When you request this success guide you will be able to order free samples of
Champion's E-Z Discount Cards and Gourmet Food Brochures
Select The Right Fundraising Product,
But Then Do the Fundraiser the Right Way
In fact, the type of product you select may determine how you start your fundraising campaign and whether the campaign will require seller commitments or seller motivation.
Two of the most common and productive fundraising products are fundraising discount cards and gourmet food items (such as pizza, cookie dough, cheesecakes, soft pretzels, etc.). These two types of product lines actually represent two distinct "categories" of fundraisers. That is, they each possess unique characteristics that require different fundraising methodologies or procedures.
The Wrong Product
At the end of the last century, before they became so closely associated with children's diet-related health issues, candy bars were a mainstay of product fundraising for school organizations—especially in high schools and middle schools. The reason was simple: School groups could order one or two cases of candy bars for each student who made a commitment to selling them, and these students would take and sell the candy bars and return the proceeds. Unfortunately, at the middle school and high school level many of the candy bars and high-sugar-and-fat-content confections were sold to other students. This was an easy fundraising activity since the schools themselves offered a ready population of students who were very willing buyers. School organizations had closure as well as all of their fundraiser's profit within a short period of time. The proceeds for unsold candy bars was almost always remitted; however, unsold product was usually purchased by the students' parent(s), and it often ended up in the selling student's home pantry until much of it was consumed by the student.
Many elementary schools traditionally sold boxed chocolates and tins of gummy bears, peanut brittle and other types of candies offered by a nearby candy company, or they utilized "shopper brochures" which offered kitchen utensils, imported gift items, gift wrap, some magazine subscriptions—and plenty of boxed chocolates and other confections.
Studies that were undertaken in the 1990s showed that a very large proportion of the chocolates and other candies sold through fundraising were consumed by school-age children. Soon afterward, further studies funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation began to reveal that the country was undergoing an epidemic of serious diet-related health issues, such as childhood obesity and early-onset diabetes, in school-age children . The link between candy and these health issues became manifest. In 2004, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services began to establish wellness guidelines for public schools, and today almost every school and associated parent organization (PTOs, PTAs, HSAs, etc.) now follows these guidelines. In fact, candy has now all but disappeared from school fundraising.
The Right Product, The Right Way
Today, the most successful fundraising ideas for schools involve the sale of discount cards or gourmet food. The former offers discounts by local food and non-food merchants and is sold out-of-hand (as were candy bars), and the latter is food sold to adults outside the school by way of a brochure order-taker (as were candy and shopper fundraisers). Neither are usually conducted by a school organization more than once each year, and neither involve the high level of consumption by children that has been associated with the formerly ubiquitous candy fundraisers.
Discount card fundraisers share a similarity with candy bar fundraisers in one respect: They represent the type of product category that requires an up-front commitment from those who will be selling them. Typically, because fundraising discount cards are custom made for the organization prior to the start of the fundraising campaign, it is neccessary for the organization's members to commit to selling a minimum number of cards. On the other hand, a gourmet food fundraiser may be conducted by having the sellers make use of a brochure order-taker. No up-front commitment is necessary for a food fundraiser because the sponsoring organization only needs to place an order for what already has been purchased.
More than in years past, getting student or parent commitments prior to the start of the fundraiser is very important. For organizations made up of high school students the most sensible way to go about this is to stress the idea that participation in the fundraiser is going to be based on the honor system, and then ask each student to sign up for and commit to selling a predetermined number of discount cards before the cards are ordered from the fundraising company. That way, the high school organization that is sponsoring the fundraiser can just order only the number of discount cards to which the students have committed. If possible, the sign-up should be conducted during a brief motivational presentation of the fundraiser and its goals. It is also a good idea to have the students sign a receipt for the number of discount cards they were given when the cards are later handed to them for distribution.
For middle school and elementary school organizations, and for elementary school parent organizations, the best procedure is to first send a letter home to the parents to announce the fundraiser, when it will start, the number of discount cards they'll be asked to sell, and also explain that the discount cards must be ordered in advance and therefore the fundraiser will be conducted on the honor system. In addition, the letter should have a simple opt-out form at the bottom that the parent can detach, sign, and return to the school office if they wish to opt out of participation in the fundraiser. The opt-out form will virtually eliminate from the fundraiser parents who would otherwise object to feeling compelled to participate, and it will help ensure that parents who did not choose to opt out will remit the proceeds from the discount cards they sold.
No matter which grade level is selling them, what places discount cards among the most preferred fundraising ideas for schools is the fact that there is almost no work involved, the sponsoring organization will get good student and parent participation, plus all the proceeds can be collected by utilization of the honor system. (Proceeds not remitted by high school and middle school students rightfully become "student obligations".) In addition—unlike the candy bar fundraisers of yore—fundraising discount cards are among the best school fundraising ideas because they do not present health issues, they don't melt or easily break, they're easy to carry—and they are highly valued as a fundraising product by students, their parents, and those in the community who purchase the cards. They also support the merchants in the community—especially during more difficult economic times.
Gourmet food fundraisers are "order-taker" fundraisers. Unlike fundraising discount cards, which rely upon an up-front commitment, gourmet food fundraisers rely upon appropriate incentives as well as an enthusiastic presentation for motivating students to sell. Fundraisers that are presented with some enthusiasm at their start always fare much better than fundraisers that are begun by simply handing out the fundraiser's collateral materials. Also unlike discount card furndraisers, the product is ordered from the fundraising company only after the students and their parents have taken and submitted orders along with the money they have collected.
On the up-side, gourmet food fundraisers involve almost no risk of the sponsoring organization getting "stuck" with unsold product. Since students will be remitting the money they collected along with the orders they will be turning in, and since the organization will be ordering from the fundraising company only the food that was sold and paid for, there is no risk of ending up with product for which no payment was received.
If you are in charge of a school fundraiser, there are three things you can do to greatly enhance the performance of your next fundraiser, and they are discussed in Champion's Success Guide, "Three Elements of a Successful Fundraiser". (You will receive this resource guide free when you complete and send the form near the top of this page.) In addition, you may want to check out Champion's FAQs Page. This website page offers an excellent side-by-side look at these two very popular and easy fundraising ideas for schools—fundraising discount cards and gourmet food fundraisers—in a question-and-answer format.
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