Despite the controversy, most schools continue to do such fund raising because it works. A school that hawks a product can often bring in as much as 50 percent of the retail price. Elliot Bay Fund Raising Inc. has been working with students to pitch its products for less than a decade, but it has built a strong following among schools in the Redmond, Washington, area where it is based. The selling season there starts in September and finishes at the end of November. This year, the staff of 20 worked with 140 organizations, about 85 percent of them schools.
Fund raising pays for the frosting.
There will be plenty of frosting this year at Washington Elementary, a school that works with Elliot Bay. The group spent the cash on school functions, staff development, newsletters, computers, and software. Direct fund-raising efforts at Rocky Run Middle School have been surprisingly successful, says PTA President Peggy Gould. 1999 Editorial Projects in Education Vol.