As a member of the fundraising committee at my son’s preschool, I have helped with many different “flavors” of fundraiser --gift wrap, cookie dough, consignment sales, auctions, candy, flowers, and toys. Selling a book from the Family and Home Network collection was the easiest one we did this year.

I chose Blow Drying the Frog & Other Parenting Adventures, or what was soon called the “Funny Frog Book” around the school. It was promoted to our membership (approximately 90 families) in late April as a good Mother’s Day (or Father’s Day) gift. Any of the FAHN books would make great gifts (holiday, birthday, shower, etc.) any time of year. Here’s how it worked at our school, along with some things we didn’t do but will try the next time:

Create a flyer/order form:

This was the main way we communicated with parents and it went home in each child’s totebag. The one-sided flyer included a photocopy of the cover of the book (shrunk to take up about 1/3 of the page), pricing and deadline information (including how much the school would make with each sale) and a simple form to make ordering easy (name of student, class, how many books). Parents were directed to return form, check or cash to the appropriate mailbox in the school office. It certainly could be mailed to someone or a table could be set up to collect orders, depending on what would work best for the community.

Post book review in parent newsletter:

Each month parents receive a newsletter (through child’s totebag). A week before the book order deadline, a positive review appeared along with a reminder about the sale.

Make a copy of the book available:

During the promotion, two copies of the book were kept in the office for quick reads.

Hang reminder flyers:

During the two weeks of book promotion/order collection, reminder flyers were hung around the school. This effort could be simple (same flyer posted everywhere) or very creative (flyers could change, include quotes from the book, etc.)

Spread by word of mouth:

Several parents at the school had already read the book and spoke very positively about it at meetings, in the hall at pick up time, in parent education sessions. If the book hasn’t gotten around your school or group yet, it would be useful to identify a couple of parents who know a lot of other parents at the school, ask them to read it, and then encourage them to informally talk about it, as a way to support the fundraiser.

Call parent representatives:

Each class representative was called and asked to email or call their class to remind them about the sale. A sale incentive, for the class with highest number of books ordered, could work well. We had already done that with our gift wrap sale and didn’t want to overload people at the end of the year.

Collect orders:

Once all orders were in, cash and checks were submitted to the school. Books were received from office and distributed to parents through the children’s totebags.

Create a honor system table:

Once books were delivered, I made extra copies available on an honor system table in the school’s library. A simple form for name, how many books taken and type of payment (to be brought to office) was put next to a pile of books. Our school had sold things this way before, so this was not a new thing for parents.

Offer gift wrap:

We didn’t do this, but we thought it would be a nice extra to offer parents, especially if the sale was around the holidays.

Create a book sale table at family picnic:

The end-of-year picnic would have been a good place to have books available to sell. It would mean advance purchase of books for the school.

Offer discount subscription and/or other purchases:

It would be possible to include a flyer or card that gave the book buyer a chance to subscribe to Welcome Home and/or purchase other books/items at a discount.

Summary:

With 90 families, we sold 30 books at $10.00 each (to make cash purchases easier, no change). The preschool made $4.50 on each book, for a total of $135.00 (that’s a lot of crayons!). It involved minimal effort over a short period of time. Books don’t get stale, melt or take up lots of storage space at school or in people’s home/cars. One of the best things about this sale was hearing from parents how much they loved the book, how it made them laugh when they needed a lift. As one mom said, “I devoured it, without any of the calories that come with other fundraisers! Thank you!”

The discount price for our books is $5.50 per book for orders of 10 or more (any combination of books). If we're shipping to Virginia, you'll have to pay 4.5% sales tax. Shipping is free, to one address in the U.S.. You can sell the books at the cover price or discount them.

For subscription orders to Welcome Home, the discount price is $12 per subscription, for orders of 3 or more subscriptions. You must send us the money and each subscriber's name and address. The regular price of a subscription is $22/year.

Coming soon --a sample order form. Please email pubdir@familyandhome.org if you'd like to be notified as soon as it is available online.

Download Fundraiser posters.