How to 3x Your Bake Sale Fundraiser

What is a Bake Sale?

Let’s talk bake sales. For those not familiar with the term, you’re still probably familiar with the concept. A bake sale is a fundraising event where pre-made baked goods like cookies, brownies, cupcakes, cakes, muffins, doughnuts, and other similar foods are sold for profit. This is often for a fundraiser, with money going to a charitable cause like a school, PTA or PTO, sports team, or other worthy charitable organization.

Bake sales date back to the 1800’s when women used their baking skills to participate in forms of charity. In the early 1900’s bake sales became popularized in the United States as a civil rights movement in the name of women’s suffrage.

Since then it’s evolved into a mainstay in fundraising circuits. Football games, wrestling meets, orchestra concerts, outside your local grocery store, these are just some of the many places you’ve likely come across bake sales.

Bake sales are a staple of fundraising today, but there’s a tough reality when it comes to bake sales.

The Truth About Bake Sales

When it comes to fundraising that makes an impact, bake sales are on the lower end monetarily. Powerful community connection fundraisers, but it’s a tough way to make money. Hear us out. You’ve got to invest money in ingredients, invest your time baking, maybe someone else’s time selling, and still try to make a profit.

That’s why we’re writing this blog for you. Many of the teams that fundraise with us through calendars or crowdfunding, also use bake sales as supplemental fundraisers during the season.

Our goal, we want to help you make the most of your bake sale fundraiser. Let’s dive in.

An Example Fundraiser

Last year, we went to a powerlifting meet. They had cookies for sales at literally a dollar each. We bought one, and that chocolate chip cookie was delicious. Literally bought two more.

Let’s say that their bake sales fundraiser raised $100 after the cost of ingredients and noting that volunteers were selling these baked goods. $100 in profit after a full day of selling at a powerlifting meet. It’s alright. 

How can we improve upon that? How can we take a $100 fundraiser and turn it into a $500 fundraiser?

Planning a Bake Sale

The first step in running an effective bake sale fundraiser is to solidify your team.

•  Are you doing the bake sale cooking as a team? 
• Will one of the team moms with a penchant for baking take over? 
• What event will you be going to and who will be selling the baked goods?
• What baked goods do you want to sell? Cost?
• Do you have a cash box and table to set up the bake sale? Do you have signage?

These are the key questions you have to answer before diving in. Once all of that is set up, it’s time to gather recipes and get ingredients.

Cooking time, preparation, and ingredient costs will vary based on your choice of baked goods, but choosing quick to bake and easy to prepare items will be beneficial. Also, items that are handheld sell best at bake sales. So save your chocolate pie recipe for Thanksgiving!

Whether you choose muffins, cookies, brownies, or another handheld treat, most of these items overlap.

• Flour
• Sugar
• Eggs
• Butter
• Oil
• Salt

These are basic ingredients across nearly every baking item.

Low Entry Items

Take chocolate chip cookies, a high-margin item when you look at it, and sell them at a lower cost. On average, maybe it costs $0.25 per cookie to make and you’re selling at $1.00.

This is your base-level baked good. You want to sell a lot of them and keep the price low enough that buyers don’t think twice about grabbing one (or three).

Pro Tip: Offer Variety

Include brownies, muffins, rice krispie treats, and seasonal cookies (like sugar cookies with frosting during the holidays). Variety encourages more impulse buys and higher totals. These increased variety options should cost more. 

Upsell Opportunities

One of the easiest ways to raise more money at a bake sale is by deals which encourage items bought in bulk. Remember those cookies we were talking about? What if we liked them so much we’d be willing to buy in bulk. A dozen cookies in a package to take home? Probably would’ve done it.

Other examples of upselling include: 

• Buy 3, get 1 free
• A dozen cookies for $10.
• Pair a brownie and add in things like a bottle of water for $3.
  
  

Bundling baked goods encourages people to spend a little more than they intended while feeling like they’re getting a deal.

Create a Display That Sells

People eat with their eyes first. A strong, inviting table setup can double your sales:

• Use trays, cake stands, and labeled price tags.
  
  
• Add small signs that communicate the “why” behind the fundraiser. This could be things like “Homemade by the Wrestling Team!” or “Supports the Band Trip to State Finals.”

Additionally, have your bake sale items available for sale in multiple locations. If you’re at a football game for example, see if concessions would be willing to help sell your items and give the money back to you at the end of the night.

Most concessions are run by volunteers and booster groups. They’ll gladly help out another fundraising entity.

Combine Bake Sales with Digital Fundraising

We’ve discussed basic ideas that your grocery store may use to help sell more items. These will help on a marginal level.

Here though is where things can really take off. Bake sales are great for face-to-face community engagement, but they scale beyond the event. We have to maximize our efforts.

Pair With A Digital Fundraiser

That’s where a digital fundraiser helps.

You can set up a calendar fundraiser or crowdfunding page before the event and promote it at your bake sale with a QR code on the table. Someone buys a cookie? “Hey, if you’re interested in donating to our program to help raise money for us to get new uniforms, just scan the QR code with your phone.”

That’s a powerful non-intrusive tactic to get donations. Even if they aren’t interested, their cookie purchase still helped.

Donation Pages

Not running a digital fundraiser? Use a platform like Teamfi and our donation pages to gather digital transactions by card online, bringing in additional customers. Let’s explain.

Most bake sales are done with a cash box and cash only. Less than 50% of people carry cash. If you’re running a fundraiser and you don’t have an option for card carriers or apple pay, you’ve lost over 50% of your prospective customers off the get go.

Teamfi’s digital payment portal through donation pages allows for these purchases. This simple addition can easily turn that $100 event into a $500+ fundraiser. The donation pages are free to use.

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Final Thoughts - Time to Improve Your Bake Sales

Bake sales have been around for more than a century for a reason, they work. As new forms of fundraising that are more effective gain popularity, it’s time for the bake sale to evolve to.

When paired with smart pricing, appealing displays, and digital support, they can still be one of the most charming and effective fundraisers for schools, teams, and nonprofits.

If you’re interested in the digital side, happy to chat.

Bake, sell, and bring in a high quality improvement on your bake sale this year with these sweet tips.