Toward the end of winter or maybe at the start of spring, Katherine, a stay-at-home mother of two middle schoolers, is busy in the kitchen doing early dinner prep when she hears the doorbell ring unexpectedly. She quickly rinses her hands, dashes like a greyhound to the front door, and swings it open. Accompanied by a trusted adult, two elementary school-aged girls stand at the doorstep, each decked to the nines with a vest, sash, and badges; one of them, with a stack of cookie boxes in her hands, instantly says, “Would you like to support my Girl Scout troop by buying some cookies?” Unbeknownst to Katherine, she has just taken part in one of the best-known and longest continuously running sales-based fundraisers in the US: the Girl Scouts of the USA Cookie Program.
Sales-Based Fundraisers
Sales-based fundraisers, however, aren’t just a Girl Scouts thing or just about door-to-door sales. Anyone who’s ordered from a school fundraising catalog, been to a charity raffle sale, a bake sale, spaghetti dinner, or walked in a walkathon would have found themselves involved in sales-based fundraising. Broadly defined, sales-based fundraisers involve raising money for any cause by selling a product or service. Everything from food, snacks, greeting cards, and magazine subscriptions to car washing services works. Thanks to their versatility, they are a highly popular way for schools, sports teams, churches, and other various non-profit organizations in a local community to raise money.
Why Go Sales-Based
Beyond versatility, many organizations choose to go down the sales-based fundraising route for other reasons. First, they typically require active participation. The bigger the community reach, the greater local awareness for the cause. When done well, sales-based fundraisers foster a sense of teamwork and involvement among the entire local community. Second, sales-based fundraisers offer a fantastic opportunity for the youngsters involved to develop important skills in business and ethics. This, combined with their high profit margins, low upfront cost, and versatility, makes them an excellent method to fundraise for local organizations.
Tried & Tested
As a concept, sales-based fundraisers are nothing new. Bake sales and craft fairs, run by local community groups such as churches and schools, can be traced all the way back to the 19th century. By the early 20th century, door-to-door sales became a popular way to fundraise. For example, the Girl Scouts started selling cookies door-to-door in the late 1910s. After the Second World War, product ranges expanded dramatically, and sales-based fundraising became more professionalized. In today’s digital age, new tools, such as e-commerce and social media, have coupled with those traditional methods, making sales-based fundraising efforts more accessible to a wider donor base.
Plan for Success
Even with today’s digital tools, making a success out of sales-based fundraisers requires careful planning. The key is to start early. Setting up goals, timelines, and making smart choices in terms of product lines are only half the battle. Promotional activities must also be considered. Social media, traditional flyers, word of mouth, public appeals, and partnerships are all valuable tools in this regard. Equally important, but often overlooked, is ensuring that participants are motivated, logistics are handled, and follow-up and reporting are managed. In other words, the more planning, the better.
The Total Snacks Solutions
That’s where we really excel. Our experienced fundraising team is standing by to help you plan your next campaign. Bring a smile to everyone’s face, and unlock that last penny of impulse spending with our Dippin’ Dots’ iconic flash-frozen ice cream beads and Doc Popcorn’s fundraising selection. Plus, with our fully digital fundraising platform, run in partnership with Raising Reimagined, the #1 name in digital fundraising, you won’t need to deal with missing paperwork and hours wasted keeping track of sales. Whether you’re running a centralized, online, door-to-door campaign, or something in between, our platform removes 90% of the administrative burden associated with fundraising. To get started, just click here.
About Total Snacks
Total Snacks’ mission is to always provide the highest quality snack food for people to enjoy wherever and whenever. The business began in 2015 by entrepreneurs Eleazar López Contreras and Mabe León-Ponte, a husband and wife team, who immediately noticed a lack of high-quality snacking options around their new home in Miami, Florida. From its humble beginnings as a single retail kiosk, the couple has worked tirelessly and creatively to bring the best in class snack foods to the region. Today, Total Snacks stands out as the premier provider of snack foods and catering in Miami. Its products can be found in over 300 independent outlets, and the company provides contract catering solutions to some of the largest sporting and entertainment venues in the area, while bringing smiles to thousands of people a year through its corporate and private catering activities. Despite its success, Total Snacks has never wavered from its core mission to offer the highest quality snack foods and the best customer service.
