What are some effective fundraising strategies for a gymnastics club?

[pcchefjane]

I sent them the proposal 2 weeks ago. I got a call from one of the ladies that is also my customer. She said call the Booster Club Mom, Lauren, that she had some questions... I reach her today after 3 days of phone tag and she says, "Can you have the catalogs and order forms on MONDAY??" I am borrowing every catalog I can get my hands on. I need 20-25 packets and want to put in 2 catalogs each. I was down to my last 10 today after my KITK birthday party and wasn't concerned since I was getting my 25 from my New Recruit this week!

I want to put in the information about how much they earn for each parent plus 5 OOFs, the "How to fill out the order form" flyer, my website information, and the rewards scale.

Those of you who have done these before... What do you give the child/parent who sells the most? I was thinking a $25 gift card to Wal-Mart. Should I offer anything to the others... This is a group of only 25 so I think just one for 25 sounds good.

They also want me to set up a table on the next two Friday nights for Open Gym Night where they open it to the community. I thought about doing the same basic display I did today with a little bit of each group plus my Tool Turn-About full of various tools. I will take orders there as well.

Any and all suggestions will be appreciated!! Thanks a bunch!

 

[JMT]

I am hoping to start doing some fundraisers...what info. did you send them originally to make contact etc.?
Thanks

 

[pcchefjane]

I will attach the forms I sent. I got them all from here and tweaked them for my various ones.

 

[mscharf]

Just my opinion, but I have done a few fundraisers with kids and I have only done 1 catalog in my packet. (Leave a few extra at the gym if anyone would like a second) and PUSH the website!

 

[pcchefjane]

Thanks...I was concerned with not having but one catalog per person. I will keep a few at the Gym as well. I have already set it up on my website and intend to push its use big time for out of town relatives!

 

[Krista Burson]

Thanks...I was concerned with not having but one catalog per person. I will keep a few at the Gym as well. I have already set it up on my website and intend to push its use big time for out of town relatives!

We only get one catalog when our kids are sent home from school with fundraiser packets, so I would treat that packet the same way.

 

[pcchefjane]

I delivered them last night and everyone was very enthusiastic. I am going down with a display on Thursday and/or Friday evenings. We will close on March 30th. We will do one also for the month of April because there is two meets there that I can set up. I told them we could treat those as fundraisers too. They were very pleased! Now if it will all go well! Unfortunately I can't do any kind of demo because food is prohibited....

 

[emo812]

Could you elaborate on the packets you give out? I would love to see how you set them up and what the order form instructions look like. Any info would be great!Thanks!

 

[pcchefjane]

Here is the OOF with "mark ups" and the instructions! Hopefully when I get these forms back, it will be filled out correctly!

 

[emo812]

Thanks so much! You did an awesome job!

This might be silly put how did you get your name typed on the OOF? I always try and can never get it to do it so I usually just print them and stamp them. I'd love to know your secret!

 

[pcchefjane]

Someone here told us about this website! I love it! I did all the "letters" on the OOF from there! http://www.pdfescape.com/pdf/account/?r=expire

 

[emo812]

Thank you so much!! You're the best! It always drove me nuts that they didn't put a text box there for us to use.

 

[jigsmom]

Someone here told us about this website! I love it! I did all the "letters" on the OOF from there! http://www.pdfescape.com/pdf/account/?r=expire

I put it in another thread how much I thank you for this link. You and whoever put it here origianlly are a lifesaver. Thank you!!!:love:

Also, love your signature. That verse has been a lifeline to me over the years!!:angel:

 

[PCCHeather0506]

I LOVE these flyers! I'm looking into doing a fundraiser for my sisters gymnastics team so they're PERFECT! I'm a little confused though on how we offer free shipping?? Do we have to pay that ourselves?

 

[pcchefjane]

We do it as a "Consultant gift" but orders can be combined to reduce the cost instead of on each individual order. You just keep a copy of the original order and give them that as their receipt. If anything happens to anything, you make the adjustment yourself.

 

[pcchefjane]

Closed the fundraiser today... It ended up at $1106.75! I have spent literally hours going over the forms, trying to figure out what all they did. I plainly told them NOT to charge shipping...I would donate it. Wrote that on 3 of the 4 pieces of paper I put in each folder and LO AND BEHOLD, 5 people paid shipping anyway. The lady who was the chairperson turned into a "witch with a b" :grumpy:this weekend. She leaves me a voicemail on Sunday night that I can come by the Club on Tuesday (I plainly stated that I needed everything on Monday to be sure I didn't have any problems I needed to address) and would need to come at 11 a.m. I called and left a voicemail Sunday night, telling her I had told everyone at the meeting and anyone I talked to last week that I would be at the Club on Monday night to pick up orders and needed to discuss this with her. No return calls... I tried her again Monday morning... I take care of my two grandchildren (7-1/2 months and 2-1/2 years old) from 9:30-1:30 Monday-Friday. No response again. I call at naptime. She finally calls me back. She said I NEVER said that in the meeting...she doesn't intend to be at the Club tonight...she had everyone turn in their orders to her and they are locked up until Tuesday! WTH??? She also said she would collect all the money and the Club would write me one check. I told her one boy had over $300 in orders that had been placed online from family and that I already had his payments. I explained again that Tuesdays were nearly impossible for me since my DD works 9:30-1:30 then goes to the Y to work 3-5:30 and we have FPU Tuesday night 5:30-7:30. She says, "Well you want the orders, it will have to be Tuesday!" I am boiling at this point but tell her I will see how we can work things out. So my DD leaves work 30 minutes early so I can leave right at 1:00. I try to take a shower while baby sleeps and grandson watches "Play With Me Sesame"! The baby wakes up and I get her to stop crying and put her in the exer-bouncer so I can go get in the shower. I hurry out of the shower and play "peek-a-boo" while trying to keep the baby from crying while I put on make-up and brush my teeth. I run down to my bedroom and put on underwear and pants...rush back up stairs to finish dressing. I give the baby a bottle who is eyeing me because I haven't put on bra or shirt yet... I tell her "Those have been dry a long time, Sissy" and she laughs. I finally get ready and fix my grandson's lunch and mine. I eat and in between I am putting him on the potty every 30 minutes! Finally my DD gets home, I get the laptop after getting the latest P3 file on the Fundraiser from my desktop. I go to the Club. The lady is very rude and says, "Here's the orders and money. You can take them and your other folders." I smile and say, "Oh let me go back here and check them all to be sure I don't have any questions." She says, "By the way, some people paid shipping so it is YOUR responsibility to refund it to them.":yuck: Can you believe that??? Anyway, I add it all up and go up to the desk to tell her the total is $1106.75 and they made $166.01. One of the coaches/parents says, "Is that all?" I smiled (I wanted to slap her) and said, "No, it's not. As I promised since it went over $1,000, I am also donating 2/3 of my own commission as well!" I was told at the Booster Club meeting that they wanted me to have a table at the Meet on April 5th and 25th. Now they said it will be too crowded and "you aren't needed". I asked them how they wanted to handle raffling the Host Special. The lady says, "I know how to conduct a raffle. We'll print tickets and handle it ourselves." I am floored because this was a way I was going to get some contact information from attendees, etc. The other lady says, "Will this be back by Sunday?" I smiled again:chef: (and prayed I would not slap her) and said, "I ordered one in advance you can use." I was so furious when I left. I donated shipping which cost me $22.38 plus $110.68 of my commission! I also made 150 copies of the OOF for March since they needed 20 folders for the Booster Club... Only 5 parents (that's right) ended up selling! At least I get all my catalogs back... I walked off and left them there today, I was so angry and ready to slap them! I'm sorry but $279.44 profit on $1106.75 in sales is pretty darn good to me! I am also giving $25 Walmart gift card to the child who sold the most. Two kids were within $40 of each other. One is a boy who really went out and got orders from family that charged to my website. Not sure where the girl got hers but "mom" put all the orders on two forms so I have NO clue who bought what! I plan on giving both children a gift card so probably will end up making nothing! My sales for the month are $2,488 and it is not worth it to make it $2,500 for an extra 1% commission!

Side note: One of the moms on the Booster Club (in fact, she is the one who got me the fundraiser) emailed my daughter and said she didn't see me last night and were we leaving the fundraiser open another week... I called her and mentioned a little of the confusion. I asked her if she understood me to say no shipping, close March 30, etc. She sells Creative Memories and she said, "I remember you saying distinctly that you wanted to close everything on March 30th and would be here that night to pick up orders and answer any questions because you wanted to get it in before the last day of the month." At least I know I am not stupid. She also was SHOCKED that they were not letting me set up at the meets. She said, "We discussed how that could bring in even more money since there would be people from all over the state/region!" Hope she tells the other parents about it.

Lots of lessons learned here:
1. Don't offer free shipping. I lost money doing this.
2. Be sure everyone is on the same page. Obviously these two ladies were not. Even if you give it to them in writing, repeat it. Also make it clear that you will NOT make but one copy of the OOFs for each person and they can make more as needed.

3. Insist on a firm deadline. Don't let it "float" so that you end up counting and recounting (I was so paranoid) items for 3 hours to get it submitted by the EOM!

Needless to say, I won't be doing anything for them again. I am going to talk to a couple of parents who were interested in having Shows (one was thinking about the biz too) and see if they would like to do a fundraiser between themselves and I would still offer the same deal... I don't think they will be pleased at all with the attitude. One in particular was talking about how having me at the meets would help the Club and myself as well! I was looking forward to the sales for April too!

 

[pcchefjane]

I have talked to 2 parents who are wanting to do another fundraiser in April! LOL! I am going to call the other parents who turned in orders and also ask them to mention it to the other parents that I would be glad to do it in April too. I think it is too funny after the two ladies were so ugly that the other parents think what we made is great. Maybe another one will not only give me more contacts but also the bookings I was hoping for and actually make money this time!

 

[pcchefjane]

Well I was so disgusted tonight when I went by the Club. I was handed 4 orders that total almost $200 for the fundraiser. Lauren says, "I really am not sure how you want to handle these." I smiled and said, "Well I've talked to a couple of parents and they want to go through April as originally planned for the fundraiser for April so I'll just see how we do. I told her I had forgotten to grab my Silicone Floral Cupcake Pan for the raffle and would bring it back so they could "show" it. Theirs would be in the order when it is returned. She said, "You don't have it." I said, "No, I have one you can show. Since the order went in so late, I only have mine. I'll be glad to ship it to the winner if it is out of town." She says, "That's okay. We'll probably just use it for the Meet on the 25th anyway." I leave then get a call while I am in Bi-Lo trying to grab groceries to go home and cook dinner for my gf who is coming over for a good meal and fellowship. It is Beth... "How dare you tell Lauren you won't have that thing for Sunday. You told us Tuesday you had ordered several." (Yeah right...$38 each...I don't think so.) "I want to talk to your supervisor!" I say, "I am an independent consultant. I don't have a supervisor." She says, "My sister used to sell PC and she had a supervisor." (Say what??) "I demand you call someone and get one of those things here TONIGHT. You know you promised things you didn't do." (Okay, I am in the middle of Bi-Lo on a scooter since my legs are hurting and trying to be nice...) I say, "I'll call around and see what I can do, but typically most consultants are not working on Fridays so I am not sure how soon I will reach someone." She says, "You better call me back tonight and deliver that thing here. You will not do another fundraiser here. I'll find someone else. You didn't give us what you promised. I printed all our programs with a ticket number in them for the giveaway." (Say what?? You are raffling something off and you give everyone who comes in a ticket number. What if someone doesn't want to buy a ticket?) Again I say, "I'll see what I can do." Well I call my HD. I apologize for calling her on a Friday night and ask her if she has a Silicone Floral Cupcake Pan. She doesn't but says she'll email blast everyone tonight for me if I don't find one. I tell her all the lady said. She says, "Didn't you explain all the percentages?" I say, "I gave it to them in writing so there would be no question." She says, "Just do what you have to and let it go. That's ridiculous!" I called one of the other Directors in my Hospitality Upline. Cheryl is so funny! I explain the problem and ask if she has one. She does and when I tell her that I told the lady most consultants don't work Friday nights and that "I don't have a supervisor" she says, "You go Girl! I wouldn't even call her back tonight." I tell her I don't plan to but will let her know in the morning by voicemail if I have to that I'll have it mid-afternoon. In the meantime, I will call the other parents and offer them the same deal I gave the Club before. I ran my "numbers"! I ended up LOSING $36.05 between the free shipping, copies, ink cartridge, and Walmart gift cards! Next time I'll be more careful! Live and learn I guess! I figure if it is any good at all (like $1,000 again), I have 3 other catalog shows at least plus hopefully get some other shows scheduled in April and win either free or half-price conference registration and help out my totals that way!Thanks for letting me vent! Now I won't kill the woman tomorrow! LOL!

 

[BlessedWifeMommy]

Wow!!! You really went above and beyond. All to be treated like that! Glad to see you vented, it does do us good to vent!

 

[pcchefjane]

I have five parents of the six (the other one is one of the "mean" ladies above) so I have already added it to my website. I talked to Lauren this morning to tell her I had gotten a Silicone Floral Cupcake Pan from another Consultant and could deliver it today when it was convenient. She was so nice and sweet about it. I am planning on putting a note with it, asking for the winner's contact information so it will be under warranty.