Fundraising Blog

Online shopping has become a social norm in our society. 51% of Americans prefer online shopping vs. traditional. Although that is only 1 in 2 of Americans in the last year, the real statistic that should have your attention is the 23% increase of online purchases over last year. We are living in a digital era where consumers prefer convenience over all else. The way we fundraise is even changing as more and more groups are leaning toward online donations. It’s important to find a fundraising partner that has the tools to help you succeed on and offline.

Century Resources’ online web store offers a personalized online store to each group that fundraises with us. We offer tools that help Group Leaders, Students, as well as Parents to spread the word about their Fundraiser.

 

Use Our Email Tool to Share:

Emailing out-of-town friends and family is a great way to reach your goal. Simply enter the names and email addresses of friends and family that would be willing to help you. They will receive a personalized email describing your group’s fundraiser and a link to shop your group’s Personalized Web Store. All items purchased go to your group’s total and items purchased are shipped straight to their home.

Share with All Your Friends & Followers:

A quick post about your fundraiser via social media is a quick and easy way to reach hundreds maybe even thousands of people. Post a simple message about why you’re raising funds with your webstore link on your Facebook or Twitter. Your followers will be directed to your Web Store where they can place their orders online. Items will be shipped directly to their home and your group will receive credit for the sale!

How Your Friends & Family Can Purchase Online:

It’s very simple for friends & family to order online to support your group. Here’s what they can do:

1. Go to centuryresources.com
2. Click on the “Online Webstore” button.
3. Select the state and city of school or enter group ID of the group you’re supporting. Then click on your group.
4. Enter the name of the student so they get credit for purchases.
5. Go shopping!

 

As fundraising continues to reshape itself into this digital age we’re living in, remember to choose the right fundraising partner. Fundraising should be an easy process for both parties, raising awareness for your groups needs as well as offering a variety of products online for your friends and followers to purchase!

School fundraising has become a necessary evil as all Teachers and/even Coaches have to endure this year over year. Trust us we know your pain as we were founded by an educator who realized you can’t run away from fundraising. More and more groups are fundraising each year, so it’s important to have the right variety of products to spark your community’s interest year after year. Partner with someone who knows how to raise the funds YOU need and someone you can depend on each year.

Every year, Century Resources carefully tracks the success of each product and we look in-depth at which items performed the best and the ones to retire. We replace the items that weren’t top sellers with new products trending in the consumer market place. This is our proven winning system! Check out our new products for this fall:

Salty & Spicy!

Chocolate Sea Salt has been a popular product offering for us so we have added not one but two new delicious items! We’ll be adding Chocolate Sea Salt Caramel Peanuts and Chocolate Sea Salt Caramel Raisins to our chocolate sea salt selection. Speaking of hot products, you’ll definitely want to try our new Chocolate Chipotle Almonds that is a mix of sweet and spicy. Coconut has been a proven winner as well as very popular with our customers. This fall we will be adding Coconut Almond Clusters to our coconut family!

D.I.Y.

Make it yourself with our new products hitting not one but two of our brochures! Are you someone looking to learn how to crochet? Perfect! Look for our Scarf Crochet Book to create your own infinity scarf. We will also be adding a Hand-Held spiral slicer to craft perfect spiral noodles of your favorite veggie as well as the Spiralized cookbook that features over 75 quick and healthy recipes with zucchini, squash, cucumbers, and other firm produce. After you enjoy your healthy handmade meal, create a masterpiece while relaxing with our adult coloring books!

Venison Now Trending

A spin on one of our most popular snacks, try our new, Spicy Jalapeno Cheddar Venison Sticks! Perfect for afternoon snacks or even great as an appetizer for your next get together. We will be offering this spicy twist in a sausage log as well.

 

 

 

Proven Winners Just Got Bigger

We’ve taken some of our best products and made them even better! Our #1 selling cookie dough, slam dunk chocolate chunk, just got bigger…literally! We’re adding 2 – 8” Chocolate Chip Cookies with Icing to decorate. This interactive treat is perfect for Birthday parties or celebrations! Take your pizza night to the next level. Proven products make a winning pair with our Pepperoni Pizza with Cheesy Garlic Bread.

Century Resources is committed to providing your students with a variety of products that their friends and family are excited to order in support of their group. With a wide variety of delicious savory treats and gourmet sweets, we have something for everyone. Check out more of our products and brochure selections HERE!

Digital Ecosystem

Today’s society consists around social media as almost the entire world population has a smartphone or some type of access to the internet. Many would argue that we’re living in a digital world constantly surrounded by distractions. Although these distractions are attributed to the constant “bad habit” of checking our social news feed, it’s a bad habit our society isn’t going to shake. Social Media is apart of our world.

 

“If You Can’t Beat Them, Join Them”

Teenagers are all over Social Media; there is no denying this. Give a teenager a smartphone or a laptop and they will have some type of social profile within minutes. “71% of teenagers in America engage on more than one social media network site,” Facebook, Twitter,and Instagram being in the top 5. Why shouldn’t adults be the same to some extent? Besides from the distractions, the ability to communicate and receive information at the click of a button can benefit parents who struggle to keep up with their tech savvy children.

 

Social Media In the Classroom

Online learning advancements have been developed over the years, such as Blackboard, Moodle, and others, to encourage students to direct their online use toward educational programs. Social media on the other hand is still a trending network slowly, but surely being utilized by more and more school districts across the country.

 

Teachers are creating Facebook pages to stay in contact with not only their students but parents as well. This medium of communication outside the classroom benefits well when it’s time to post homework, answer questions, or even generate discussion among students and parents over a current event.

 

Another social network highly being utilized is Twitter. Twitter is an online news and social networking service where users post and interact with messages, known as “tweets,” while being restricted to 140 characters. This platform is best utilized as a new alert, such as a high school game alert, student/teacher recognition, and school news updates such as upcoming school fundraisers.

 

FUNdraising on Social Media

A great place to spread the word about a Fundraiser is through Social Media. Utilizing social as an additional medium to share the fundraiser will increase your potential pool of people who will place orders. Students and groups sharing their web store for online ordering can be very impactful as you’re able to gain those out-of-state orders from friends and family or even school alumni. Group leaders utilizing Facebook and Twitter accounts as a communication tool to students and parents will help keep the fundraiser top of mind and organized. Check out these examples: 

 

By utilizing these online platforms you can keep your communication strong not only inside the classroom but outside the classroom. “Smart phones and social media expand our universe. We can connect with others or collect information easier and faster than ever.”

 

 

Ready to start your next fundraiser? Click here to get started!

 

 

Sometimes a little storytelling in the classroom brings a lesson to life. Here, we’re sharing one that helps illustrate why we do what we do. We were lucky enough to chat with one of our customers about his experience from a first-person perspective on the impact fundraising has had for his students.

Dan Hofmann is a music teacher in Gurney, IL. Of the 328 kids in his school, almost one-third of them participate in one of the three bands he leads: 6th grade, 7th/8th grade, and the high school band.

Dan’s school budget for his bands is $0. (Yes, you read that right.)

He decided to run a fundraising program to help afford the basic repairs and maintenance that his department requires. For example, the keyboard that had been missing a key for more than two years. When you have a budget of zero, it just doesn’t allow for the unexpected.

In addition, he wanted to create an opportunity to reward his students for their hard work.

“My kids are a mirror – they will give back to you what you give to them. Our Century Resources representative, had great energy and I knew from the start they were going to be a hit with the kids. We have 3 bands at our school; my Century representative hung out all day and met each one to kick off the program. Each presentation was just as energetic and fun as the others,” Dan said.

Century Resources really enjoys working with educators like Dan. He happens to be in a situation where the program can genuinely make a difference for his school. Dan trusted the process of the fundraiser and teamed up with his Century representative. Together they were able to ignite the kids excitement while also giving his representative space to interact with the students directly.

Dan and his Century rep treated the students to a pizza party when the time came to pass out awards. It was a day to remember for many of them. In Dan’s words, beyond the pizza, “Century Resources really nailed it with the prizes – whoever is in charge of that made them really relevant for the kids. I didn’t even know what a selfie stick was before the program! It was so much fun to pass out the awards to the kids.”

After raising $5,643 with the program, Dan was able to take their HS band trip to Great America where the band played for an hour, then enjoyed a day trip at the park! In the prior year, the trip had cost $45 for each of the 40 students.

For some of the students, this cost was a hardship, and many had to take money out of their own pockets. This year, however, the trip was fully paid for from the fundraiser – and they even got matching tees to wear that one of the kids designed!

Our Century Resources rep noted that their biggest reward was watching the program in action and truly having an impact.

“Dan and his students were great – I saw those kids getting out there and supporting that program, and they were so proud of achieving it themselves. They know they earned that trip. I couldn’t have been happier for them. It’s really rewarding for me to hear about them enjoying their successes.”

Century Resources is looking forward to another successful program with Dan and his students next year! Century Resources thanks Dan for all he does for his students, and for being a great role model for them.

Ready to start your next fundraiser? Sign up today!