| Whether your sorority is raising funds for a local | | | | * Price things clearly. It's easier to set up a board on |
| charity, a renovation to your house, or a | | | | an easel with your prices than it is to mark |
| sorority-wide trip, one of the best things you can do | | | | everything individually. Just make sure that everyone |
| is host a bake sale. Okay, it might sound a little | | | | can see the prices somewhere. If you use a white |
| ridiculous and even childish, but just think about the | | | | erase board, you'll be able to change your prices and |
| power of home-baked sweets among college | | | | offer specials throughout the day. |
| students, and you'll see that the idea has a lot of | | | | * Wrap a few of the items up as gifts. There's |
| potential. What poor college kid won't sacrifice a few | | | | nothing people like more than receiving yummy gifts |
| quarters for a taste of home-made chocolate chip | | | | for no particular reason. If you have a few items |
| cookies or pie? Here are a few ideas to help you get | | | | already wrapped nicely and marked with tags, you |
| your bake sale off to a great start: | | | | can sell them as gifts, which will tempt people to buy |
| * Don't try to bake it all yourself. If you go to a big | | | | even more. |
| school, you'll need a lot of baked goods to sell. If | | | | * Play music near where you're selling items. Music |
| you're raising money for a charity or scholarship fund, | | | | makes people feel less awkward when they're |
| lots of people are going to be willing to help you out. | | | | browsing. You definitely want to encourage browsing, |
| See if professors will bake a few things at home, and | | | | though, because more browsing equals more buying. |
| talk to some different bakeries and coffee shops in | | | | * Hold a raffle of some bigger items. When you go |
| the area to see if they'll donate some things to your | | | | to those bakeries, see if some of them will donate |
| sale. | | | | gift cards or other major items. You may even want |
| * Find an excellent location. The key to making a lot | | | | to see about getting gift cards from other local |
| of money on a bake sale is setting up in an area | | | | salespeople. Create a basket or two of baked items |
| where, for one thing, there are likely to be hungry | | | | and gift cards, and sell raffle tickets for a quarter a |
| people and, for another, the people walking by are | | | | piece. At the end of the day, you can draw a ticket |
| likely to be carrying a bit of cash. Setting up near the | | | | and pass out the raffle prizes. |
| school coffee shop or by the cafeteria is probably a | | | | * For an easy way to get rid of your leftovers |
| better idea than setting up outside of a building full of | | | | without having to eat them all, use the left over |
| classrooms, since most people won't be starving or | | | | baked items in the raffle basket. Set aside a few |
| have change when they head to class. | | | | things at the start so that you know you'll have |
| * Offer a lot of different options, but don't put too | | | | enough to fill the basket, and then lump in whatever |
| much stock in any one item. It's hard to predict how | | | | is left over. |
| certain items will sell, unless, of course, you're talking | | | | With these ideas, you'll be well on your way to |
| about the bake sale classics like chocolate chip | | | | creating a great fundraiser that is also a lot of fun. |
| cookies and brownies with icing. You want variety, | | | | Plus, this type of fund raiser can be a fun sorority |
| but you also don't want to be stuck with a whole | | | | activity, since everyone can get together and bake |
| bunch of one thing at the end of the day. | | | | for a couple of days before hand. |