Believe is here to help!

As many of you have already heard, the largest supplier to the fundraising industry closed its doors. We expect that like us, you have wondered what impact this will have on future fundraisers.

Companies are already working behind the scenes to make necessary changes to their fundraisers. We believe companies will tell you upfront if they are going to experience trouble or not. Believe Kids is fortunate to have a diverse catalog with many distributors and will not be adversely affected. Regardless of who you use for your fundraising, make sure to quickly ask how they are responding.

Believe Kids

Believe Kids Fundraising is a strong company with 12 years of nationwide fundraising experience. We have worked with thousands of large schools and groups in all 50 states. We have always been an organization of consultants and not sales people. For this reason, we have grown year-after-year because our schools report more profitable fundraisers with less volunteers needed and better customer service.

Two years ago, we decided to diversify our catalog and expand our cookie dough sales. As a result, we increased our domestic products and overall number of manufacturers limiting our exposure in any one area. Our choices in recent years to limit our exposure in any one area has further strengthened our company and we believe you will enjoy our fundraisers just that much more because of our attention to detail and our variety of product choices.

The Economy

This year, our goal is to increase a school or groups overall sales in the face of a bad economy. Our schools this year will benefit from several free tools that will reverse the effects of the economy and allow them to sell more than ever! If your fundraising company is not giving you tools to increase sales this year, we need to talk!

The Future

We are honored to have a small part of shaping the future of the industry and we want to personally invite any school, group, fundraising representative or fundraising company to discuss the industry with us. We will help in any way we can.

Please feel free to call us at 1-877-723-5438 and as always, if you find the information in these posts helpful, leave comments, subscribe to feeds, follow us on twitter @BelieveKids or leave comments on our new discussion boards.

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A note to fundraising companies – we are in a position to help a select number of representatives and fundraising companies this fall. If you or your company needs some assistance in the short-term, we may be able to help.

A note to schools and groups – If you need a second opinion on your present fundraising plans, we pledge to give you our honest opinion. Of course, we would like to earn your business, but these unique times call for us to support the industry on the whole and we will put your goals first. If you have questions, please let us know.

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Catalog Fundraisers Schools Best Bet for Big Dollar Fundraising

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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