These days I would suggest that there is no better way for a school to raise money than to hold a Cookie Dough School Fundraiser.

Cookie dough fundraisers make a lot of sense because you are offering a product people expect to purchase from a fundraising group and that can be offered at a competitive price that does not seem to be overpriced. You will also be offering a better selection of frozen cookie dough than your customer might typically find available in a store.

So why do some schools do so much better than other schools with a cookie dough school fundraiser?

Successful schools have come to understand that there are 2 very important elements that make fundraising successful. The first element is widespread participation. The second is to promote the fundraiser and create excitement about it.

Let’s address participation first. Typically a school will send home their fundraising materials and hope for the best. Groups like this can expect less than half of the students to participate in any fundraiser. Some schools feel like its a great idea to introduce some incentive for people to be top sellers. Successful schools know that the top sellers will be the top sellers regardless of the prize program and spend more effort on getting everyone to participate instead.

Successful schools talk about their cookie dough fundraisers for weeks leading up to the sale. They have assemblies or at least class meetings to kick off their sale. They talk to their students every day during their sale asking the students how they are doing and getting them to share details of their efforts with the other students. They create an environment where the students feel like they are part of the mission and they not only need to participate, they want to participate.

If you follow these two pieces of advice you will have your best cookie dough school fundraiser ever.

The Best Time to Cookie Dough Fundraise

Fundraisers come and fundraisers go but it seems like Cookie Dough Fundraising remains one of the best ways to raise money – no matter what size or type of group you have. But when is the best time to cookie dough fundraiser?

There are two schools of thought. So let’s focus on the two main fundraising seasons.

If you ask someone in the fundraising industry they will tell you the fundraising year is divided into the fall and the spring. I would suggest that fall makes up 60% of sales while the other 40% comes during the spring. That holds true for cookie dough fundraising too. Most of the sales are in the fall.

But you can pinpoint the window a little more precisely. Most people selling cookie dough do so in late October to early November with the hope that they can get their product in time for the major holidays. On the surface, then, more people cookie dough fundraising during that time so you could determine to jump on the bandwagon and hold your sale during the same period. Or you can attempt to get ahead of the curve and start your cookie dough sale in September so that you are the first in your neighborhood to sell. After all, many of the cookie dough programs are frozen so people can store their cookie dough and safely have it on hand for the holidays.

During the spring fundraising season, I would suggest you wait until late in the season. Groups that sell cookie dough right after the first of the year might run into people who still have cookie left from the fall season. If you wait until March to hold your cookie dough fundraiser you might actually find people who just recently cooked the last of their cookie dough and are ready for your sale.