Successful Fundraising Ideas

6 Time Proven Tips to a Profitable
Cookie Dough Fundraiser

There is no doubt that cookie dough is one of the most popular products to choose from when it comes to successful, profitable and unique fundraising. I love cookies, you love cookies, is there anyone who does not love cookies? In fact, I would go so far as to say that more cookie dough is eaten raw than is actually cooked! Using Cookie Dough as a product for your fundraising is not only a fun event but is also considered as the most effective and profitable one. Who would not want this mouth water delicacy? It can be pre-sliced to make baking easier and it can be done in just a snap.

One of the great things about cookie dough fundraising is the variety offered to customers.  Most cookie dough fundraising brochures have as many as 10 different gourmet flavors for you to choose from. Frozen boxes or tubs of cookie dough are easy to use and as a foodstuff they are consumable and promote repeat customers. What’s not to like?

The competition in the novel fundraising arena can be extreme at times and you should be prepared with some unique fundraising ideas. To ensure that your cookie dough fundraiser or any new fundraisers are a smashing success here are six no nonsense, time proven unique fundraising tips.

1.) Goals

You should set sales goals for each and every member of your sales force. Use awards and prizes to set intermediate goals. You can actually structure your prize program in such a manner as to predetermine your results. There are a very few fundraising companies that have literally turned this approach to fundraising into an art form.

2.) Get Your Sales Force Ready To Hit It Hard

One novel fundraising tip would be to suggest that you might create a script that your sellers can commit to memory. If possible rehearse the script with them until they become comfortable and the flow is natural. This actually works best with a small group. If you are in charge of a school wide fundraiser, this is not really practical. However, that does not mean you can not make suggestions to them about how to go about selling the products you are sending them home with. It simply means that in a large group, your instructions on “how to sell” will not be heard and understood by all of them.

3.) Incentives

It certainly is not a unique fundraising tip to prescribe that you use incentives to motivate your sales people, but you would be surprised to the sales statistics on the difference that a good incentive program has on the outcome of a fundraiser. Offering prizes that are worthwhile to win for every student or player that participates is the key to a successful fundraising event. This is actually an understatement. I can not tell you the number of schools that we have had double or triple their previous year’s fundraising sale because of a simple change in the way they structured their incentive program.

4.) Timing

When choosing your new fundraisers timing, be sure that you give plenty of lead time to get things set up for properly promoting the sale. You will need to organize your forces, plan your campaign, and promote your event. Everything that you do should be done with the goal of getting your sale started, ended and delivered on the timeline that you have set.

When you are planning any new fundraisers you should define a specific starting and ending date and stick to them. No one likes a fundraiser that seems to go on forever. It is not fair to all of those who turned their orders in on time to have to wait for delivery because a few have trouble turning in their order forms on time.

5.) Community Awareness

Be aware of other fundraising activities in your community and try not to overlap with them. Many customers will purchase from the first sales person they see in a given day or week, but may decline other offers in the same time frame. If your fundraiser must occur in conjunction with another ongoing campaign at or near your school, make sure that you are not selling the same product. If you have a unique fundraising product that no other schools in your area are doing, so much the better. At the very least offer a brochure with larger or different selection of goods.

6.) Let the Whole World Know

Start your advertising campaign in a big way at least two weeks before you begin your sales drive. Pretend that you need to let the world know about your new fundraiser drive. It is better to assume that doing too much in this regard is never enough. Place advertisements in the newspaper, and on the internet as well as through email, the school marque and flyers. Get your message out to as many people as possible.

There is ONE thing that will make any school fundraising program the best that it can possibly be. If you leave it out… you’ll just do plain bad. If you do it wrong… you could say “Well, it was better than nothing.” If you do it right, you can double what your school has been doing on it’s sales. My advice… Get it Right!

Here is a video that reveals the secret behind every Successful School Fundraising.

Watch the video and simply follow these six guidelines and you will find that your new fundraisers will be the best that they can possibly be.