What About a Home Delivery Fundraiser?

What you should know about a ship-to-student sale.

Many schools feel that delivering their merchandise is one of the most challenging parts of the fundraising process. So when presented with the option of not having to deal with it, some sponsors will be intrigued.

Presorted merchandise has made the delivery process much easier than it used to be when sponsors had to sort their items after a bulk delivery. However, since most school fundraising companies now ship orders by individual sellers, sorting has become a thing of the past.

To take it a step further, sponsors can remove themselves from handling any product by doing a home delivery fundraiser. Several companies offer it; is it something you should consider?

Here are some things to ponder if you're contemplating a non-school delivery:

The Type of Fundraising Product

Since each seller's box will be delivered to a home or work address, you cannot sell anything frozen, like cookie dough or frozen food, because students' boxes may sit unattended.

Groups Pay More for Home Delivery

Most companies lower the profit percentage to ship individual boxes to several different addresses instead of shipping everything to one location with a standard delivery.

Sponsors are out of the Delivery Loop

If you're used to counting boxes and ensuring everyone receives their order, this will be a new experience. You won't know that boxes are being delivered. Instead, you'd be notified that people will receive their orders shortly. If anything arrives missing or damaged, instructions and a toll-free phone number are placed inside each box. Therefore, replacement items are handled directly between parents and the company.

Do you Trust your Parents?

Your parents will handle everything since you will be out of the loop with home delivery. Once their order is received, they must inspect it, order replacement items, and deliver the merchandise to customers. You'll also need to assume that a correct address has been placed at the top of each student's order form.

Home delivery can be a wise choice as long as you realize there's more to it than eliminating the delivery at your school.

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.