Simplifying End of Year Teacher Gifts with Groupit

I dread the end of the school year, probably with as much passion as my kids look forward to their days of summer freedom. It's not that I fear having them on my hands all summer, although there's always a bit of anxiety transitioning to a new routine, it's more the stress that comes with the end of the year, coordinating all the teacher gifts.

I have three kids, each with multiple teachers, and if you factor in their extra-curricular activities, the number of people to thank for contributing to my children's lives is astronomical. It's bad enough just remembering everyone to give a gift to, but in a few cases, I actually have to coordinate all the parents in the class for a group class gift, and then things get very stressful.

This year, to streamline the process and minimize the wads of bills thrown at me at school pick-up, I'm using Groupit to collect Jack's class gift. Here's how it works:

1. On the Groupit website, I set up our class gift with a target gift amount, a message to all the parents explaining we wanted to give a gift card, and inputting the emails to the parents in the class.
2. Groupit sends a message to each parent with my note.
3. Parents donate on Groupit using Visa, Mastercard or Discover (so sad not to be able to use American Express to replenish my Membership Miles).
4. In a week, I can either purchase the gift card on Groupit, or have them cut me a check so that I can get the gift card on my own. If this was a baby shower or another gift occasion, Groupit partners with retailers and lets you purchase the gift directly on their site. I'll be using it to set up my baby wish list for sure.

I haven't gone through the entire process yet so I can't comment on whether the other moms will be suspicious of the site and how easy the buy the gift or gift card process is at the end. But I can tell you how relieved I already feel having sent the email out and having one convenient place to check the progress of the responses from the other moms. It certainly beats frantically searching for that little half ripped piece of paper where I scribbled people's names that I always end of losing.

Maybe, just maybe, I won't feel quite so frazzled, drained, and thoroughly exhausted on that last day of school. I might even have time to get our pool bag organized before we even need it. A girl can dream, can't she?