Let me toss in my two cents on the Little Caesar's issue. We ran two fundrasiers in one year with them because they were so popular. We had the second one, in fact, because the parents ASKED us to. The cookie dough is GREAT and the pizzas are, in my humble opinion, much better than we had with other fundrasing companies. There's a fair amount of name recognition going for you, plus I think people don't mind paying a little more when they're getting a pizza that tastes like it came from a restaurant instead of a freezer.
Sorry it has been awhile since I've posted back, we went on vacation to Disney and I got sick the day we got back.
Anyhow, thanks for the info. on Cookie Dough--to those who offered it. We went with the Chip Shoppe. They use Chippery cookie dough which is an excellent product. Their lead times are fairly short which is great for getting this all wrapped up. The % are a little bit less, just barely, than other companies, but the brochure is 300x nicer which I'm hoping will result in more sales. And the acutal cost of the tubs is in line. They have a nice incentive program too.
I also wanted to add, cheesecake is WAY, WAY more fattening than cookies. Trust me. I worked within the restraunt industry for 14 years and my husband for 20 years, the last 3 of those years for Sysco.
Since my kids have been in school we have bought cookie dough through the school fundraisers and it has generated thousands of dollars in sales for our school. This year and last year we have sold David's cookie dough (comes in tubs) and is offered by Cherrydale Farms. Very good - no complaints and Cherrydale sorts the cookie dough by student/teacher - so all parents do is pick up a box and leave. Cuts down on the # of volunteers needed. The other cookie dough we used was offered by QSP and was the boxes of pre-portioned dough - which was nice for just throwing however many you wanted on a cookie sheet for a quick snack. You might check with your current fundraising Rep - many times they will sell more than one catalog and may offer cookie dough as an option - and possibly a better % of the profits since you already work with them.
We've gotten off track... I thought Mistie wanted to know about cookie dough fundraisers and cookie dough fundraising companies...
Yes, Cookie Dough is a great fundraiser. The tubs are cheaper and easier to sell than the sheets. It is easy and it sells itself.
Make sure your pick up date and times are well advertised. It also helps to have several volunteers boxing up your dough at delivery time, otherwise, the lines get long and the parents get very agitated.
I don't think it matters too much which company you use, as long as you do have a list of ingredients and the dough is pasturized. Get the best price you can (with the most perks you can) and sell, sell, SELL!!!
By the way, before you knock the idea of excluding artificial flavors, colors, and preservatives you might want to look into what they really are. Vanillin or artificial vanilla which is in most candies containing vanilla, is made out of paper pulp. YUCK! Most cereals use BHT which is equal to MSG also known as HVT. Many over active children end up on medication because of allergic reactions to the above. Classified as ADHD. But you are making money, that is the important thing. To find out more goto this web site www.feingold.org
and read before making a judgement. Give your family a week on the diet. Then go back to your regular eating. If nothing has changed, more power to you.
Good luck to everyone in their fundraising. I was not trying to push people away from the fundraisers they want to do. I was just trying to give you another point of view. The diet we follow is Feingold and YES there are things we can eat. I did not say "We can't eat anything". I did not say "We don't eat sugar". Sugar is not the problem. I do agree that children should not be sheltered from making choices. I was just saying, my choice is to not support that fundraiser. If your choice is to buy them, then enjoy your cookies.
Anyway, we found a great cheesecake fundraiser done by a company near by that does not use artificial ingrediants (ie: real vanilla instead of artificial vanilla). The company has a great name in the area and practically sells itself. We think it is going to be a big hit. We have two delivery dates so the parents can have it for Thanksgiving or Christmas.
If you are going to do the cookie dough, find out if you can get a few tubs in advance, make the cookies and have samples available at an event before the sale. They could be served with hot chocolate for the kids and coffee for the parents. Maybe for parent-teacher confrences. That would be away for parents to decide if they should buy more then 1.
