North Country Fundraiser Project

Who does this project work for?

Products are displayed in a color catalog from which kids can sell to family, friends, and teachers. This program ideally suits 3rd - 6th graders because they can fill out their own sales sheets, describe products to customers and are excited about selling. However, younger children can use the program (we have run preschool fund raisers), with more involvement from parents and teachers. Middle and high school students can participate but should be excited about selling. (We have found that this age group can be shy about asking for sales).

Ready to begin:

We will send sample box with the products for your kids to look over and to stay on display at your school for the duration of the fund raiser.
Each person will receive one color catalog and a number of sales forms. *Xeroxing additonal sales forms at your school allows students to sell to as many customers as they can - they will receive incentive gifts for good sales.
The kids take two weeks to sell (more time is available upon request). They use one sales form per customer.
At the end of two weeks you send in all the order forms.
We fill the orders (approx. ten days). We do all billing tabulations and receipts. Sales tax is included in the prices (please let us know your local sales tax ahead of time or if you have a tax exempt number).
We ship the orders back to you, each with individual bills for each customer and bagged together for each seller. Each seller will receive a collecting envelope with their total printed on it.
The kids distribute items and collect money.
Your business office deposits the money into your account and is responsible to send in sales tax collected. Then they will issue us a check, which we in turn distribute to the crafters.
You receive an itemized invoice when you get the products.

How pricing works:

The average product price to customers is about $6. These prices are comparable to those paid in a retail store.
The crafters offer their products at wholesale.
The kids sell them at retail.
10% goes back to coop to pay for the generation of color brochures, packaging, labor, etc.
Your project receives their 40%. (There is some flexibility in the percentages - be sure to ask about this.)

An example of the profit potential:

If you sell $10,000 worth of merchandise (for 40 kids, this is sales of roughly 30 items), your profit would be $3,738.31 (40%). The 7% sales tax collected would be $659.20. The cost of the program would be $5,607.47 (this includes the cost of the products-which goes directly to the crafters, and the 10% charge to run the fund raiser).

The Bottom Line

North Country Fund Raiser supports small businesses and the arts in our communities.
All products are high quality and also sold in fine gift stores and craft centers all over the country.
The kids can be proud of the products they are selling!