1. Ensure to give your students ample time to make their sales. It seems today that the standard selling time is 2 weeks, but this has not always been the case. When I started in the school fundraising business in 1986, often we would start a sale on Monday and end it on Friday. The theory behind this is that most sales take place when the students are the most excited and that is during the first few days of the sale. Making the sale longer really has not had the effect on sales as one might think. So... 2 weeks is pretty much the standard selling time these days, but if you find that you don't have 2 full weeks to "get it all in," then that will work just as well.

2. Give your fundraising company at least a week before your sale starts to get your school fundraising supplies, brochures and promotional materials to you. Doing that will give you enough time to get everything organized and ready to go without rushing and leaving any important details left undone.

3. It is far better to have your school fundraisers end on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday. Doing this will allow students who forget to turn in their order on time to have the next day to bring it to school. If you end your sale on Monday, almost everyone seems to "forget" about it so it ends up that most orders are turned in on Tuesday anyway.

4. Plan on your products arriving in the third week after your order is turned in. Depending on where your school is located, it takes that long for the manufacturer to make and pull your order and get it shipped to you on a refrigerated truck or pallet.

5. When planning your frozen product fundraiser, you want to allow 5-6 weeks from the time you start your sale till the end of it, which is delivery day.

6. You don't really need to plan for storage of orders that are forgotten if you plan ahead for your delivery day. There are several things you can do that will ensure that all of it is picked up on that all important day.

A.) Have stickers (provided by some companies) that the teachers "slap" on the students as they are leaving school the day before the delivery that says: "Cookie Dough Delivered Tomorrow." The day of delivery another sticker goes home "on" the student that says: "Pickup Your Order Today."

B.) Put signs up on the school marque or on sticks in front of the school that say the same thing as the stickers.

C.) Send a note home the day before delivery that says something like this: "Cookie dough delivery is tomorrow. Since we do not have a place to store left over and forgotten orders, we will donate any cookie dough remaining at 6:00pm to the local women's shelter in your name. If you are not able to pick up your order, please make arrangements for someone else to pick it up for you. Thank you, Signed..."

Point "C" really seems to work well!

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