Candle Cottage

Yes, selling online is an important part of your Candle Cottage fundraiser. Before your sale, you’ll receive instructions to pass onto your participants. They’ll be able to invite friends and family to shop at your store.

Selling online adds a 2^nd way for your group to raise money.

Registration is not required. Instead, participants will be able to share your candle store link with friends and family. We recommend using text, social media, and/ or email to help get the word out.

Once supporters click on the link, they’ll see your fundraising introduction at the top of the page. This helps make it recognizable to friends and family. For example, “Welcome to our ABC High School Band Store!” They’ll also see your start and end dates and group ID number. They’ll need your ID number at checkout. People will also learn why you’re raising money.

Participants will also be able to earn credit towards prizes. We encourage groups to supplement our prize program with their own rewards. This can help bring in more sales. Here are some incentive ideas

Online Ship to Group Orders

For ‘ship to group’ orders be sure to ask participants to have their buyers enter their name at checkout along with your group’s 6 digit ID number. At the end of your sale you’ll receive a report with both the customer and seller’s name associated with each transaction. Your sellers can then deliver these items to their buyers.

Yes, you will receive your own unique online store link.

Candle Cottage does not offer a donation option.

Yes. If using a prize program, you will need to have your sellers ask their buyers to enter theirs or their children's name(s) in the field provided at checkout after your group’s 6 digit ID number. At the end of your sale you’ll receive a report with both the supporter and seller’s name(s) associated with each transaction.

You will receive a report based on how supporters entered this information.

There are no order requirements for a Candle Cottage fundraiser.

You’ll need to know your group size as well your 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 you 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 $25 = $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. But there are strategies that can give you a ballpark idea. Learn how to track your fundraising progress

Online: You'll receive daily sales updates whenever you click on the link that we’ll provide to you. You’ll see how many sales you make each day as well as your total sales amount.

Brochure Sales: Money and order forms are turned in at the end of the sale. The money gets deposited in your group account and the order forms are sent in for processing.

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

Online Sales: Once we receive your brochure invoice payment, we’ll send your online sales profit check.

Groups make 40% off of all Candle Cottage items.

(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 3-4 business days after purchase.

Product ships out of our Tennessee warehouse to all lower 48 states.

Orders deliver prepacked by seller.

Brochure Sales:

Shipping is free if certain order minimums are met:

Groups up to 100 participants

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

Groups with over 100 participants

Shipping is free as long as 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 2 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 2 examples.

If your group raises:

1. $2,500 with 150 members, your average retail sales per enrolled would be $16.67. In this case 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. In this case you would not be charged a shipping fee because you reached $20 per enrolled group member.

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

Online Sales:

Customers pay a shipping fee at checkout to have their order shipped direct to them.

Buyers also have the option to ship their order to the group. In this case there is no shipping fee.

There is no ship to seller option for a Candle Cottage fundraiser.

If you have any items that need replacing, you’ll need to submit a form that we’ll attach to your delivery notice email. Sellers will have 7 days to report any missing or damaged items. Groups are allowed 1 submission per fundraiser.