Product sales

Tips & tricks

Many people jump straight to product sales for fundraising since it requires little planning and can be put in the students’ hands directly; what you sell is what you earn. You can certainly make a fair profit with product sales, so here are a few tips to make it profitable.

• Choose a product your community needs and wants to buy.
• Don’t put people in the position of buying out of obligation; consider polling a sample audience on what they would be most likely to buy.
• Don’t saturate the market. If there are already a lot of sales going on at your school maybe right now isn’t the best time to add one more.
• Take and deliver orders whenever possible so you aren’t left with excess product to unload.
• Look for products with a large profit margin.
• EF Group Leader, Alicia Chapman of Maine sold Yankee Candles at a 40% profit margin! Her group of nine students raised $1,560 in three weeks.
• One tour group sold school T-shirts with a unique logo created by one of the students. The shirts cost $5 to produce and were sold for $10 for a 50% profit margin. The group raised $5,000 in one month, sold out of shirts and are still getting requests for more!

Scrip programs

Money up front: $0
How it works: Partner with corporations to purchase gift cards to well-known stores at a discounted rate and sell them at full value.

• Sign up with one of many scrip companies online, such as www.shopwithscrip.com or www.glscrip.com
• Choose from a large list of companies (including large chain stores such as Borders, Home Depot, K-Mart, Old Navy and Sears.)
• Collect orders at face value and purchase the gift cards at a 3%-15% discount – keep the difference!
• www.communitydayevent.com and visitourmall.com are also similar programs.
• For further information read our post on EF’s blog, Following the Equator about Scrip Programs.

Food sales and concessions

Money up front: Varies
How it works: Most concession-stand food is affordable when bought in bulk, which means you can turn a large margin. Consider these opportunities to run a concession stand:

• Contact your athletic boosters to get on the schedule for the concession stand during large sporting events.
• Consider selling an ethnic dish of the region you are traveling and take orders in advance so you aren’t left with extra product.
• Contact nearby universities and minor/major league stadiums since many allow fundraising groups to work their concessions and share a portion of the profits.
• Keep an eye on the community calendar for other events (flea market, car shows, county fairs) that you can contact to help run concessions.
• For further information, read our post on EF’s blog, Following the Equator about .

For more fundraising ideas, download our Product Sales Fundraising Guide (PDF)