School Fundraisers

How Do School Fundraisers Work?

The first thing you need to do is decide how you want to sell our products. We offer 2 ways that groups can raise money:

1. Order Taker Method
2. Direct Sale

Order Taker Method

If you want to take orders first, we’ll send you a brochure, order form, prize incentive flyer, and money collection envelope for each student in your group. Once you’re school fundraiser has started, students show the brochure to neighbors, family and friends and ask them to purchase 1 or more items. Money is collected up front with the order.

At the end of the sale you’ll collect the order forms and money envelopes from your students. Send us your order forms for processing after you’ve deposited the money in your account. We’ll then send you your sales reports, invoice and schedule your delivery. Your orders arrive already prepacked by seller to make distribution easy. Your profit is the difference between what you initially deposit in your school account and the amount shown on your invoice.

Direct Sale

Or, you can order your product up front and then sell it direct to consumers. In this case, instead of having a brochure to show, your students would have the actual product in their hands.

It’s important to know how much product you’ll need, since you’re ordering the actual product up front. In this case, 2 questions need to be answered:

1. How many sellers do you have?
2. How many items do you want them to sell?

We provide a handy ‘Calculate Your Profit’ tool on each of our product pages that will tell you how much to order, and the amount of money you'll raise.

Most schools submit a purchase order up front and then payment would be due within 15 days after receiving your product.

What Makes Our School Fundraising Programs Better?

• Popular Consumer-Based Merchandise – Whether you choose to take orders, or sell our products up front, your customers are getting quality products at a great price.
• Largest Selection – We offer the largest variety of school fundraisers in the entire industry. Pick from our fall and spring shoppers, cookie dough, frozen food, popcorn, custom mugs, candy bars and much more!
• Full-time Customer Assistance – We’re always available to answer your questions.
• Free Shipping – We don’t charge any shipping fees for our direct sale products, and have low minimums for our brochure sales.
• No Up Front Money Needed – Start your fundraiser today for free. We don’t require any payment until you’ve collected your money.

Questions About School Fundraisers

1. Why do we have school fundraisers? Supplemental money is often needed to pay for educational projects and events that aren’t already covered by the school district. Learn more
2. What are the best fundraisers for schools? There are many ways that schools can raise money. For example, they can have events, drives or sell products. Previous sales history and experience is often used to determine the method that works best. Schools raise about $1.7 billion annually selling merchandise.
3. Why do schools have so many fundraisers? Oftentimes, schools end up having several smaller sales to help meet existing financial needs instead of scheduling 1 or 2 larger ones in advance.
4. How long do school fundraisers last? It depends on the type of sale. Events like a carnival takes place over a day or evening; however much more work goes into planning an event. Selling items out of a brochure typically takes 2 weeks to give people enough time to collect orders and money.
5. What is the easiest fundraiser? The simplest sales campaigns are those that don’t require a lot of up front work and can be completed in a shorter time-frame. Some products, like lollipops or beef jerky, can be sold in 5 days or less.
6. What are some good fundraising ideas for schools? Variety sells, so large fall and spring brochures, Otis Spunkmeyer® cookie dough and Auntie Anne’s® frozen food are all popular programs.

School Fundraising Ideas & Tips

• Make sure your students know your purpose and how much money needs to be raised.
• Set a reasonable sales goal for your students and have them break it down into manageable daily goals.
• Have a kickoff meeting to let your students know how the fundraiser will work and what your objectives are.
• Encourage students to only approach people they know and trust.
• Remind them to promote selling online to family and friends.
• Regularly remind students to stay focused on making sales.
• Consider adding extra incentives to bring in more money.
• Reduce potential sales fatigue by limiting your group to 1 or 2 school fundraisers a year.