Many clubs and organizations raise funds for activities and club led festivities, however, the last senior fundraiser did not go well, according to the senior class officers and their adviser, Heather Detwiler . Year after year, the class of 2016 has trended towards making less money in their fundraisers than the year before. The class officers for every class are responsible for choosing fundraisers to try and make profits for the senior class trip. Contrary to underclassmen belief, the funds do not go toward Prom or post-grad; strictly the class trip. Senior class officer, Hayley Swenski said, “It’s pretty hard to find a fundraiser. You have to factor in what people will actually buy, the percent of profits that we earn, and what all the other clubs are selling because we don’t want to sell the same things as them.” This fall, the senior class sold cookie dough and coffee. The rule was that if the student sold a certain number of items, they would be able to go on their class trip for free. Few students are now able to attend the trip for free, and less than 20 sold anything at all.

Many students have questioned if it would just be easier to ask students to pay for activities, rather than fundraise for them. The benefit of a fundraiser is that students are essentially getting two things for the price of one – the product that they buy in the fundraiser and the activity that they are fundraising for. However, Swenski says most fundraisers only make up to a maximum of 40% profit, so buying products that are not actually needed or wanted is less effective than paying out of pocket.

The goal of fundraising is to lower the cost of the activity. As more money is raised in the fundraiser, more students are able to attend the activity because of the cheapened price. Swenski said, “Fundraising is important because it helps to cut down the cost of our class trip so more people are able to go that wouldn’t have been able to for financial reasons. It’s better to fundraise because even though it may be more work, it’ll pay off for others who would not be able to go were it not for the money raised in the fundraiser.”