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Planning A Popcorn Fundraiser

The Most Important Things You Need For Success When Planning A Popcorn Fundraiser

In the world of fundraising, few endeavors can match the timeless appeal of a popcorn fundraiser. Whether you’re a school, sports team, or nonprofit organization, the allure of delicious, buttery popcorn is virtually universal. If you’re aiming to plan the most successful popcorn fundraiser possible, you’ve come to the right place. In this blog, we’ll unveil the top steps that will empower you to achieve your fundraising goals and turn your next event into a popcorn-filled triumph. From strategic planning to marketing know-how, we’ve got you covered with a comprehensive roadmap to ensure your fundraiser pops with success. So, let’s dive into the world of kernels and caramel as we embark on a journey to make your fundraiser truly unforgettable.

Importance of Planning

In the world of fundraising, few endeavors can match the timeless appeal of a popcorn fundraiser. Whether you’re a school, sports team, or nonprofit organization, the allure of delicious, buttery popcorn is virtually universal. If you’re aiming to plan the most successful popcorn fundraiser possible, you’ve come to the right place. In this blog, we’ll unveil the top steps that will empower you to achieve your fundraising goals and turn your next event into a popcorn-filled triumph. From strategic planning to marketing know-how, we’ve got you covered with a comprehensive roadmap to ensure your fundraiser pops with success. So, let’s dive into the world of kernels and caramel as we embark on a journey to make your fundraiser truly unforgettable.

Choosing the Right Popcorn Supplier

Before you can start a popcorn fundraiser, you must decide what popcorn vendor / supplier you want to work with. Making this decision can be tough, which is why we have talked about this in length in one of our most recent articles HERE. After reading through that article, you will find the pros and cons of many different suppliers in order to help you make your decision. Ultimately, The Pop Fund is a great all around choice for being one of the most simple and effective options in the fundraising space.

Setting Fundraising Goals

Pick an Attainable Popcorn Fundraising Goal

When running a successful fundraiser, it’s important to set goals. Not only for your whole group, but also for individual sellers. When you set these goals, be sure not to set them too low, but also not too high. Setting a realistic goal that is focused on still generating an impressive impact on your organization is the key. These group and individual goals should feel like an achievement that everyone can be proud of.

Pick A Goal That The Members Of Your Group Can Achieve

Setting goals for the members of your group is important because it builds a realistic expectation for your group as a whole. Being able to count on each member’s personal goals allows you to know about how much could be raised during your two week fundraiser. Many popcorn fundraising companies offer incentives to try to help achieve some of these goals. For example: Pop Fund offers a free bag of popcorn for every 15 bags that a member personally sells. An incentive like this makes it easier to set realistic goals for each seller. You could set a goal for each seller to sell 75 bags of popcorn so that they will each receive 5 free incentive bags of popcorn. This is an easy motivator that makes a goal seem even more attainable.

Pick A Goal Based On Your Needs

Rather than blindly setting goals by picking numbers that sound good, you should set goals based on the needs of your group, school, or organization. Perhaps you are trying to raise funds for new uniforms, equipment, or even traveling costs. A quick and effective way to set your goal is to simply calculate the cost of what you are trying to raise money for, and then divide that amount by how many sellers your group will have participating. Once you have that divided amount, simply figure out how many bags of popcorn that participant would have to sell in order to raise those funds. This has proven to be effective for many high performing organizations during their popcorn fundraisers.

Make Sure Your Goal Is Realistic

Setting a realistic goal for your group’s sellers may oftentimes be difficult. Nevertheless, it is important to get to a conclusive goal that makes sense for everyone involved. A good way to hit these goals is to encourage your team to compete with each other on how quickly they can reach their realistic goal that was put in place. We have also seen successful groups reward those who far surpass their goals. In these scenarios, everyone seems to win because no one seller is required to accomplish massive selling goals, but those who do are often praised and rewarded for overachieving!

Creating A Popcorn Fundraising Timeline

Timeline Of Working With The PopFund Through Online Fundraising

  • Once you reach out to Pop Fund and show interest for an online fundraiser, you will have to follow certain steps before getting started.
  • The first step to any type of fundraiser with Pop Fund (Traditional, Online or a combination of both) is to fill out our form that we send you once you reach out. This form gives us all needed information such as what group or organization you are with, who your team leader is, what your desired start date is, and how many individuals will be participating in your fundraiser. Once we receive all of this info we will send you a confirmation email with the start date, end date, and final tally date included along with any other information you may need.
  • The next step for online fundraising is to provide us with a team logo or image that you would like us to use when designing your customized page. This will help your supporters not only recognize who they are supporting, but also know exactly where their money is going when they click on your custom link and make a purchase.
  • The third and final step to setting up an online fundraiser is to decide whether or not you want your custom page to be a general sale for your group or a team sale where all of the sellers’ names are listed (first name & last initial). A general sale is simple; your supporters are simply purchasing popcorn to help support your group. A team sale however has just one more step to the process. Before a supporter makes a purchase, he or she will pick a seller’s name from the drop down list that they wish to support. This option allows your group to keep track of how much each team member sold during your online sale. At the end of your two week fundraiser, the report we will provide you will list out all of the purchases made and which team members were supported. This allows you to keep track of everyone’s performance during the sale in case you decide to offer incentives to any of the top sellers.
  • Now that you know how to set up an online fundraiser, see below for the quick process from beginning to end.
    • Reach out through our site to let us know you are interested.
    • Fill out the form you receive from us so we have the info we need.
    • Decide on a general sale or team sale with names and send us those names (if applicable) and team logo.
    • We send you a custom link for your sale and have it ready before your start date.
    • Start selling! For two weeks, share your link with family and friends to gain their support.
    • Whenever an order is placed, we will ship that order out to the supporter the same day that we receive it
    • At the end of the two-week period, we will remove your groups page from out site and send you finalized numbers
    • We will then send you a check for 50% of all of the money that was raised during your sale

Pick A Goal Based On Your Needs

  • Wednesday, August 2nd: You reach out through our site
  • Wednesday, August 2nd: You receive an email from us with the form link included to help you get started.
  • Thursday, August 3rd: You fill out that form and submit it back to us
  • Thursday, August 3rd: We send you a welcome email confirming your requested start date of Monday, August 14th and ask you for your team names and a logo for your custom page.
  • Friday, August 4th: You send us the list of names (first name and last initial) and your team logo.
  • Friday, August 4th: We confirm that we have everything we need for a start date of August 14th and an end date of August 28th. We also then share with you your custom link prior to your start date of the 14th.
  • Monday, August 14th: You and your team begin sharing your custom link and start selling!
  • Monday, August 28th: We shut down your custom page from our site and send you your final tally report no later than Wednesday, August 30th.
  • Wednesday, August 30th: You receive your report and we send you your check for 50% of all money raised.

And there you have it! In less than a month you are able to reach out to us, plan a sale, prepare your team, raise thousands of dollars, and receive a check in the mail.

Truly 50% Profit - GUARANTEED
Unlike many other fundraising companies, The Pop Fund truly gives you 50% of your profits! No hidden fees, no hidden costs, and no games. We guarantee that 50% of every single dollar you raise will go right where it belongs.. Directly to you!
Start Fundraising Today

Bonus Tip - When is The Best Time For A Popcorn Fundraiser

The best time to run a fundraiser often depends on what type of group or organization you are representing. For example, you may be part of a travel ball team and not be able to fundraise while traveling; therefore you are limited to the time of year that you can fundraise. However, if you are able, we have found that the Fall season or end of the year is one of the best times to hold a fundraising event. The reason for this is because most people are in a much more “giving” mood towards the end of the year during all of the holidays. Also, depending if you are running a school fundraiser, the Fall is the beginning of a new school year which means that sellers are back with their friends and full of energy after a break from summer.

Successful Popcorn Fundraising Marketing and Promotion

Pick a name for your fundraiser.

Picking a name for your fundraiser is usually quite simple. The reason for this is because most organizations running a fundraiser already have a name for their school, sports team, or youth group. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t come up with a unique name that can help make things a little more exciting when promoting. We suggest trying to pick a trendy name that perhaps rhymes with your organization’s name and try to relate it to popcorn. Or, another fun option is to come up with a funny slogan for promotional signs and social media posts. A quick example of this would be: “Support us this year as we are Poppin’ for a Purpose!”

Make Sure To Use The Fundraising Flyers We Send

Once you start a traditional fundraiser with Pop Fund, you will realize that we put a lot of effort into creating brochures that will help you tremendously during your two week sale. From front to back there is plenty of information that you can share to each person you are asking support from. In fact, the form is so straightforward that you could have a parent or friend take it to their work and just set it on their break room counter for co-workers to fill out when you aren’t around. Once a supporter sees the form and reads the information, they will fully understand what you are offering them and that your group will be receiving 50% profit on anything they purchase from you. We highly recommend utilizing this 4 page brochure as much as you can. This is also why we always provide more than what is needed. If you have a group with 50 individuals selling popcorn, we typically send an extra 25 brochures for a group that size so that you can utilize them in the ways described above.

Post About Your Groups Popcorn Fundraiser On Social Media

We have found that posting on social media is very effective in order to gain more sales during your fundraiser. It can be as simple as posting a picture of your brochure and mentioning what fundraiser you are currently doing. We suggest that you mention to your followers that they can put their orders in the comments of that post and you will mark them down for that sale until you collect the funds from them later. With so much of our world going digital and many of us working from home, utilizing social media is critical if you plan to raise the most funds possible.

Sponsor A Contest

Selling popcorn is one thing, but throwing some competition into the equation with some of your friends through a contest is a whole other thing. As a seller, having a contest between you and some of your closest friends almost always increases the overall sales during your sale. Get competitive and create some fun prizes for those who raise the most money. You’re already going to be selling popcorn so you might as well try to increase the fun you’re going to have!

Tell Friends and Family About Your Fundraiser

The absolute best way to start your sale during a popcorn fundraiser is to tell you family and friends! They are often your number one supporters and should know about your fundraiser on day one. Plus, if you speak to all of your family and friends within the first few days, you will know how much you have sold within your close circle and can now focus on how many others you will have to reach out to in order to hit your personal goals.

Volunteer Recruitment and Organization

Before you start your fundraiser, it is absolutely essential that you reach out to everyone within your organization and see who will be the volunteers to make your fundraiser a success. One big mistake that groups have made in the past during a popcorn fundraiser is they would send a list of 150 names of people who they claimed would sell during the sale; where in reality, only half of them knew that they were even supposed to be selling. One of the best ways to avoid this is to get everyone involved together prior to the start of your special event / fundraiser. Having a simple event prior to your sale can make a huge difference because it gives you the opportunity to inform everyone and get them hyped up for their upcoming fundraiser. One of the ways Pop Fund helps motivate sellers is through their “Free Bag Incentive”. With this incentive, any seller who sells 15 bags of popcorn will receive a free bag of popcorn to themselves. That means, if someone sells 45 bags of popcorn, they will get to choose 3 free bags of popcorn as a reward.
Truly 50% Profit - GUARANTEED
Unlike many other fundraising companies, The Pop Fund truly gives you 50% of your profits! No hidden fees, no hidden costs, and no games. We guarantee that 50% of every single dollar you raise will go right where it belongs.. Directly to you!
Start Fundraising Today

Managing Sales And Orders For Your Popcorn Fundraiser

Online Order Management

When you opt in to running an online fundraiser with Pop Fund, the ordering process is very simple for your supporters. After clicking your custom link, any given person is able to click which seller they want to support and then pick the delicious popcorn they want to buy. Once they complete the purchase we will fulfill their order that same day and send them their UPS or Fedex tracking number. At Pop Fund, we make it very simple for you or your group leader to manage the orders because the entire online process is 100% hands-free. At the end of your fundraiser we send you a report of all of your online sales with a complete breakdown of who purchased, when they purchased, and who they supported.

Traditional Fundraising Order Management

Traditional fundraising may not be 100% hands-free, but it is by far the highest performing form of popcorn fundraising due to the benefit of in-person selling. Managing orders through traditional fundraising is simple because all sales are tracked on the forms that each seller uses. At the end of your two week fundraiser, each member will turn in their forms with all of their sold numbers. You or your group leader will then fill out a provided digital “Final Tally Sheet” with all of your team’s total numbers. Once you send this filled out tally sheet to us, we will send you an invoice for 50% of what you raised. Once paid, we quickly ship you all of your popcorn so that you can then distribute all bags out to each team member that sold them.

The Combination of Traditional And Online Fundraising

If you decide to sell both traditionally and online, there are only a couple of changes that occur. At the end of your sale you will send us your final tally sheet for traditional sales and we will share the final tally for online sales. Assuming that traditional sales exceed online sales, we will send you an invoice for 50% of your traditional sales minus 50% of the online sales. If the online sales exceed the traditional sales, we will send you a check for 50% of the online sales minus 50% of the traditional sales.

Fundraising Event Planning

Planning an event or two during your fundraiser is a great way to not only get people involved, but also get them excited about making it a successful fundraiser. A great way to plan your first event is to have a fundraising party at the beginning of your fundraiser. Think of this party as a “kick off” to a fun and important two week fundraiser! This can be something as simple as getting everyone involved together and inviting their family and friends who would most likely purchase popcorn from you during the event. Another great event you can plan is a grand finale event at the end of the two weeks. This not only gives everyone one more chance to sell some popcorn, but it also helps you or your team leader because you can collect everyone’s forms at this event while you are all together.
Groups Average Over $2,500 Per Fundraiser

Get started today! All you have to do is reach out and our team will help get you set up with ZERO commitment. We are here to help you be successful!

Start Fundraising Today

Post Popcorn Fundraiser Follow-up and Appreciation

Show Your Appreciation

Getting some popcorn sales is always great, but it’s also important to show your appreciation to those who have supported your cause. After all, your fundraiser wouldn’t be successful without them. Showing appreciation is also important because supporters will be more likely to support you during future fundraisers.

Send A Thank You Message

One of the best ways to show your appreciation is to send them a quick thank you message. This message can be through a text, email, phone call, or hand-written letter. Something as simple as a quick note can go a long way!

Ask for Feedback

Feedback is great because it allows you to improve in the future. Ask your supporters what they thought about the process and what they thought about the popcorn after they received it. This will allow you to have a good gauge of who loved having the opportunity to support you and how much they enjoyed their purchase.

Thats A Wrap! We Wish You The Most Success On Your Next Popcorn Fundraiser

Now that you have read through this article, you should fully understand how to plan a successful popcorn fundraiser. We discussed how to find the right popcorn fundraiser by going over what goes into one. We went over traditional, online, and both traditional and online combined ways of selling. We talked about how the funds are collected and distributed during the entire sale. And lastly, from start to finish, we went over how to gain supporters and show them how much you appreciate them. You are now ready to run a successful popcorn fundraiser with The Pop Fund!
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