5 Reasons to Choose Product Fundraising This Year
Who doesn’t love the feel-good combination of chocolate and charity?
Product fundraising offers flexibility and simplicity for organizers, while supporters get to enjoy a high-quality treat.
Post Date: May 25 2023
While our Terri Lynn team hasn’t mastered the art of fortune-telling with coffee grounds (yet!), we can reveal that Terri Lynn will offer your organization a fast and easy solution this fundraising season. Our fundraising programs offer flexibility and simplicity for organizers, and supporters can enjoy a high-quality product. Who doesn’t love the feel-good combination of chocolate and charity!
Now is the time to finalize your fundraising plans for the year ahead. We invite you to explore the reasons why product fundraising is in for a big and tasty return.
5 Ways to Have a Banner Year with Product Fundraising
It’s simple
If you’re short on time, resources or volunteers, product fundraising is a great option for generating funds with less person-power. While fundraising events like galas, races or festivals require months of planning, a product fundraiser can be up and running in far less time. In fact, our Online Store and Order Taking programs can have you selling products and raising money in just a few days!
People are more familiar than ever with online ordering
When working from home became the new norm, so did online ordering. From virtual grocery shopping to restaurant delivery apps, new technologies continue popping up that allow people to relish their favorite pastimes while avoiding traffic and crowds.
This makes buying products online a no-brainer for your supporters, and with our virtual fundraising Online Store Program we’ve made raising money easy for you, too.
You can create a free personalized Terri Lynn Online Store in minutes. Once the store is opened, you’ll be able to share your unique website link in emails, text messages, social media posts, or printed posters using our free promotional tools. And your supporters get to shop online and order the entire range of nearly 40 Terri Lynn products from a secure platform that’s simple to navigate. Purchases are delivered straight to their door (just like they’re used to doing with other online ordering websites), or the products can be sent as gifts to multiple recipients.
No money to collect and no delivery hassles, reducing your volunteer’s time and effort! Your organization receives 20-40% profit on every purchase. Why the range? Because you get to choose between 20, 30 or 40% profit to apply to your Terri Lynn Online Store, so you can earn the maximum profit in your community.
Hybrid fundraisers are on the rise
Group gatherings are back, and the convenience of online engagement stays strong. This makes hybrid fundraisers a great option for reaching your supporters wherever they are.
What does a hybrid fundraiser look like? It could be a walk-a-thon event selling Terri Lynn snacks at the registration desk and finish line, while promoting your Online Store fundraiser on your organization’s website all-year long. Or an online fundraiser, with a culminating soiree for your top supporters at the end.
At Terri Lynn, we offer three fundraising programs that can be used side-by-side to make your hybrid event a success: Case, Order Taking, and Online Store. You can choose to blend two or all three to meet the needs of your group and supporters. For example, you can host an in-person selling event with products on hand (Case Program), take additional orders for home delivery (Order Taking), and promote sales through your Online Store all at once.
Some other benefits of hybrid events include:
Reaching people outside your community with an online Online Store (like relatives and long-distance friends)
Giving supporters an opportunity to choose how they want to participate
Increasing your reach by making it easier for people to buy your product in multiple ways and over a longer time period
Providing easily-shareable links that supporters and participants can distribute to their own online communities
Products make great visuals for social media sharing
It seems like each year the forecast is the same...social media will continue to be the top way for organizations to promote their events and causes. We predict this year will be no different, and product fundraisers have a unique advantage when it comes to social media.
Products give supporters something tangible to hold in front of their camera and share, and also something to talk about long after an event is over (“I’m putting out another bag of Spicy Party Mix for the football game this weekend!”)
More good news? Social media food trends in particular have risen over the past few years, as people share their at-home cooking adventures. Your supporters can post photos of the ways they use their premium snacks or treats (like in a charcuterie board or dessert recipe), while also helping to spread the word about your fundraiser and mission.
There are opportunities to play on seasons and holidays
Product fundraisers have the unique advantage of appealing to people’s sense of nostalgia over the holidays (think about Grandma’s peanut brittle at Christmastime, or your favorite chocolates on Valentine’s Day). There are so many opportunities to promote your products for special occasions, and we recommend mapping them out now to plan ahead.
Here are some of our top celebration and product pairings to sell and promote in 2022:
New Year | Nut & Fruit Mix
Super Bowl | Sweet & Salty Trail Mix
Valentine’s Day | Dark Chocolate Sea Salt Caramels
Easter Sunday | Honey Roasted Cashews
Labor Day | Spicy Party Mix
Thanksgiving | Praline Pecan Halves
Christmas/Hanukkah | Mixed Chocolate Cranberries
Start planning for your product fundraiser now!
Make the most of the year ahead by planning now. A great exercise for product fundraising is sitting down with a blank calendar and choosing which products and programs you want to match with different times of the year. Maybe an in-person event makes more sense for the springtime (in which case you can have products on hand with our Case Program), while an Order Taking event can be a great fit for a sports team at the beginning of the season.
If you’d like another set of eyes and ears when planning your calendar, we can help with that piece, too. Our Fundraising Experts are on hand to ensure your fundraiser (or multiple fundraisers throughout the year) meets or exceeds your goals for the year. We can help you come up with a strategy for promotions and sales, and also walk you through our programs so you’ll know just what to expect as you’re planning for a banner year ahead.