grainsmommy
- 40
My daughter started horseback riding lessons about 1.5 months ago. The lady there actually runs a rescue and we were talking about PC. She offered to do a show, but several times during the conversation she mentioned that all the money she makes, (including from lessons, trail rides, adoptions, etc), goes to the horses. When I handed her the $75 for the lessons she said, "thank you so much! I wasn't sure how I would get the feed for the older horses, and I was just praying about it this morning." This was after it took a month just to get the lesson scheduled, but whatever.
The next time I saw her I told her I had an idea about fundraising. I would turn her show into a fundraiser and we could get money for the horses. She was in love with the idea and got really fired up. I made her 50 fliers to start with and gave her a packet with catalogs, order forms and other supplies. I told her to let me know if she needed anything else. I also kept 50 fliers and went around to local places hanging them everywhere. She uploaded her e-mail list to the PWS and I volunteered to send out letters since she's not so hot with words. I've done lots of fundraising before with my step-daughter's PTA and I know the ins and outs of raising money for a cause. I knew this would be tricky because she's not a 501c3, but figured the people who know her would be eager to help.
She sent me an email about a week later with information about a little horse that had lost 3 of it's legs and needed prosthesis to walk and all kinds of surgeries and whatnot. I've seen stories like that before, (my hubby is studying to be a prosthetist, so we read stuff like this a lot.), so I didn't think a whole lot of it. She wrote me a couple days later and said that she wanted to donate some of her fundraiser money to the girl who owns that horse. Something struck me really wrong with that. I know that what she does with the money is none of my business, but since she told me, I felt I should let her know what was appropriate. I wrote her back and VERY NICELY said, "that's fine, but if you're going to do that, you need to tell everyone who spends money exactly what their money is going to. People don't like to donate money to one thing and find out it went to something else." No biggie, right?
Well, I guess it was, because since then she has not answered her phone, returned calls, returned e-mails, answered myspace messages. I was going to just cancel the show, but last night e-mail reminders were automatically sent, (the show is supposed to be on Friday), and people are responding. So far I only know of 2 who have responded in the positive, but I have no way of knowing if anyone else has since she won't call back.
SOOOOO...what am I supposed to do? I was going to do power cooking chicken, but I don't want to spend that much money on something she's not done anything for and have only 2 people show up (IF THAT!). I'm also more than a little upset that we paid $75 for lessons and my daughter got to ride ONCE, (it was supposed to pay for 5 lessons), and then I never heard from her again. I don't want my professional name to go out the window with these potential guests, but one part of me just does not care.
Our original agreement was that I was going to donate my commission to her and I'd get the FPV. Because I'm fairly new and have an inventory to build, I need the product and because I believe in her rescue I was willing to forgo my commission so that she'd get a higher percentage of the sales. Of course, this was all back when I thought it was going to be a 1500+ show. Does it matter now? I suppose I'm still obligated to this. I did, however, leave her a message and tell her that I can't afford to give her my commission if the show is only a few hundred dollars, (I'd be in heaven if it were THAT high, I don't honestly think it will even qualify at this point!), because I'm out gas money and printing money and food money. Naturally, I never heard back on that, either.
Help! UGH.
The next time I saw her I told her I had an idea about fundraising. I would turn her show into a fundraiser and we could get money for the horses. She was in love with the idea and got really fired up. I made her 50 fliers to start with and gave her a packet with catalogs, order forms and other supplies. I told her to let me know if she needed anything else. I also kept 50 fliers and went around to local places hanging them everywhere. She uploaded her e-mail list to the PWS and I volunteered to send out letters since she's not so hot with words. I've done lots of fundraising before with my step-daughter's PTA and I know the ins and outs of raising money for a cause. I knew this would be tricky because she's not a 501c3, but figured the people who know her would be eager to help.
She sent me an email about a week later with information about a little horse that had lost 3 of it's legs and needed prosthesis to walk and all kinds of surgeries and whatnot. I've seen stories like that before, (my hubby is studying to be a prosthetist, so we read stuff like this a lot.), so I didn't think a whole lot of it. She wrote me a couple days later and said that she wanted to donate some of her fundraiser money to the girl who owns that horse. Something struck me really wrong with that. I know that what she does with the money is none of my business, but since she told me, I felt I should let her know what was appropriate. I wrote her back and VERY NICELY said, "that's fine, but if you're going to do that, you need to tell everyone who spends money exactly what their money is going to. People don't like to donate money to one thing and find out it went to something else." No biggie, right?
Well, I guess it was, because since then she has not answered her phone, returned calls, returned e-mails, answered myspace messages. I was going to just cancel the show, but last night e-mail reminders were automatically sent, (the show is supposed to be on Friday), and people are responding. So far I only know of 2 who have responded in the positive, but I have no way of knowing if anyone else has since she won't call back.
SOOOOO...what am I supposed to do? I was going to do power cooking chicken, but I don't want to spend that much money on something she's not done anything for and have only 2 people show up (IF THAT!). I'm also more than a little upset that we paid $75 for lessons and my daughter got to ride ONCE, (it was supposed to pay for 5 lessons), and then I never heard from her again. I don't want my professional name to go out the window with these potential guests, but one part of me just does not care.
Our original agreement was that I was going to donate my commission to her and I'd get the FPV. Because I'm fairly new and have an inventory to build, I need the product and because I believe in her rescue I was willing to forgo my commission so that she'd get a higher percentage of the sales. Of course, this was all back when I thought it was going to be a 1500+ show. Does it matter now? I suppose I'm still obligated to this. I did, however, leave her a message and tell her that I can't afford to give her my commission if the show is only a few hundred dollars, (I'd be in heaven if it were THAT high, I don't honestly think it will even qualify at this point!), because I'm out gas money and printing money and food money. Naturally, I never heard back on that, either.
Help! UGH.
