Fundraiser Terms: A Quick Guide

The Fundraising Process

A successful fundraiser depends on following these key steps.

1. Planning Your Fundraiser

Set Clear Goals: To guarantee success, it’s really important to set a clear goal and outline expectations for everyone involved. Skipping this step can lead to much lower profits and a less effective fundraising experience.

Select Fundraiser Dates: For your fundraiser to be a success, it’s crucial to start before your season begins or as quickly as possible. It’s equally important to keep the selling campaign brief and efficient. Selling longer than 2 weeks doesn’t typically lead to more sales, though sometimes, due to organizational activities, the campaign may need to last 3 weeks. Please avoid delaying or altering your dates once you sign up unless it’s an emergency, as changing dates can affect overall sales. Please contact us before changing dates.

2. Brochures & Selling

Brochure Payment & Shipping: Once you complete the “Begin Fundraiser” form, we’ll send you a payment link for your brochures. After we receive payment, we’ll confirm your shipping address and get those brochures headed your way. If you’re an existing customer in good standing, you might not need to pay for brochures upfront.

Your brochure payment will be refunded to your cookie dough invoice once your fundraiser is successfully completed. For the Bonus Plan, you’ll need to sell a total of 1000 items to qualify for a refund, while the MVP Plan requires the sale of 2,000 items. We don’t offer partial refunds. If you can’t complete your fundraiser, simply return all unused materials within 30 days for a full refund.

Printing & Distributing Brochures: Use the link we provide to print our colorful cookie dough brochures for everyone in your organization. A great way to distribute them is during a mandatory meeting where participants can immediately fill in their name and contact number before gathering orders. This is also a good time to discuss expectations.

Selling Campaign: Participants will collect payment for each item sold, recording each transaction (including the purchaser’s name and contact info) on the order form. We recommend using social media to maximize sales! It’s important to note that only the MVP plan offers online ordering with a ship-to-home option. All other plans will have orders shipped to your organization for distribution.

Campaign Duration: The ideal selling period is 10-14 days, with a maximum of 30 days. Campaigns longer than 30 days tend to be less effective and profitable.

Changes or Extensions: If your fundraiser’s completion date changes or there are delays, please let us know in writing within 30 days of your initial agreement date. You can extend your fundraiser by a maximum of 30 additional days from the original end date. If you can’t distribute promotional materials within 30 days of receiving them, we recommend returning them and restarting your fundraiser at a more suitable time. Not doing so could lead to your fundraiser being canceled without a refund.

3. Order Submission & Profit

Order Turn-In: At the end of the campaign, participants submit their completed order forms along with the collected money. It’s crucial to double-check that each form includes the participant’s name and phone number, and that the total funds submitted match the number of items sold.

Data Entry Options: For customers utilizing our Bonus or MVP plans, you’ll benefit from our premium packaging service, which accurately sorts, fills, and labels each seller’s order before it leaves our warehouse. Here are your options:

1. 1. Online Dashboard Entry: Our premium packaging service is great for busy volunteers, saving you time on sorting and filling orders. It’s highly accurate and avoids potential time-consuming errors. a. You’ll use our online dashboard to enter each seller’s order information. We’ll provide instructions and phone or email support from our warehouse (Monday through Friday, except June 1st—September 1st, when it’s Monday through Thursday). b. We can also include labeling options for: team, class, or grade names to make distribution easier. c. You’ll receive detailed seller reports with your order to help with distribution and accounting.

   2. Fundrazor Data Entry: We can also do the data entry for you to save you time and stress for a fee of $0.25 per item including bonus items.
      If you choose this service, here’s what we need:

      a. Ensure every order form includes the seller’s name. If not, write “unknown #1” (and so on), adding a team, grade, or class name if possible.

      b. Each order form must be legible and accurate. We recommend having sellers redo illegible forms. We aren’t responsible for errors from mistake-ridden or illegible orders; it’s your organization’s responsibility to handle them.

      c. Total each flavor column at the bottom of the order form in the number of items sold, not the dollar amount.

      d. Make copies for your records, then mail the original forms to us. We’ll complete the data entry within 72 hours of receiving them. Please use UPS or FedEx only for mailing, as they provide tracking.