What Are Your School Fundraising Delivery Options?

Learn more about your delivery options.

Preparing for your school fundraising delivery is an often overlooked but essential part of the process. You can receive your entire order at your school, arrange for selling merchandise to be shipped directly to your student's homes, or your supporters can even accept their delivery and keep you completely out of the loop.

You may be new to the entire delivery procedure or have used a specific method for years and are considering trying something different. You must learn about the types of available delivery options before deciding which method will work best for you. Here's more information about your choices:

School Site Fundraising Deliveries

Most fundraiser companies contract with common freight carriers to perform their deliveries. Some companies pay for inside delivery while others don't. Companies that pay for inside delivery instruct the driver to bring pallets inside the closest available door. Sometimes, custodians are asked to remove the center beam that divides the two doors. Otherwise, the pallets must be broken down and brought in manually.

The company should schedule a delivery date in advance. This allows the school to arrange help and notify students and parents when to pick up their orders. The company should also provide a sales report so individual student boxes can be cross-checked and verified before distribution.

Any missing or damaged items can be handled directly by the school or the company. Some companies require the school to submit a replacement list within a certain period, while others provide a toll-free phone number to have parents contact them directly. Many schools send the boxes home, then give the parents a deadline to report any problems. Other groups prefer to check the boxes themselves before they leave the school. Some schools even require parents to sign for their order before taking it home.

Home Delivery Fundraisers

More schools are considering home delivery fundraisers because they don't have to deal with handling merchandise. Instead of delivering the order to the school, each order is shipped directly to the seller's home or workplace. The desired shipping address is placed at the top of a home delivery order form, and then once the company receives them, the school is basically out of the loop. Before you decide to incorporate home delivery, here are some things to think about:

Reasons to consider home delivery:

• Once the sponsor mails their order forms, they finish most fundraisers.
• The parent and the company handle any questions or concerns about an order.
• Sponsors receive notification that delivery to parents' homes has begun and receives a follow-up sales report.

Things to know about home delivery:

• The shipping cost is higher for home delivery; therefore, companies usually require a minimum order.
• Some companies offer a lower profit percentage to the school.
• Frozen food or cookie dough may not be an option because boxes may sit unattended for a certain period.
• Some areas are not conducive to home delivery due to theft.
• The sponsor cannot verify the actual delivery of the merchandise and has limited control.

Online Fundraising

Most companies also offer an online store for out-of-town friends and families to support schools by purchasing items. Some companies even incentivize students to promote their online store by sending automatically-generated emails to people they know. These emails are customized with the student's name to make it more personalized.

Schools like online sales because they don't have to handle any items. Students also receive online sales credit towards their prize program. Remember that the purchaser is responsible for the shipping cost like other online transactions.

Once you've weighed the options for your school fundraising delivery, you can make a more informed decision about what might work best.

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.