I'm posting here with the hope that I can get some input on a company my husband and I have started which does fundraising magazine sales for schools.
Before I get in really big trouble (if I'm not already) I'll let you know that I'm not posting the name of the company and I've turned my email off so that no one can write to me about it - assuming that anyone would want to.
A little background: a couple of years ago I served as VIPS coordinator for my daughter's elementary school and earned the wrath (not to mention the assassin's stare) of our Ways and Means chair because I was vocally opposed to our giftwrap sale, which relies heavily on door-to-door sales. Our two kids are not allowed to go door-to-door (which makes the brownie cookie sale really interesting, let me tell you) because we just feel it isn't appropriate for the K-5 crowd (plus it's just danged scary).
Well, around the same time a girlfriend who has a daughter at the middle school told me all about the Magazine Sale from Hell, and how her daughter had been given a quota and the promise of prizes (you all know the deal) which she and her husband found totally offensive, and so they didn't participate in that fundraiser. (There's a theme here...)
My husband and I started wondering if there would be any demand for a kinder and gentler fundraiser that would tap into money already being spent (as do all mag sales) - but not turn the kiddies into an unpaid sales army.
Our research showed that there would be support for a 'milder' magazine fundraiser (but we mostly talked to friends and they tend to lie a lot).
To make a long story boring, we started a magazine fundraising company which is run a little differently from others we have found.
In case you didn't know, the average American family subscribes to 5 magazines (I happen to get 15, which means my neighbors must just be reading the backs of cereal boxes). At an average cost of $20-25 dollars per subscription that means between $100-125 is spent on subscriptions each year...and every year from now on.
Our thought is that every school in the country ought to be able tap into that money to raise funds. It doesn't take a massive effort and it doesn't take thousands of people participating to add up to a little chunk of money. Our point is that a passive little sale running during a quiet time between the carnival and the cookie dough sale can still be very successful.
This is a summary of what our fundraising program offers:
Passive sales (no door-to-door)
No contests, no prizes
No quotas
Immediate funds for your school
No minimum magazine order (sell one subscription and you'll get 30%)
No cost for sales materials
Can be run by one very part-time volunteer
Won't take money away from your other fundraisers
Sliding scale compensation: sell up to 99 subscriptions and keep 30%, sell 100-499 and keep 40%, sell 500 or more, keep 50%. We anticipate most schools will sell 200-300 subscriptions and make $1600 - $3000 - some much more, some much less depending on the size and nature of their community.
Basically, the sale involves sending a flyer and an order form home to families and asking them to purchase or renew their mags through the school - (at the lowest rates authorized by the publisher! - say that last part in an excited voice)
That's it. A reminder is sent home midway through the drive (10 days to two weeks) and then again when the orders are due. Orders are returned to the school along with payment made to the PTO. The orders are then tallied to see what your profit percentage is, and the PTO sends us a check (minus your profit) and the orders and that's it. We do all the rest, including providing awesome customer support - we've been self-employed for years and understand the importance of that last bit.
Well, that's the story in a nutshell. We've already got a couple of fundraisers lined up for local schools that have never done mag sales before but are pretty excited about it, as are we.
