This last weekend, my daughter's American Heritage Girls Troop hosted a bake sale to raise funds for Camping and other fun items. I am the Troop Coordinator for this delightful group of girls and was so excited to organize and help coordinate this bake sale. We had a WONDERFUL turn-out and exceeded our goal by over 100%. So I thought I'd put together a list of the things that went really well for us, in case you plan to host one yourself some day!
Step 1: Advertise - we advertised in our church bulletin because the members of our parish would be our prime customers. I am absolutely humbled by their enormously generous hearts and they showed up this weekend and totally supported "their" girls!
Step 2: Recruit! In our ad, we requested additional bakers. And, each AHG family was required to bake 3 homemade batches of baked goods. We had a sign-up sheet on our website and people signed up to bring pies, mini-pies, brownies, bars, cookies, breads, snacks and other individually wrapped items.
3. Theme - We lucked out in that it was the weekend before Valentine's Day. We themed our tables accordingly. It was also great timing in that it was the weekend after the Super Bowl and the week before Lent (many people give up sweets before Easter!!).
4. Variety - HUGE. We had something for everyone, as you can see below!
5. Packaging - we packaged things to SELL. These cookies are packaged with a paper plate cut and then taped back together. Found this website on Pinterest. In addition, cake pops were readily accessible and snack bags filled with caramel corn or baked pretzels went pretty quickly too. We tried to use the AHG logo whenever possible too. Branding was incredibly important to us, because we are a new Troop and new to our Parish.
6. We didn't price one item. We simply asked for donations. Not only was it easier for our girls who were so polite and SO THANKFUL, but it was easier for everyone. Our customers knew what they wanted to spend and picked their items accordingly. And they were MORE THAN generous.
Our girls are SO grateful for the generosity of our community. We wouldn't be here without them.
I wish you luck on your bake sale!
Hello! Thank you so much for this beautiful story. Our AHG troop is thinking about having a bake sale this upcoming year, but it would be our first. Did you plan a budget or have a specific amount of baked goods in mind when setting up? Blessings: Tiffany
ReplyDeleteTiffany - we have 42 families involved in our troop. Each family is required to bake and creatively package 2 batches of homemade goodies. No budget is set. We get what we get. And I’m forever grateful of our parishioners’ generosity.
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