Schools and groups have long relied on a gift catalog for their fundraising needs. Over the years, increasing fundraising budgets and budget shortfalls have forced fundraising companies to develop high-profit, easy to operate fundraisers.
These catalog fundraisers have a wide reach, offer a variety of popular items in several categories and often add an internet component to the traditional catalog sale to further enhance sales.
With the closing of Giftco, inc. (the largest product supplier to the fundraising industry) there will be some schools wondering if they should fundraise with an event fundraiser or another option this year.
Here’s proof that catalog fundraisers are still the best bet:
According to AFRDS (the association of fundraising distributors and suppliers) over 80% of schools report a fall fundraising catalog as their top annual fundraiser. At the same time, respondents to their polls report that running a catalog sale does not require the amount of volunteer help that other fundraisers require:
School Carnival - 59 volunteers
Auction - 28 volunteers
‘Thons’ (e.g., Walk-a-thon) - 22 volunteers
Breakfasts / Dinners - 17 volunteers
Raffles - 17 volunteers
Product sales - 7 volunteers
Direct Donations - 7 volunteers
((Believe catalog fundraisers do not even need 7 volunteers))
How Believe Kids is prepared to help you this year:
Since 2007 we have anticipated further consolidation in the industry and took steps to strengthen our relationships, increase our US products and suppliers and reduce fundraising retail prices. Here are a few areas of concentration:
• Believe lowered catalog prices on average $2.00 per item
• We offered more items under $20 than our competition
• Believe kept our average item price at $10 last year
• Offer better catalog organization with our ‘Table of Contents’
• We now have 12 years of product creation and 6 years of importing experience
• We have been the fastest growing fundraising company in America for 4 years
• We love our technology! Believe Fundraisers are the easiest to operate
• Believe owns our own warehouse – we do not rely on middlemen
• Believe will not be affected by the Giftco closing!
Why not just sell books, batteries or a green fundraiser this year?
There is a very good reason that schools rely on top-selling catalogs such as the Believe Kids ‘Magical Holidays’ gift catalog.
Catalogs that offer many popular items in many categories sell more – a lot more! Even though everyone uses batteries, not everyone will want to buy them. By offering many items, customers are more likely to find something they need (or at least really want to have)!
Maybe this is the year to try an event like an auction?
While we are advocates of switching up fundraising campaigns, there are a few things you will want to think about before trying an event fundraiser this year. The fall is traditionally the time for a large product fundraiser. It’s tried and true. You will earn more than you can any other way.
Taking a chance during the time of heavy-hitting fall fundraisers may leave you significantly short of your budget. In other words, take a risk during an off-peak time and test the waters! There are many successful fundraising events out there but they do take a lot of hard work to orchestrate.
With the economy in flux this year, the only way we would recommend you risk your fundraising income is if you had a successful event fundraiser last year. If that is the case, evidence suggests that this year’s events have a lower attendance due to the economy. Take the time to truly promote the event if you plan to succeed!
Believe, The Economy and Fundraising in 2009
Believe in particular has taken several steps to ensure a profitable fundraiser in the face of the worst economy many of us have ever seen. Our complimentary tools will reverse the effects of the economy. Other fundraisers are not equipped to make such claims.
This year, promotion of the fundraiser will play a bigger part than ever before. Fundraising with an under-promoted event, single product or a catalog that does not have tools in place to increase sales will likely fall short.
We are keeping close tabs on the effects of the economy on fundraising – regardless of it you use Believe or another fundraiser, we encourage you to write or call with questions and we will help you improve your sale. We will do whatever we can to protect schools this year and understanding the economic effects on our fundraisers this year will allow you to promote specifically to reverse them.
In closing
Despite anything you will hear from other companies, websites or any other source, product catalog fundraising is by far the largest and most profitable method of fundraising and is responsible for raising 2 billion for education every year!
There simply is no substitute for a high-gross fall catalog fundraiser!
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