How To Run A Bake Sale

So many have requested I share my steps to running a bake sale and making it worth your time.  So today I am am sharing the things I have learned.

First I think I have to say I never run a fundraiser on my own, or want to take credit.  While our boys are on a team, so are our parents.  A fundraiser is always going to be most successful when those coordinating work together!

That being said, here are my 10 tips

1. Have a good system of communication for your team.  All of our parents have a facebook account so we created a private facebook group for our team that we use to plan all fundraising events.
2.  Coordinate an organizing committee.  While you want total team or group participation to be most profitable, having 1-3 parents as the head of the event works best.  The fundraiser we just had, we had 2 moms take the lead.  1 mom secured the location and communicated all the information about date/time to the team.  I took on making a sign up genius of all the baked goods we planned on selling throughout the day.
3. Fun, different items are the most sellable during a sale.  Also classic favorites.  I know that sounds contradicting, but hear me out.  No one wants to buy something they can walk into the store and grab.  At the same time there are buyers who want classic treats that they love.  Rice Krispies and Brownies were those items for us.  Some of our fun unconventional items included cotton candy cones, marshmallow pops. 
4. Think about those that can’t have sweets.  It was so nice when donators came up and said they couldn’t do cookies or brownies to be able to offer an alternative.  We had a mom make popcorn and it was a hit!  We also had a variety of muffins as well for the earlier hours.  Try to sell those off early though, they don’t tend to sell later in the day.
5. Presentation is KEY!  Just putting items in a ziplock baggie isn’t going to cut it.  You want the table to look inviting and attractive.  Pick a color scheme, whether it’s your team colors or surrounding an upcoming holiday, make it FUN!
6. Find a high traffic spot to set up.  We had a local Walmart allow us to set up our tables at the entrances.  We had our event in January in Virginia, so we ran the risk of the weather not cooperating and it being a bust, but we got a 60 degree day and it worked out.  We picked a nice neighborhood, and a Saturday when there is a ton of people going in and out of the store.  Also a Saturday we were able to get all the players out to work the table.
7. Make the kids work for it.  A table of parents raising money for their kids activities isn’t going to get a ton of attention, but if your kids on the team are out with signs talking to people it makes a much bigger impact.  Plus it teaches them that these fancy uniforms, tournaments and equipment aren’t just handed to them.
8. Don’t be too pushy.  Just be nice and kind.  There is no need to stand there and hound people.  The best approach, at least for me a super shy non outgoing person was to just greet people good morning and as they were leaving tell them to have a great day.
9. Pricing.  This really is up to you as a group, but we find that pricing everything the same works best.  So much less hassle.  So we did $2 an item.  We made sure to bundle things to make sure they were getting a few cookies or muffins and such.  remember it is a fundraiser, so see it as a donation and the baked item as a thank you.  Also by doing $2 an item, we have a lot of people buy 2 things, and then just have us keep the change from a $5.
10. Promote on Social Media.  Post in local Facebook groups that there will be a sale.  Have a flyer that all parents can post on their wall.  You never know, relatives that live out of town may want to make a donation from afar.  Also a local business could see your efforts and a possible sponsorship could come from it as well!

Have any additional tips to help, leave them in the comments!

Be sure to download the Beginners Guide to Bake Sales PDF to help you get started!