fundraising

When Law Enforcement Got Involved in My Fundraiser

Leave a Comment / Fundraising, Personal experience, Sales and Marketing /

It was in one of my early years of fundraising on my own. I was working with an area elementary school and using a program that included chocolates manufactured in Wisconsin. The order taking and product delivery went fine. It was a day or two after I delivered the student-packaged orders that I took a tense call from the principal. 

[Mr. S] was a hard man to work with. When I started in fundraising, he was one of the many loyal customers of a long-entrenched and very successful competitor. I kept calling on him, however, and when things started changing with the company and rep he had been using, he asked me to stop by. I was probably one of the few who kept calling on him, so persistence paid in this case.

The phone call was that we had a problem and I needed to come to the school immediately. I did.

Someone [suspect] had called the school saying he bit into a chocolate and found a staple inside. Mr. S was ready to put the word out to return all the product and notify the newspaper. That would have been devastating to my young business and the fall out from something like that could ruin me. I would have had to pay for the product and the school’s profit loss from the returned product.

While I was sitting at his desk, I called the candy vendor and asked for the highest-ranking person I knew. I was told, “He’s in a meeting.” I think I used the words potential injury and lawsuit in the same sentence when I demanded they get him out of his meeting. They did. 

When I explained the situation, he said I would get another call momentarily. 

That call was from the in-house corporate attorney, who, as it turned out, had partial ownership in the company. He was terrific as he had been through stuff like this before and kept Mr. S and me informed and one step ahead of the situation all the way through. 

He explained to us the near impossibility of such a happening — that there are multiple metal detectors on each candy line, including one at the very end. He mentioned that staplers are not allowed in the candy rooms and that the detectors are mostly for any potential metal fragments from the machinery itself. 

From the product shipment and candy type, he was able to get a report of the manufacturing process on that line for that day and there had been no problem. 

He wanted us to call the person making the complaint and find out:

  1. Is he ok? (Yes)
  2. Was he injured? (No)
  3. Did he go to a doctor? (No)

We suggested he go to the doctor. (Would not)

  1. Where was he when he bit into the chocolate….including a detailed description of what happened?
    He was in a band rehearsal at a local golf club. Claimed he opened a box of caramel pecan chocolates and shared them with his friends. 
  2. Did anyone else find a staple in their chocolate? (No)
  3. Did he still have the piece of candy with the staple in it? (Yes — instructed to bring it to the school).

The lawyer advised me to go to the golf club rehearsal area to look for staples. Mr. S went with me. Not surprising for a reception room, there were staples on every post from where banners and streamers had been hung. We pulled a few from different areas and of differing varieties and sent those, as well as our “damaged” chocolate, NDA to Wisconsin. 

At this point, he told us his suspicion and advised how to proceed. The purpose of the “are you hurt” and “did you go to the doctor” questions would prevent the guy from claiming harm later. Collecting staples, including the one in the piece of chocolate, would enable analysis to determine several things. 

After the staples were analyzed, the lawyer called and confirmed that:

  1. Even though there are already no staplers in the candy making facility, none of the staples matched the types of staplers they had in the office areas.
  2. The staple in the piece of chocolate was a match to some of the staples we sent, meaning it came from the golf course and not the chocolate maker.

I was to call the man and ask what I could do to make it right for him, i.e. free chocolate and/or his money back. And, the manufacturer would pay for a trip to the doctor to have everything checked out. He refused to do that. 

The lawyer said,

“As soon as anything comes out of his mouth that sounds like he wants anything more than that — tell him he will hear next from the corporate attorney, who has already been in touch with federal authorities…and hang up immediately.”

Federal authorities were involved because of the multiple states involved.

During the conversation, in response to my asking how to make it right, the suspect said….

“A big screen TV would be good.”

Boom.

By this time Mr. S was convinced this was not a staple in the candy issue and was extremely appreciative of the way both I and the attorney handled the situation. 

The attorney told us that we would hear back from someone about resolution within a day. 

It was just a couple hours. 

The next call I got was from a man who identified himself as a federal agent. He confirmed that this was fraud and extortion and asked if we wanted to press charges. 

No. The negative publicity would still have been harmful and the type of attention that could encourage school officials to ban product fundraising. 

The case was closed. And I did earn additional business at that school and with that principal. 

All of this happened over a two day period with the second day only because of the transport time to get the staples to Wisconsin for immediate analysis. 

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The only time I was ever asked for a kickback

Leave a Comment / Fundraising, High Schools, Personal experience, Respect, Sales and Marketing, Selling in the Schoolhouse, Work from Home /

I was working for the national fundraising company and in my first few years as a full-time product fundraiser. I spent most of my time calling on larger groups such as total elementary and middle schools, bands, choirs, leagues.

It was a time when you could still walk into an elementary school, go to the office and ask the secretary if you can see the principal — and have at least some chance that you might. No security cameras, buzzing in, showing id and such. 

It was almost always okay to leave product samples. I would often leave something in the office for the secretary because everyone knows secretaries know everything about what is going on and have the power to get you (or prevent you from) the decision-makers. When I had chocolates available, those were especially appreciated. Principals and group decision-makers would usually accept chocolate samples. 

Other gifts were sometimes problematic. There was a choir director I had worked with for several years. At the time, I was working with a prize vendor who offered novelty phones (land-line, of course). I especially liked the coke phone as a student/seller prize. But I wanted to give this director a piano phone and he wouldn’t accept it — until he was in his last year ready to retire. It wasn’t a matter of “buying” his business (the phone cost @$20) but of genuinely showing appreciation to a long-loyal customer. 

Samples and small gifts were one thing. This story is about something else. I am not including the name of the town, school corporation, school, or individual. I want to emphasize that school teachers, sponsors and administrators are overwhelmingly highly-ethical people with a real desire to help students.

This visit was at a medium-sized elementary school with a principal I had yet to meet. He invited me into his office, closed the door, and sat behind his desk. He was an older guy who appeared to have put in enough time to retire. 

I was immediately shocked when he started telling me how he hated children, hated his faculty and staff….and, well, everything about his job. As a former teacher, I was simultaneously uncomfortable and angry as he continued. But then it got worse.

After what was supposed to be ice-breaking information gathering prior to giving me details to include or address in my “sales presentation”, he asked me a bizarre question that caught me totally off guard;

“If I sign up to do a fundraiser with you, what is in it for me?”

He couldn’t be asking what I thought he was, and I didn’t want to assume, so I implemented my excellent sales training by asking questions.

“You mean what is in it for your school? [Immediately continuing]….your school should earn about $xxx which will help fund some of the needs you already mentioned.”

“Well, yes…..but what about ME? This is going to be a sizable sale with a good amount of commission for you and I want to know what you would provide me in appreciation.”

At that point, I started putting my materials away, stood up, thanked him for his time, and told him I couldn’t work with him. 

As I made my way to open the office door, he mentioned something about confidentiality, and when I glanced back his facial expression was something in between anger and fear. 

I never went back. 

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BYODT or How Much Tape Does It Take to Stick a Director to the Wall?

Leave a Comment / Assistant Directing, Fundraising, High Schools, Music Department, Personal experience, Teaching /

There was a fun “Prize Program” that went with our Candle Sale for the band. Yes, it was one of MY (Priority Fund Raising) sales. Here was the prize description at the bottom of the letter (highlight added).

AT THE ICE CREAM PARTY

CA$H BA$H

Tape the Directors to the Wall (BYODT)

Ice Cream – All You Can Eat

Variety of Door Prizes

Pig Races (Names drawn)

FUN…FUN…FUN

 ICE CREAM PARTY for ALL who sell $100+

The Ice Cream Party was for all who sold over $100. There were about 50 people who qualified. The challenge was to eat all the ice cream, with the guarantee that if all the ice cream was gone, we would reschedule and do it again. NOTE: They didn’t eat all the ice cream. 

BUT there would be other fun that only those at the party would experience.

  • CA$H BA$H was a cash give away. Students would draw tickets for amounts of cash ranging from $1 to $50. 
  • DOOR PRIZES were random prize items I brought from my warehouse.
  • PIG RACES will need to be another story, but they were battery operated pigs that wriggled and grunted, or walked forward. There was zero control. Names were drawn for participants. Winners got cash or door prizes.
  • BYODT (Bring Your Own Duck Tape) was to be a highlight. Here’s how that went down…….

The students placed two chairs against the back wall in the band room; for Mr. Campbell and myself. And then, they had plenty of time to tape us to the wall with what they brought for the occasion

Obviously, I would require more tape. 

When they finished, they gently removed Mr. Campbell’s chair from under him. He slowly slid down to the floor. So they all went about adding more tape to me.

Then….

…instead of gradually pulling out the chair, it was kicked out from under me, the way you might do if you were hanging someone…. 

It was such a violent (relatively speaking) maneuver that it pulled me away from the wall and I went crashing to the floor. I landed hard and, yes, it hurt……but the kids were laughing so hard I covered it up and laughed along with them. 

And yes, they did help remove the tape from me and the wall. 

BYODT or How Much Tape Does It Take to Stick a Director to the Wall? Read More »

Pig races! What and why?

Fundraising, Personal experience, Repost /

It is prize day at the end of a product fundraising project and part of the project includes pig races.

The pigs randomly walk and wiggle or stop and oink. Winners usually determined by battery strength. Students could earn their spot in the pig races based on a sales level. Winners received small cash (or other) prizes. What they almost always wanted, and sometimes received — was their winning pig.

Pig races! What and why? Read More »