SOWPub Small Business Forums  
 

Click Here to see the latest posts!

Ask any questions related to business / entrepreneurship / money-making / life
or share your success stories (and educational "failures")...

Sign up for the Hidden Business Ideas Letter Free edition, and receive a free report straight to your inbox: "Idea that works in a pandemic: Ordinary housewife makes $50,000 a month in her spare time, using a simple idea - and her driveway..."

NO BLATANT ADS PLEASE
Also, please no insults or personal attacks.
Feel free to link to your web site though at the end of your posts.

Stay up to date! Get email notifications or
get "new thread" feeds here

 

Go Back   SOWPub Small Business Forums > Main Category > SOWPub Business Forum
Register FAQ Members List Calendar Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read

SOWPub Business Forum Seeds of Wisdom Forum

 
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Prev Previous Post   Next Post Next
  #6  
Old October 10, 2006, 11:52 AM
ImpactYourArea.com
 
Posts: n/a
Default Re: It's that time of year again... fundraisers!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Sandra B View Post
We've come to that time of year as a mother of schoolage kids that I just dread... the time to organize fundraisers.

I'm on fundraising commitees for the basketball team, swim team and the kid's schools. Every year the groups want to do the same old candy, cookie dough, pie sale routine. I just hate approaching friends and family every year to help with fundraisers when I know they have their own that they have to support.

I also have a hard time promoting the products we sell because they are so overpriced, I feel like we aren't giving our supporters a good value in return for supporting our cause.

What I'm wondering is, does anybody have any fundraising success stories or ideas they can share, to get away from the "same old" fundraisers?

Thanks,
Sandra

Greetings Sandra,

This is right up my alley. I do fundraisers for the local schools. The biggest mistake I see, from parents and teachers, is thinking they have to reduce prices just to get people to support the different teams or clubs. So to combat that mindset, I point my clients in the direction of being different and having better products to sell.

This is how you can get more dollars, from those who don't mind showing their support. When an alumni member sees a high quality product, that the clubs or teams are selling, they will always opt to buy it. A great product from a club member or team member is always a worthy cause to support.

For example, last year the high school swim team wanted to generate $1000 and thought a Swim-A-Thon could help. But when they sat down and crunched the numbers, they concluded that they couldn't reach the goal.

So I was contacted by the coach and asked for some ideas. I immediately pointed him to selling hugh umbrellas, that could be sold at home swim meets AND home games of the Varsity Football team.

My reasoning behind that is that at either sporting event, the crowd could get rained on, because none of the games or swim meets are indoors.

So he commissioned me to design the school's cat paw logo and have it imprinted on 100 umbrellas. I had the umbrella order put on a rush status, so they could arrive before the first football game of the year.

In the mean time I got on the phone and started calling business owners, that were alumni and supported the children's fundraisers. I informed them what was coming and began taking their orders.

I had two payment options:
  • 1 umbrella for $30 each
  • 2 umbrellas for $25 each
Because I know that customers like choices, when they buy, I knew that most would go for the 2 for $25. Before the unbrellas arrived, 25 of them were already sold.

I also contacted the local newspaper, which gives school fundraisers a free ad placement, but you have to provide a letter from the coach, to place an ad and whom to contact at the high school.

I had Linda, one of the high school office workers, in place and she would take orders for the swim team, when people called. Linda was able to pre-sell 20 umbrellas before they arrived also.

The umbrella's arrived on a thursday, which just happened to be one of our home swim meets and the day before the first home football game. With 45 umbrellas already bought and paid for, all that was left to sell were 55. That night 11 sold at our home swim meet.

So with only 34 left, I had to make sure that I was at the football game the next day, set up and ready to promote. Well that night came, and it was hot, humid, not a cloud in the sky and our stadium was packed and overflowing.

I was positioned across from the concession stand and standing next to me was the chorus group selling personalized license plates for $5 and next to them was a small table set up to paint cat paws on peoples faces for a $1.

The man who ran the concession, Mr. Winter, mocked me from across the breezeway and taunted me by saying, "It's not raining out and there's not a cloud in the sky, how do you think you are going to sell umbrellas on a day like this? You won't sell a single one!"

That was the worst thing he should have said. Now with 34 umbrellas left I had to take some drastic steps to get the crowds attention. So while standing and looking at my umbrella display, I even had one opended up to show how large they were, people still did not stop to buy.

Well as the crowd grew, I noticed that my umbrella display couldn't be seen very well. That's when I picked up my open umbrella and held it above the crowd and started twirling it around and tossing it up in the air.

Within a few moments people started making their way over to me. When asked how much, I gave them the same two options.
  • 1 umbrella for $30 each
  • 2 umbrellas for $25 each
For two solid hours I twirled, tossed and flipped that umbrella, while pitching my prices. All along Mr. Winters occassionally poking his head out and yelling out some snide remark.

When the game was over and the crowd left, I checked my inventory and I only had 4 umbrellas left, which sold later as I was walking out to my vehicle.

But the best part was when Mr. Winters came over, with cigarette in hand, and asked, "So did ya sell any?"

Looking at him, I came back with, "I didn't do very good. I started off with 34 umbrellas 2 hours ago. I still have 4 left."

With is mouth on the ground and fumbling with his cancer stick, he wanted to know how I did it.

My only comment was this, "It's not what you sell that gets people to spend, it's how you present it!"

His only come back to that was, "I wouldn't have believed it, if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes. I guess it is possible to sell ice to eskimos."

When all the monies were counted, the swim team netted around $1600 after expenses.

That is just one of my success stories.

Woody Quiñones
Want Forget Proof Customers?
Reply With Quote
 


Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Forum Jump

Other recent posts on the forum...


Seeds of Wisdom Publishing (front page) | Seeds of Wisdom Business forum | Seeds of Wisdom Original Business Forum (Archive) | Hidden Unusual Business Ideas Newsletter | Hotsheet Profits | Persuade via Remote Influence | Affia Band | The Entrepreneur's Hotsheet | The SeedZine (Entrepreneurial Ezine)

Get the report on Harvey Brody's Answers to a Question-Oriented-Person


All times are GMT -4. The time now is 05:42 PM.


Powered by vBulletin Version 3.6.0
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.