It’s coming! Delivery day.
Once the fundraiser is underway, the panic starts to trickle in. The organizing, the chaos, the confusion…the time. Even if you have a great kick-off, a sneaking sense of dread tends to creep in as the the order arrival gets closer.
But there’s no need to worry There are a few things you can do to reduce the pain. Actually, you can practically eliminate the stress entirely with the right partners and some smart, quick preparation and planning on your part.
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Choose a partner that takes the organizing burden off of you and your students. A fundraising company should support the full process, starting with kickoff and keeping the students on board all the way through fulfillment (and then some).
- Help from your representative, IN-PERSON. Your representative should be able to give you a clear idea of exactly how the orders will be delivered, fulfilled, and explain the process in detail.
- A proven system for delivery. To reduce the human error in sorting on-site, choose a partner that embraces an automated system and delivers the orders in alphabetic, pre-labeled boxes for each student. For example, at Century Resources, each order is processed through our QuickCount and RediSort systems; we’re proud of our 99.97% accuracy rate, the highest in the industry.
- Simple ways to track payment and collections. There is no need to be creating spreadsheets. Look to your fundraising partner for organizing and tracking tools. With Century Resources, everything students need to collect payments is included in the RediSort boxes, and you, the sponsor, can easily track payments and profit breakdowns with our online CashTrac tool.
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Select and prepare an area that allows enough room for student pickup. Depending on the number of students you have participating, consider requesting access to a cafeteria or gymnasium so the process can flow easily. Make sure you think about flow; you’ll have students streaming in, and will need a couple of “stations” – one to pick up their order and one for them to sign off once they verify the contents.
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Get student and parent volunteers to help run pick-up and sign-off. You know these families! They’re the ones that help with the extra details before concerts and make a run to the main office when you need them to. With a few hands on deck and an assembly line, it will be a breeze. Do a thorough run-through with them before the queue starts outside the door.
Many fundraising companies provide more than just your sales rep for support. At Century Resources you’ll have a Customer Service Representative located at the corporate office who will help manage every detail of your program.
Now, breathe. It’s going to be ok.
“I also appreciate the way every order is packaged for each seller, complete with the order form. It was so easy to check the contents of each, have the student sign off on it, then move it out of my room. The accuracy was impressive. I can’t say enough good things about Century Resources in general. Let’s do it again next year!” – Linda P., Randolph Eastern School Corporation