EcoCouture is a HOT new fundraising item! We carried this product last year and it sold phenomenally! Nearly 8,000 bags sold in less than a year! They are fun, fashionable, and an environmentally friendly product which is great since everyone is looking to “Go Green” now-a-days.

I’m not a mind reader but I can imagine you are thinking “Ok, that’s great… What exactly is EcoCouture??” Well, I’m sure you’ve all seen the people at the grocery store with the reusable bags to put their groceries in rather than use paper or plastic. And if you’re anything like me you immediately wonder why you didn’t think to bring your reusable bags from home. With EcoCouture reusable bags you’ll remember because you’ll want to show it off! They offer a full line of reusable grocery totes, shopping totes, and insulated lunch totes at an amazing price!

This year we have an all new line with even better designs. Check out a few!

EcoCouture makes a perfect brochure on its own for groups like daycares, cheerleaders, dance teams, gymnastics teams, and many more. It is also a great brochure to team up with something else, such as cookie dough or Auntie Anne’s Pretzels. 

The best thing about EcoCouture… 50% profit for your group! And we offer free shipping! Try out this great new fundraiser for your group today!  Want a copy of the brochure??? Just let us know, we would be happy to send you one!

1.) New Kids are First brochure

2.) New prize program (possibly including some Hello Kitty prizes)

3.) A mobile friendly website (since everyone has smartphones nowadays)

4.) New lollipops

5.) A much larger Kids Korner program (look for an upcoming blog about this)

What other new ideas/products would you like to see for the 2012 fundraising year???

Company has exclusive rights in St. Louis to a new product that will help area schools and groups raise money.

Chesterfield, MO; July 21, 2010 – Mr Fundraising has unveiled Pastry Puffins®, a European style pastry with alternating layers of butter and pastry that melt in your mouth. Featuring six delicious flavors, these individual pastries are freezer-to-oven easy.

According to Mr. Fundraising president, Tom Evans Jr., “Dutchland Frozen Foods, of Lester, Iowa, gave our company exclusive rights to market Pastry Puffins® in Eastern Missouri and the metro St. Louis area.” This is the second time Mr. Fundraising has been granted exclusive marketing rights for a fundraising product in St. Louis. Two years ago, they introduced Auntie Anne’s Pretzels® for fundraising and now, Pastry Puffins®.

A company spokesperson states, “The first question schools and groups needing extra funds have been asking for years is ‘What’s new?’ so we always make an effort to have a new product. This year, that product is Pastry Puffins®.”

Fall: back to school, leaves changing colors, Halloween decorations going up, and school fundraising. That basically encompasses all of the autumn season for anyone with kids ages 5 to 17. And if you are a member of the PTO (or whatever your school has decided to calls its parents association) then the only responsibility you don’t have is the leaves changing colors.

If you are member of a PTO then this blog is for you. I know how time consuming it is to be on the PTO. Organizing classroom parties, teacher appreciation lunches and gifts, raising money to provide the classrooms with the things they need but just aren’t in the school’s budget. You play a vital role in the success of the school. One way to make your job less stressful is proper planning for the school’s fall fundraiser. Here are some steps to planning a successful fall fundraiser.

1)      Plan Early! – Some schools wait until the school year begins to start planning but this will add lots of stress for your PTO. The best time to start planning is before the end of the previous school year.

•   Begin researching different companies.

•   Invite representatives to give a presentation.

2)      Ask Questions! – Many fundraising companies offer similar programs but it is the customer service that sets them apart. Next weeks blog will be about what questions to ask your fundraising representative.

3)      Delegate! – One of the best ways to make a fundraiser run smoothly is to create a fundraising committee. This sub-sect of your PTO will allow other parents to get involved and alleviate some stress from the PTO president. This committee will be responsible for researching the companies, scheduling meetings, and communicating with the fundraising company about the details of the sale.

4)      Stay Organized! – Plan your dates upfront. Decide when you would like to run your sale, select a good week for delivery, and use your open house to your advantage. Good companies will provide samples for you to display at your open house so parents can see what items will be available. Also, if you choose your dates early you can start sending notes home at the very beginning of the school year so parents won’t be surprised when the fundraising information comes home. They will be expecting it.

These are some great tips on how to make your job as a PTO member less stressful when it involves planning a fundraiser. And they don’t just apply to the fall fundraiser, but all fundraisers. Timing is key!

 The next few blogs will be all about asking the right questions and what you should expect from a fundraising company. So to prepare for next week… What do you expect from a fundraising company?

“Mom, my baseball team is selling candy bars.” “Dad, my dance studio is selling cookie dough.” “Mom, my school is selling stuff again and I really want these cool prizes!”

Have you ever felt like all your kids do is fundraise? Maybe you’ve felt like Lois:

It’s no wonder parents are burnt out on fundraisers. Every activity that their kids participate in asks them to raise money for something and it starts as early as daycare. But, that doesn’t change the fact that each activity (including their school) still needs to raise money.

Let’s face it, it’s easy to get kids excited about fundraising. Show them some cool prizes, tell them how they can win money and they are pumped up and ready to sell, sell, sell. But, the truth is, the kids aren’t the ones doing the selling. Mom and Dad take it to work, mom and dad bring it to grandma’s house, mom and dad collect and keep track of all the money, mom and dad make sure everything gets turned in on time, and mom and dad pass all the stuff out after the sale is over and the kid collects the prizes. Sort of seems like we reward the wrong person, doesn’t it? Yet a prize program for parents doesn’t really make sense, so here are a few ways to keep the parents involved and excited about fundraising:

1)    Set a Goal and be Upfront about it: If parents know how much money needs to be raised and what the money is going towards, they are going to be much more likely to participate.

 If you are honest with parents about how much money needs to be raised and you set a goal then everyone knows what is expected of them. The best strategy is to break it down by item. Ask the fundraising company you are working with to do the math for you. Tell them how many kids are participating and how much money you need to raise. They will be able to give you a rough estimate of how many items each child needs to sell. Also, make sure that parents know what the money is being used for and be as specific as possible. When parents can see how their child will directly benefit from the money raised, they will be more willing to participate.

2)    Bonus Incentives: Fundraising companies often provide prizes to the students for how much they sell. But these are mostly toys that are intriguing to kids and not to adults. When you take control of your own fundraiser and begin offering incentives in addition to what the fundraising company offers, your sales will sky rocket. For example, you could give away a TV to the top selling family or have a drawing for it.

3)   Keep talking about it: No matter what your incentives are, no matter how much the goal is the most important part of a fundraiser is to keep talking about it. Send home flyers leading up to the sale, send home reminders during the sale about goals, incentives, and turn it dates, and talk about it with the kids every chance possible. If it is a PTO sale, have the school make announcements daily, if it is for a sports team mention the sale at the end of every practice and game. Just keep talking about it!

Parent involvement is the key to a successful fundraiser. These are just a few ideas to help get parents more interested in your fundraising efforts.

If you have more ideas please share them below. We would love to hear what other ways you have come up with, even if they didn’t work out the way you planned.

Before I start confusing you with names, I guess I should explain who we are as a company and who everyone is individually. It will make much more sense that way. (Actually, it might not because three people have the same name.) We are Tom Evans Fundraising; we help local schools, groups, and organizations raise money. Tom Sr. started the company in 1969 and brought on his son, Tom Jr, in 1980. In 1998, Tom III joined and made it a truly “family owned company”. Now you see what I mean about too many people with the same name. In 2009, I came on full-time. I’m Jenna Evans-Hollrah, granddaughter, daughter, and sister of the above mentioned Toms. (At least when people call and ask for Jenna we don’t have to say “which one?”) So there is your background on who’s who in Tom Evans Fundraising. It’s Tom, Tom, Tom, and Jenna. Got it? Ok let’s move on.

Tom Sr. has always been VERY up on technology. I mean, so up on technology that he has a cell phone, his own Facebook page, and a blue ray player. I don’t even have a blue ray player yet! Anyway, Tom Sr. is always reading anything he can get his hands on about new ways to get our name out there, new marketing strategies, etc. So one day he tells me he wants me to start a Facebook page for the company. Awesome! I love Facebook! Easy, no problem, done! So we are on Facebook. Then he mentions starting a Twitter page. Not so awesome. I know nothing about Twitter. But he explains how there is no way that it can be a bad thing. The worst that could happen is… it doesn’t work. Ok, so I did some research, learned how to set up a Twitter page and as of yesterday we are on Twitter too (with an awesome background that I customized myself).

The next step was this blog. The blog idea actually came about before the Twitter one but the blog seemed a lot harder so I set up Twitter while I was procrastinating writing this. Grandpa (that’s Tom Sr. to you) came up with lots of cool things that we could use a blog for, giveaways, coupons, sales, etc. And we all like being able to say “hey, check out our blog.” That just sounds really cool. So we were all in agreement that a blog must be started. No, correction, they were all in agreement that Jenna needed to start a company blog. It’s ok, I’m good with that.

So here is our very first blog. I hope you enjoyed it. The basic concept that I want you to take from this is that the idea for the company Facebook, Twitter, and blog pages were not the ideas of the 24-year-old, the 29-year-old, or even the 49-year-old. They were all the ideas of a 76-year-old marketing guru I like to call Grandpa (but you can still call him Tom Sr.).