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Gourmet Popcorn: Why This Product Fundraiser Works

If you feel a little wary of product fundraisers like a gourmet popcorn sale, you’re not alone. Many schools, churches, nonprofits, or other charitable groups have had negative experiences with product fundraisers in the past. Maybe the products you’ve tried before were low-quality and not very marketable, or selling and delivering them took too much time.

 

Despite your past experiences with product fundraisers, selling a product like gourmet popcorn will be a positive experience and will get you real results. Let’s jump into three reasons why!

 

Reason #1: A product like gourmet popcorn will get your supporters genuinely excited about contributing to your cause.

Here’s the often overlooked, yet simple key to successful product fundraising: You have to offer a product that your supporters actually want! Popcorn is a universally-loved snack, enjoyed by people of all ages and in all sorts of situations — whether as a tasty afterschool snack or during family movie night. It’s a product that your supporters can actually use and enjoy.

 

Plus, when you’ve chosen a product that you know they’ll love, your supporters will be eager to donate to your cause. Everyone loves getting a little something in return for their generosity, especially if it’s a great snack that they can stock up on and enjoy for weeks or months to come.

 

Reason #2: The right partner makes the process of selling and delivering easier than ever.

Finding success with a gourmet popcorn fundraiser will also require you to partner with the right product fundraising company, one that ensures you don’t have to stress about selling and delivering. The best product fundraising companies out there understand the challenges of product fundraising and works hard to eliminate the stress in the process so you can connect with more supporters and raise more money. And today, most offer an online option to eliminate the stress of in-person selling. 

 

Reason #3: With a great product and a provider who takes care of everything behind the scenes, your volunteer salesforce will be empowered to get valuable experience interfacing with supporters.

One of the great things about selling fundraising products is providing your volunteers with opportunities to interface with your supporters. Especially if you’re working with elementary school students, you may want them to have the experience of explaining your organization’s goals and selling products. When you work with the right popcorn, you can spend more time designing your selling and relationship-building strategy and less time worrying about orders, inventory, and deliveries.

 

Wondering how to give your volunteers an opportunity to connect with supporters when using a fundraising web store? Encourage them (along with their parents!) to share the link to your store on social media, via email, or through text message.

Getting Started With a Gourmet Popcorn Fundraiser

So, you’re ready to get started with a gourmet popcorn fundraiser. Follow these five steps to success!

 

1. Decide how you’ll sell your popcorn.

Once you know you want to sell gourmet popcorn for your next fundraiser, you’ll need to decide what your campaign will look like. Here are some questions you and your team should answer in this planning stage:

  • Will you take orders from family, friends, and community members in person? Or will you use a fundraising web store?
  • How do you want to get your supporters their popcorn? Will you deliver it, or send it to their homes?
  • How long will you run your campaign?
  • What funding goal do you want to meet with this campaign, and how will you track your progress?
  • What skills do you need to train your team in to make this campaign successful?

Once you’ve laid the foundation of how your popcorn fundraiser will go, you’re ready to start spreading the word.

 

2. Promote your fundraiser.

Regardless of the format of your fundraiser, you should promote your campaign using a multichannel strategy. For example, you could advertise your upcoming campaign through the following avenues:

  • Email newsletters
  • Social media posts
  • Blog posts
  • Text message campaigns
  • Campaign postcards
  • Flyers and posters

Whatever marketing materials you choose to use, ensure that you include information about how to order the popcorn and how long your supporters have to do so before the campaign ends.

 

3. Take orders.

This step will look a little different depending on how you’ve decided to structure your campaign. Let’s look at the two options you’ll have:

 

Watch Online Orders Roll In!

With a campaign set up on a fundraising web store, most of your work will be focused during the promotion step. Once you’ve spread the word far and wide about your campaign, all you’ll need to do is give people time to select their popcorn flavors and order their favorites!

 

Take To The Streets To Gather Orders

If you’ve opted for an in-person fundraiser, you’ll need to mobilize your team to start taking orders. Encourage your team to talk to family members, friends, neighbors, community members, co-workers, and other people in their personal circles and to ask them if they’d like to buy popcorn for a good cause. We recommend training your team in how to describe your organization’s cause and goals to help explain the purpose of your campaign.

 

4. Collect your profits and deliver your popcorn.

After you’ve collected your profits and submitted your orders to your product provider, all you’ll need to do is wait for your popcorn to arrive, whether you’ll be delivering it yourself or sending it to your supporters’ homes. If you will be distributing the popcorn your supporters have ordered, try setting up a designated pick-up time and having your supporters come to you. This can reduce the stress of tracking your supporters down to give them their popcorn!

 

5. Thank your donors!

An important step in any fundraising campaign is thanking your donors. Whether you’ll be giving them a call or writing them a thank-you note, this step is critical for maintaining long-lasting relationships with everyone who gives to your campaign.

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