Have large shoebox packing goals and need a way to fund it?
Years ago my daughters caught the shoebox packing bug!! They packed some shoeboxes with their grandparents. Sometime later, they read an article in Focus on the Family's Clubhouse Magazine about 3 girls who packed 80 shoeboxes one year. My daughters then asked if the 2 of them could pack 100 shoeboxes. I figured the cost, with the shipping and told them we would have to figure out a way to raise the money for this. My then 9 year old daughter remembered how we sold lollipops for another fundraiser our homeschool group had done. She was right, we sold 60 lollipops in a few hours for a project our group did and I figured I could look into what it would take to order these and sell them ourselves. For about 7 years, we would take a basket of lollipops with us around to sell these. It was pure joy to sell the lollipops and see the fruit of our labor when we would then shop for our shoebox items, plus we would have enough money to make the very large payment to cover the shipping for the 100+ boxes they packed. Whether you pack 100 or more shoeboxes or you decided to do a smaller number, we hope you are inspired to pack a shoebox.
How We Sold Lollipops to Raise Money to Pack OCC Boxes
1. We purchased the lollipops from Ozark Delight.
This company is wonderful. They have great options for starting out small. My kids at first took a loan from me to purchase their first batch. When we sold the lollipops, they knew that first they needed to pay back their loan. Then they had to put the next earnings aside to cover their future lollipop purchase. For purchasing information for the lollipops, you can shop online at: www.ozarkdelight.com
2. Setting the Price
We sold our lollipops for $1. Ozark Delight suggested price was less, but $1 was easier to make change. Surprising, very few people though $1 was too high.
3. Learning to Talk to People
This is hard for most people, but with mom standing right there, my kids learned how to talk to people. They often got questions about Operation Christmas Child, so right there became an outreach opportunity.
4. Get Permission
When you sell items, know the rules about vendors and solicitors for your locations. We had very few times when we ran into an issue. I told my kids that no matter what, if someone asked us to stop selling when we were doing so, we would stop. We only ran into this 3 times over the 100s of outings. We always wanted to have a positive experience, to be courteous and to represent ourselves and our mission well. Remember to always have a place that you are allowed to be at and that it is a safe place for your family.
5. Know Your Product
Ozark Delight's multi-packs contain some flavors named after alcoholic drinks and we were uncomfortable having those. You can call Ozark Delight and ask for certain flavors and they gladly will customize your order. We usually would order a nice variety of flavors. The most often requested flavors were cherry and rootbeer, so we would request those over the other flavors we didn't want. Also, the lollipops can melt slightly in a hot car and will make the products look less desirable, so plan accordingly on hot days. We also would buy a few for ourselves so we could taste test them.
6. Profits
After funds were set aside for our next lollipop order, we then saw our profit. We would decide how much we wanted to put aside for shopping and how much to put aside for shipping. After sometime, we opened a separate savings account just for our OCC shipping money and still today we use this account to set aside our shipping funds. Then and now, we do not shop unless we have enough money to cover the shipping costs. As of 2017, the shipping is now $9 per box.
7. Shop Year Round
Bargain can be found all year. I found by taking the kids out to shop with their earnings keep them excited to for reaching their goals. See my other blog post about some of our ideas and great finds: "Operation Christmas Child - Ready to Shop"
It is a wonderful option for families with younger children. Over the years we did this, we truly were blessed to bring in hundreds of dollars for all for our OCC boxes. We sold at kids' ball games mainly and sometimes at other events. Be sure to know the rules of the event you are at before you sell stuff. We sold these for $1 each and often would receive donations. Please note that our family no longer raises funds this way because of teenage schedules. When we stopped selling lollipops, we reduced our yearly shoebox goal, but we are always in awe how God provides for us to reach our shoebox goals. We share this because we want to encourage other families to find ways to reach their own shoebox goals
