Take Order Fundraisers or Items In-Hand Fundraisers?

Q/A #3: Take Order Fundraisers or Items In-Hand Fundraisers?

While we have a multitude of different fundraising products, fundraisers can essentially be broken down into two categories: Order takers and Items in-hand.

So which fundraiser would work best for you? Well let’s look at what goes into each one:

ORDER TAKERS

Order takers, or pre-sell fundraisers, will typically have a higher selling price for items as well as the items themselves will usually be of a higher quality. At Old Fashion Candy our order takers include our Celestial Candles  and Excite Your Snacktime brochures. Order taking fundraisers are great because they require no upfront cost, meaning you don’t have to purchase any product, you only buy what you sell. This is one of the reasons the products are of a higher price so you are able to offer premium products to your customers without fear of being left with unsold merchandise. The higher selling price for these products also means each individual is capable of generating more dollars sold per person (which can come in handy if each individual of a group needs to bring in a certain amount of money in order to meet your goal). As the name suggests you will have to have your participants take orders, so name, delivery information and product quantities should be recorded on the back of the brochure. You can collect money when they place their order so you can save an extra step as well as avoid any customers not taking their merchandise, or do payment upon delivery. Once the order taking period is over, have your group turn in their forms to you to tally up and place your entire product order at one time. Once the product is shipped to you, arrangements will need to be made for participants to pick up their merchandise and distribute them to their customers as well as collect money (if they didn’t collect it up front). If you are working with a group of younger fundraising participants you’ll probably want to send a schedule home for parents that outline order sheet turn in date, merchandise pick up day/time and collected money due by dates.

ITEMS IN-HAND

Items in-hand, or cash and carry fundraisers, are the primary type of fundraiser we at Old Fashion Candy offer. With this type of fundraiser you order your product (or cases) up front and there are two ways to pay:

  1. We offer 30 days payment so you can sell your product and then turn in only the amount you owe us.
  2. Pay for it up front and then all the money you make, you keep.

Then distribute out the product to your participants for them to sell. When they sell they collect money on the spot and in turn that money goes directly to your group so the profit exchange is immediate. However, keep in mind that this means each participant will have to carry the product with them in order to make the sales. Make participants aware on how to store and transport the product so as not to damage or destroy it – especially if you are selling candy products in the summer heat.

No matter which fundraiser your group goes with it is helpful to review with all participants (and possibly parents of participants) due dates as well as how to collect and store money until the turn in date and delivery practices.