If you are talking about for PTA (I think this may also apply to non-profits in general) then you do need to be careful. If you are going to have a representative come from one company, then you need to extend the invitation to all companies, (or a good number of) that belong to that field. Example, if you want See's Candy to do a presentation, then you open the invitation to other companies that do candy fundraisers. You need to give equal time to each company that wants to participate. It could be that having that many companies come in to basically advertise during the Back to School night, takes away from what the night is for. Introducing or re-introducing parents to the school. This might better be done during a meeting of your group instead.
I have found that event things generate the most capital. You aren't splitting the cost of anything with a company and if you plan it right, has very little overhead.
If you are going to do some sort of catalog sale, you want something that gives at least 50% of the revenue.
I think incentives can be a good thing. If you give the right incentives for the right things. Not everything should have incentives.
As far as a rep coming in...I wouldn't let a rep come in to show anything. Depending on the fundraiser for example a brochure sale I would set up a display and signs instead.
Our brochure sales bring in 25,000.....Our carnival brings in about 5,000 with a school of 593
I think a brochure (catalog) should be a variety..the more items you can sell the more you make money. We also add a tag (a seperate 2 page brochure) too our large brochure of flower bulbs and people love it.
The only "sale" items we do are Christmas greenery and I think we made about $3-$4,000 on that this year. The most comes from a big annual Auction gala-type deal we do every year in the spring but this type of event seems geared more towards private schools. It works well for us. We auction off items the children have done themselves, as a class, and they bring $$$ usually. Also, we have silent auction items there, too.
Shelly
Incentives--yes or no? WHY?
-This is an important issue at our school recently. I'd like some input to see if my thinking is wrong, as I'm for it.
Would you let a rep come in to let people sample his company's stuff on Back to School Night? The idea would be to have people see the quality of his product.
Which do you find to make more money--event-type things like festivals, or catalog sales?
Are particular catalog items better sellers than others (i.e. cookie dough, cards, etcetera)?
