Rev Up Your Bake Sale Engine

If your organization has an established annual fund raising bake sale that’s purring like a well cared for race car, you can begin to elaborate and rev up that engine by adding just a few different related activities to increase your revenue. There are many way you can do this with just a little extra planning. Not all of these ideas will work in all situations, they may not work in your situation, but they are worth considering.

Consider creating a raffle for a special item. Perhaps you have a merchant or other donor who will contribute an item or tickets to an event that can be used for a raffle. This might be dinner at a fancy restaurant, a service donated by an artist, a handyman’s talents. It could also be a hand decorated cake or fancy gingerbread house that is displayed during the sale. Tickets may be sold before and during the bake sale with a drawing at the end of the event.

Some organizations prefer a popular raffle is known as the 50/50 raffle. Tickets are sold before and at the sale. The prize equals half the amount of money collected for the raffle. The remaining half is contributed to the proceeds of the bake sale.

Sponsoring a baking contest as part of your sale can add additional excitement, interest, and revenue. Contestants contribute a small fee to enter the “Death By Chocolate” Dessert Contest. They each submit their own chocolate specialty. A panel of judges select the winner at a specified time. Once the winners in each category are announced, the entries are sold to the public at the bake sale. Selling a blue ribbon chocolate dessert often fetches a very handsome donation.

If there is an opportunity, inviting a guest cookbook author, preferably a dessert cookbook author, to speak at the sale will attract a lot of interest. The crowd will buy bake goods from your sale and the author is invited to sell books at the event. In these cases, the author almost always donates a portion of the book sale profits to your bake sale.

Sell heart shaped balloons at a Valentine’s Day bake sale. Balloons are festive, colorful and irresistible. They are also very profitable.

Invite specialty companies to display special baking items which guests can purchase. A portion of the sales can be donated to the bake sale.

Create a bake sale sponsorship booklet. The booklet can include all the recipes for your contributors. Ads from local merchants and extended school families can be sold to people who would like to sponsor the bake sale.

You may be able to sell an experience. An example of this is having a favorite parent or teacher sell a cookie baking lesson or cake decorating lesson at a child’s party. These experiences are very popular and often encourage large donations.

The bake sale can sell a specially decorated cake that might be decorated right at the sale or at a mutually agreeable time for the buyer and decorator. Any item that can be personalized is likely to attract attention and be very popular.

Some bake sales promote monthly tickets. These tickets are purchased at the sale and redeemed monthly from the bake sale donor. The tickets state exactly what will be delivered. For example, Good for Three Dozen Chocolate Chip Cookies during the month of October.

Sell cookies by the pound. The sale features cookies only which are attractively displayed at the sale. Buyers select the cookies they want, place them in a to-go container, have them weighed at the check-out station, and pay for them by the pound. It’s quick, easy, and patrons love having many choices.

The above ideas offer many possibilities for different enhancements. For those ideas that include utilizing a raffle it is a good idea to check with your organization’s charter or license. For example, some nonprofit organizations may not be able to fund raise using raffles while others may routinely be able to use them. Know your status before embarking on a raffle.

Of course every idea presented should not be used at the same time. That would be overwhelming and detract from the primary fun of a bake sale. But, with proper utilization and rotation of events from year to year, your bake sale can increase its final profits with just a bit of extra effort.