One Leaders Advice on Everything Cookies To Make Fundraising Easier

Your troop may be in the heart of cookie season right now or maybe your just starting to think about. I know from experience this is a fun time, but a stressful time as well. Trying to figure out who your girls should ask to buy cookies. Setting and reaching your goals individually and as a troop. Today I am going to share some helpful tips, some booth ideas, ways to make the cookie season easier for the leaders when organizing booths, fun patch ideas and more.

If you are on this page you are probably interested in ideas and suggestions for selling cookies, but if you also want some ideas for other great fundraisers for your girls be sure to also check these ideas out:

• How to run a Hoagie Sale Fundraiser with your troop
• Pile of Fundraiser ideas to try with your troop

These tips are many things we followed as a troop. Take what you like and incorporate it into your troop, leave what you don’t.

• Your girls should always wear their uniforms when selling and delivering cookies.
  
• They should know their product and price per box.
  
  • If you have K – 1st grade girls I recommend teaching your girls how to handle money and more about the products using some of these activities.
• Remind them to smile and be polite and friendly even if the customer says “No”.
• If you have younger or first time sellers you should prepare them ahead of time that some people won’t buy cookies so they won’t be upset if someone doesn’t want to buy.
• Cookie order forms are sometimes difficult to write on, if your girls are selling door to door, use a clipboard with a pen attached gives the customer a stable surface to write on. Here is a great 10 pack of clipboards that will get you started.
• Your girls should have adult supervision. Never let your girls sell alone.

Your girls already sell to family, friends and probably your co-workers or door to door. Then comes time to figure out how to be creative for booth sales. Suggestions to look into are colleges, malls, grocery stores, retail stores, truck stops, coffee shops, bus stops are all places you can set up your cookie booth with permission. I’m sure there are many other places you can think of.

One thing we did as a troop was run a marathon booth sale. Where we set up all over town all on one day. A few of the spots were drive thru booths. If you want to learn more how to run one of these types of booth events, read more here.

Your girls can decorate signs and fill out a goal chart to bring attention to your booth. You can have a theme or keep it simple. Our troop decorated for a Hawaiian luau, Bling your booth (as shown below) and the girls and customers enjoyed seeing the different themes. You are only limited by your imagination.

Do your girls get discouraged at cookie booths when they ask and get a lot of “no’s”? Here’s a fun game which you can call whatever you want “No, 10 nos” or whatever works for your troop. If a girl gets to 10 no’s before a person bought she’d get a prize, but if a person came and bought before she got to 10 no’s she had to start back at 0.

This idea came from a leader named Jen, she said when she played it in a three hour time frame she only had 2 prizes given. She used Hershey kisses as prizes they got close a few times, but then they’d have a buyer. It really made it a win-win situation that encouraged them to ask every person. If they got too many no’s they got a prize. If somebody bought they got a sale.

Think outside the box to get people’s attention that their is a booth at a certain location. Two things we did that seemed to help up our sales at a local gas station. Putting signs right on the pumps so in case someone who was not going to come in just might do so when they know their are cookies inside. The second thing we did that went well was placing a large Cookie selling sign on one of our parents mini vans. Decorate a twin size white sheet before the booth sale with your girls.

When it’s time to deliver the cookies make sure to have lots of bags and boxes to make it easier. If your delivery is door to door in your neighborhood a wagon can be very useful. Some girls make a thank you note and give to all of their customers to show their appreciation for their support. Just remember to make it a fun and memorable time for your girls.

Depending on what you want a fun patch for maybe hitting a goal, surviving the whole season, donating cookies to military, or maybe recognizing booth participation. Here are my top 4 finds that you may love as well from two of my favorite sources. Mad about Fun Patches and Making Friends.

Beyond the bash I bet you want to make the fundraising with your troop easier. I have a resource for you. I love everything from IamStrawberry etsy store has to offer. This bundle includes everything you need for a productive cookie season. And what’s more important that cute resources? The bundle includes:

* Parent cookie form
* Cookie booth tally sheet
* Cookie lanyard
* Girl business cards (Fillable!)
* Thank you cards/cookie order slips (4 UP)
* Door hangers
* FREE Bonus! Three booth signs, including one custom troop sign

Which baker are you using? Bundle for ABC Baker or Bundle for Little Brownie Bake

When I came across this leader planner there is no better planner for leaders then this one. It has everything you need to plan your troop year. The planner contains your calendar, meeting planners, rosters, COOKIE SEASON PLANNING and badge trackers in one safe place for when you need it. Learn more and get your copy of this leader guide

That is all I have ladies, I hope some of these ideas and tips make your cookie season fun and profitable at the same time.

Remember Stressed backwards is dessert. Happy Selling!

If this is still not enough cookie inspiration. Checkout my Cookie Ideas Pinterest board where I share all kinds of other great ideas people have shared online for cookie bashes and fundraisers that you can incorporate into your event.

Enjoy every minute being a leader and continue to inspire your girls!