There was a time that Candy School Fundraisers were the most common way to raise money. But that’s changed over the past few years. There’s a few reasons why it is not as common. Some are valid and some not so much.

The biggest reason there’s been a reduction in candy school fundraisers has been school districts that determined youth obesity was caused in part because kids were eating too much candy. Part of their solution was to ban one of the easiest ways to raise money. After all candy fundraising offers products that are extremely affordable and well received. And even though only a small portion of candy sold during the fundraiser was actually consumed by the students many districts felt compelled to appear to be taking action.

Another reason that candy school fundraisers started shrinking was that the candy bars being sold were also shrinking. At first it was rather startling. Hershey fundraising candy was offering bars that were sold more inexpensively in vending machines. That is no longer the case. Hershey got smart and created a larger candy bar for their fundraising products line and it corrected the dilemna of discount stores selling candy cheaper than the school could purchase candy for.

Finally lots of schools chose to avoid candy fundraisers because they had to commit to a certain amount of candy. Pricing was based on the number of cases a school purchased so the tendency sometimes was to overbuy. The mistake was not intentional. It was just hard to accurately predict sales. And if you got a better price for buying a few more cases many people tended to error on the high side. But that meant that there was unsold candy which would seriously eat into profits.

Interestingly, though, now that there are few candy school fundraisers being held it might make more sense now to hold one. After all there is not the competition there once was and the fact of the matter is that most people eat candy bars now and then.

Times have changed and there is more to consider with Fundraisers for Youth Groups. In fact the entire process has evolved over the years.

Ten years ago youth groups typically counted on the kids to raise money. The group would hand our fundraising brochures and each child was expected to sell fundraising products to friends, family and neighbors. It was expected that the youth would take their brochure and knock on doors around their neighborhood. But those days are done for the most part.

Now more parents take control of fundraising. If the group is holding a cookie dough fundraiser the parent most likely brings the brochure and order form to work and solicits sales there. The same for candy fundraisers. Parents take the carrier of candy to their workplace and count on coworkers to buy the candy.

In the old days youth groups would offer incentives to the kids to increase sales. Those incentives were obviously geared toward the kids. But how well do child-based incentives work when its the parent who sells?

If you are going to offer incentives for your fundraisers for youth groups we suggest you develop incentives that excite the parents if you believe that the parents will be the main force behind your youth group fundraiser. That might take a little more effort than it did choosing incentives for kids.

If you have not changed with the times do not be surprised if you see diminishing returns on your Fundraisers for Youth Groups.

One of the best ways to insure spectacular attendance at fundraising events is to have a celebrity attend or even speak to your group.

The Restoration, a faith-based event sponsored by the New Hope Gospel Church youth ministry program Extreme Fire, has been holding a fundraising event for 5 years. This year they expect to break all records.

They are bringing in Tim Tebow to speak to their group.

So how do you go about attracting celebrities to your fundraiser? Here are a few suggestions:

1. Look for local celebrities that personally know your organization or group. Possibilities include local television personalities, radio deejays, athletes or actors that grew up in your town or city. Since those people have roots in your community they will most likely not be as difficult to contact. Tracking down friends or family members is a possibility. As for on air personalities, those people are easy to locate.

When you contact the celebrity make sure you let them know why they would personally impact support for your group. We all have egos. Let them know they can make the difference and why. Be as compelling as possible.

2. Contact a talent agency. Talent agencies represent potential speakers and other celebrities. While most have engagement fees many will help charitable efforts that line up with their personal beliefs. You should obviously weigh the impact your desired speaker will have on fundraising efforts. Will the appearance raise a substantially higher amount of money? If so would that more than cover the cost of the celebrity?

While its not possible for many groups to get nationally known people to attend their event you might be surprised at speakers and attendees that can impact your fundraising results.