“It was so easy to sell!  The products practically sold themselves.”
– Lynn, Club Leader
Clover Explorers
4-H Club Herrin, Illinois

I absolutely love taking my German Shepherd with me in the car when the weather and/or my schedule permits.  Like most dogs, she loves it too!  In fact, I selected the type of vehicle I drive based on its suitability for safely traveling with Taz, i.e., a cargo area that can accommodate a safety harness and a guard to protect her in the event of an accident.  Trust me, my husband and children like to tease me about my priorities.

 But as fellow dog lovers know, dog hair can really “stick like glue” to the upholstery in an automobile.  At a recent stop at our local full-service car wash, the experienced and helpful attendant recommended that I consider having my car washed early in the morning during the summer months.  “When it gets hot outside, the dog hair absorbs the humidity throughout the day and becomes even more difficult to remove,” he explained.  “It’s a whole lot easier to get dog hair up when it is cooler in the morning.”

I’ve given his suggestion a try and am happy to report that he is correct.  The interior of my car looks and smells much better.  That is until Taz jumps in for another long ride.  Oh well, it’s a small price to pay for such good company.

The recent AFRDS survey showed that selling popular consumer items consistently yields the best results compared to other types of fundraising drives.

That being said, we know that price is often a consideration.  If at all possible, consider keeping the consumer price below $5.00 per item.  You’ll want to make sure the product is high quality and represents a sensible image choice for your organization.   (That’s yet another reason why pet treats are such a natural choice for 4-H.)

Delivery is also an important consideration.  Does the product require refrigeration?  Is it perishable?  You may want to be sure that all participants understand how important it is that the product be delivered in the best possible manner so customers are pleased with their purchase and support. 

We just know some great things will come out of these donations.  Your group could donate to your county’s humane society or animal shelter, the local police K-9 unit, a local search and rescue team, or even a horse rescue group.

Here in Louisville, we had one group donate treats to the Louisville Metro Police K-9 Unit.  As a thank you, LMP sent a couple of handlers and dogs to a meeting where they did a live demonstration of how they work with the dogs and talked about how they train the dogs.  The kids felt so proud of their community service and learned a great deal about the dogs, and the group leader hosted one of the best meetings of the year!

You may want to be sure and take a camera when treats are delivered to the animals as these photos are showing up in community newspapers all over.  This kind of publicity is great for the kids, the animal group, and 4-H in your area.

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.

We are big believers in setting individual and group goals.  It’s also helpful to make sure your members, families and ultimately the customer knows where the money is going. 

If you only do one or two fundraisers a year, it’s also easier to encourage member participation.  Depending on your group, incentives may also be helpful in motivating members to sell.  Younger kids may try to sell at a certain level to earn a prize, while older kids often respond to financial incentives, like extra money for camp, etc. 

We all tend to respond to recognition so be sure to let your sellers know how much of an impact they have made towards the group’s fundraising efforts.  If your goal was reached, you may want to plan a celebration that includes some type of recognition for your top sellers.

The Association of Fund-Raising Distributors and Suppliers (AFRDS) (www.afrds.org) recently completed and published a survey this spring that is pretty interesting.  According to their survey, “parent groups that conduct fewer school-wide fundraisers raise more money.” It’s just a fact, the more fundraisers you do, the less participation you get on each one.  We talk to customers all the time about cutting out marginal fundraising efforts to help avoid volunteer burnout.  When members, families and volunteers are constantly asked to sell something, it becomes easy to ignore the request.  You’ll do better in the end with a well chosen fundraising product and a plan for success that includes setting individual and group goals.  Then, you can encourage members and their familities to really get involved and support your chosen fundraising campaign.  Let your group know that when it comes to fundraising, you would like to focus on reaching the financial goals set so members and their families won’t be asked again to sell something until next year.   It may seem like more work in the short term, but in the long term it is easier for everybody.

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.

An order form sale will almost always be the “backbone” of a successful product sale fundraiser.  If you have motivated sellers and families, each one can tap into their own personal community of friends, family, neighbors, and even co-workers who truly want to support that particular child’s goals.

Direct sales can provide efficient and quick sales, especially if they are well planned and sellers are coached on enthusiastically asking customers to buy.  Often a table set up in front of a grocery store, farmer’s market, or pet store on a Saturday morning can result in good sales if members are outgoing and not timid about asking a customer to buy.  Of course, it is critical that an adult volunteer always accompany members at direct sales.

4-H Events like expos, fairs, and shows provide great opportunities for members to set up a booth for a direct sale.  Keep in mind, however,  people are often distracted by their own participation and may not take the time to stop, talk and buy.  Big events may seem like a great way to sell a lot of product, but we have found the exposure can be valuable, but sales are disappointing in many cases.  These opportunities just don’t measure up to the focus of an order form sale where members can personally share their goals.  We like to say, “it’s all about the ‘ask’.”

The best possible fundraising campaign is a combination of both the order form sale with direct sales planned for after product delivery.  This strategy enables each seller to contact their own group of supporters.  Super sellers and really motivated kids and clubs can then add on extra product onto the initial order to cover upcoming, planned direct sales to boost sales.