Tuesday, June 16, 2009

I kind of let the blog thing be forgotten for awhile. I'm back!
School Spirit Coffee wants to hear from you, successes and failures in fundraising and why you think that happened.
I've been on three sides of fundraising. The passionate booster parent, a supporter of organizations and the owner of a fundraising company. Since my daughters are grown I'm no longer a booster parent, but I am still on two sides of fundraising. If you knock on my door I'm going to buy something from you. In the past year I have bought a duck pot holder, microwave popcorn, candles, Chistmas ornaments and believe it or not School Spirit Coffee.
First the pot holder - it is shaped like a large duck puppet, bright yellow. The mouth opens to grasp your hot items from the oven. Why did I buy that? Because the cute little seven year old across the street was raising money for her school.
The popcorn, candles and ornaments were purchased for similar reasons. The popcorn was not that great, but it helped a little boyscout. The candles and ornament are still in my bureau waiting to be given away as friendship or hospitality gifts. They are smaller than they looked in the catalog.
OK, this is my favorite. Our local high school soccer team sold School Spirit Coffee last year. One of the soccer team members knocked on our door selling School Spirit Coffee and we bought 3 lbs - two English Toffee, one Snickerdoodle. She had no idea that we were actually the ones they were buying the coffee from. Why did I buy that? Because they knocked on our door!
In summary - I would say that you will have customers that will buy something just because you are selling, but how much better it would be to sell something they are looking to buy again when you are back next year.

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