The company we went through for, and we called it - Young Shoppers Club, was through Nicholson Productions. It was our 2nd year of doing a YSC and both years using Nicholson's. This being my first year as fundraising chairperson I went with status quo and honestly, I was extremly disappointed in the quality of the merchandise as well as the prices. I felt like we were cheating the kids who came in to buy for their family/friends. We don't do YSC to make money, it's the experience for the kids to make a budget of what they will spend and then purchase gifts staying in that budget. This issue I had was most of these gifts were overpriced in my eyes. I would say that 85% of the gifts you can purchase at The Dollar Tree for a buck and here we were charging $3.50 for something that I know can be bought for $1 at Dollar Tree. We were charging $3.50 but paying Nicholson $3.00 for the item. Nicholson probably paid maybe $1.00 for it so who's making the money??? I felt taken advantaged of by the company and I in turn felt like I was taking advantage of the kids so next year we will do something different, if we even do it at all. Volunteers were also hard to get. Another issue I had was the gifts looked cheap and we had a lot come back broken by the kids which is never a good thing. Definitely shop around for different companies, try to see the products ahead of time. What looks nice in a brochure, looks completely different in person!!! Sorry for being long winded!
We tried car magnets this year and it was a great success. We earned over 50% profit. I found a company www.logomagnet.com
that had really nice magnets, great artwork (free) and they don't fade like some i've heard about.
They have a free sample pack if you are interested.
I ran my holiday shop this year. It was my first time and we never before ran it lik a "fo profit" fundrasier type of thing. But we are so below budget this year, I decided to do things a bit different. I used a program called Elf Shelf, They also go by Kids Corner. If you need my reps name and number, please email me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. It was great. Everything was there on time. The merchandise for a holiday shop, was actually not too bad. They sent 300.00 worth of merchandise that we could keep for kids who did not bring money. They even bought us a new cash register. We bought the one they told us to and they showed us how to program it. It was cake. I thought it would be a big headache. The biggest headache was just getting volunteers. They free shipped everything. When it was over, there was no counting merchnadise. You just totaled up how much you sold, sent a check, boxed up the leftovers and called them. They sent to have the stuff picked up. We did a 10% profit and made about 500.00. We have a school of about 375 kids, so I thought it went well. I'm using them again next year, and might use them for a carnival. Good luck.
Unfortunately all of the Holiday Store programs work about the same in terms of what kind or profit you make. This is why people have always said it is a service you offer and not really a fundraiser because there is not much money to be made with these companies. This is why the new game is to do your own store and make the money instead of handing it over to someone. The first year we did our own store we did not have the room either so I stored everything in my basement as we got it and then had a group of people help schlep everything over to the school on the day of set up. If there is no way you can do your own store yet, then there is not much you can do. You can try to find the best company out there but your profit potential still will not change.
I do have one suggestion that might help boost your profits but you will still have to get some stuff. Just pick one item to add to your store to sell that you all can do on your own. A good suggestion would be personalized ornaments. Oriental trading sells these cute snowman, santa, reindeer...etc ornaments that have space in the tummy area to personalize. We sell about 200 of these every year in our school of just under 400 kids. They teachers buy them like crazy too. So all you need is some of those and some permanent markers to personalize them with. The best part is they are and item that anyone can buy for anyone. They cost about $1 a peice and you can easily sell them for $2-$3 each. Its a small way to up your profits some.
We are not ready (nor do we have the room) to purchase supplies for our own Holiday Shop. We used a program this year that offered free shipping, no up front costs, but we only made $.15-$.50 per item. This isn't very much for the 10 volunteers and lots of time needed to make it work. My questions is does anyone use or know of a program that they think is better that can we can use next year? Thanks in advance for your input.
The irony of commitment is that it’s deeply liberating-in work, in play, in love. The act frees you from the tyranny of your internal critic, from the fear that likes to dress itself up and parade around as rational hesitation. To commit is to remove your head as the barrier to your life. --Anne Morris
