I talked with a rep from GAF. I really liked their products and I thought their incentives were great. The Spring catalog I was shown has a 45% profit margin. They sort the orders right down to home rooms. I really liked that part too. He said he would even come to school and do a kick off.

Serendipity,
I need to clarify one thing. The company I am pursuing is Great American Opportunities, not Great American Fundraising. I just did a google search and found Great American Fundraising by mistake. I didn’t know there was such a company. It appears as if Great American Opportunities is by far a superior company to Great American Fundraising. Hope this helps! Thanks again, Donny

Thanks Serendipity. Another key factor that has me leaning towards Great American is their sales people. The guy who we have been dealing with really has his act together and genuinely has an interest in helping us. He is more of a consultant than a pushy salesman. From what I understand, Great American is the 2nd largest fundraising company in the country and they have about 250 sales people across the country.

I understand that different products should be used in different markets. For example, we are in a very rural, low socioeconomic area so magazines are not a good option for us. We need something that is reasonably priced, yet still appealing to the customers. That is way we are considering a product brochure that offers various items at prices most people are comfortable with. Let’s be honest, most of the stuff in the brochures is just overpriced junk. We don’t buy it because its great merchandise, we buy it to help support the cause.

Does anyone else have any information regarding Great American? Thanks again for all of the help! Donny

Hi Donny! I have never used Great American, but I looked at their site and they seem like a reputible company. It seems like you have done your homework and if you are happy with their products and the services they are offering then go for it.

Every school and every town is different. You will see just from reading posts here, what works for some does not work for others. In our experience our Fall catalog vastly outsold (more then triple the amount) of our spring catalog. So we did away with the spring catalog and sold Yankee Candles in the spring and did better with them at that time of year. We did cookie dough for the last few years with Market Day as that was program we were already running all year long. We never did that much with it and this year we have decided to go with a different cookie dough at a different time and see how that works out for us. Sometimes it is all about trial and error and you will see some posters say they make a fortune on cookie dough.

Another example for us was that just prior to the holidays we sold wreaths for a few years and never did that well with it. Last year we tried something else and that didn't do any better. This year I saw the Yankee Candle Holiday catalog and loved all the holiday scents and products so we gave that a try. Well we did excellent with it and actually sold more then we do in the spring, but that was about 5 years in the making to get it right. Now I will also be looking for something in the spring as to not do Yankee Candle again.

This is a great place to come for ideas and to see how others fared with the companies they used, but ultimately at the end of the day what works for one does not always work for another. Good Luck!

Thank you very much for the info. One reason we are leaning towards the product brochure sales with Great American is because the reputation of the company. A friend of mine who teaches family and consumer sciences has sold cookie dough with Great American for the last 4 years. They make a ton of money and it is honestly the best cookie dough I have ever bought. However, it being such a great selleris one reasons that we are looking in a diffent direction. Everybody does cookie dough and frozen foods. When you think about it, everybody does everything. Does anyone have any unique ideas or promotions? Thanks again!!!

We look for the type of product we think will appeal to a large portion of our community, a company with a good profit margin, references, and samples and can fit into the time frame in which we want to conduct the fundraiser. We also look at ease of delivery and how much work the whole process is going to be for us.

Then we use the philosophy of "we'll try it and if it doesn't work out, we know not to do it again and we move on." We try to leave a nice cushion on our estimates of what we think we will raise when we do our budget planning so we don't find ourselves in too deep if the fundraiser is a bust. Thank goodness we haven't had that happen yet.

We've not done brochure sales, because our parents always vote that one down. Too many other groups in the community use them too. We've done well with frozen foods and cookie dough-must live in an area where people like to eat!