We just started a brand new really cool new fundraiser at my child's school (Prairie Elementary in the Shawnee Mission School District in the Kansas City area) that looks like it is going to make us a ton of money and be very little effort on the PTA's part. I will keep you posted.
Yes, it does say "up to" but apparently, the 50% profit is sorta up to the organization and/or the Celebrating Home consultant. If the org. sells $750 or more, they get free shipping. And if they're tax-exempt, obviously no tax. But if it's, say, a soccer team trying to earn $$$ to play in an out-of-town tournament, they're not tax-exempt AND they may or may not reach the $750 mark for free shipping. In this case, the organizer may want to charge a bit more for each item OR the consultant would agree to just make less profit on her end. In some cases, the organization or consultant might choose to price each item LESS than retail in order to sell more products. My understanding is that it's designed this way to tailor each org.'s needs to the fundraiser, but that the typical profit is, indeed, 50%.
I've recently learned about a very straightforward, simple program thru Celebrating Home (www.celebratinghome.com) that offers 50% profit. Items are priced from $10-$18 and include food and dessert mixes, traditional and soy candles, gift bag sets, git wrap and home accessories. I've heard the products are high quality and that the candles are long-burning. It's a Christian-principled company and is headquartered in Texas.
Great points! Our school has used Innsbrook for many years in a row and has never had a glich. We continue to use them because of many things. They have great customer serivce, great quality on the products they sell and the chocolates are a favorite of many parents at our school.
I was the chairperson last year and our order came in a 30 minute window with a call fronm the driver himself. It only takes a few volunteers to run this fundraiser b/c it's done mostly on computer. I only had a couple ladys helping me to distribute catalogs and a handlful to help when delivery came and we have over 700 kids at our school!
I think the rep you have makes a huge difference too. Ours did everything she could think of and was very hands on at our school to make it work. You also have to have principle involvment big time. That is what made us have another record breaking sale.
We knew as a pto when we were approached with those gift cards that it was a trerrible idea. It confused the kids and parents I'm sure...sad to see. really.
Because of their change to gift cards, many organizations left Sally Foster for other companies. In some cases that was a good thing for the schools and for the other companies. In other cases it turned into a nightmare, because the other companies' business grew beyond what their credit lines with their banks could handle. This meant that there were many backorders all over the country from many fundraising companies because the fundraising companies had used up their credit lines at the banks and had to wait for the first delivered schools to pay before they could buy additional inventory to fulfill other orders.
Until the closing of Giftco a couple of years ago, fundraising companies could order their fall merchandise in February and pay for it in December after the fall customers had paid. When the recession hit and the banks stopped lending this all ended. Now all fundraising companies who have their own pack/ship/inventory operations, and the pack/ship/inventory companies that support independent companies have to pay for all merchandise in February when it is ordered. This means they have to have cash on hand from retained earnings to buy inventory.
The safest type of product to be selling now is frozen food, as it is made on a continuous basis and can be shipped anywhere in the nation. Frozen food requires a bit more communication with parents about picking up orders, but can be a profitable solution to the exit of Sally Foster and the Giftco-supplied companies from the industry.
Keep in mind that over 60% of the fundraising companies of all sizes across the country have gone out of business in the past 5 years. Even the best companies can get caught in an inventory crunch with "hard goods" like wrap, candles, and gifts. Food products are less problematic in this regard. Companies providing frozen food items are structured differently from an inventory and financial standpoint because shipping backorders is very very costly, requiring dry ice or ice packs and overnight delivery.
Another feature of fundraising that has gone away is the guaranteed delivery time. It is possible for frozen food companies to give you a "window" of an hour or two, so you will need to organize your volunteers a bit differently. Having an additional project for them to work on all day on delivery day will make it less stressful. When the shipment arrives they can just switch tasks.
