Get a piece of the $4 billion product fundraising pie!

The product fundraising business is $4 billion/year industry, and we’re here to help you make your mark in it. As a FarmRaiser partner, you’re getting your product into the hands (and mouths!) of your community, expanding your customer base, and increasing your brand recognition. Think of FarmRaiser as a friendly tool to substantially expand your business, increase revenue, and of course, support schools and causes in your community. There are three easy ways to boost your fundraising sales:

1. Make sure your product catalog on FarmRaiser is up to date and has great pictures; second
2. Create a web page on your site letting people know that you offer fundraising — your fans and customers love your products and would prefer selling them in a fundraiser than junk food and candy. With our new “iFrame” signup form, they can register for a FarmRaiser featuring your products without leaving your site.
3. Send an email to your customer list — again, if they don’t know about your fundraising business, they can’t possibly sign up

Show off your fundraising products

The best way make sure your products are selected for campaigns is to make sure that your products are up to date in our system and looking great. Great descriptions + Beautiful pictures = more campaigns and increased sales.

As soon as you get a chance, grab your favorite beverage, log into your FarmRaiser account, and get started. If you have a million passwords and can’t remember which one you used for FarmRaiser, no problem.

In under an hour, you can get your FarmRaiser profile looking sharp with a few simple tips.

• – If you haven’t already, upload your logo and background image for your page. Here are a couple of examples of good backgrounds and logos — choose a background photo that doesn’t have text in it, so it doesn’t conflict with your logo which appears in front of it.  For example, check out what Higher Grounds Coffee in Michigan and Acme Farms + Kitchen in Washington did with their pages.
• – Pictures matter! It’s worth the time to write a good description of the products, and take and upload beautiful, high resolution photos of your products. Great pictures = more sales.  Check out these guides to taking great product photos without fancy equipment:
  • Taking product photos with your smart phone
  • Make food look delicious with a couple of quick tips
  • Professional looking photo hacks using household objects
  • Tips for photographing produce

Create a fundraising page

If you’ve got a web site, add a basic page letting people know that you’ve got a product fundraising business. We’ve created a template here that features our new instant sign up form. If you have any questions about building out your fundraising page, or how to promote it, get in touch with Japhet, our director of partnerships and marketing.  You can email him here, or book some time on his calendar here.  He will help you make the most of your FarmRaiser membership.

Tell the world about your fundraising business

You don’t need to be an expert in marketing to know that email is one of the most effective ways to reach people.  Your fans, customers and friends who love your product are your best source of new fundraising business and referrals. A quick email announcement at the right time of year (August/September, and January/February) can earn you a couple of new campaigns. Here’s a sample that you can use to get started, customize with your own information, and send out to your customer lists, or post on your Facebook page. We’ve got a new brochure that explains the benefits of healthy fundraising with FarmRaiser — you can download it and attach it to your email, or post it to your social media sites.

If all else fails, read our handy Guide — we sent it to you when you signed up, but if you’re like me, that’s probably buried 2,743 emails deep by now; you can download it here.

The product fundraising business is $4 billion/year industry, and we’re here to help you make your mark in it. As a FarmRaiser partner, you’re getting your product into the hands (and mouths!) of your community, expanding your customer base, and increasing your brand recognition. Think of FarmRaiser as a friendly tool to substantially expand your…