Coming up with a fair fundraising split

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My wife just received our end-of-year statement from the gym's booster club and she's a little upset. My daughter worked very hard on fundraising, being one of the top fundraisers each time there was an event. At our gym, everyone that reaches the minimum established for the fundraiser (i.e. selling 10 products) shares equally in the funds generated. My wife thinks that this creates a disincentive to raise funds beyond the minimum. In some respects, I think she has a valid point. It got me wondering about how other gyms work.

How does your gym do it?
 
There has been many posts about fundraising. I don't know too much but I think that the equal distribution is related to maintaining college eligibility.
 
I have never heard of a gym where the fundraising wasn't split equally. The idea of fundraising is to help your program and team. It is not a contest and shouldn't be thought of in terms of winning and losing. Some families just don't have the time or resources to fundraise a bunch while others do.

I mean this with all due respect but every post you put on here is a reminder that your daughter is the best, a champion. Now it's even being done with fundraising. If you teach your child that everything is about winning you are going to end up with a monster someday. Focus less on winning and more on humility.


And I am sorry for being harsh but I can only be quiet and ignore for so long.
 
Fundraising is a very complex legal issue and many of our members have strugled with it. All fundraising costs need to be split equal among those who participate.

If your dd was just fundraising for herself she would risk her eligibility. There have been some detailed posts on this topic if you search. Also some booster clubs post their fundraising distributions procedures online.
 
If your booster club is a non-profit, the proceeds need to benefit the team equally. It's not even ok to say, "if you sell x number of candy bars, you get an equal cut." Equal is equal. At our gym, we have two accounts... Individual, for-profit accounts (theoretically you need to pay taxes on money you earn through fundraising that goes into this account) and then a booster account, which is non-profit. Before every fundraiser, it is made clear whether money earned will go into the individual or team accounts. Yes, there are many many not-for-profit groups out there have individual accounts... If you sell $100 in candy bars $100 goes into your account... and most will never have a problem. But I think this kind of thing is starting to get cracked-down-upon more frequently and you REALLY don't want to end up with a gym booster group that is being told that you need to pay tens of thousands of dollars in fines and back-taxes.
 
Your post is off-topic and I'm trying very hard to avoid off-topic discussions. Since you are questioning my parenting, which is the driving force in my life, I'm going to respond to it.

The way I parent has to do with working hard and doing everything to the best of my children's ability. For the fundraising, my daughter made calls to everyone on both sides of the family herself to do the best she could at each fundraiser. Her gym recognized her fundraising efforts with a little treat (a popcicle if I remember correctly). She saw that her hard work paid off and she was happy. I don't try to parent my kids to do things to the middle. If they do something, I teach them to do it the best they can. Humility and high achievement are not mutually exclusive. Teaching a child to try to win at everything doesn't create a monster. It creates a strong personality. As a parent, I'm careful to temper the competetive mentality with teaching my kids to lose with grace and dignity. When my daughter gets beat in gymnastics, we have taught her to congratulate the person that beat her fair and square. The same with my three sons. My daughter has NEVER said an unkind word about a competitor in victory or defeat. That's not in her nature. I appreciate your viewpoint, but you're on the outside making unfair judgments based on a few internet posts. You would be LIVID if I said things like, "You are teaching your child to be weak-minded and average.", but you can get away with telling me that my child will be a "monster" someday. Shame on you.
 
To those who responded on-topic- thank you. I honestly never considered the NCAA eligibility issue. In fact, it's far from my mind as my daughter gets ready for Level 4. I'm glad that people with knowledge and foresight keep ignorant newbies (like me) from making decisions that could alter their gymnast's college future.
 
Always so neat to see questions I never even would have thought of answered by the knowledgeable members of this board. I just wanted to pipe in to encourage you and your wife to try to brainstorm ways to encourage more participation in fundraisers despite the even split requirement (although we are in the same area and knowing your gym, I am surprised there is anyone there that doesn't participate with 110% enthusiasm, although seeing as how I have felt that way about every school we have attended as well, perhaps I shouldn't be.) If you are feeling annoyed by the unequal participation/benefit ratio, chances are that there are others who feel the same way and by taking a proactive stance you could be preventing some drama/unnecessary hard feelings within the group.
 
Okay, I apologize for off topic here, but momnipotent, I just have to say I love your username! I think it is the best one I've ever seen!


Back to topic- Fundraisers often are split equally, but I have seen many ways that organizations recognize top sellers with incentives which can be an option. Our PTA always has prizes and rewards for top sellers of their fundraisers. Also you can do "group" incentives like the level or team group that sells the most has a pizza party after practice, etc.
 
Team fundraising is for the team as a whole, and its purpose is to lower costs for everybody. My family participates a lot in fundraisers even though we don't have a problem paying because we want to make it easier for kids who wouldn't otherwise be able to do gymnastics. One of the best gymnasts from our gym would definitely have not been able to do it without help from our booster club, and losing that talent would have been a shame. If you want to do your own fundraising on your own time, that's fine. One of the gym mothers at my gym did some arts-n-crafts sales to pay for her daughter's gymnastics.
 
When dealing with fundraisers and booster clubs I personally would encourage group fundraising activities instead of individuals sales. Anything that can be done as a team encourages the friendship among the athletes and their parents and a sense of teamwork. There is so much individual competition in gym I would not want to extend it to fundraising. Also, as a nonparent, I hate getting those guilt inducing phone calls to "everyone on both sides of the family". To me thats not sales or fundraising its just begging. If someone wants or needs help paying for their child's sports, music, school, mission activities just ask for help directly instead of giving a cut to a fundrasining company. Parents please do not take your child's form to work, how can an employee say not to the boss or someone else who can be influencial in a career.


On The Other Hand, if it is a group activity and a legitimate service or useful item is being provided that I can get some value out of, even if I am paying extra, then great. I can choose to participate or not with minimal guilt. So sell your cookies at a table outside if a store, host a leo sale, flower sale, bake sale etc.
 
first, do you know if your bc is non-profit? If it is not then there are no tax rules for how the money needs to be split. However, you have to be careful about how the money is taken in (not in your dd's name) and distributed. I doubt it's an issue at the lower levels but as you get in the high school range, the NCAA will look at where funds are coming from to pay for gymnastics.

If it's a non-profit, then there are a whole set of rules that govern how money can be distributed. non-profits break these rules all the time, like requiring membership in the bc, requiring a yearly fee, requiring a certain amount of hours, and distributing the money unevenly. Most will never get caught but if they do, they will wish they followed the rules because interest and penalties add up mighty quick.... There are several websites outlining dos and don'ts. just google non-profit booster club.

Now, evenly does not mean exactly what you think it does. Some bc's distribute the money totally evenly into "accounts" for the parents to use how they need, which is fine as long as it doesn't actually go to the parents in real life. Others are set up in a way that they will pay for particular things - for example leos and meet fees. Well, if a child doesn't need a leo that year, then her distribution will be less. Or girls who make it to regionals will have a higher distribution due to the meet fees.

As far as you raising more money than others - this is certainly be a problem in most bc's. All I can say is that often the folks who don't raise as much money are helping out in other ways, like organizing the fundraisers or being a part of the bc board. These jobs are just as important as the one of raising the money. And yes, there will always be those who just don't participate but reap the benefits anyway...
 
gtm- that off-topic comment is welcome. I've told her the same thing. Best screen-name on CB, IMO. On topic- I love the idea of the pizza party. That encourages hard work and builds team unity if they come together as a team in their level. Thanks for the suggestion.

momnipotent, I personally don't have a problem with it (like I said, I'm really all-in on anything I do- even with being on any team personally and with my kids), but my wife has valid points. I guess, rather than questioning the process, it would be better to jump all-in and lead from the front, encouraging others to come along. I guess my view is that this sport is brutally expensive and that hard work on fundraising can help to offset a lot of that cost.

MtR- that leads to your comment. I guess having a side business is a great idea. Though it requires a business license and all the things that come with that, it would really work for those who want to reap personal reward for a different type of "fundraising". That leads to another question, though. Even if it is a legitimate business where taxes are paid and valid licenses are maintained, does marketing it as a way to pay for gym-related expenses cause a problem with later eligibility?
 
I'm not sure if her business was truly a business...it was mostly just selling homemade accessories and bake sales. I do know she got permission to sell stuff at a meet. Eligibility was not an issue for her daughter.
 
I think it goes to your booster club's eligibility as a non profit as MaryA said. Every non profit I've been involved with has a rule like this.
 
It's about maintaining not for profit status. If you relate financial benefits back to contributions (either direct payments or fundraising work), then you're not eligible for being a 501c3. If you relate benefits to gymnastics level, ability or performance, you're fine.

There are several IRS case studies that relate specifically to gymnastics booster clubs and athletic booster clubs. They outline a lot of this stuff.
 
At our gym when my daughter sells something to fund raise for her individual account all the money she raises goes towards her. So if she sold 10 of something she would get the profit from 10 items, while a person who sold 20 would get the profit from 20. Does that make sense? I have no idea of the legal issues, that is just the way our gym does it. There are also general fundraisers that benefit the booster club in general, but none of that money raised ever goes directly to my child. The money we raise toward her individual acct can not be used to cover tuition, but can be used for meet fees, leos, etc.
 
Our gym does the "we want every gymnast to sell at least X amount" and if you don't then you can do a "buy out" for that amount. I usually opt for the buy out as there are just soooooo many fundraisers for so many things my kids are in that I can't keep going back to friends and family every few weeks with yet another fundraiser. The Owners of the gym do these fundraisers for us not the boosters. The do give a "for every item you sell you will get 50 cents into your account" but we know what that split is right at the start. Sometimes if its at a booth type fundraiser then instead of per item the split is the time given is the determining factor so those that are there at the slow times get the same split as those there at the busy times. so a Per hour rate is determined and everyone gets so much for the time they give.

As far as the "split" goes - if its the boosters doing the fundraising our funds don't go into the individual gymnasts' "accounts" because with boosters they don't exist at all. So the money earned goes into the general fund and is used to pay for things for everyone according to a preplanned budget that is developed at the begining of the year. So if an expense for the team is $2000 for whatever (meets, clinics, fun events etc) then it might be decided to put $ 500 towards those total costs to reduce the total amount of the "gymnast participating" in that event by $X amount.

Boosters should be raising funds for specific things not giving cuts to the individual gymnasts.

Working with the gym owner to see what his/her expenses are and what they hope we could pay for
A budget might be something like this

Paying for gym bags for all gymnasts $1000
Paying for State meet fees for all qualifying gymnasts ($1000)
Paying for Christmas Pizza Party for team $1000
Paying for a portion of the cost of new Leos (or what ever) $1000 towards bill.
End of the year banquet and recognitions $$1000
Any "extra" funds to be carried over to the next season
 
Now, evenly does not mean exactly what you think it does. Some bc's distribute the money totally evenly into "accounts" for the parents to use how they need, which is fine as long as it doesn't actually go to the parents in real life. Others are set up in a way that they will pay for particular things - for example leos and meet fees. Well, if a child doesn't need a leo that year, then her distribution will be less. Or girls who make it to regionals will have a higher distribution due to the meet fees.

As far as you raising more money than others - this is certainly be a problem in most bc's. All I can say is that often the folks who don't raise as much money are helping out in other ways, like organizing the fundraisers or being a part of the bc board. These jobs are just as important as the one of raising the money. And yes, there will always be those who just don't participate but reap the benefits anyway...

Gym Gal this is so true

Also keep in mind that younger "cute" gymnast usually can sell just about anything because they are just so darn cute where the older girls well they may be beautiful but it doesn't pull at the heart strings like a toothless 6yo smiling at you saying can you buy my cookies.

those who are running things put ALOT of hours in to organize things and get things set up- sometimes months and months of research as to what fundraiser will be best, the how to get things organized, who is going to do what and so on. that time too is just as valuable as selling the actual items. Without that effort into makeing a fundraiser happen there wouldn't be an opportunity for a gymnast to even do the fundraisers.

It's also hard to keep going back to family and friends evertime there is a fundraiser.

this year alone lets see what our family has been asked to fundraise for and all with minimums per kid and not per family

School (2 kids ) - Candy Bars, Magazines, cookie dough, and raffle tickets
Gym (1 kid) - Pancake breakfast tickets, Candy, Raffle calendar, Candles, and going to beg for money with can in hand at local stores, cookie dough
Scouts (2 kids) - Pancake breakfast and Pasta dinner tickets, Popcorn sales, candy, cookies, magazines

I have 2 kids and just about every fundraiser doesn't do X amount per family but X amount per kid. Also some folks have smaller circle of friends and family and I know i won't let my kids do the door to door sales at all to strangers. I think everyone does what they can and just like me have to pick and choose which fundraisers we will actually push with our families and which we will give time to help organize.

What I don't like is when there are families that don't give their time to help organize AND don't sell product at all. Never participate in any way at all but still benifit from the fundraisers.
 

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