. We want those field trips and all the other things the PTA funds. So the fundraising keeps happening all year long.

Sometimes the school sells stuff. The PTA held a Santa shop where kids could buy like little gifts and trinkets for their families. They also held a Valentine's Day shop, a Mother's Day shop. Those shops, on average, brought in $1,500 each. So six months in, they're almost halfway to their goal. Summer comes. Sophia and Samantha move up a grade. You're just growing so fast.

How you been? Yeah. They get awards, made honor roll. Samantha Tan, come on up. And then we have a principal's honor roll, Sophia Favela, come on up. The principal gives them a certificate but tells them the real award is on the way. Oh, we have a medal coming in for you. It didn't get here in time, but it should be here when we come back from break.

You guys, honor roll. That's like the best award. And the fundraising continues. The next big fundraiser is a giant foam party, basically, a bubble run. Kind of like a jog-a-thon, but with bubbles everywhere. We get to go into the bubble pit, and you get your shoes wet. Sophia, what do you think? Um, it's very exciting. I'm getting it all in my hair because I have to shower today anyways.

Oh my goodness. The community donated about $10,000 for this fundraiser too. But again, the company takes their cut. So I mean, it sounds beautiful, but we only get about $5,000. But okay, they are three quarters of the way takes their cut. So, I mean, it sounds beautiful, but we only get about $5,000. But okay, they are three quarters of the way to their goal. And it is not just the students who fundraise. The teachers do it too.

The teachers basically worked at McDonald's for a couple hours one day as a fundraiser. So we go to McDonald's and we, as teachers, we serve the kids. And they order from us and Dr. Herrera is selling cookies. And I'm making fries and things like that. And at the end of the night, they give us, I don't know if it's 40% of the profits. Oh, teachers working at McDonald's making fries after a day of teaching. This brought in $874. Now, if all of this seems like a lot of work for not a lot of payoff, yes, you're right.

It's interesting because so much effort goes into pulling off something like... You're telling me. I know it. I know it. And then you're like, for $500? It's okay. It's more the community. Getting your community involved and getting them here is what counts. A lot of schools and principals will say this, that it's not really about the money you raise, but the experience, the lessons that kids learn. But after a year of following these fundraisers, I just kept thinking, like, there is a more efficient way to get the money you need. a more efficient way to get the money you need. There was this one parent-teacher organization president in Alabama who basically said, we are tired of these fundraisers. You're tired of these

fundraisers. If you give us $50, we will forget your name and face and not ask you to bake anything or sell anything for the rest of the year. And it went viral. So many people were like, yes, this is the kind of fundraiser I can get on board with. You know, many economists would say that that is the better fundraiser. Economists would say, just give people the cash. If people need money, just give them the cash. Don't make them buy something. Don't make them like volunteer. Just give them the thing that they need. And so I was curious, like, can you just ask people to donate money? No. In my community, if you say, send me the $8 for the PJ. And they're like, what am I getting from that?

What do I get? We have to get an incentive to go with it. So people like to feel like they're getting something for their money. They need to see that there's something in return in my community, yes. Yeah, people like getting a bag of jalapeño popcorn to munch on or, you know, a big bubble party for their kids. It feels more satisfying than just handing over cash. And remember, the cash that the PTA raises is like this special magical pot of money that comes with essentially no rules. If the principal ever needs to like fill the gaps in his official school budget,

he can go to the PTA, which happens. Principal will come, well, you know, we need this, but we don't have money to buy the printer's ink. So then we will say, okay, do we approve? Okay, let's buy some ink for these printers for the teachers could do their job. Yeah. So what happened today is that we're dealing with a budget in a category. Again, the principal, George Herrera. We have money right now. Sometimes I have a lot of money in one area, but I cannot transfer it to another area. Yeah. When you're dealing with official public funds, there are a lot of rules. Like George needed just $40 for something, but he didn't have the money in the right pot.

So I have my office manager calling fiscal saying, can we move $40 over there? And he goes, well, let me try it. Let me figure it out. Right. And so PTA is able to cut through a lot of the red tape. PTA would just be like, here's $40. Here's a check, yeah, yeah. Pretty much, pretty much. Yeah. If the school budget is like a bank asking you why you want to take out your own money, the PTA is like your rich aunt who can just give you money whenever you need it. What do you need the $40 for?

This was a particular, we wanted to buy medals that we want to give the students. And we're short a couple of medals. And I said, just let me order them now. And he goes, nope. But can we, nope. Is this what you were telling Sophia when you were like, I have a medal for you, but it's not here yet?

Yes. These are the medals? Oh, my gosh. Those are the medals we were talking about. This was the principal's honor roll medal. This was the principal's honor roll medal. The principal's honor roll medal, yes. Now, okay, I spoke to a school funding expert, Marguerite Rosa, at Georgetown's McCourt School of Public Policy, who was kind of like, all right, so change the rules about how the money can be spent. But also, she said, you know, if the school really wanted to prioritize medals or field trips in their budget, they could, right? Because after

this district pays for all of this school's teacher salaries, the benefits, the building, the principal gets like $1,200 per kid, right? And of that, he technically has like $500 per kid that he could spend on field trips if he wanted to. That would be enough money to send the whole school on like 17 field trips. No fundraising from the PTA necessary. But that is not what this principal does. For me, my decision is, you know, very academic based. You know, what intervention do we need? Do we need to hire an intervention teacher?

Do we need to provide an after school tutoring? Yeah, George chooses to spend his budget on a teacher's aid for his students that are learning English, an attendance clerk, because many of the kids at the school have excessive absences. They miss a lot of school. So the clerk calls all the parents to be like, what's going on? Why is your kid absent? And the school funding expert does get why the principal chooses to prioritize his budget this way, because it is a lot easier to ask parents and the community

to pitch in for something like field trips and medals than it is to go around saying, don't you want to donate money to pay for the salary of our attendance clerk? The PTA could ask for that instead. But all kinds of schools fundraise for the fun school perks because it works. People like to give money for this kind of cause. So when George prioritizes his budget in this way, it's smart. It's tactical. One year and 10 fundraisers later, Villa Corte Elementary was just shy of their $20,000 goal. The sixth graders are the first to go on a field trip. I want to see sharks. I want to see a shark.

Like, shark petting area, I think. I saw that they had, like, the tiger shark. These are sixth graders Mia Bañuelos, Aurora Cardona, and Joshua Salcedo. They are on a bus headed to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. They might have hammerheads. About an hour later, they arrive. Please do not grab or scratch our animals. And they head straight for the sharks.

Did you touch it, Ellie? I'm scared. Why would you go for the head? It feels slimy and soft. So this is the sixth grade field trip. Ah, they're too deep. But there's still fundraising. They still need all of the other classes

to go on a field trip. Maria Lars' famous beach trip for the first graders still has to happen. I want to see more. The school's next fundraiser starts March 18th. They're selling peanut brittle, gummy bears, chocolate-covered popcorn. Having a kid in the United States is extremely expensive.

There's no paid parental leave, no real public daycare to speak of. But in lots of other countries, all of that is covered and more. So I am here to try to see if we can make a deal. I have babies. You have social support programs. Let's see what we can do. Yep, just come over. Move to Sweden immediately.

I mean, okay. Coming up, we are on a mission to learn what country offers the best support package for parents and why those packages even exist. We're going benefits shopping. That's next time on Planet Money. The kids you heard at the top of the show are Danielle Torres, Sofia Fabella, and Ray Aguilar. Today's show was produced by Sam Yellow Horse Kessler and edited by Jess Jang.

It was fact-checked by Sierra Juarez and engineered by Valentina Rodriguez-Sanchez. Alex Goldmark is our executive producer. Special thanks to Steve Drummond

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