How to Run a Successful Discount Card Fundraiser

A simple guide to selling discount cards.

Running a successful discount card fundraiser requires proper planning and follow-through. You’ll need to determine the correct number of cards to order based on your group’s enrollment. If you underorder, you risk interrupting your sales momentum because you’ll have to reorder additional cards. If you order too many, you’ll have to spend the extra time and energy selling off the excess.

Your objective, then, is to order just enough cards and be able to sell off your inventory as quickly as possible. Here are some simple things that you can implement to help ensure a positive outcome:

Set Your Seller Fundraising Goal

Once you know how much money you need, you can set your seller goal. Based on the number of sellers in your group, determine how many cards each student needs to sell. For example, you have 50 sellers who need to raise $3,000 in total. Since each card earns $5.00 profit, you must order 600 cards. When you divide the number of cards by the number of sellers, you come up with 12 cards per student.

Limit Your Selling Time

You want your fundraiser to be like a race. There must be a starting point, a kickoff, and an end point when the money is due. Based on our example above, each seller must turn in $120. Depending on the group, we recommend limiting your sale to 1 week, two weeks at the most.

Keep Track of Your Discount Cards

Don’t simply issue cards to each seller at the beginning of your sale. Have them complete and initial your sales tracking sheet. This creates accountability and helps you keep track of any students who sell more or less than their goal. For those unable to reach the goal, you will want to reissue their returned cards to those who can sell beyond their fair share. This way, you ensure you sell off all your cards and maximize your profit.

Reward the Fast Turn-In of Money

Rewarding sellers who can turn in their money ahead of your deadline is a good idea. This sends a message to the entire group that the main objective is to get rid of their cards as quickly as possible. You can reward those sellers with a free discount card or a special privilege.

Make sure and reward sellers who volunteer to sell more than their fair share because they are helping you get rid of any leftover cards.

See our discount card fundraiser.

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.