Sample Event: Coupon sales
- We sold “Chinook Book” coupon books for UNICEF (a % went to the cause)
- The faculty advisor to my group provided the order forms and one book to show as a sample
- We approached family and family friends and asked them to buy the books
- We described UNICEF’s mission to reduce 21,000 daily preventable child deaths to 0
- We described our group’s role as a UNICEF youth group
- We returned the forms to the faculty advisor at the deadline
Who helped at our event:
- Family members who bought books
- Neighbors and family friends who bought books
- The Chinook Book company
- Our group advisor
Blueprint
- Find a company that has kids do door-to-door sales and register with them
- Many companies offer a variety of products: gift wrap, candy, magazines, calendars, coupon books
- Ask the volunteer coordinator or some other authority figure at your school if you can raise money through a sales event that the school is already affiliated with
- Contact friends and family and ask them to purchase items
- Go door-to-door selling the items, follow good safety procedures if you do this, only go to houses where you know people, ask an adult to go with you or go as a group
- Describe your cause when selling the items
- Thank anyone who buys an item and thank others for their time
- Return the order forms to the event coordinator, either at your school or at the company
- Have other group members sell items
Good Luck with your sales event!
What worked at our event:
- Many of the people we approached, bought books
- We raised a fair amount of money
- We raised awareness among the people we approached
What didn’t work at our event:
- Many group members did not sell books
- We didn’t raise as much money as we had initially hoped
- We didn’t sell any books door to door, we relied entirely on contacts we already knew
- The majority of the proceeds did not go to our cause
Tips:
- Choose the company that will allow the highest percentage of the proceeds go to your cause
- Judge your neighborhood – if you don’t think anyone will buy items if you go door-to-door, skip this step and just sell to friends and family
- Judge your neighborhood to select the product idea you sell. You can select premium products, environmentally friendly products as well as choosing between decorating items, foods, reading material, etc
- Emphasize the cause, not the item
- Be polite and articulate
- Ask your parents to encourage their friends to buy items
- When selling items, raise as much awareness as possible, mentioning the name of your group, the cause, and its importance
- Depending on the product, you will probably have more success selling to adults than to other kids – focus on family members and family friends, especially those who would probably enjoy the product as well as supporting your cause