AltunQotka Business Blog

Posts Tagged ‘fundraising’

Looking for good school fundraiser? Cookie dough sales are an easy moneymaker. What is a cookie dough fundraiser? The basic concept is the same as all order taker fundraisers. You equip your sellers with a brochure, an order form, and a basic sales script.

Your group does catalog sales of a three-pound tub of cookie dough. Average retail price is $10 per three-pound tub. The dough comes in a wide variety of flavors, including some that are sugar free.

Some suppliers are now offering the dough in pre-sliced packages to further simplify the baking process.

Others are offering it in a dry mix that doesn’t need to be refrigerated. All you do is add water, mix by hand, and you have your cookie dough ready for baking.

Profitability
Most fundraising companies offer the three-pound tubs of cookie dough at a 40%-50% discount. Some suppliers also offer a larger four-pond tub for slightly more.

Cookie dough needs to be refrigerated, so this fundraiser requires a little more delivery preparation.  Kids like selling this because it’s something that they enjoy themselves.

The average seller makes ten sales or approximately $100 in revenue. That translates to roughly $50 in profit per seller, which is quite good.

Factors affecting your cookie dough fundraiser profitability include freight charges, quantity discounts, quality of the brochure, number of available cookie dough choices, and the need to keep the dough refrigerated.

This product works well for both elementary school and high school fundraising.

Larger groups can easily earn a quantity discount above 50%. As always, do an RFQ fax quote to the supplier list and get your best possible discount up front.

Sales Tips
Here’s what they need to do to sell:

1 – Smile, use their name in greeting, and introduce yourself
2 – Use the power of “because” (give a reason why)
3 – Ask for their help (ask for the order)
4 – Make eye contact and suggest a favorite

Example sales script: (Keep it short & sweet)

Hi, Mrs. Johnson! (Smile & make eye contact)

I’m Jimmy Roberts from down the street. (Hand over sales flyer with large bold print)

Our school is doing a cookie dough fundraiser because we need new computers.

Can you help us out with a $10 contribution? That gets you a three-pound tub of cookie dough. My favorite is the chocolate chip, but peanut butter is real popular too!

(Pause and wait for a response)

The important points are to smile, use a sales flyer, use the word because, ask for their help, and suggest an order size, then wait for a response.

Each prospect has a potential dollar value to your organization. Don’t waste prospects by not being prepared. Make sure all your sellers know what to say and how to say it.

Fund raisers are a great way to raise money for your school, sports team or other type organization. What’s also nice about them is that they are a very sociable way to earn money for a good cause because you’re out there meeting the community. For younger participants, fundraisers can even be an early lesson in sales and marketing.

A very high-profit fundraising item right now is candles which are fun and very easy to sell because of their popularity. Candles are a much better choice than food or over-priced novelty items that tend to generate lower profits. They are a rapidly growing option that is more appealing to the public because they are a non-junk food alternative to fund raisers.

Candle fund raisers can also be very lucrative because they come in so many different varieties of size, color and scents creating a great earning potential. For school fundraiser such as band or sports teams, you can purchase and resell candles in your school’s colors. For any type of organization, especially religious congregations, think about holiday themed candles for those times of the year.

If your group has decided to embark on a candle fund raiser, a plan of action is a very important step for reaching your fund raising goal. You should start by determining the amount of money you want to raise. Next, figure out how many people in your organization are willing to take part in the campaign and then set your deadlines by deciding on when your group is planning to start and stop the fundraiser.

Research the candle manufactures that get involved with fundraisers and supply these types of items for that purpose. You’ll want to start comparison shopping so that you can ensure the most profit. Once you’ve got your partnership in place, the next step would be to determine the ‘new’ sale price of each candle and the number of candles each participant in the fund raiser will need to sell in order to achieve your goal.

Be sure to let everyone involved know what the expectations are and encourage them to use their best selling skills. Also, if you’re using brochures to sell the candles, you’ll want to supply your sellers with everything they’ll need to make meeting your fund raising objective as organized and easy as possible. Give them plenty of order forms and make them aware of shipping and delivery time periods so that they can let their customers know when to expect their items.

By following a few guidelines and setting a fair, but profitable pricing structure, your organization should be well on its way to reaching its fund raising target! Good Luck!

Have you realized just how much fundraising is going on these days? There is fundraising for little league, school fundraisers, and the college fundraiser, as well as  church fundraisers. Day cares need more funds, hospitals need new equipment, and cheerleaders need to fundraise for their costumes. And to think up new fundraising ideas that will be successful is becoming more challenging every day.

On a good note, it shows that people do care how others live and cope with their lives. However, it also means that, because we are always being asked to donate to one good cause after another, we are not always able to help. Despite our best intentions, our own funds simply will not stretch that far.

However, if we request the donation of items instead of cash, that is often a relief to a potential donor. People will often gladly donate a can of food for a food drive, or a kitchen item they have never used for a sale, whereas they would not donate cash. And there are many kinds of fundraising ideas you can use to hold sales based on items collected.

For example, you could hold a toy drive that would give your organization toys to sell to support your work. Or what about a gardening sale? If you have some volunteers with green thumbs, they could easily grow some plant cuttings or start some seeds or bulbs growing ready for a plant sale in the spring or early summer, when the general public is looking to restock their garden after the winter.

Book sales are always well attended, but of course you will need to collect a lot of donated books to make this a success, as books do not generally sell for a high price. You could approach local publishers to see if they have any books that they could donate to support your cause. If they do give you some books, don’t forget to write them after your event to thank them and also to let them know how successful you were and how much their donation helped you. Donors like to be thanked, and they are more likely to support you in the future if they know their gift has been appreciated in the past.

Some groups like to ask for donated items and then they use these to make up some themed gift baskets which they then raffle, usually at another fundraising event. For example you may make up a bath basket containing some soap, hand towels and bath salts from your donated items. The trick here is to keep raffle tickets affordable, especially if you are expecting those that donated the items to be buying the raffle tickets!

You may find that some people are willing to volunteer their time rather than funds. For example an electrician may prefer to spend a half day checking the wiring in the new offices your non-profit group just moved into, rather than donate cash. As long as this benefits your non-profit organization, any donation is welcome, whether it is time or money, but make sure your donors know what the goal of your organization is, and how their assistance will help you. They may then mention it to their circle of friends, and this kind of promotion is very valuable.