What Makes Cheerleader Fundraising Profitable for Companies?

Learn why cheerleader fundraisers typically raise more money per student than most other school groups.

Any business transaction has to be a win for both sides. The school is looking for a company that’s going to help them raise the most money possible with the least amount of hassle. And obviously, the company wants the group to take full advantage of its resources. 

What do we mean by that?

We always look forward to when groups make the decision to work with us. We get even more excited when the group exceeds its financial objectives. 

This means 2 things:

1. The group is more likely to work with us again next time, and 
2. We make more as well.

In our 20 plus years of experience, we’ve found more high school cheerleader fundraising groups meet these 2 criteria than any other.

Any company that’s worth their salt should make it a priority to provide sales tools designed to help groups increase the total amount of money they bring in. The best sales brochure and the most motivational prize program are not enough. You have to be willing to do whatever it takes to help each and every customer achieve their goals.

Many assume that the larger the group, the bigger the sale and profit. However, even though this may be true for the school, this is not always true for the company.

Here are the reasons cheerleading fundraisers can be more profitable for companies:

Lower Fundraiser Expenses

We are constantly analyzing sales numbers. This helps us improve our programs. One number that we look at is how much we profit compared to the cost of doing business. The formula we use is net income (profit) ÷ invoice (cost). The higher the profit and the lower the invoice, the better it is for us.

Net income is how much the company makes after all expenses have been paid. Examples of expenses that we incur are promotional supply costs, which include things like sales brochures, prize flyers, and parent information letters. We must also pay our cost for the actual product as well as the shipping.

Schools that work with us know that they don’t pay for anything upfront, like brochures, order forms, and student envelopes. Most companies provide these materials free of charge. However, someone has to pay for them and that would be us.

Since cheerleader squads are typically smaller in number, our initial supply costs are lower. This helps decrease the second number in our formula. However, it’s not enough to minimize our expenses. If the group doesn’t produce, it doesn’t matter how low our costs are.

Cheerleaders tend to be more motivated to raise money than the average student. The reason is they have a lot of expenses to cover that many parents don’t want to pay out of pocket for. Cheer competitions and uniforms are expensive. These are items that they must have to be a part of the group. The average profit per student, therefore, tends to be higher. So they make more and so do we. This helps increase the first number.

Now, are we generalizing a little? Sure. But again, this has been our experience over many years of fundraising.

Greater Student Participation Rates

Another thing that drives up the profit for both the group and the company is percent participation. Since we provide fundraising supplies to every student, whether they sell or not, this is important to both parties. Any student that doesn’t participate is a net loss for us, and money not made by the group.

We find cheerleader fundraisers achieve higher than average participation rates. Since no squad member wants to be without a uniform, if mom or dad can’t write a check, they’ll make the most of their selling opportunity. Higher group participation means company material cost is being utilized to make money for both sides.

It's far less economical to work with larger groups with lower participation rates because most of the material goes unused, even though the gross dollars raised may be higher.

Learn how to improve school fundraiser participation

Cheerleaders Gross Higher Dollars

Simply put, cheerleaders sell more because they have to. Since cheerleaders typically have a higher need, they're usually very motivated to sell. We had one cheerleader group that sold cookie dough raise over $7,000 with just 25 sellers. Each seller sold an average of 20 boxes. And cookie dough typically retails higher than most other items. Since groups make a percentage of the total amount brought in, this group made a considerable amount of money.

To be fair, cookie dough costs us more due to things like higher shipping costs for frozen products, but we still make more because the group brings in more dollars.

Smaller groups typically average higher participation rates and items sold per seller than larger groups. Success is ultimately dictated by several factors, like the leadership skills of the sponsor and the needs of its members. See 9 tips to increase fundraising sales

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