Should Fundraiser Groups Offer Multiple Brochures?

When more product choices can work against you.

We recently spoke to a sponsor for a cheerleader group who wanted to sell both our pie brochure and one of our variety of frozen food fundraisers. She figured people probably couldn't get too much of a good thing. It was reasonable to assume that customers could always buy a pizza or both if they didn't want a pie.

However, at what point does offering more choices start to become counterproductive? In other words, there's a point when offering too many items won't make you more money. In fact, in some situations offering fewer items can be an advantage.

Here are four reasons why fundraiser groups should think twice about offering multiple brochures.

Confusing for Sellers

You don't want to put too much on your sellers' plates. Instead, you want to keep things simple so they can focus on making sales. If you want variety, choose a single brochure that offers enough choices. Students asked to sell multiple brochures are forced to juggle as they attempt to make a good impression on the buyer.

Roadblock for Buyers

Think about it. Your students have a limited time to make an excellent first impression. If they have to approach potential buyers with more than one catalog, people may think the interaction will take longer. So if your students have many items in their sales bag, watch out for the response. More is not better in this case.

Harder on the Sponsor

Don't make your life any more difficult than it has to be. There are times when sponsors need to refer back to the brochure after the sale to cross-reference any paperwork received from the company. One example is if a customer accidentally wrote down the wrong item number on the order form and the incorrect item is received. Can you imagine having to comb through multiple brochures? To make matters worse, most brochures don't present item numbers in numerical order.

Do You Make More Money?

It seems logical enough. Offer more choices, and your sales will go up. Not so fast. Let's look at our cheer sponsor as a good example. After talking to her more, she realized she would be better off concentrating on selling pies before Thanksgiving. This is the perfect fundraiser this time of year.

This would allow her to build a theme for her sale by becoming the only group selling pies. Focusing on a single brochure would streamline her efforts while making life easier. As a result, she'd probably end up selling more because she'd make her fundraiser more efficient and effective.

Our cheerleader sponsor decided to focus on selling pies before Thanksgiving and then return and offer people a variety of frozen food shoppers in the spring. We feel that she made the right choice.

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.