The Best of the Best Fundraising

     Lots of people ask for the best of the best Fundraising Ideas. When I tell them it is the group attitude that matters the most and not the product they press me for an answer. So I tell them if you want to know the product that was sold that produced the best results for any group that we have seen it was cookie dough.

     I am not saying Cookie Dough Fundraising is the best of the best fundraising idea for everyone. But for the following group it certainly was.

     The group I am talking about was 15 cheerleaders on a select team in the Northeast. They were a successful squad and competed locally and regionally in many competitions. Apparently they were successful at those competitions because when they called us to do a fundraiser they were raising money to go to a national competition.

     When the mother called and said she wanted to sell cookie dough our first question was how many people would be selling. She told us only 15 and we tried to tell her that her group might be too small for a cookie dough sale. Her response was each girl could sell the minimum. They had voted and wanted to sell cookie dough.

     We pulled the order forms and collection envelopes and sent them off to the group that day and really did not think about the group again. After all we provide fund raising material for thousands of groups each year.

     About two weeks later the mother called and said she had her order ready. I remember the phone call. I asked what the first flavor on her program was and she told me chocolate chunk. I asked how many chocolate chunks she sold and she told be 50. I kind of smiled and continued to write down the numbers she told me. My first thought was the poor group did okay but not nearly enough to travel to their nationals.

     Then she told me she was talking about cases not tubs. That meant I needed to multiply the numbers she had given times eight. When I totaled it the group had averaged more than 150 tubs per cheerleader. They made more than $5 profit on each tub so each girl had averaged raising more than $750 each.

     So if you want to know the best of the best fundraising idea, I would have to say cookie dough.