The best way to fundraise is to find an item that is popular and will sell. For example, at UC Irvine, one of the best selling items is Milk Tea Boba. At UCI, our club tries to sell boba once every two weeks because it is popular and sells out fairly quickly.
When we do our fundraisers, we try to get a good spot on Ring Road. A good spot would be where lots of students are always walking by and at UCI that is near the Student Center. We also try to sell on a day where there is good weather, because weather does affect sales. During this quarter we have found that fundraising in spots that are more isolated may also work because there will not be as many organizations to compete with. When you are fundraising, it is important to be loud and energetic. Doing these two things attracts more people to your booth and can lead to more sales.
Surprisingly, is important to have as many people at your booth at one time as possible! When you have more people, it is easier to sell because you will not feel intimidated by the other clubs that are around you. It’s also nice to have a friend to spend the time with. Try selling to friends that you may see on campus.
Another thing that we tried is fundraising while combining it with publicizing for an event. We did this for our annual Charity for Chances dance in February. It worked out well for us because not only were we able to raise money for the dance but we also got the word out for people to be aware of our dance. The last piece of advice would be to not get discouraged if your booth is not selling out as quickly as some of the other clubs. If you are enthusiastic and friendly, peeople will come to your booth to buy!
Kevin Quan is Chapter President of NSCS California University – Irvine. These tips are especially to help chapters raising money for Summit! Get your tickets here: http://nscssummit2013-Big.eventbrite.com