Fundraising Tips

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Fundraising How-To Guide

Step-by-Step to a Great Tennessee Cheesecake Fundraiser!

The Quick Guide:
  1. Set your goals!
  2. Get started by Signing-up for a Tennessee Cheesecake fundraiser. We'll mail you our easy fundraising kit with everything you need to know to get started right away.
  3. Prepare any incentives you may want to offer your group as a whole and to your top sellers to keep everyone motivated.
  4. Establish you Selling Period. These are the dates, from start to finish, that your group will sell cheesecakes. Scheduling your sale to span at least two and preferably three weekends, starting on a Thursday or Friday and concluding on a Monday or Tuesday, is best and tends to encourage a more profitable fundraiser.
  5. Organize and Plan a Kickoff Meeting. This is a great way meet with your sellers to explain and the fundraiser and motivate everyone involved. You can use our cover letter templates to keep your students and parents updated. Keep awareness up during the sale with announcements, take-home fliers, newsletter reminders, a bulletin board display (Download our Write-In Poster Here), lapel buttons, and reminders on the school Web site.
  6. Plan an Order Collection Date. After the selling period is over, meet with your sellers a second time to collect their sales results and payments.
  7. Schedule a Cheesecake Delivery Day. Coordinate a specific day, time, and location when Tennessee Cheesecake will deliver your cheesecakes (within 14-21 days after placing your order). Double check your delivery against your order tally sheet for accuracy.
  8. Communicate a Seller Pick-up Date. Communicate to your group when and where to pick up their cheesecakes. It's key to stay organized so your group can easily pick-up they're cheesecakes for quick distribution to all your fundraising supporters. We suggest your pick-up day should be the same as your delivery day.

The In-Depth Guide:

Step One
Set Your Goals! First, set a goal for the amount of money you want to raise. Second, set a goal for how many cheesecakes you want each group member to sell. When you sell a Tennessee Cheesecake, you'll earn between $4-10 per cheesecake making it easy to determine how many cheesecakes you need to sell to reach your goal. Use this as a progress meter throughout your sale, something your whole group aims for.
  • How many cheesecakes will each group member need to sell for the fundraiser to succeed? For Example: Your Goal ($1000) divided by the # Sellers (25) divided by the Profit per Cheesecake ($8.00) = # cheesecakes each Seller needs to Sell (5).
Step Two
Ready to get started? You can Sign Up Now online or give us a call at 1-866-205-9450 and one of our staff members will be happy to assist you. Once we've received your brochure order, we'll mail your fundraising kit to you at no charge. Your kit will include: a Tennessee Cheesecake fundraising information packet, Quickstart guides, order forms, full color seller brochures, and templates to use for your cover letter and reminder letter. You can find these and other useful Tennessee Cheesecake fundraising tools on our website, for easy download.

Step Three
Organize and announce your Kickoff meeting (or cheesecake party) to present the fundraiser to your sellers and parents. Download our cover letter template here. You can use this template to design a letter to send home with your sellers. We know our cheesecakes are delicious so why not get everyone as excited about cheesecake as we are by requesting FREE sample cheesecakes for your Kickoff Party. It''s a great way to build excitement...and cheesecake parties are pretty dang fun too!

Step Four
Distribute the seller brochures to your group members and map out how the fundraiser will work. Make sure everyone is on the same page. Cover it all, from the selling period, order collection procedures, delivery day timelines to clarifying how and when money should be collected (we recommend that your sellers collect money with each order they take so it's less confusing on delivery day). Share your total sales goal with your group and have each seller make a personal commitment to meet his/her personal sales goal. If you plan on using incentives to keep everyone motivated, reveal them now. Creating healthy competition among your sellers is a great way to keep everyone motivated!

Step Five
Time to sell cheesecakes! Maintain as much contact as possible with the sellers during the selling period, to provide encouragement. A reminder letter is a great way to nudge your sellers across the finish line, Download our Reminder Letter Template Here.

Step Six
Order Collection. Have a meeting to collect all of your seller's orders and compile the results. Congratulate your group on a job well done! You can also use this time to recognize your top sellers and award prizes. Remind the group when and where the cheesecake pick-up day will be for prompt, easy cheesecake distribution to your fundraising supporters. Setting a maximum allowable time for your members to deliver their cheesecakes after pick-up is a good idea to preserve the deliciousness of each cheesecake.

Step Seven
Use the Master Order Tally Sheet to compile all of your orders. DO THIS VERY CAREFULLY! A miscount means someone may not get the right cheesecake! Place your order with us by phone, fax, or email. Electronic order submission will speed up the process and is necessary if you prefer your order organized by seller name at delivery. Orders submitted by phone or fax will be organized by item and flavor. After your order is placed, Tennessee Cheesecake will fax, email, or mail you an invoice. We accept cash, checks, and all major credit cards for order payment. Payment will be due before your order can be shipped from our bakery.

Step Eight
Tennessee Cheesecake will arrange delivery to your specified address (minimum of 14-days after order placement). Be sure to have an appointed place for the delivery with enough space for a tractor-trailer to park. Of course, if you are close enough to Tennessee Cheesecake, we can arrange easy pick-up from our facility. Make sure to double check the delivered order against your tally sheet for accuracy and organize the cheesecakes for easy pick-up by your group members.

Step Nine
Cheesecake pick-up day! Set-up an easy pick-up area and double check that each seller is picking up the right amount and flavors of cheesecake. It can be overwhelming to create a smooth pick-up for your group so get everyone involved. Try setting up an assembly line for easy distribution or create a buddy system among sellers for easy double checking that the orders picked up are correct. Don't forget to remind everyone how long they have to deliver cheesecakes to their supporters so that they stay fresh and tasty!

Step Ten
Review the results of the fundraiser and record anything you would change before doing it again next year (or sooner). Go ahead and set the next campaign dates now, and let your sellers and supporters anticipate it. Remember we are here to help you succeed so call us if you have any questions.

Ready to get started? Sign Up Now!