7 Tips for Choosing Promotional Merchandise for Your Nonprofit

We at ProImprint often get queries from non-profits to get the best promotional items that they want to use as fund raisers. Sustaining a non- profit organization is a tight rope walk as you have to source enough funds to promote your cause and to your organization going.

Here are 7 tips on choosing appropriate merchandise for your forthcoming fund raising events.

• The Purpose of the Program
  It is very important to have a precise understanding of the actual purpose of your program. Be it to generate funds, build brand image or add up to your contact list, proper planning will go a great way to get your targets right.
• Get to know the Fund raising basics
  If you are planning to use the branded swag as fund raising items, keep in mind a simple equation. If you are planning to sell a logo item that you bought for $5 at a rate of $20, you won’t be making a clean profit of $15 as you presume simply because it includes many overheads like imprint charges, packing and shipping charges and other applicable expenses.
• Identify Your target customers
  If your audience is young , you may need something trendy to capture their audience while to reach out to a mixed crowd or a women audience, you may need something entirely different. If you are expecting a massive audience, it makes sense to place bulk orders as these carry the best discounts and deals.
• Apparels may not be popular options
  Custom apparels are the most popular promotional gifts alright. But it need not be the case in fund raising events because apparels involve different sizes , age groups and gender, which could all make the selection process complicated. If you are going ahead with apparels, make sure to follow the industry standard of size curves to have a fair ideas on the sizes to stock in your inventory.
• Choose quality items: make sure that the logo items that you choose are durable and functional and giving away tacky products will only make a dent in your brand image.
• Offer only fewer choices
  If you are placing bulk orders for the wholesale price advantage, make sure to offer your audience fewer choices so that all the items will be sold off. Too many choices may result in selling only a few of each items, which may not be good for your fund raising event.
• Ensure that a Marketing Plan is in place
  Products don’t sell on their own. So make sure to give adequate publicity to your event and drum up support well in advance to engage them with your brand. News letters, press release, custom gifts at the store counter or planning community events will all be smart options to get your message out in a subtle yet emphatic manner.

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