3 Good Fundraising Company Questions

What you should know about your company before you start your sale.

Picking the right company to help your group raise money is essential. Companies should provide valuable sales tools that will assist groups in reaching their financial goals and provide a process that’s easy to follow. However, if you make the wrong choice, you may have to deal with problems that will be hard to fix.

Some company tactics attempt to lure you in with big promises that sound too good to be true. Others can only promise the basics but tend to leave out important information. To help you make an informed decision, here are three good fundraising company questions every school will want answers to.

1. Do we pay for fundraiser supplies?

Before you can start a brochure sale, you need the following supplies:

• A brochure for each student.
• Order forms for taking orders.
• Money envelopes for collecting money.
• A parent letter explaining the process.

You shouldn’t have to pay for these supplies. Companies should provide these materials free of charge.

2. Is there a shipping charge?

Most companies charge for the shipping of the merchandise. Some companies offer free shipping if groups sell over a certain amount. Others have a lower flat fee regardless of how much is sold, but an additional charge is incurred if certain minimums aren’t met.

3. Will we need to sort the merchandise?

Make sure and ask how your merchandise will arrive. There are generally two ways that companies ship products:

1. Boxed by seller, based on the exact number of items reported on each order form.
2. Sorted by item type. For example, some companies only ship cookie dough by the case.

See our brochure fundraisers.

Author Bio

Clay Boggess has been designing fundraising programs for schools and various nonprofit organizations throughout the US since 1999. He’s helped administrators, teachers, and outside support entities such as PTAs and PTOs raise millions of dollars. Clay is an owner and partner at Big Fundraising Ideas.