Promotions & Merchandising

How the Community Bake Day fundraiser works

You already inspire people's taste buds. Now inspire a stronger sense of community by organizing this easy Neighbor to Neighbor Community Bake Day fundraiser. Before you know it, you'll be selling more product, building customer loyalty, and raising money for a worthy cause - all in a day's work! Here's how:

Select a Charity . You select a local charity or nonprofit group you’d like to support, and agree to donate a preset percentage (you decide how much) of all sales generated by that group on a designated day.
Distribute tickets. Members of the chosen group invite their family, friends and neighbors to visit your bakery on the designated day, and hand out Community Bake Day tickets for people to present with their purchase.
Promote in your bakery. You help raise awareness for the group by promotingthe event in your bakery, using our FREE Neighbor to Neighbor posters and other merchandising materials.
Advertise in the community. Encourage the group you’re supporting to advertise the event themselves. Give them the Community Bake Day Flyer included with this promotion for easy advertising ideas.
Track purchases. On the designated day, you track all purchases made by customers who present tickets.
Mail your donation. After the event, add up all the sales from the tickets and send a check to the community group for the percentage amount you agreed upon.

Choosing a Charity

Your neighborhood is no doubt filled with organizations that would benefit from and appreciate your support. Schools, churches, sports teams, dance clubs, youth groups and food shelves are just a few of the many groups interested in raising money for various uses.

You decide which local charities you’d like to support. It could be a cause you’re already involved in, or a group that comes to you asking for a donation.
Use the Fundraiser Opportunity Poster to get the word out that you offer a fundraiser groups can take advantage of. Also, talk to your regular customers about it — word of mouth is a powerful promoter.
When a group inquires about the fundraiser, hand out the Community Bake Day Flyer, which explains details about how the event works.
Have interested groups fill out the Community Bake Day Application.
It’s a good idea to set guidelines in advance for the types of groups or fundraising purposes you want to support. The guidelines will help you evaluate applications and select between multiple requests.

Choosing a date

You decide when and how often you want to host a Community Bake Day:

Host a fundraiser once a week, once a month, once a quarter, or once a year–based on how much money you want to donate and what you feel your business can afford.
Pick a date that works for both you and the group you’re supporting. Hosting the event on a typically slow sales day can help you boost sales during that period. Hosting it on an off-peak day might also make it easier for your staff to accommodate the increased traffic.
Avoid competing with other big events like the Super Bowl or a parade that will limit attendance at your bakery.
If you plan to host only a few fundraisers each year, it’s a good idea to choose a date during a season when bad weather is less likely to be an issue.

10 Tips for a Successful Fundraiser

Customize Neighbor to Neighbor Merchandising Materials. Download the FREE materials and personalize them, where appropriate, with details like your bakery name, the group you’re supporting, and the date of the fundraising event. (Go to Merchandising for complete instructions on personalizing and printing.) Print extra copies of posters, table cards and other items, so you can quickly replace any that get dirty or damaged. Personalize the tickets with the fundraiser date and the percent of sales you’re donating to the charity. Ask the charity to estimate how many tickets they think they’ll need. For a large supply of tickets, it might be easier and more economical to print one copy from your computer and bring it to your local printer to duplicate. You can also give a sheet of tickets to the charity group, and let them make the copies themselves. Be sure to keep a record of the costs you incur for paper, printing, etc., for your taxes.
Get the word out. Promote the Community Bake Day heavily inside your bakery. It not only helps boost awareness for the charity you’re supporting, it also lets customers know about your active community involvement. Hang posters, tell your staff to mention it to customers, and pass out tickets to draw people back in on the day of the fundraiser. Encourage the charity group to use their network of volunteers to call members and friends so they get a good customer turnout during the fundraiser. Tell them to announce the event at upcoming meetings, highlight it in newsletters and bulletins, and distribute posters around town. The Community Bake Day Flyer gives more advertising ideas.
Order additional supplies. Estimate what you think you’ll need to meet increased sales volume on the day of the event.
Schedule additional staff. Decide if you’d like any volunteers from the charity to help out on the day of event. It’s not always the most efficient help, but it can be a lot of fun, and a great way to build rapport.
Educate your staff. Talk with your employees so they know about the fundraiser and understand how it works. The better they understand the event, the better they can educate customers who have questions about it. Make sure cashiers understand what to do with the tickets, so they can handle customers quickly. (Remember, you’ll likely draw new customers, and you want them to have a positive experience that brings them back again.) An easy way to track sales generated by the charity is to staple each ticket to the sales receipt. Or have the cashier write the total amount of the sale on each coupon, so afterwards you can add up the gross sales you should base your donation on.
Remove coupons from counter. If you distribute tickets in advance at the bakery, it’s better not to hand them out on the day of the event. That way, you’ll know how many customers actually came in to support the fundraiser.
Hand out free samples. This is a great way to introduce newcomers to some of your signature items. This could be your best chance to turn these one-time customers into loyal fans.
Send your donation promptly. Be diligent with your follow through and quickly send your donation to the selected charity, along with a note thanking them for their participation. You could even send some of your goodies with the check or personally drop them off. Why miss an opportunity to show off your wares? Keep a record of your donation for your taxes.
Evaluate your results. After the fundraiser is over, take a few moments to document the sales and traffic it generated while it’s fresh in your mind. Compare it to a similar sales period to see how the event impacted business. Get feedback from customers and employees to find out what worked or didn’t work, and what you might do differently to make future fundraisers more successful. The main goal of the event is to help a worthy cause–so everything you do to maximize your sales helps the charity make more money too.
Thank employees for their hard work. You couldn’t have done it without them.