We suggest that you train your sellers to ask the customer if they would like to purchase a package to donate to an animal group of your choice.  We love this aspect of our fundraising program because it truly brings in the community service mandate of 4-H.

With the American pet population growing every year, though, almost everybody knows somebody who has a dog, cat, or horse.  During the holiday season, it’s become quite popular for folks to give their friends’ pets gifts.

Volunteer assistance is so helpful with a large distribution.  If you have a large volume of product to distribute, we suggest an organized system of:
1.  Count the full order at time of delivery and then recount — if applicable, sign for the product only after you are sure it is accurate.

2.  Ask each seller to count and then recount their individual order and then sign for the product only after they are sure it is accurate.

A careful system of count, recount, and signatures helps to avoid many potential problems.

You will always sell more if you collect money at the time of delivery because customers aren’t limited by what they happen to have in their wallet at the time of ordering.  Keep in mind, though, that the group does assume a bit more risk because they have ordered the product without payment.  In some rare cases, customers move or can’t be located to take delivery of the product.  This situation doesn’t actually happen all that often as most kids and their families sell to people in their neighborhood, workplace or folks they know pretty well.

Can each member be trusted to deliver the product and turn in ALL of the money on time?  The answer to that question should be the fundamental consideration when determining your group’s policy about when to collect money from customers.