Fund-raising students succeed with gift wrap
Assumption-St. Bridget is practically a Sally Foster shrine, where kids this year sold nearly $120,000 worth of gift wrap and more, making the Bryant neighborhood school the No. 3 seller of Sally Foster products in the nation.
Chances are you've been propositioned with gift wrap, chocolate or cookies before: Fund-raiser product sales netted U.S. schools and nonprofits $1.9 billion in 2001, according to the national Association of Fund-Raising Distributors and Suppliers, and gift wrap is among the most popular.
And among the many vendors, Sally Foster Inc. may be the most intriguing — coy about finances, aggressive in the marketplace and owner of a name that begs the question, "Is she real?" (She is. And in her 60s now, thank you.)
Assumption-St. Bridget (ASB), a K-8 Catholic school, has sold Sally Foster since 1988, when it raised $1,500; last year's net was $55,000, while this year's should exceed $60,000. Schools typically reap half the profits.
"I think people are wallpapering their walls with this," says development director Diane Kocer.
The school has used its muscle — everything is negotiable — to earn perks most schools don't get, including first shot at Sally Foster catalogs and order forms.
ASB's gift-wrap proceeds pay for financial aid and instruction, a nice motivator for parents who might otherwise dread product-pitching in the workplace. Let co-workers cringe; when it comes to workplace sales, co-chair Pelly says, "it's a little bit tit-for-tat."
"We support their children," adds co-chair Suver.
"Sally rally" pep talks
Gift-wrap fund-raisers usually start the school year; Sally Foster schools hold kickoff assemblies, or "Sally rallies." Every year, Seattle's Lowell Elementary wraps a staff member in gift wrap and lets kids guess who it is.
Mini-entrepreneurs divide up streets en route to company prizes like puzzle pens, calculators and rarely attained touch-screen telephones. Younger kids look cute while parents do the talking.
Sales territory can be stubborn: Lowell kids hitting up one administrator found she'd already committed to buying from a niece at another school. And when Carla Tachau Lawrence, Lowell's campaign co-chair, solicited out-of-state pals, the "sorry, my kid's already selling" replies poured in.
Schools mourn the passing of profitable pupils; at tiny Concordia Lutheran in Wedgwood, which raises about $4,000 a year, "We did have one family in particular that always sold a lot of things," coordinator Pam Knepper says wistfully. "Unfortunately, [their son] did graduate last year."
Sally Foster loyalists praise the paper's thickness and colors despite a seemingly steep price — $7.50 to $8.50 for 20 to 40 square feet, depending on the pattern. A standard, nonseasonal wrapping-paper roll at Bartell's runs about $3 for 15 square feet.
For ASB students, the most-popular sales incentive is a free-dress day, when they can wear what they want. (If you think that sounds lame, you've probably never worn a private-school uniform.) Another choice prize is the chance to stick a hand into a bucketful of candy and grab as much as possible.
Should ASB's 535 students beat this year's goal of $118,000 — tallying should conclude this weekend — they'll earn themselves an extra half-day off before Thanksgiving, plus a schoolwide pizza party and a free-dress Friday.
Lisa Bond, president of the Seattle Council Parent-Teacher-Student Association, says the national PTA discourages "exploiting" students for fund-raising purposes. In other words, proceeds should go toward class field trips, for example, not playground equipment.
She knows schools do it anyway; her two sons are currently hawking competing brands of gift wrap to support their schools. She advises PTSAs to know their limits and adds that it's the public's responsibility, not just those buying gift wrap and chocolates, to pay for education.
$200,000 in Texas
Entertainment Publications, producers of the Entertainment Book, bought Sally Foster Inc. in 1992. The company won't say how many schools account for its $100 million-plus of annual Sally Foster sales, but it claims thousands of nationwide accounts.
Kate Boyd, Entertainment Publications' King County rep, says no other King County schools approach ASB's total sales: Its closest rivals, St. Joseph's School on Capitol Hill in Seattle and Lakeridge Elementary on Mercer Island, both sold about $50,000 last year. The nation's top-selling school, in Texas, raised $200,000, but it has 4,000 students.
Competition among companies trying to get their products into schools is so fierce that switching vendors can prompt something close to stalking, even for a site as small as North Seattle's Christ the King, a parish school of 150 whose gift-wrap sales campaign is limited to its 20 eighth-graders.
"They call all the time and try to figure out why you've changed," says administrative assistant Lynda Lundquist.
Vendors dispatch reps armed with brochures, snacks and lunch offers. Otis Spunkmeyer cookies, magazine-subscription outfits — all want a piece of Sally Foster's turf, including gift-wrap rivals Innisbrook and Red Apple.
Lowell's Lawrence says the school last year considered a company featuring Looney Tunes wrapping paper and other kid-popular designs. But she couldn't fathom sending kids home with the company's frozen cookie dough, especially when some had hourlong bus commutes.
That wasn't all. The company rep kept calling. "I got another catalog this year, so I guess she hasn't given up," Lawrence says.
Marc Ramirez: 206-464-8102 or mramirez@seattletimes.com