4 Ways You Can Successfully Raise Funds With Calendars
September 25, 2013 by Jim Braaten · Leave a Comment
Believe it or not, back during World War II a group of girls well known for selling cookies offered something else for sale other than sweets. You see, butter and lard was in short supply so as part of the war effort this group of aspiring young ladies went door-to-door selling, you guessed it…calendars.
The reason calendars have long been considered a worthwhile product for raising funds is they can be found in every home. In many cases, the typical home will have one in the kitchen, one in the home office, perhaps another in the garage, in the laundry room, you get the picture. So, it only stands to reason folks would want to purchase a calendar and when it goes for a good cause…well, so much the better!
Over the years we have produced and sold calendars for customers many different ways to be used for fundraising. Consider these four ideas:
- As a gift. It’s rather simple. Calendars are purchased at cost and sold at a chosen mark-up. Often times it is within reason to expect that calendars used to raise funds can be sold at double, sometimes even triple their original cost.
- As a money calendar. Here the calendar rules are usually printed and explained on the back cover. The object is several times each month there will be a drawing and a winner is chosen for a specified prize. For instance, the calendar will be consecutively numbered so each recipient gets a unique chance at winning. The calendars may be limited to 1,000 units selling at…let’s say $20 each. Perhaps each month there is $500 given away either in one or several smaller drawings. In this scenario if all calendars are sold it would mean a $14,000 profit for the organization. Of course, this is just one example as organizations are free to develop this fundraiser as they best see fit.
- As a prize calendar. Here the concept works much the same as the previous example, but instead of money, prize packages are given away. It could be trips, gift certificates, merchandise, virtually anything that might appeal to the fundraising crowd. The calendar would spell out all of the rules and often times organizations will have a website where winners are posted so the results can be checked by everyone.
- As a coupon calendar. This sort of fundraising take some additional work, but when done properly it can minimize exposure to the organization for upfront costs. In this example, extra sheets are collated into the calendar offering coupons each month. For instance, if six coupons are available for each month and let’s assume that a coupon sells for $100 each, that’s a cool $7,200 upfront before the calendar is even printed. Produce 1,000 calendars and this breaks down to just $0.10 per coupon/calendar. Now, the organization has in-hands the money needed to produce the calendar usually with profit to spare. Moreover, the organization can still sell the calendar which adds additional dollars in the organization’s coffers.
Honestly, these are just a few of the many ways calendars have been used by organizations to generate much needed funds. Of course, it is up to the organization to check local laws to ensure they are in complete compliance before undertaking any such project.
If you need further help with fundraising ideas or a better explanation of the nuts and bolts of how these programs can work, I urge you to contact our customer service representatives. Each is experienced to ensure your money raising project gets started correctly from concept to completion. They will also share certain advantages or pitfalls based on past experiences to maximize your chance for project success.
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Coupon Calendars Make Good Sense For Your Business
September 12, 2013 by Jim Braaten · Leave a Comment
We all pretty much understand the process of how couponing works. If you’re a store owner…let’s say a grocery store, pizza restaurant or really any kind of a retail trade store, coupons as an inducement to shop has long been effective.
Now, think of the calendar as being the perfect vehicle to deliver those coupons to your customers and prospects. Here’s a tool that folks will keep for a year…turn the page in time with the changing of the months…and voilà! A year’s worth of coupons can be easily at hand.
Our custom coupon calendar (CN-CUS5) is a great place to start your coupon calendar searching.
But enough about the mechanics of how a coupon calendar can work. Our customer service folks are skilled to develop your custom coupon calendar to appear in any shape or form you need it.
Today, however, we’re going to look at tracking how you should use a coupon calendar. After all, how do you know if this type of advertising works if you don’t set up a system to measure results?
Now, there’s several ways you can do this. The most obvious way is to simply collect the coupons and count how many offers were actually taken advantage of by the coupon transaction. But, I contend there is a much better way to track real results.
We suggest that folks who use our coupon calendars ask their cashiers to do one little step when collecting a coupon transaction. On the backside of the coupon where it’s blank, we encourage store owners to train their employees to write the dollar amount of the total sale on the coupon–not just the dollar amount for the coupon product purchased–but the total dollars the customer spent in the store.
In essence, a much better way to track coupon calendar effectiveness is to measure how much money was spent by the customer using the coupon. We all know the coupon was being used as a tool to entice the customer into the store or restaurant that day. Why not find out just how much money they actually spent once they got there?
Chances are the total dollars generated by that transaction is quite significant. These are dollars business owners have to attribute to coupon sales. It’s the most accurate way to measure if your coupon calendar program is working to increase your cash flow in a significant manner.
I think you’ll be surprised to learn how not only do coupon calendars, when used effectively, makes good business sense reminding your customers where to do their shopping, but they also can add important dollars to the store’s bottom line.
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