Parents What do you think of this fundraising?

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RileyG

Proud Parent
The gym gave out fundraising packets to everyone......not just team butvrec classes also, to participate in fundraising for new equipment. This is a gym club that is for profit, owned by a private person. It just seems wrong to ask your customers to fundraise for new equipment. Isnt that what we pay tuition for? The costs of the business should come from that right?
 
no. do it this way, or, you pay thru a tuition increase or an equipment fee. fund-raise now or pay later. that's all.
 
This is a gym club that is for profit, owned by a private person. It just seems wrong to ask your customers to fundraise for new equipment. Isnt that what we pay tuition for? The costs of the business should come from that right?

What Dunno said. However the new equipment is paid for, it will be paid for by the customers. So they either need to put tuition fees up, or fundraise.

I know you say it's a "for profit" gym, but as far as I can tell in most cases "profits" go to paying staff, rent, heating, lighting, repairs etc. There's not much left over to pay big expenses like new equipment.
 
A gym is just like any other business. If you're not charging or attracting enough customers to pay for regular business expenses(i.e. equipment, payroll, rent) then you're not running a sustainable business.

The only fundraising that should be happening is through a non-profit booster to help cover the expenses of team.
 
While I respect the previous posters, I find this a bit weird and not something I can say is commonly done. I don't know if it's WRONG per se, just that I would be a little taken aback.
 
Well, the gym DD is at is small, and doesn't have cash reserves to pay big amounts for occasional new equipment purchases. Mats and springboards are one thing, but large equipment is a lot more difficult for a small gym to buy, especially one that does not have access to used or demo stuff at a better price. Let's not even talk about shipping to Barbados! So yes, we do need to fundraise for big stuff like that. And since rec and team both use the equipment, it is usually an event that involves both.
 
I am pretty sure that a booster club isn't allowed to pay for equipment. I guess that a "for profit" gym can do fundraising, though I would think they'd have to pay taxes on that income, and the donors wouldn't be able to write of their donation, and I don't think they could "require" anyone to participate.
 
I am pretty sure that a booster club isn't allowed to pay for equipment. I guess that a "for profit" gym can do fundraising, though I would think they'd have to pay taxes on that income, and the donors wouldn't be able to write of their donation, and I don't think they could "require" anyone to participate.

A non profit booster can't buy equipment but a for profit booster can. Any money raised for the gym would be off set by the cost of the equipment, presumably, so there should not be any tax burden unless there was a significant amount left over. And yes, you are right that the donations are not tax deductible for the donors, though if done correctly, they can be tax deductible for businesses through advertisement expenses. For profit gyms and for profit boosters can require participation, though that would not sit well with many families. Personally, I would much prefer the gym find its own way to raise revenues for equipment costs, including raising tuition if need be, rather than force participation in fundraising. (I realize forced participation was not part of the Ops comments. I am just throwing that out there based on above comments)
 
you guys have this all wrong. stop now, please. :)
 
^ lol. It sounds like its an optional fundraiser, right? Do it if you want to, don't if you don't. Jsyk, equipment is EXPENSIVE (a simple folding mat can run $150--so just imagine what bigger equipment can cost). Props to your gym for trying to find an alternate way to get some new equipment other than raising tuition prices.
 
you guys have this all wrong. stop now, please. :)
Which guys and which parts are wrong? My info came from 2 accountants and a tax attorney in addition to hours of research when we were looking into it a while back. Pretty sure my info is correct. ;-)
 
Just out of curiosity, what kind of fundraising? It seems like you are trying to raise quite a bit of money. Surely you aren't trying to raise that much by selling candles and pizza kits!

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A gym is just like any other business. If you're not charging or attracting enough customers to pay for regular business expenses(i.e. equipment, payroll, rent) then you're not running a sustainable business.

The only fundraising that should be happening is through a non-profit booster to help cover the expenses of team.

this is my take on it too. I don't know. they did a guilt trip too............" If everyone only does x amount we will make our goal"
I know either way we will pay.
 
I would rather fund raise then pay higher tuition. Our gym is small and for profit and we fundraise all the time. No booster club at our gym so we can't do the fundraisers that are just for non-profits. As an accountant just to clear things up anyone can do fundraising not just non porfits. The difference - for profit have to claim it as taxable income and those that give can't deduct it as a donation to a charity. At our gym too I like the fact that we don't have the booster club and the owner basicly runs some things like a booster would like fundraisers. For the fundraisers we get any where from 1/3 to 1/2 the net profit into our child's "account" so if we raise $100 then $50 goes into the gyms account and $50 goes into my account to pay the bill for tuition, meets etc. There is a "buy out" too for those that don't want to fundraise so you can either pay the buy out (think of it as an increase in tuition) our do the fundraising.
 
I think fundraising is out of control. Between school, girl scouts and gymnastics booster club I had 3 things per kid (6 sales) to hit up my friends/family/co-workers to buy in the first month of school. After the second gym fundraiser, I stopped selling. I just could keep asking people to buy over-priced stuff to fund my child’s activity. Our booster club hosted a meet for which I happily volunteered time and items to support the success of the meet. The club made probably 5X the amount they did on all the other fundraisers combined. I would happily support other like fundraising activities that don’t involve asking others to subsidize my family.

If my gym asked for fundraising for equipment needed for day to day operations, I would not be happy. I own a business too and understand what it takes to make a profit. My gym is a for-profit business and their services should be priced to: cover expenses (long and short-term) and make a profit. It’s a basic business principle, if revenues don’t cover expenses, then they need to be increased or expenses in other areas need to be cut.
 
I understand you're going to have to pay somehow, but this wouldn't really sit well w/me. Our gym has no booster club and parents do no fundraising. We host a large invitational each year, and the gym uses that money for large equipment puchases.
 
and that's usually how it is done. ^^^:)

So why your previous posts in this thread? I really don't understand the assertion that everyone else was "wrong." What I said is true in my area. Gyms don't usually "fund raise" for equipment for the gym (what I would call fund raising anyway) and I'm not even sure how they would go about that as a for profit business. Perhaps in other areas of the country this is extremely common but I have active on various gymnastics forums for years and have never gotten that feeling. Unless there is something like a natural disaster or fire that ruins much of the gym equipment.
 
The gym gave out fundraising packets to everyone......not just team butvrec classes also, to participate in fundraising for new equipment. This is a gym club that is for profit, owned by a private person. It just seems wrong to ask your customers to fundraise for new equipment. Isnt that what we pay tuition for? The costs of the business should come from that right?

You sound just like my husband!! This drives him crazy! We own a business and his thoughts are that we don't ask our customers to come paint, clean or buy our ovens lol ... I keep explaining to him all gyms do this, but he just doesn't get it!!
 
well I don't know what needs to be bought and how high the tuition is but considering the prices of equipment HERE you could not pay for it by tuition alone…like an official set of mats for under the beam is a 5 digit number of Euros ….a new beam is about 2500 Euros …just saying :)
 

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