Fundraising and Bake Sales

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“The purpose of life is to contribute in some way to making things better.”

Robert. F. Kennedy

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Click here to get some recipes that would work great for Bake Sale fundraisers!

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Over the past few years, my sister and I have participated in the “Ovarian Cancer Canada Walk of Hope” that takes place each September in Toronto.

This event rallies communities across the country and encourages people who have been affected by the disease to stand together in raising funds and awareness. All proceeds support Ovarian Cancer Canada, the only national charity dedicated to overcoming this disease.

The goal is for the participants to raise money by getting donations from friends, family, co-workers and any other fundraising options and opportunities they can think of.

To date, the Walk has raised over $27 million for life-changing programs and initiatives.

From 2015 to 2018, my sister and I raised over $4000 towards this charity by getting pledges and putting on fundraisers.

Since my sister and I work together at the same company, we were able to raise a lot of money at the office throughout each year with small bake sales (Pop-up Cupcake Sale), tea & muffin orders (March Muffin Madness), lunch delivery (Brown Bag Lunch Day) and more. Our co-workers are generous and wonderful…and love food and home-made baked goods!

The culmination of each 12 month campaign to raise money is always our Huge August Bake Sale at work! A couple of months before this final bake sale, we reach out to our co-workers and ask for help. We recruit volunteers to help out with the baking, the tables and the cash box.

I also got my neighbors involved in my fundraising endeavors last year. Every summer, our street holds an Annual Street Sale, so last summer (2018), I went around asking if anyone would donate items for my “table” where all proceeds would go towards the Walk of Hope. Several neighbors who weren’t already selling their own “treasures” were happy to donate to the cause. On top of the items for sale, my table also included 15 dozen cupcakes that I baked and decorated. (My neighbors are also wonderful and generous…I sold out of cupcakes and people were asking for more!)

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Click here to get some recipes that would work great for Bake Sale Fundraisers!

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Keep reading for tips and tricks on how to throw a fun and successful fundraiser!

10 Steps to a Perfect Fundraiser:

Step #1 – Pick Your Activity

There are so many great fundraising ideas out there. The trick is to match the activity to the situation. Determine who you want to involve in your fundraising efforts. If you are targeting your workmates, then the fundraiser should be geared towards them with bake sales, raffle tickets, etc. Targeting your neighborhood can be more informal, like a street sale or mowing lawns, etc.

Fundraiser Ideas:

The list below show some of the successful ideas that we have used in the past to raise money for charity. They can be done individually or you could combine two or more into a larger scale fundraiser. There are a couple of ideas at the bottom of the list that, while aren’t focused on raising money, are also great ways to give back and help out your community!

• Silent auctions – get items donated by local businesses, like gift cards, a basket of hair care products, a free meal, etc. Have people donate services or blocks of time; hair stylists could donate a free hair cut to be bid on, snow removal company can donate a free driveway plowing, etc.
• Brown Bag Lunch – a great option for a workplace. This could include a sandwich, side salad or dessert & drink to be delivered to their desk around lunch time. Send out an order form a few weeks before to all your co-workers so that they can pre-order. Set a cut-off date to have the orders and money in. Check with local merchants to see if you can get any of the food items donated to lower the cost. (Less cost to produce means more money for the charity!) Offer to add a card or note in your brown bag lunch, giving credit to the merchant for their donation. You don’t have to stick to sandwiches, but I find that they are the most inexpensive options to make and package. Remember that the goal is to make money, so you don’t want to spend too much or there will be no profit.
• Office Bake Sales – a month before, send out an email blast (or hang a flyer on the bulletin board) asking for volunteers to bake, provide plates/napkins or help with set up/tear down, etc. Start advertising the bake sale two weeks before to alert people and build anticipation. Send out another notification a week before as a reminder and building more anticipation. Another alert should be sent out the day before to make sure everyone remembers to bring some money the next day. Then, of course, about 10 minutes before, it would be a great idea to send out saying….”Goodies are ready. Come and get them!”
• Muffin Madness – Muffins and tea for breakfast. Create an order form listing the types of muffins and flavors of tea bags offered. Give a deadline for the orders and the money to be handed in. (Tip: We purchase our muffins at Costco. The are a great value for the price! And no messy clean up after a baking session…) We used bags from the spice section donated by our local bulk store to package the muffins and then tied them up with ribbon. Print off tags with the name of the recipient, the location of their office/cubicle if necessary, and type of muffin and flavor of tea bag. This way you just have to look at the tag to deliver correctly.
• Pop-Up Cupcake Sales in the office- this is like a smaller scaled bake sale but focused only on cupcakes. Because I love to bake, I can whip off multiple dozens of cupcakes in a day or two so this is an option that I have done many times. If you aren’t as inclined to spend hours and hours and hours…and then a few more hours…in the kitchen baking, it would be a good idea to round up a few friends or co-workers to commit to a couple of dozen cupcakes for the cause. It’s a good idea to send an email around the office the day before. There are always a few people who will say that if they had known, they would have brought money. Set a time and send out an email blast 15 minutes before you want to start selling to let everyone know they need to come soon. Also, because this is not a huge baking event, there will be limited cupcakes. As a courtesy (and to stop people bugging you hours later), send out another email when the goodies are sold out.
• Yard or Street Sales – ask friends, family & neighbors if they will donate items for you to sell. Check the weather forecasts to make sure that the date you pick will have good weather. (Always pick and advertise a “Rain Date” as an alternative.) If planning a street sale, drop off a flyer, in advance of advertising, to your neighbors asking if they are willing to participate. Give them a deadline to answer you. Then you can either advertise your own yard/garage sale or the street sale a week or two in advance. Hit the social media routes, put up a flyer on local supermarket/laundromat/dentist office bulletin boards, post an ad in neighborhood newsletters, etc. The more people that know about it, the more items you will sell. I also like to put a donation jar on my table with the information about the charity close at hand. I found many people would drop the change I just handed them directly into the jar.
• Donation Jars – Set up on your desk at work, the reception area or check with local merchants to see if they will allow a donation jar at their business. Make sure you check frequently to see if they need to be collected or removed.
• Raffle Tickets – Movie Night Package, Wine & Cheese Basket, 50/50 draws are all great things to sell raffle tickets on. If you can get the items donated, even better. I get my raffle tickets at a local “Dollar” store. I find it’s a good practice to give options for ticket sales. My standard price is usually 1 ticket for $2.00, 3 tickets for $5.00 and 6 tickets for $10. That way, the more they buy, the better the deal…and everyone loves a great deal!
• Drop boxes for non-perishable food items to be donated to a Food Bank in the office can be put at the reception desk or near the elevator. You can also ask for single use hygiene items to be dropped in a separate box. Homeless shelters are always in need of this type of thing.
• Adopt a family for a holiday – Donate the fixings for a holiday dinner and/or donate Christmas presents for the family (This is a great idea for your department at work.) You can google “adopt a family for Christmas” to find an agency in your area. Here is an example : Adopt a Family

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Step #2 – Set a Goal

• You should set a goal on the dollar amount you want to raise. This will help determine what type of fundraiser you should put on. The higher the dollar amount, the grander the fundraising effort needs to be.

Step #3 – Set a Time Frame

• Always determine your time frame. First decide how long you need to get prepared. Do you need to solicit volunteers, will you need to ask for donated items, do you need to book an area for the fundraiser? Is there a deadline to have your donations in for the charity?All these take time. Factor all that in and then you will know when you can be ready.

Step #4 – Assemble a Team

• This is where you will start organizing your volunteers.
• Determine who will be doing what.
• Check with them again to make sure they are still committed and nothing has come up in the meantime.
• Once you have your team sorted, share the knowledge with all volunteers in case they can pair up to get things done more efficiently or even help each other out if necessary.

Step #5 – Make Lists or Planners

• Make a check list of the activities leading up to the fundraiser. Tick off each item as it is completed. You won’t be caught unprepared on the “big day” if you do this.
• Have a separate list for volunteers and what their function will be (share with the whole group as stated in Step #3).

Step #6 – Get familiar with your cause

• Be able to talk about your cause when someone asks
• Know why you are doing the fundraiser – Charity name, purpose, etc
• If you are raising money for a charity in someone’s name, be able to provide the background story (if not too personal)
• Have hand-outs to give away with all the information so that if someone wants to contribute at a later date, they have the information.

Step #7 – Use your tools (Online & Off)

• Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Blog – These are all ways to get the word out. Make up a digital flyer and post to all your social media accounts. Ask your friends and followers to share the post as well.
• Email – Send an email blast to friends, co-workers, and even professional contacts (within reason).
• Print flyers – put on bulletin board at office/grocery stores, in neighborhood mailboxes, etc.
• Google, Bing, Pinterest – Use these to source out money raising ideas that work best for your situation. It’s important for the activity to be a good fit for the situation, place and group you will be working with.

Step #8 – Make it Personal

• Talk to friends and family about helping you out, whether it’s with monetary donations or volunteering time or activities.
• Create a personal fundraising page within the charity parameters. If you enter a marathon or a walk for charity, they will usually set you up with a personal page where people can donate online to the charity but it still shows under your fundraising effort.

Step #9 – Use Your Connections

You probably know more people than you think you do. For example:

• Family
• Friends
• Colleagues (present or former)
• Neighbors
• Former roommates
• Former classmates
• Parents of your friends
• Teachers and mentors (your’s or your kids’)
• Members of your sports team, choir, book club

Now, I get that you might not want to directly ask all these people for money…but you can ask for help with your fundraiser.

Lots of major donors and potentially very useful and helpful people could be in your life, but are never invited to use their influence or get more involved in your fundraiser. Not everyone will intuitively know what you need, or burst in and save the day. Many people wait to be asked.

So, you’re going to have to ask. Here are four “asks” to start leveraging your connections.

• Ask for advice – this demonstrates you value their knowledge and experience, and want them to be involved.
• Ask for something specific – A specific ask will help a lot because it triggers specific thinking. Aim for questions like: “Do you know who could help us reserve the meeting room for our fundraiser?” or “Do you know someone with a pick-up truck we could ask for help?”
• Ask how they want to help – This type of question: “Do you have any ideas for fundraising this year?”, “How would you like to be involved?” or “Is there anything you’d like to try to help our organization?”
• Ask them to go deeper – invite them to participate in more of the development process. They can write thank you notes, call donors, pick up supplies, etc.

Step #10 – Follow Up & Say “Thank you”

Following up is an important part of any campaign or event. 

While there will be some differences in follow-up methods, depending on the size of the organization, there are three main elements to following up on a fundraising campaign.

• Saying “Thank You!” – Item donors (i.e. – raffle items or baked goods) should get a personalized thank you, via email or written note. For large donations, I like to send a personal written note. For smaller donations and for time volunteers, an email is the way I go. And always make sure you thank the people who purchase those raffle tickets, baked goods, yard sale items (etc.) verbally when they hand over the money! “Thanks for supporting (the cause), enjoy your muffin!”
• Gathering Information and Feedback – if you plan to make your fundraiser a regular thing, you should gather up information that will help with future events. You can create a donor survey and send a link in the Thank You email (or add the link address in the written note). Also, check with your volunteers and ask them to email you any thoughts they had, things that could be done differently next time, and if they would be willing to help out again.
• Sharing Results – send out an email blast or hang a sign on the bulletin board where you posted initial advertising of the event. Once again, thank everyone for participating with donations/volunteering/purchasing and let them know how successful the function was. “Thank you to everyone who helped make this fundraiser a success by donating, volunteering and coming out to buy our amazing baked goods (or buying tickets, etc.). I am happy to announce that we were able to raise $750 for the (insert cause name)!

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