Product Sales

Homemade Products

• General Guidelines
  • Homemade product sales lend themselves perfectly to a carnival or craft fair, or they can be launched during or after a meeting.
  • You can sell directly or take orders for delivery.
  • Keep your group's mission in mind when you decide what your group can make and sell and select something that you have made successfully before.
  • Volunteers can make the items in their own homes or together in assembly style. If different people are making the same item, they should all have the same recipe.
  • When you decide the price per item, be sure to include ingredients and time.
  • Publicize the sale ahead of time and make big colorful signs for the day of the sale.
  • If you are selling food, give out free samples.
• Some successful homemade products are:
  • Various baked goods such as cookies and cakes or specialty items such as
    • Basically Breads
    • Simply Cinnamon Rolls
    • Just Cookies-A variation on this is a "mix and match" sale.
    • Purely Pies
    • Fantastic Fudge
    • Popcorn
    • Jumbo Pretzel
    • A variation on this theme is to give away the coffee and donuts but be sure that everyone knows that donations are gratefully appreciated.
  • Seasonal Items like
    • Christmas wreaths
    • Christmas ornaments
    • Christmas trees
    • Easter baskets
    • Homegrown pumpkins or other produce
    • Halloween treats
  • Jam and jelly or other preserves
  • Dried soup mixes
  • Plants, flowers, and herbs
  • Calendars with local events. Perhaps you could get a sponsor to keep down expenses.
  • Books
    Take what your group does best and put it into a book. These are time consuming to produce, but they can sell for years.
    • Recipe Books
      Several professional publishers such as Walter's Cookbooks at www.custom-cookbooks.com will help you produce your recipe book if you don't have the expertise to do it yourself.
      AWC Stockholm writes, "Our AWC cookbook was one of them. Members donated recipes, along with little anecdotes to accompany the recipes. It took a long time, as our first floppy disappeared with the first editor (who probably is very fat now from trying out all the recipes), so we had to start all over again. But it has been a wonderful project, and really generated a lot of support and camaraderie amongst our members. The cookbook launch was at an old-fashioned Victorian garden party, held on a private countryside estate overlooking the Swedish archipelago."
    • Guides for newcomers
    • Restaurant, shopping, and service provider recommendations

Manufactured products

• Check the website www.fundraising-yellow-pages.com for a list of product providers. Even if you don't use one of these services, this site can give you some ideas that you could adapt to your part of the world. Some suggestions:
  • Nuts
  • Candy
  • Cheese
  • First aid kits
  • Seasonal items
  • Flower bulbs
  • Telephone cards
• Things that are personalized for your group usually sell well. Some possibilities:
  • Coffee mugs with the US flag and the flag of your host country. We used this as a fundraiser for the conference in London . Although they were popular, storage is a major factor to consider.
  • Tee shirts
  • Posters, bumper stickers, buttons, badges
  • Temporary tattoos
    Don't laugh--One fraternity raised over $10,000 in two months selling temporary tattoos of their school's logo.
  • Note cards with a picture of your clubhouse or a local beauty spot. The FAWCO Friendship Quilt cards are always popular.
• Gift Certificates Solicit donations from merchants or restaurants at a discount, and then sell them at face value. These work especially well at the Holidays.

Selling Services

• Babysitting Service
  This can either be set up so that your volunteers will go to the purchaser's home on a one to one basis the children can come to a central place for one day, such as a Saturday before Christmas. This activity requires a good deal of advance preparation, but you will be providing a valuable service as well as making money for your cause.
• Car Wash
  Yes, it is as old as the hills, but it still works, especially if you have young helpers.
• Care Package
  If you have a boarding school, college, nursing home, or military post in your neighborhood, send a letter to parents offering care packages for their loved ones. Some good ideas-- birthday cakes for children in boarding school or snacks for college students during exam week.
• Teaching classes
  Find a teacher who can teach something interesting and sign people up. Possibilities include languages, crafts, carpentry, plumbing, calligraphy, drawing, painting, photography, cooking, dance, sports, basic first aid, nutrition, self-defense, basic family finance, tax preparation, estate planning, aerobics, body-building.
• Recycling
  Offer to collect recyclables and take them to the scrap dealer or recycling center.