Illegal Xmas day

[Boomerangs]

I'm attending an Xmas Funday organised by a local baby group but I'm Starting to believe it's all a bit dodgy.
For months now the girl organising has been contacting local businesses asking for donations for the raffle. Places have been extremely generous. Restaurants, gyms, soft play have donated free passes, free meals etc.
Yesterday tesco donated around £100 of stuff including 4 digital ear thermometers. These have now been put on the baby group Fb page to be sold and for the proceeds to go back into the Funday. Aibu to think that is a bit much?
There is no charity aspect to any of this they are charging £3 for entrance 100 have already bought tickets, there are stalls people are holding selling stuff like homemade cards, these stall holders have had to pay to do this.
The event itself is in a working men's club there will be a bouncy castle and a few activities. It just seems like there is so much money being thrown at this it's not going to cost what she is making I think if she is making a profit she should say so and be upfront about it or state she is donating it to charity.
I have looked into this and i think it may be illegal plus she is advertising it on Facebook isn't there rules about raffle tickets etc? Would I be unreasonable to report to somebody!

[GrinchyMcGrincherson]

I must admit I had zero clue how much is involved in this stuff. If you are worried I would flag the sales to Tesco TBH and let them deal.

[GrinchyMcGrincherson]

I'm involved with a fair for my kids school. There are about a zillion rules. We have a license to be able to sell raffle tickets, items donated to the raffle are not allowed to be used for anything else, monies collected have to go to the place we state on the tickets (in our case school pta) and we have to state and follow certain rules for the draw (independent adjudicator etc) Someone asked if we could do something else with some prizes as we had more than needed and we were told no as the rules are super strict.

We also have public liability insurance, health and safety assessments and a license for our stalls to sell food outside of stall holders own licenses. We also have adaptations to the school insurance to cover money taken in.

That's just the stuff I know about because it's been discussed at meetings.

[WellErrr]

she was auctioning off one to one time with her partner who is incredible good looking he looks like a young george cloony from the film from dusk till dawn. Anyway when one of the other mums got a bit too close with her partner she threw her out in front of everyone. The poor women was without half her clothes too 😩

Are you quite sure?

[Meadows76]

The money is going into the baby group, the people who have donated will know that. What's illegal?

[ILostItInTheEarlyNineties]

Her name's not Del Boy Trotter is it?

[Boomerangs]

No it's just a random baby group. I once saw the woman selling off conkers to a family at a bus stop she had picked up on the local common she wanted £5 a piece seems like she is trying to make a fast buck easier now

[Gazelda]

Crikey!
Who runs the Facebook group? Is it affiliated to any organisation?

[ItsAllGoingToBeFine]

Yeah it was a side room with shaving foam and baby oil it was kind of a messy play with her husband.

[Shock] That is bizarre She certainly has interesting fundraising techniques. Who did the money go to that time?

[SnotGoblin]

You're right, that does sound unrelated .

[Pisssssedofff]

Boomerangs I just spat my tea out, why was the woman half undressed she wasn't going to erm get her money's worth was she 😳

[SnotGoblin]

I once spent a few afternoons phoning major companies for donations towards a Christmas Party. I was sent hundreds of dollars worth of product mostly on the basis of a phone pitch. 'Hi, do you have a marketing department? My name is Snot, I'm phoning from Blah, we're having a do, can you give us some stuff'? Companies can be generous because it costs them relatively little and raises community profile. I doubt she's being overly evil or deceitful to obtain the 'prizes'.

[Boomerangs]

Yeah it was a side room with shaving foam and baby oil it was kind of a messy play with her husband. I didn't try to get involved in that one!
I just wanted a few other perspectives on the Funday thing as a few mums I speak to are all gobsmacked by the whole charade!

[ILostItInTheEarlyNineties]

Hang on, did you lose out in the bidding for George Clooney? That would explain your resentment

Perhaps you could raise your concerns with someone involved in organising the event? Tread carefully though, it could blow up in your face if it is above board.

[amazingamy09]

This all sounds a bit dodgy to me....the party and the auctioning off her partner haha

[ILostItInTheEarlyNineties]

She auctioned her husband off? This woman clearly has no conscience.

[Boomerangs]

This may sound a bit unrelated but there was a summer event similar to this one and she was auctioning off one to one time with her partner who is incredible good looking he looks like a young george cloony from the film from dusk till dawn. Anyway when one of the other mums got a bit too close with her partner she threw her out in front of everyone. The poor women was without half her clothes too 😩

[ShowMePotatoSalad]

Oooh dear. This does not sound good.

[ILostItInTheEarlyNineties]

I'm surprised big companies like Tescos don't ask for some proof of charity/community fundraising before throwing donations at people. Surely that would be open to abuse?

I'm considering phoning Tescos and asking for my next online shop to be donated.

[baconandeggies]

Someone here does a massive baby fair in aid of "charity". When all is paid (including the handsome wage to herself) the charity gets peanuts...

[Boomerangs]

There is definitely no money going to charity it's all going back into the baby group buy it's a group that meets once a week in the basement of a pub with a small handful of people attending it's not like 200 people at stay and play.
I would have No problem if she was making a profit but it seems the way she obtained the donated prizes was by making out it was all in aid of a bug support group for mums who have depression etc. There is a fb group with over 1500 members but these people won't benefit from the actual group unless they go.
All the money people have been paying has been into her personal PayPal account too.
Just seems a bit much selling off donated items.
Also she is selling raffle tickets beforehand over Fb

[MackerelOfFact]

I would wonder what these businesses are being told to get them to give away such generous prizes. Tesco in particular don't need to raise their profile in the community by giving away free stuff, do they?

Could you (publically, ideally) approach her under the guise of knowing someone who might be interested in donating a prize, but wanting information about what the money raised will go towards before you ask them? (Although even if she say she's donating it to X charity, there's no way of knowing if she actually does).

[Insidevoice]

Is the playgroup a constituted community group with its own bank account? If not, it should be - it would at least offer a little protection and transparency, both for the group and the individual dealing with the money.

I can't quite work out the extent of your involvement in the playgroup and it's organisation op, do you honestly have the full picture? Because it's horrible when one person does all the work for a group or event, and people on the periphery who have done fuck all to contribute start whispering about their motives. That's not to say you are wrong in this case, you just don't seem very well informed to be passing judgements.

Organising events IS an expensive business. Venue hire, advert in the paper, bouncy castle hire, printing and paper costs, buying raffle tickets, buying stocks of tea and coffee and refreshments to sell, gifts/prizes and wrapping paper and decorations, cash floats for the stalls... you could easily clear £300.

Personally I have no issue with selling raffle prizes, drives me potty when a community group collects hundreds of pounds worth of prizes then sells a hundred raffle tickets at a £1 each with all the leg work involved

[c3pu]

Sounds like she is straying into fraud territory... obtaining goods by deception perhaps?

Police could well take a dim view of this.

[SantasLittleMonkeyButler]

Are there costs to be covered, such as hire of the venue and bouncy castle?

I would ask where the profit is going TBH. It's not wrong or illegal to organise an event for personal profit, so long as you don't lead people to believe otherwise.

However, if somebody was asking me, or the company I worked for, to make a donation for a raffle at a community event, I'm sure I would be expecting the community to benefit from the proceeds rather than one individual.

[ILostItInTheEarlyNineties]

Ha ha, Christmas would go underground, potato, turkeys and Christmas trees on the black market.