St. Joseph School in Mechanicsburg generates about $75,000 a year about 20 percent of its general budget - through student fund raisers. About $15,000 of that comes from the school's annual Wolfgang Candy Co. Inc. catalog sale.
"We like to try to keep tuition as affordable as humanly possible. To do that, we really depend on fund raisers," said Dolores Kauffman, St. Joseph's director of development. She noted the school's dependence on fund raising has increased with the rising costs of teachers' salaries and benefits.
Other schools follow St. Joseph's blueprint. Student fund raisers - in which children typically are asked to sell items such as candy or candles from a catalog - commonly pay for items no longer covered by school budgets. Those can include everything from computers to field trips to music programs.
Representatives of two local companies said that while more schools are turning to fund raisers, fewer parents and children are participating.
Mike Schmid, a managing partner with Wolfgang, has noticed a decline in sales in recent years. More schools have a problem filling their parent volunteer positions, and fewer students are willing to sell, he said.
"The (Parent Teacher Organizations) have to beg and plead to get help," Schmid said. "And the children are so busy. Every organization Johnny is in has a fund raiser. Mom and Dad are tired of it. They only have so much time and money."
A few years ago, up to 40 percent of the students in any given school could be counted on to sell a significant amount of items for a fund raiser. As students' lives have become busier, Schmid estimated that number has dropped to about 25 percent.
"Fund-raising sales are declining, but I think that's indicative of the fund-raising market in general," he said.
About 65 percent of Wolfgang's business comes from the school fundraising catalogs, and it remains a major portion of the company's focus. Schmid declined to state the privately held company's sales figures.
In the past 18 months, Wolfgang started to diversify its business by moving its products into supermarkets and pushing for more contracts with major candy companies. The North York company was founded in 1921 and manufactures 120 products, such as boxed chocolates and peanut butter marshmallow treats.
Bill Sheehan, owner of Quality Wholesale Fundraising, KidSmart Holiday Shoppes and the Party Outlet, also has noticed a decline in fund-raising participation, especially among parents. The 5 percent decrease he has seen in student sales has not drastically affected his bottom line.
"Student sales are lower but not alarmingly lower," Sheehan said. He attributed the decrease to a national downward trend in volunteerism. "It's so easy to say, 'I'm too busy."'
Sheehan, who reported $3.2 million in sales in 2004, already has diversified his companies. About half of his revenue comes from his KidSmart Holiday Shoppes, which sell knickknacks - ranging from 25 cents to $8 for children to purchase as gifts before the winter holidays. About 600 schools in 44 states purchase items from KidSmart.
Quality Wholesale Fundraising, offers several catalogs to schools in Pennsylvania and surrounding states. Sheehan's Party Outlet store, which he operates in the front of his Civil War-era warehouse, is a small part of his business.
"I didn't want to put all my eggs in one basket. Then, if something happened to the school fund-raising industry, I'd be in trouble," Sheehan said.
Both Sheehan and Schmid said more schools are turning to fund raising to generate revenue.
According to a survey by the Association of Fund-Raising Distributors & Suppliers, product fundraising programs raise nearly $2 billion each year for schools, school groups and other nonprofits. Schools and school groups account for 88 percent of that $2 billion.
Students at Harrisburg Academy recently raised enough money for a night of snow tubing and to place several heart defibrillators throughout the building.
The Wormleysburg-based academy's Parent Association earns between $6,000 and $9,000 each fall when students sell items from the Sally Foster catalog, which features chocolate, gifts and wrapping paper.
This year, Bethel Christian Academy in South Middleton Township raised about $12,000 in an annual fund raiser using Sheehan's catalogs. That was enough for 1,000 new library books and some shelves and cafeteria tables.
One of the keys to school fund raising is convincing the parent volunteers that they will make the money they need for whatever school project they have.
"PTO Mom is the gatekeeper to our customer base," Schmid said. "She is the one who decides if we're going to serve the clients in her area.
One of the challenges is that schools' parent teacher organizations have new leaders each year, and companies like Wolfgang and Quality Wholesale have to reestablish relationships with the new members again and again.
Sheehan also believes customer satisfaction is the key to his repeat business.
"You can't give schools a canned presentation. Every PTA has a different personality, and you have to figure out what their needs are and how you're going to help them meet those needs," Sheehan said.
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