Fundraisers are an important activity for the much needed financial assistance required by schools, churches, sports teams, and non-profit organizations. The money raised goes into providing extra and often much needed support.
Not many people can resist popcorn in the U.S.A. and it has been part of our history since the early 1800s. Popcorn fundraisers are always a winner and help to raise money for many a worthy cause. Popcorn is not only a popular snack because of its great taste, but it is also much healthier than all other snacks and people don’t mind buying it for their children.
Movie nights, whether at a theatre or around the TV are never better than with a box or bag of everyone’s favorite treat and with so many gourmet popcorn flavors now available you can be assured that you will sell all your stocks out in no time.
Popcorn fundraisers work well with almost any campaign or event and are profitable to sell. You will need to decide if you will be selling the popcorn that you and your team will be preparing, packaging and selling or if you will buy from a gourmet popcorn fundraising company that will offer you various purchasing options and profit margins.
There are two ways to arrange a popcorn fundraiser and these include:
- Getting the team to collect orders from family, friends, and neighbors and to then order the stocks from your favorite Gourmet Popcorn Fundraising Company. This way your group will not need to lay out any cash.
- If the church, school or sports team that you are fundraising for have regular events, then popcorn fundraisers can be held at every meeting. Example: Weekly sports meetings or bingo nights.
- Going beyond your family and neighborhood into a high-traffic retail area is a great way to make even more sales. Grocery stores, drug stores and outside shopping malls are where people are already spending money and you will be targeting a whole new market of people willing to donate to a good cause. You will have to make sure that you have enough stock, but not far more than you can sell. You don’t want to run out early, nor do you want to have an overabundance of stock that will be impossible to sell.
Doing it right
- You need to get permission from the management of the store or mall where you and your team have decided to set up your trestle tables.
- Friday afternoons and Saturday mornings are when most stores are busiest so chose the day wisely. You can also ask the store manager which their peak days and hours are.
- Get a good team of volunteers together and make sure there are enough for the number of hours that the fundraiser event is planned for.
- Get your team to work on two-hour shifts so that they don’t get tired. Tired helpers lose their enthusiasm and that might equate to a drop in sales.
- People like to know why you are raising funds so let them know with a big and colorful poster. Example: “Red Robin Elementary School: Help us get more books for our library!” People who are inclined to help will be drawn by the poster and you and your helpers won’t need to convince them. You can spend more time persuading those that are more difficult to sway.
- Display the popcorn neatly in piles.
- When asking that people support your fundraiser by buying use the words “help” and “because”. They are known to be a subconscious psychological trigger that makes people more inclined to give to a good cause. Example: “Can you help us out by buying some of our delicious popcorn because we are raising money to buy more books for our library.”
- Be friendly, as you speak to people and have a smile on your face.
- Emphasize how delicious the popcorn is and let people know that there are numerous flavors for everyone in the family to enjoy.
- Don’t forget to thank people, even if they don’t buy anything or buy fewer packets than you expected.
Buy your popcorn wisely so that you can ensure that your fundraiser will be successful and profitable. If you are buying from a gourmet popcorn fundraising company, look for a supplier that will give you the highest possible profits, without compromising on quality.
