by Ben Sissom

Created on: January 27, 2009

The best school fund-raiser ideas

One of the best school fund raiser ideas came after visiting the website "Sweet Wishes by Shellie". This website offers customized candy wrappers for all sports and other activities. The customization of the wrapper is what sold me because it was a product that the team members could keep in their memory books but also would sell due to their unique quality. Finding fund-raising ideas that are different is essential to successfully raising funds for any school activity. Everyone is selling something so your group has to find ideas outside of the box or in this case candy wrapper.

Once I contacted the website I was offered many different choices. Examples were given for sports, holidays and even personalized birthday candy bars. The website offered pricing options for the wrappers, candy bars and even mini candy bars for promoting events. It was clear and concise with no surprises. Clarity and ease is thing you look for in a fund-raiser idea. Contacting the representative was the next step. A catalog was sent to my house for me to look over and the emails started going back and forth. They were very patient with my requests since I was a first time fund-raiser. How much per candy bar? What price should I sell for? Did I pay upfront? What was the minimum order? Could I order by the team member or place one big order? Colors, sizes and fonts were also talked about and artwork was passed back and forth. Many designs were already available through the website.

Deciding on a design was the hard part when choosing to use personalized candy bars as a fund-raiser option. So many choices, so little time but the representative at Sweet Wishes by Shellie was very patient and helpful. She even gave me the idea of putting the teams name and logo on the front while obtaining sponsors for the back portion. Combining promotion with another fund-raiser was a superb idea. We were able to find four sponsors in our community and placed their business information on the back. Now we were able to do two fund-raisers within one.

When looking for fund-raising ideas for your group, stay away from the over complicated ordering systems or the companies that want you to agree to buy a certain amount of product upfront. These can be costly mistakes that will frustrate you and your support staff; not to mention the parents. Fund-raising is complicated enough without dealing with companies that aren't patient or clear throughout the process. Save yourself some time and stress by checking out the Sweet Wishes by Shellie website for a handful of options for fund-raising at your school.

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