How to Run a Successful Booster Club Concession Stand Fundraiser

Introduction

Running a booster club concession stand fundraiser may seem like a no brainer when your group is supporting a sports team but did you know there are a lot more ways to use this fundraiser besides ball games?

A booster club concession fundraiser is a great way to make money in a short period of time. It’s handy as a source of revenue for several reasons including:

• Limited promotion is needed as many people will be attending the event already.
• Everybody has to eat or drink and the convenience of having a place for cold drinks or hot food is always nice.
• Items pretty much sell themselves thanks to signs and there’s a wide range of foods and drinks that can be offered.
• Prices are also set by the booster club in many cases and that can increase profit by choosing the lower cost items to make and sell.

Booster club fundraising is always a major point of discussion at meetings and with members and the school, but concessions are usually a preferred method because it maximizes profit while minimizing the effort. Unfortunately, sports are seasonal and many booster clubs may not realize that concessions don’t have to be.

Concession Stands Are Perfect For Any Type Of Event

There are some great ways to use concession stands to your advantage that you can try and explore. These include:

• Local parades
• A local charity sporting event
• Holidays such as the 4th of July fireworks displays
• A school carnival or family night

As you can see, not every event needs to involve the school as there are ways to make money out in the community as well. Your booster club concession stand fundraiser can be used as a way to engage the community outside of the school and help to promote your booster club to new eyes and possibly even new donors and volunteers. This means a simple fundraiser is much more than that when you look at all of the different ways that it can benefit your booster club and school.

How to start a booster club concession stand fundraiser

When you have experience figuring out how to fundraise for your booster club it’s actually not that hard to learn a new one. While there are some hoops and challenges fundraising through concession stands isn’t very hard if you follow proper steps and stay organized.

If you’re looking for an easy “first” fundraiser to take part in you may want to try something a little more simpler as this one is easier when you have some background experience running fundraisers, but it’s not impossible to jump into with little to no knowledge so long as you follow the same steps as everyone else.

The first steps are to determine what you’ll sell and gather ideas on where you can sell it. Get in touch with the school administration team and see if they have any suggestions or list of rules that need to be followed so that you can abide by them. They may even be able to offer insider tips for running a concession stand on school grounds that you may not have thought of.

Finding the Perfect Food Concession Stand

Then you’ll possibly need to find a food trailer or some sort of vendor to work with. You may not always need one of these depending on the school or location. Partnering with a company can come at a cost, but it can also make things easier too. Either by getting assistance from someone within the company that has experience or getting special deals for your booster club concession stand fundraiser. Some vendors will even buy back unused products to lessen your expenses.

After you’ve gotten the initial set up tasks out of the way, you’ll need to secure all food handler permits and food vendor permits as required for your area. While some permits may be required for the group as a whole, others will be for the individuals, so it’s important to stress to all booster club members to secure these permits before the big day. Every state and county has it’s own set of rules and regulations to follow so it’s important to research this thoroughly as you could face fines or be shut down if you don’t follow them.

How to run a concession stand fundraiser

After you have the legalities out of the way and have a vision in place, it’s time to set up and run your booster club concession stand fundraiser successfully. To do this you’ll want to make sure you know what you plan on selling, how much the supplies cost to make it, how much you plan on selling it for. You’ll also need to figure out where to get the supplies and who will get them. This is a pretty key part of running the concession stand.

Some of the cheapest foods to prepare that have the biggest profit margins include:

• Cotton candy
• Nachos
• Canned soda
• Popcorn
• Funnel cakes
• Snow cones

As an added bonus, these are also great foods that can do well during any time of the year. People love to buy these foods from concession stands and profits can range from 50% of the sale price and up!

Figuring out the times and days of the events and scheduling volunteers to work during those time slots can be difficult if schedules conflict. It’s important to have back-ups in case someone can’t make a shift so that the rest of the team isn’t left picking up the slack. Also, make sure to send out reminders to individuals so you can ensure that they don’t forget.

The most important things to remember when holding your booster club concession stand fundraiser is to stay organized.

You want to make sure that you keep records and copies of everything from shopping receipts to warranties and rental information. This will help you to keep your budget, income, and fundraiser completely in check.

The chances are good that you’ll either overbuy or underbuy food supplies for the concessions. It’s highly unlikely that you’ll sell the same exact amount of hotdogs you bought without leftovers. So plan for both scenarios.

You can sell leftovers at a discount towards the end of the event to help clear them out faster, store them for the next event, donate them or try and return them. There’s a lot of options and knowing them in advance can help you to accurately plan.

While running a booster club concession stand fundraiser is a lot of work and paperwork, it is also a great and very rewarding fundraiser in terms of promotability and profitability. With the proper steps being taken, due diligence and records being kept you can have a great fundraiser as well as make it easier to set your group up for future successful concession stands as well.