When I sat down to write this blog about fundraising, the website prompted me to use a catchy title. I was stumped. Nothing quirky or exciting jumped into my mind. Just a reminder from another blog I read once, a business one, that said a company mustn't just sell the features of its products, but what the benefits are to their customers.
So here goes. It might not be amusing or meme-worthy or be featured on a 'blogs you must read before you die' list. But hopefully it will prove useful to someone, somewhere in NZ who is looking for a new way to fundraise for their school, sports team or community group.
If that's not you, please consider forwarding to someone who it might help.
OK, in no particular order ...
- You don't have to buy stock up front
This benefits you because you'll have nothing cluttering your house or garage. And nothing emptying your wallet!
- We help your promo with a landing page and social media posts
This makes it quick and easy to share posts and links with people all over NZ, saving you time and effort. Tell us what you’re fundraising for, and your goal, and we’ll make you a unique landing page so your customers will easily understand how they’re helping you. You choose the name of your fundraising page, and what code you’d like so it’s all personalised and relevant.
- It's all done online
Again it's the speed and the ease that benefits you - you can work on your fundraiser at any time of day and night. Do it in your pyjamas while eating ice cream. Nobody will know!
It's such a peaceful approach! – You don’t need to coerce a team/have meetings/beg for event volunteers/spend more to make a cake than you earn for selling it/slice 10kg of onions/hope the weather stays fine/pay for the 10 bars of chocolate you only ate because you couldn’t flog the whole box …
You don’t need to remember to take a form and pen everywhere you go.
You don’t have to chase people up for payment – it’s all done online and you receive your donation from us directly to your bank account.
- Contactless orders and delivery
In other words, your fundraiser can still go ahead even if, for example, certain viruses raise their ugly heads again.
- We provide order forms if needed
What's the benefit to this? Sometimes the personal touch works better, eg sending your little darling, dressed in their team gear, over to the neighbour’s house with a form makes it hard to resist a purchase!
- Small minimum order
This means that small groups or individuals can fundraise without penalty.
- Orders are sent directly to individual buyers
People can support you even if they don’t live near you. Say you're in Auckland and Aunty Mabel is in Christchurch - she can pay our usual courier fee (or we often have free delivery over a certain purchase amount) and have her order delivered directly to her. We've also seen another benefit with people receiving their order before the 2 weeks is up - they actually re-order once they’ve tried the product. Or they show it to friends and work colleagues who then also order on your fundraiser.
- Two-week time slot
Short enough to grab people's attention to act, long enough to approach lots of potential customers. If you book early enough you can pick your slot to suit your timetable, for example 3 weeks before school cross country so everyone has a recovery bath soak for the night after their run.
- Up to 32% profit
Cutting to the chase of how much you earn - Selling one pouch at $14.50 will give you $4.64 return. That’s more than selling 6 wee slabs of chocolate for $12 and earning $4.20. But you only have to sell one item! This is for total orders of over $1001. For total orders under $1000 you earn 20% cashback. If you choose to purchase 50 or more individual items, you can access these at a wholesale rate equivalent to earning 40%, assuming you sell at our retail price. With this method you purchase upfront and items can not be returned.
- We are a small company
The benefit here is you’ll always be communicating with someone who knows who you are, what you’re fundraising for, and what your goal is, so we can offer advice. And less red tape as it’s just us in charge!
- We're very motivated to help
We’re parents of school-aged children so we understand the joys of fundraising! We’ll always do our best to help you, even if it means working on things when our kids are in bed. You know, that one hour of the day when you know you should also go to bed but you just want to relish the peace and quiet and do something nice for yourself. That may include wine!
And now a little something about the 2 in 1 Bath Soaks & Body Scrubs and Magnesium Oil that we sell:
- Our products are natural and NZ made
Even people with sensitive skin should be able to use our products. They are vegan, non-GMO, additive-free and not tested on animals. No glitter or petals etc means no cleaning up after your bath!
- They are affordable and make great gifts
It helps when potential customers see they are getting a nice product in return for their donation. They can tick off gift-buying at the same time which is a bonus. There is honest value in the products – you don’t need to feel bad selling eg chocolate at an inflated price.
- Magnesium-based products are good for well-being; a healthy alternative to selling chocolate or wine
None of the guilt of flogging high sugar chocolates or white bread with T sauce. In fact topping up your magnesium with an Epsom salt based bath can help reduce your chocolate cravings! Other benefits of relaxing in a SO bath? Lowered stress levels, mind and body relaxation, muscle recovery, and sleep support.
- Our products are suitable for all
There’s no reason everyone can't buy from you! Even if they don’t have a bath, the soaks can be used in a foot spa (aka a tub of warm water!) or as a body scrub in the shower.
SO Active is great for sporty types (we initially developed it for NZ Rugby); SO Relaxing for stressed out mums, teachers, nurses etc; SO Luxurious is a great gift for people who are fed up they can’t travel to exotic climes!
- Every product sold means a donation to our charity of the month, on top of the donation we give you
The benefit here is that you can feel good while doing good! Twice over! And if you have a charity you’d like to be considered for this scheme, please let us know and we’ll consider it.
Well done for making it to the end of this rather dull and dry list. It might not sound exciting, but being able to give back to our NZ communities this way is our passion that gets us up in the morning. Which is most definitely a benefit to us! And we'd be ever so grateful if you share this blog with someone you think would benefit from it.
If that someone is YOU, please get in touch (totally no obligation to proceed) and we'll start making a plan to raise you some money!
Thank you SO much,
Dionne