How to Prioritize Your School Fundraiser Delivery

How to plan for a successful school delivery.

Your school fundraiser delivery can be the most overlooked step of your sales campaign. Most people focus on other things, like getting their students excited at the kickoff and promoting their sales.

While these things are significant, thinking about and preparing for the delivery is usually not top of mind until the orders have been mailed off or parents start asking about their merchandise. Or, perhaps a bad experience with a previous delivery now makes you more aware of the importance of proper planning. The big mistake is to assume that deliveries happen automatically. This couldn't be further from the truth.

If more people had a basic understanding of how a school fundraiser delivery should work, perhaps they would take the necessary time to plan for it properly. Here are some things you should know about that can help you experience a smooth delivery.

Plan for a Smooth Delivery from the Start

Don't just assume that deliveries happen. Instead, consciously ask the company you're working with to inform you of their process. Here are a few questions that you should be asking:

• How are student orders packed?
• Where will merchandise be delivered?
• When can we expect to receive our order?
• Will we be notified ahead of time?
• How do we deal with any missing or damaged items?

The more you think through what questions you'll need answers to upfront, the better prepared you'll ultimately be for a successful delivery.

What are Your Fundraising Delivery Choices?

Your fundraiser sales will usually determine the type of carrier and, thus, delivery you'll be dealing with. Larger orders, usually over 300 items, typically ship via LTL freight, which stands for Less-Than-Truckload. Your order will ship with other cargo, and the truck will cover a specific route with multiple deliveries.

Therefore, you'll have a delivery window, not a time to deal with. Once the order ships, we provide our customers with the phone number and tracking information. This way, the school can contact the shipper closer to the delivery time to get a more accurate arrival. Unless you're dealing with frozen items, it's recommended that you wait until the next day to distribute the merchandise to students and parents. You never want your parents to show up at the end of the day expecting to pick up their boxes before your shipment has arrived.

Many school fundraising companies pay extra to provide an inside delivery for their customers. This means the order will be delivered inside the closest available door from where they have street access. However, because larger orders are usually shipped on pallets, access to double doors will probably be necessary.

Smaller orders, usually under 300 items, ship via UPS or another similar carrier. UPS will deliver orders inside the building and can provide an estimated delivery date but not an actual time.

Answers to Common Fundraising Delivery Questions

What follows are three questions we receive from sponsors and the answers we provide.

• Can we schedule a delivery date beforehand? This can be done; however, the most common way is to set up a delivery date once your order is ready to ship.
• What if we need our orders by a specific date? This can be set up in advance. You'll need to start your fundraiser early enough to allow your order to be processed, shipped, and delivered on or before your deadline.
• Can we schedule a morning delivery? As long as you're not in a remote area, some carriers can arrange for a morning delivery; however, they most likely won't guarantee it.

How to Prepare for a Smooth Delivery

A smooth school fundraiser delivery requires advanced planning and preparation. Once the company informs you that your order is ready to ship, they should contact you about the best delivery date. Once you have a delivery date, you should follow these steps:

1. Arrange to have extra help available to help sort and distribute boxes.
2. Inform your parents of where and when they can pick up their student's order. Frozen deliveries should be picked up the same day, and unless you receive your order in the morning, non-frozen orders should be picked up the next day.
3. Plan to have a space set aside for delivery. A relatively large and secure area usually works best.

A little know-how and preparation can go a long way when experiencing a successful delivery.

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.