Prepay, prepay, prepay!!!! We never do a fundraiser where we give out the product before the money comes in. I guess that is why we do not do candybar sales!

Does anyone have amounts vs how much you made in profits?

I totally agree with the prepay method, and if I had it my way that is how it would be.......not heartache in dealing with parents not paying. Unfortunetly this was my first year doing fundraising and apparently my PTO has gotten the notion that you loose money doing a prepay compared to a post pay. So at the moment a buddy of mine who is awesome with numbers is hooking me up by writing out the numbers and doing a comparison and break down as to how you 'don't really loose money' doing a prepay. I'ma take it to the PTO so this coming up school year we can go that route.

As far as a collection agency.....definately agree with the prepares for the future and doesn't really bring in the money. But it's definately our last resort and more a principal of point then anything else [img]smile.gif[/img]

The first year we sent candy home, we "got stiffed" by about 10 kids. The 2nd year we wised up and kept better track of exactly who had the goods. We send a letter home first giving the parents a short window to decline and then send the candy home with the child's name on it. The 2nd year only one family (3 kids) didn't turn in money. For the life of me, I can't comprehend stealing from your own school, but I guess it takes all kinds. I suppose losing $120 out of $16,000 gross isn't bad. It's still infuriating though!

<Marie>, I'm with you. I can't imagine sending home $50 worth of candy with each student. But they felt that they had people sign up so that was good enough.

Melloweer, most of the time sending people to a collectionn agency is a better deterent for future problems than a money maker. Most collection agencies get a return of 1-10 cents on the dollar and won't work low balances (less than $100) very hard. But still, good for you for not letting them off the hook. I often find people don't feel very accountable to nonprofits.
Anyone else?

We don't send in the orders without payment. Because of the lag time between orders and the delivery of the catalog items, we know before they get the items if their check bounces. We only had one bad check last year, none this year. We did have one bad check at the Book Fair.

Basically, I think it is a mistake to give out any merchandise without the money upfront.