Candle Cottage

Your group profits from catalog orders taken by your participants.

Yes. Every participant receives a brochure, order form, and money envelope.

Yes. Supporters can pay by check, cash, money order, or cashier's check.

They also have the option to pay using their phone. (These orders still need to be written on the order form)

There are no setup fees or supply costs to start a Candle Cottage fundraiser.

Yes. Our prize programs are optional but encouraged. Offering prizes to your participants can improve sales. It's important to discuss your prizes at your kickoff meeting. Then, continue to promote them throughout your sale. This will keep your group motivated to sell.

There is no cost for our incentives.

Learn about our prize programs.

You'll receive an agreement to sign after you submit our Start a Fundraiser form. It will take at least 7-10 business days to process your order and pack and ship your supplies.

Learn about our timeline.

Your sale will end two weeks after your start date. You can always change your end date. Let us know before your sale is over.

There are no order requirements for a Candle Cottage fundraiser.

You'll need to know your group size and participant goal. Here's how you can estimate your profit:

Calculation Steps

1. Participant Count x Participant Item Goal = Items Sold
2. Items Sold x Average Retail Price = Gross Sales
3. Gross Sales x Profit % = Group Profit

Example

1. Let's say you have 60 participants and set your participant item goal at 10. The items sold would be 60 participants x 10 Items/participant = 600.
2. Next, determine your gross sales. The average retail price is about $25, so your gross sales would be 600 Items x $16 = $15,000.
3. Since your profit is 40%, your group profit would be $15,000 x 40% = $6,000.

Keep in mind our example is only an estimated profit. In reality, participants probably won't sell the same number of items. In addition, the average retail dollars sold per seller will vary.

Brochure: You probably won't know how many orders you get until you collect your order forms. Yet some strategies can give you a ballpark idea. Learn how to track your fundraising progress

Online: You'll be able to track online sales in real time. By logging into your dashboard, you'll see the following:

• Which participants have registered
• Email and social share activity
• Participant and group sales progress

Brochure Sales: Money and order forms are turned in at the end of the sale. The money gets deposited in the group's account, and the order forms are processed.

Once orders are processed, the group receives its sales reports and invoice. The group sends a check for the invoice amount and keeps the rest as profit.

Online Sales: A credit for your online sales profit will appear on your brochure invoice.

Donations: Any profits earned from donations are factored into your online sales credit.

Groups make 40% of all Candle Cottage brochure and online sales.

You receive 70% of online donations.

(Use the 'Calculate Your Profit' calculator at the top of the page to learn how much money your group can make)

Certain states require that we collect and remit sales tax on your behalf to your state's Department of Revenue. We will need to charge sales tax if your state has determined that we have established nexus and you are not tax-exempt. See our brochure fundraising tax guide for more information.

We deliver brochure orders to your group 3-4 weeks after receiving your order forms. Online orders generally ship to customers within three business days after purchase.

Customers receive a confirmation email when they place their order. A notification email is sent once their order ships.

Product ships from our Indiana warehouse to all the lower 48 states.

Orders are delivered prepacked by the seller.

Brochure Sales:

Shipping is free if certain order minimums are met:

Groups of up to 100 participants

If you sell 150 or more items, there is no shipping charge. A $100 shipping and handling fee for orders with fewer than 150 items sold will be charged.

Groups with over 100 participants

Shipping is free if your group averages $20 or more in retail sales per member. (Since the average price of an item listed in a typical brochure is about $14, that is less than two items sold per seller)

A quick way to determine your average retail sales per enrolled is to divide your total sales by your group enrollment. Consider the following two examples.

If your group raises:

1. $2,500 with 150 members, your average retail sales per enrolled would be $16.67. You would be charged 50¢ x 150 = $75 (See chart above).
2. $3,500 with 150 members, your average retail sales per enrolled would be $23.33. You would not be charged a shipping fee because you reached $20 per enrolled group member.

Online Sales:

Sellers invite buyers to shop at your online store using email, text, and social media. There are two ways buyers can choose to have their online order shipped:

1. Ship to Buyer

Customers pay a shipping fee to have their orders shipped directly to them at checkout—free shipping on all orders over $100.

*The following states have a $120 free shipping minimum order requirement: AZ, CA, CO, ID, MT, ND, NM, NV, OR, SD, UT, WA, WY

2. Ship to Group

Buyers also have the option to ship their orders to the group. In this case, there is no shipping fee, but buyers pay a 5% processing fee to have their order shipped to your group.

NOTE: Both brochure and online sales count towards the free shipping minimum requirement

Yes, this is an option. Instead of shipping Candle Cottage brochure orders to your group, we'll ship them to each participant. Sellers would then need to distribute items to their customers.

Home delivery fundraisers go by the following profit margins:

Orders under $1,000 in gross sales will be shipped to the group.

If you have any items that need replacing, you must submit a form that we'll attach to your delivery notification email. Sellers will have seven days to report any missing or damaged items. Groups are allowed one submission per fundraiser.