You might be eager to dive in and start dishing out cookie dough to your students, community members, or whoever else makes up your unique donor base. But don’t be too hasty—before you launch into your grand cookie dough campaign, you’ll want to take a moment to address these important questions.

Are you partnering with a product fundraising service?

One of the first decisions you’ll have to make when planning your cookie dough fundraiser is whether you’ll be captaining the venture on your own or partnering with a dedicated fundraising service.

While the first option gives you more wiggle room to completely make the fundraiser your own and keep 100% of the profits, it will also take a great deal of coordination for you to collect your dough, create a sales plan, and figure out your order and delivery system.

If you’re new to cookie dough sales or you just want to ensure that you have the support of cookie dough fundraising professionals, we recommend partnering with a product fundraising service. This team should not only provide you with your dough, but help set up a marketing, order fulfillment, and delivery plan to make your fundraiser as smooth as possible.

Have you picked the right price points and flavors?

No one knows your donors better than you, and you’ll need to use that knowledge to make your fundraiser as accessible and as enticing as possible for your supporters. In particular, pay attention to cookie dough pricing and flavors.

These are two big, donor-facing elements of your fundraiser that can have a big impact on whether or not they participate. Think about what your donors can afford, potential food allergies, and what flavors they might like based on your target demographic. For example, oatmeal raisin cookies may perform better for adult donors than young students and their families.

On top of that, if you’re partnering with a fundraising service, pay attention to their cost of service, delivery prices, and other price points to ensure you’re getting a good deal.

What kinds of cookie dough are you selling?

Cookie dough can come in all sorts of forms, and each unique type can affect how you obtain, store, and deliver your product. Here are just a few common kinds that you might run into:

• Chilled tubs of cookie dough. This is the most common cookie dough packaging style you’ll find, requiring refrigeration to keep tubs frozen and fresh.
• Powdered cookie mix. If you’re going to plan and host your own cookie dough sale without a fundraising service, this will probably be your easiest option. Powders don’t require refrigeration and donors will add their own milk and eggs.
• Refrigerated, pre-formed cookies. This package option makes things as easy as possible for donors, as they know exactly how many cookies they’re getting and all they have to do is pop the pre-rolled cookie dough discs into the oven.

Pay attention to the options available to you to choose the best cookie dough type for your donors and your fundraising team!

Have you worked out the logistics of running your cookie dough sale?

Once you get the ball rolling on your cookie dough sale, you’ll be surprised at how well donors respond to this irresistible campaign. However, you first need to take stock of the logistics of how the dough will be processed and distributed. In particular, focus on these critical considerations:

• How will you obtain and store your dough?
• How will the product be delivered?
• What forms or methods will donors use to fill their orders?
• What payment tools will you be using?
• Will you conduct an online, in-person, or hybrid sale?

To streamline these logistics, we recommend partnering with an experienced cookie dough fundraising service provider that should have many of these details nailed down before you even reach out to them.