The Yearbook World of Scott Geesey
from Jostens Yearbooks of central/northern Pennsylvania
FUNDRAISING - KIDZ FIRST
This is an outstanding fundraiser for which your whole school can get involved and your yearbook is the beneficiary. And I'll let my friend Joan Seely, former veteran adviser at Cowanesque Valley High in Tioga County, give you the details below from her prior experience...
I'm delighted to give you this info! We've found them to be a great company to work with--very helpful people, nice margin of profit (40%), and decent products, with a wide range of prices to choose from, starting as low as $5.00. They have over 200 items in their catalog, with the usual gift items (some quite unique!), candy, gift wrap, etc. They supply a nice flyer in each catalog, with info supplied by us, such as what the fundraiser is for, number of items to be sold for 1/2 price or free yearbooks, date orders are due, etc., etc. In the catalog also is the order form with prizes students can earn on the back of it. They do have a nice selection of prizes, and the kids can start earning a prize with only 6 items sold. If they only sell 1 item, they get at least a large lollipop! I also really like to support them, as they are truly committed to "family"--arranging their employees' hours so they can start after the kids are in school, and be home when they get home from school, as well as several working from home if they so choose.
We open it up to the whole school, if they'd like to take orders, to earn a half-price or free yearbook. Last year we gave them a half-price yearbook if they sold 13 items, and free if they sold 25. We had 113 students take orders, out of about 370. Of that, 45 earned 1/2 price yearbooks, and 31 free books (which of course added to our total yearbooks ordered!) They've told me you profit about $3 per item sold, on an average, so I figured that in to the number they needed to sell to get a 1/2 price or free book. We profited about $4000, after we allowed for the free and 1/2 price yearbooks taken from our original profit. So I thought that was great!! This year I'm having them sell 15 for 1/2 price, and 30 for free.The KIdz First representative, Jim Mathesz, had told us it usually works better, with more profit, etc. if they can come in and do an assembly to explain the fundraiser to the kids. In the past, our administration didn't really want to do that so we had our yearbook staff take 5 min. in the morning homeroom time on the day we started the fundraiser to take the catalogs to each homeroom and explain it. I tried again on the assembly idea, and they finally said "OK, why not!" Of course Jim was able to explain it MUCH better, and we ended up with 193 taking catalogs (out of about the same number of students enrolled). I'm sure some will end up not actually taking orders, as usually has happened, but still the numbers are up quite a bit! So even with requiring more sold for 1/2 price or free, that didn't seem to affect their willingness to try. So we'll see how we make out this year, but again, it should be good! Jim had also told us in the past that oddly enough (it would seem), fundraisers usually do better when the economy is down. But the reason is parents might not have extra money for extras, like yearbooks, etc., so if the kids can EARN a yearbook, that helps! Makes sense that way, I guess. And they also make it very easy to send in the orders once we get them from the kids, and to deliver the items to the kids.Reps: Jim & Cherie Mathesz (who started and own the company, by the way--GREAT PEOPLE!)Phone: 800-382-4965 or 610-261-3803, fax: 610-261-3804E-mail: staff@kidz-first.comAddress: Kidz First & Associates, Inc., P.O. Box 480, Northampton, PA 18067
Thanks, Joan, couldn't have said it better myself!!!
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