Fundraising: Popcorn Sales With a Difference

Dick Moss, Editor, PE Update.com

Popcorn sales are an excellent way to raise funds. You can sell popcorn in your school cafeteria, at home games and special events. The smell of popcorn is a built-in marketing tool and popcorn can be made so that it is a healthy snack.

The most effective way to make popcorn is with a commercial popcorn machine. These machines can be rented, but you can also make a relatively small investment and purchase a popper for under $300 (see the following link to a commercial supplier). Such machines display the popcorn in a glass box, making it more attractive to customers.

Popcorn Sale Incentives
You can increase your popcorn sales by using incentives. Try randomly inserting gift certificates into boxes of popcorn. The certificates can be donated from your local movie theatres, Dairy Queen or pizza shops.

Example
Volunteers at the Macy McClaugherty Elementary/Middle School PTO in Pearisburg, Virginia, place pizza and Dairy Queen certificates in random bags of their popcorn and sell about 235 bags of popcorn to students every week.

References:
1. Macy McClaugherty Elementary/Middle School PTO, Pearisburg, Va., Idea Bag: Fundraising: Weekly Popcorn Sale, PTOToday.com http://www.ptotoday.com/ideabag/idea/978-weekly-popcorn-sale
2. Popcorn Machines, Standard Concession Supply.com
http://www.standardconcessionsupply.com/popcornmachines.html

To download the pdf version of this
article, click here: Download Now