Fundraising Green's School Wellness Presentation

Today was truly amazing at the School Wellness Conference in Anaheim California. We presented to a packed house of people in the same boat as we were: looking for a new and better way to raise money for schools without using food and toys as as products for sale or incentives.

We thought you would enjoy our take on the Fundraising Industry and where we think it needs to change. We were also lucky enough to present our fundraising philosophy and our new product - myGreenSpark Redemption Book - it's an educational guide to Green living with hundreds of coupons to match and do what you are learning. Thanks Naomi!

Fundraising for Schools - A “Stuck” Industry:

· Today’s top fundraising companies are exploiting our children:

By playing on their naiveties, using the promise of candy and prizes to prey on their emotions, while training the kids to be a sales force. Pledges are taken by students in school assemblies that turn into pep rallies for candy and prizes.

· The lowest common denominator:

Connecting candy, toys, emotion. Rewarding children with junk food.

Industry conventions that are problems:
· Selling junk food and products that promote it
· Kids’ products that are heavily branded with corporate logos (free t-shirts with Coke logo)
· Buckets of gummy worms and chocolate
· Tubs of cookie dough
· Make it at home pizza kits
· Discount cards with fast food and ice cream places
· Tie-ins like McDonald’s coupons in soccer picture packages

· The overuse of raw paper products (Including Wrapping Paper)
· Wrapping paper / Gift bags
· Expensive glossy catalogs, order forms, flyers
· Coupon books that are distributed as samples and thrown away by company

· Selling disposable plastics-based products
· Items made in China, bought for pennies, sold at huge markup, lack of safety standards, supporting sweatshops, creates pollution by shipping items so far, poorly made gifts that last 1 year, end up in landfill, aren’t biodegradable
· Six times as much plastic per weight than zooplankton is in any given amount of sea water taken from the middle of the Pacific Ocean
· Plastics don't biodegrade, but in the ocean they do break down from exposure to sunlight and wave action into "micro-plastic debris"--what one scientist describes as "plastic powder
· There is a garbage patch the size of Texas floating in the North Pacific

· Marketing “Conspicuous Consumption” to kids
· A prize that is a Portable stereo with a Hummer grill front
· Using disposable plastics-based prizes (Happy Meal Toys)
· Idea that everyone who participates must get something
· Kids clamor for superballs , key chains, containers of slime, things that will end up in the trash in 2 weeks – the industry feeds off of this
· Junk food based prizes
· Coupons for McDonalds, Ice Cream, candy giveaways
· A Limo to Baskin Robbins? Yes!

Problems that Contribute to or Result In:
· Childhood Obesity and Diabetes
· The Plastics-plague, Deforestation and Toxic Landfill problems
· The wrong message for our children