Cookie dough and frozen foods still lead the way when it comes to fundraising success for your school or organization. However as in any fundraiser there can be a decline in results over time. Some of the most common reasons for declining results are:

• People have bought in the past and still have cookie dough in their freezers.
• Challenges with delivering frozen perishable items to friends and co-workers
• Desire for more product and pricing options

Results can increase dramatically by adding a gift catalog to your cookie dough/frozen foods fundraiser. The additional variety of items, lower pricing options and ease of delivery can increase your results by up to 40%. Since this is the case, why doesn’t everyone add a gift catalog to their cookie dough/frozen foods fundraiser? The reason is they want to avoid the hassle of dealing with two different products and deliveries.  What is the answer to this dilemma—Home Delivery of the gift catalog items to each seller’s address.

Home Delivery of the gift catalog items means you don’t have to coordinate two different product deliveries. You can focus on the cookie dough/frozen foods part of your fundraiser and enjoy the additional profits generated by introducing a quality gift catalog such as our “Simply Spring” catalog to your community.

Red Apple is the leader in the fundraising industry in the ability to offer accurate trouble-free Home Delivery without any additional costs. We have offered this service for over five years on a limited basis. That experience has now enabled Red Apple to offer this service to all of our clients.

Acting now, you can still schedule a combination cookie dough and gift catalog fundraiser before the end of the school year. If you are concerned that there is not enough time to do both, you could use the Simply Spring gift catalog by itself utilizing Home Delivery. Home Delivery means school vacations will not interfere with delivery of your fundraising items.

Offering quality products and no hassle fundraising has always been our goal. We invite you to experience the benefits of having Red Apple be your fundraising partner. Call or email us today to get your fundraiser started or to get more information.

You’ve just kicked off your cookie dough and/or gift wrap fundraiser and everyone involved is excited. Does this mean that now you can just sit back and wait for the money to roll in? Hardly! There is much more to having a successful fundraiser than just getting it kicked off. It is an ongoing process that requires a hands-on approach.

Why is it that with all things being equal, some organizations always seem to do better than others? It’s all about follow up. What you do after the kick-off is every bit as important as the kick-off itself. Here are some proven ideas that can help you get maximum results.

1. Remind the participants on a daily basis about how important their efforts are.
2. Reach out to all parties involved including staff, parents and your community using newsletters, social media and your website if applicable.
3. Have a specific goal and track it by using visual aids such as charts and thermometers.
4. Offer additional incentives even if you are working with a fundraising company that provides an awards program for the participants. Examples:
   1. An activity such as an ice cream party, movie party, or fun night if the goal is reached.
   2. Participation awards: Offer an incentive for classes or the group as a whole if they achieve a desired level of participation (50% or more depending on the size of the group is reasonable).
   3. Drawing prizes: Offer a top end award such as a gift certificate, amusement park trip, tablet computer or other popular device for every one selling a certain amount (usually between 5-12 items)
   4. Silly and funny stunts can work wonders. One Principal offered to allow herself to be duct-taped to the wall if the students reached the goal.
5. Have a deadline and keep it to avoid procrastination. If you extend the end date for your fundraiser, announce it the last day and tell everyone what needs to happen to reach the goal.

A successful fundraiser uses the same principles as a successful sports team. It is all about coaching, encouraging and monitoring the process on a daily basis. Stay on top of your fundraiser and you can be assured that you will achieve the best results possible.

Product fundraising is the most popular form of fundraising. Why? Because it offers value to your supporters in addition to making profit for your organization. This does not mean that every product fundraiser is going to be  a winner for you and your community. There are a couple of possible pitfalls that could derail your fundraiser and even affect future fundraisers adversely. Here are a few examples:

• Choosing the wrong product. One fundraising company many years ago chose a product called “Resurrection Plants.” The promise was that you could put an ugly looking dried plant into water and it would blossom into a pretty green plant. It did blossom as promised but the plant was ugly and everyone was unhappy.
• Over-pricing the product. Many smaller or new companies promise profits that sound too good to be true. Yes, the profit on that candle might be 50% but the price had to be raised to an artificially high level to get that percentage. This creates two possible problems. The first is that the customer doesn’t buy the item because it is perceived as having low value. The second is even worse. The customer buys the item but it falls short of expectations. Unhappy customers may not support your next fundraiser.
• Imported or one of a kind products. If a product is imported or is not available domestically the company may not be able to supply it and ends up either substituting or canceling the order. Either way, it causes confusion, delays and possible customer dissatisfaction.

You can avoid the problems we just discussed by choosing your product carefully. Two of the most popular categories of products are frozen food items including cookie dough, cheesecakes and snack items and non frozen products including gift wrap and novelty items. At Red Apple/Mrs. Fields our focus is on providing quality American made items. Here is why the Red Apple/Mrs. Fields fundraisers are win/win campaigns:

• Our Mrs. Fields cookie dough and other fine frozen foods are popular proven products of high quality
• Pricing is good. Mrs. Fields cookies for example are about half the price as the mall stores charge.
• Quality non frozen gift and wrapping paper items. 50% of the items are priced at $10 or less with over 70% of the items being American made.
• Quality and fair pricing means more sales. In fact the average seller generates over $60 profit.

Whether you choose Red Apple or some other company for your fundraiser, be selective–your supporters will thank you.

For more information you can fill out this form or to set up your fundraiser, fill out the Group Info Form.