Background:

On Valentine’s Day, “secret admires” anonymously send an item to a person of their choosing – a friend, romantic interest, or as a gag. Two common items to send are Crush Orange Soda cans, or “shots from cupid” – plastic syringes filled with bite-sized candy. Variations could include higher priced / higher profit items. Sales are held during the days leading up to February 14th, and typically are $1 to $2 for the item with or without an upcharge to include a message. Some variations also include the option for the recipient to pay $1 to reveal the identity of the sender. This fun and flirty fundraiser can make a quick $100 to $250 with very little time and investment. In the end, this fundraiser is all about VOLUME, and salespersons should focus on each customer buying several at once to increase sales.

 

Degree of effort:

Minimal to set up and promote. Most of the work is keeping track of who ordered what and making the deliveries.

 

Investment: 

Soda cans or candies, $25 to $100 depending on the number of orders.

 

Limiting Factors: 

Can only be held around Valentine’s Day.

 

Supplies: 

The item to be distributed, a table to set up operations, and a way to keep track of everything. Also, any flair added to the item – stickers, ribbon, notes, etc…

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Rundown and Pointers:

Before: Get permission to hold the fundraiser. Decide which item you will be peddling and come up with a price. CostCo Orange Crush will cost around $0.40 per can, syringes (obviously no needles!!) should cost $20 to $25 for 100 units. It is recommended to use a 20mL oral syringe, which will hold about 30 candies like M&M’s, Skittles, Reese’s Pieces, etc... You might even be able to acquire some from work at a discounted price.

 

The Sam’s Club industrial sized M&M’s bag runs for $10 to $15 and has approximately 2500 candies inside it. This should be able to fill 80 syringes, but if you wanted you could easily stretch it into 100 syringes, at a price of about 30 to 40 cents each. Stickers and decorations will hopefully be minimal cost and if possible use any art supplies that can be donated for free by Brothers. Many people have things like markers, paint, stickers, glue, ribbon, etc… just lying around the house!

 

Once you have your item and price them promote like crazy! Every day set up a table in a high traffic area where people can place orders. This will most likely be a cash operation seeing as how the items are low cost. Remind people that this is a fun and friendly event and you can use it to let someone know you care, etc… Just remember when setting up orders to note the CLASS of each person receiving the item!

 

Day of: Either on Valentine’s Day or before if it falls on a weekend, get Brothers ready to deliver the goodies. Since you have each recipient organized by class, you can pick times where everyone will be in class. Having P2 Brothers distribute to the P2 class, etc… will make it easy to identify people. Do not deliver the items during class, but either right before or during a break.

 

After: Not much to do after the sale but eat any leftover candy and hunt down anyone who wasn’t in class to receive their item. As the cost is low and the item food related, undelivered orders are rarely questioned. Therefore, make an honest attempt to deliver it, but if it cannot be done within an extra day – move on and offer no refunds