Tesco Community Funding

c68zapdsm5i1ru

Does anyone know what the criteria for benefitting from the fund where shoppers put blue discs into the container for the charity/initiative of their choice is?

Tesco in Rathfarnham are currently offering a choice between equipment for a local national school (fair enough), new rugby jerseys for Terenure College Rugby Team, and new camogie tops for pupils in Beaufort Secondary School.

Terenure College and Loretto Beaufort are both private schools. I find it hard to believe that buying the pupils there new sports kit should be considered a good use of community funding.

I am glad to see that the equipment for the national school is coming out as top choice.

me_irl

I find it quite depressing that Tesco has gamified "what charity will win!". I blame reality TV.

Why not give an equal amount to all three?

Or just the one a week, or two a week by picking the order at random?

Your Face

Its an outrage Joe.

ScumLord

The school probably went to Tesco to ask them to sponsor the gear. Just because they're a private school doesn't mean they can continually squeeze the parents, being a private school they've probably gotten more than enough money out of them already.

But it is traditional to have a local business sponsor the team kit, rather than just having a blank jersey.

Maybe Tescos is hoping that the public wont vote for the private schools and they can say no without having to explain why.

c68zapdsm5i1ru

me_irl wrote: »

I find it quite depressing that Tesco has gamified "what charity will win!". I blame reality TV.

Why not give an equal amount to all three?

Or just the one a week, or two a week by picking the order at random?

True. I don't like that angle either.

But I also think they should be picking initiatives that will benefit those who need it. I hardly think too many of the parents who can afford Terenure College fees need community assistance to buy their son a new rugby jersey. For the one or two who do, surely the school should be assisting, not the local community. It just seemed a very odd choice.

Galway_Old_Man

Next up we'll have Tesco schools with the children taught from a young age no more than they need to serve the corporation. Filtered young, you'll have the manager stream, accountants, IT specialists etc all selected and on their way to that career by age 10. It's like the Germans do but more extreme, with a ruthless globalist capitalist backbone.

Your average Joe on the street will hum and haw and decide "sure it's cheaper!" Soon schools will be fully privatised and each corporation running their own academies, serving their own needs with legions of workers spending their lives paying off their education bills.

The people of this country need to wake up. We have to put a stop to this.

maudgonner

Anyone can nominate a cause. Selection process details are on their website:

http://food-and-community.tesco.ie/home/supporting-local-communities/community-fund-stories/terms-and-conditions

Basically they shortlist five nominees and staff in the store vote who gets selected from the shortlist.

whoopsadoodles

Here's the thing.....no one has to help them! They only get what customers choose to give.

And I've just had a look at Loretto's fees. €3,700 a year or €71 a week. Just because people choose to pay that instead of spending their money on something else, doesn't mean they're rolling in it. I know plenty who spend more than that on cigarettes.

ScumLord

whoopsadoodles wrote: »

And I've just had a look at Loretto's fees. €3,700 a year or €71 a week.

That's sounds like a very reasonable price. I always thought these kind of schools were up in the tens of thousands.

whoopsadoodles

ScumLord wrote: »

That's sounds like a very reasonable price. I always thought these kind of schools were up in the tens of thousands.

Not at all, I had a look at Terenure there as well and it's €4,975 or €95 a week.

You see it spouted out here a lot, that "people who can afford that sort of thing are x, y, z". But really, most people I know with their kids in fee paying schools aren't exactly rich and are making sacrifices elsewhere.

Of course, there are rich people sending their kids there too, I wouldn't try and deny that fact.

c68zapdsm5i1ru

whoopsadoodles wrote: »

Not at all, I had a look at Terenure there as well and it's €4,975 or €95 a week.

You see it spouted out here a lot, that "people who can afford that sort of thing are x, y, z". But really, most people I know with their kids in fee paying schools aren't exactly rich and are making sacrifices elsewhere.

Of course, there are rich people sending their kids there too, I wouldn't try and deny that fact.

Seriously, I've no objection to private schools and I do realise that parents, in some cases, are making sacrifices elsewhere to pay the fees. I just thought it was a strange choice for community funding. Normally the options are between various charities , a local child who needs expensive medical treatment, Meals on Wheels, building a new scouts hut and things like that. I just found it surprising that sports kit for children attending private schools would be put in the same bracket.

whoopsadoodles

Carlee Stocky Listener wrote: »

Seriously, I've no objection to private schools and I do realise that parents, in some cases, are making sacrifices elsewhere to pay the fees. I just thought it was a strange choice for community funding. Normally the options are between various charities , a local child who needs expensive medical treatment, Meals on Wheels, building a new scouts hut and things like that. I just found it surprising that sports kit for children attending private schools would be put in the same bracket.

Well the private schools are part of the community too, and as it's a private company's money, it's not coming directly form your pocket/the community's pocket so they can do with it as they wish. I suppose it would be pretty bad PR for them if they started to give an outright no to certain causes. What would they base that criteria on?

As I said, where the money goes is ultimately decided by the customer and if people feel the schools don't deserve the funding, they can put their blue discs in another slot.

I try to avoid tesco like the plague for the mostpart, but when I do shop there, some of the causes surprise me too so I just choose another one.

My friends and their severely disabled daughter were helped hugely by this scheme btw.

ScumLord

Carlee Stocky Listener wrote: »

Seriously, I've no objection to private schools and I do realise that parents, in some cases, are making sacrifices elsewhere to pay the fees. I just thought it was a strange choice for community funding. Normally the options are between various charities , a local child who needs expensive medical treatment, Meals on Wheels, building a new scouts hut and things like that. I just found it surprising that sports kit for children attending private schools would be put in the same bracket.

Out the country here the main sponsorship opportunities are funding the local soccer/rugby/GAA/whatever other sport there is. It's basically like advertising for a company, they get their logo in front of parents for the rest of the year.

Sponsoring charities has a short term return on investment in comparison. I've also found that charities focus more on events. Quiz nights, raffles, you're a star type things. Charities tend to need a more constant flow of money, whereas sports just need to get something in particular.

I went to a private school. Eaton it was not. I dont know how my parents afforded it but somehow they did. There were some well off families there but there were also families who weren't well off.

As another poster said, you can choose which cause you support. It could well be that the parents of children who go there are the ones putting their blue token into the box.

c68zapdsm5i1ru

ScumLord wrote: »

Out the country here the main sponsorship opportunities are funding the local soccer/rugby/GAA/whatever other sport there is. It's basically like advertising for a company, they get their logo in front of parents for the rest of the year.

Sponsoring charities has a short term return on investment in comparison. I've also found that charities focus more on events. Quiz nights, raffles, you're a star type things. Charities tend to need a more constant flow of money, whereas sports just need to get something in particular.

This isn't sponsorship, though. A certain amount of their profits each month are given to a worthy community cause. I am just questioning private schools putting themselves forward for such funding.

ScumLord

Carlee Stocky Listener wrote: »

This isn't sponsorship, though. A certain amount of their profits each month are given to a worthy community cause. I am just questioning private schools putting themselves forward for such funding.

Oh, I see. Well, there's nothing wrong with them having a go.

maudgonner

Carlee Stocky Listener wrote: »

This isn't sponsorship, though. A certain amount of their profits each month are given to a worthy community cause. I am just questioning private schools putting themselves forward for such funding.

It wasn't necessarily the schools who nominated themselves. Maybe it was parents. Maybe it was the students themselves. Maybe it was a member of the community.

c68zapdsm5i1ru

maudgonner wrote: »

It wasn't necessarily the schools who nominated themselves. Maybe it was parents. Maybe it was the students themselves. Maybe it was a member of the community.

True. But I still question it.

Apparently someone nominated the local Active Retirement Group who insisted they be removed from the list, as there were far more deserving causes in the area.

ScumLord

Carlee Stocky Listener wrote: »

True. But I still question it.

Apparently someone nominated the local Active Retirement Group who insisted they be removed from the list, as there were far more deserving causes in the area.

I wouldn't say there are more deserving causes. Many active retirement groups have well funded members. Others can have real difficulty with funding their activities. Retired groups are deserving, they just may not need any additional funding.

c68zapdsm5i1ru

ScumLord wrote: »

I wouldn't say there are more deserving causes. Many active retirement groups have well funded members. Others can have real difficulty with funding their activities. Retired groups are deserving, they just may not need any additional funding.

I agree. That was the Active Retirement Group's point. Their particular group didn't need funding as their members were generally comfortably off, so they got their name taken off the list. (I think it had been proposed by some well meaning member of the community). I am totally in favour of supporting any active retirement group who need the money. I think it's a very well deserving initiative.

Discodog

If you use the self service tills the reminder to take a blue token is so slow that you will be out of the door before you hear it .

Gatling

Greed plain and simple

c68zapdsm5i1ru

The way the notice was worded, it gave the impression that the entire teams would have their kit paid for from community funding. But perhaps it was only to help the small number of students whose parents were struggling to afford the fees.

Maybe something just got lost in translation.

The Lost Sheep

Carlee Stocky Listener wrote: »

Does anyone know what the criteria for benefitting from the fund where shoppers put blue discs into the container for the charity/initiative of their choice is?

Tesco in Rathfarnham are currently offering a choice between equipment for a local national school (fair enough), new rugby jerseys for Terenure College Rugby Team, and new camogie tops for pupils in Beaufort Secondary School.

Terenure College and Loretto Beaufort are both private schools. I find it hard to believe that buying the pupils there new sports kit should be considered a good use of community funding.

I am glad to see that the equipment for the national school is coming out as top choice.

Are you sure the Terenure college rugby was the school or was it the club? It might simply be the rugby club and not the fee paying school and the club is more than entitled to community funding.