A study of fund raising activities in public elementary and middle/junior high schools in East Tennessee

The basis for the study findings was drawn from data obtained via telephone interviews and written questionnaires sent to K-9 school principals and fund raising companies in East Tennessee. The study groups consisted of 227 school principals and 38 companies offering fund raising opportunities to the schools of these principals.

The findings show that 99 percent of the responding school principals are conducting fund raising activities. These activities produced an average income of $4,597.63 per school and the total teacher hours worked per project was 139.6. Students earned an average of $.64 per hour without considering the fixed cost of teacher labor and $.12 per hour after deducting the cost of teacher labor.

Eighty-three percent of the school principals surveyed indicated that school regulations pertaining to fund raising existed within their school district. School principals are involved in 90 percent of the decisions which involve the selection of a fund raising product and how the proceeds will be spent.

The following conclusions were drawn from the study:

1. It appears that school systems are not efficiently utilizing their labor resources to address basic instruction, but rather have gone to high expenditures of time for fund raising activities in order to cope with an inadequate tax base. This indicates that schools are in a serious financial crisis for they are resorting to short-term solutions (i.e., fund raising projects) for complex funding problems.

It also appears that some school activities have been identified as fund raising projects, but are also designed for other purposes such as social interaction (e.g., spaghetti suppers) or educational outreach (e.g., talent shows). Perhaps, a factor which explains the abysmal return on fixed teacher labor cost and student hours is that a clear distinction between what constitutes a fund raising project and what is a highly labor intensive educational outreach program does not exist.

2. When all factors are taken into consideration relative to fund raising activities, including student and teacher time, the great majority of fund raising projects in schools are not cost effective.

3. The cost effectiveness of fund raising projects can be improved by increasing the efficiency of time teachers and students spend in working in these activities.

4. Fund raising projects are not conducted as an integral part of a comprehensive planned financial campaign to raise money.

5. Schools select fund raising projects and decide how the derived money is to be allocated on the basis of administrative decisions usually made by the school principal with little participatory decision-making as it pertains to project selection and the use of derived money.