Gourmet Popcorn Fundraiser, The Complete Guide – [Top] 11 Popcorn Fundraising Companies Review

The Complete Guide To The [Best] Popcorn Fundraisers

Do You Qualify for the (BEST) Popcorn Fundraiser?


This is the ultimate popcorn fundraiser guide.

Popcorn fundraisers are a great option for teams, groups, and schools to raise money.

In this all-new guide about popcorn fundraising you’ll learn all about:

How Gourmet Popcorn Fundraisers work:

  • Basics of a popcorn fundraiser
  • Why a popcorn fundraiser?
  • How to do it the perfect popcorn fundraiser
  • Who is it good for?
  • Profit margin – Average earnings
  • Fundraising Companies – Profit margin
  • Types of Popcorn
  • Turnaround time
  • Virtual Popcorn Fundraiser
  • Bonus Chapter:

So, if you want to make sure that your popcorn fundraiser is the best one out there, you should get a lot of value from today’s guide.


Table of contents

Do You Qualify for the (BEST) Popcorn Fundraiser?

Popcorn Fundraiser Fundamentals

Let’s kick things off with a chapter on the basics.

Specifically, in this chapter I’m going to cover why popcorn fundraisers are still so important in 2021.

I’ll also show you what is (and isn’t) considered a quality popcorn fundraiser.

Let’s dive in.

What is a Popcorn Fundraiser?


A Popcorn Fundraiser is a product fundraiser for a school, group, or team to earn money for a project by selling different flavors of popcorn and keeping a percentage of the sales. Percentages, flavors, and product quality varies for each gourmet popcorn fundraiser. Popcorn is a quality fundraising product when working with the right vendor and best offers.


Do You Qualify for the (BEST) Popcorn Fundraiser?

Why a popcorn fundraiser is still important?

You can have the best school with the best PTO/PTA.

But if you choose the wrong fundraiser?

Then your school isn’t going to flourish like it should.

But that’s just scratching the surface. Even if you select a great fundraiser, you still have to execute…

That’s because, for your gourmet popcorn fundraiser to be the best one possible, you need to have your team in place with the proper plan to perform… And a thousand other things that go into fundraising.

Why is a Popcorn Fundraiser one of the great school fundraiser ideas?

Schools run various fundraisers all year long. They range from simple and easy to complex and complicated. The best fundraiser ideas for schools are simple to understand, easy to execute, and offer high profit.

The most successful fundraisers have a great ability to entice kids to help sell and parents to put forth the greatest effort. School’s need to raise these funds to support important projects, so it is important that there is no wasted time.

A perfect popcorn fundraiser is one that is short in length, big in profit, and easy to execute.

The popcorn fundraisers come with brochures or a link for the students and parents to use for sales.

School popcorn fundraisers can be completed in one to two weeks and raise up to $20,000 for the school projects.

Popcorn has an easy delivery system with some popcorn fundraising companies offering student packed deliveries or even deliveries direct to the buyers. (Student packed deliveries are delivered with each students sales boxed with their name so they can pick up and deliver with ease.)

So, popcorn fundraisers offer high profits, up to 60%, in a fast fundraiser with great benefit and ease for the schools and students.

And I’m probably forgetting a few.

Fortunately, I’m going to cover all of those things (and more) in the rest of this guide.

Chapter 2: Why choose a popcorn fundraiser?

Popcorn Fundraisers are easy to complete and a student favorite.

Who doesn’t love a big bag of flavored popcorn?

Fundraisers have as many as 20 different popcorn flavors for your team.

It’s a short, high profit fundraiser.

It’s simple to get the most out of a popcorn fundraiser.

How to have the best popcorn fundraiser?

  • In order to increase profit, find the best popcorn fundraising company to help you with your popcorn fundraiser.
  • Get a plan for your team to increase sales.
  • Get higher participation with an incentive plan.
  • More sales with a high quality product.
  • Get the most profit by selling the maximum in your program.
  • Give buyers a reason to buy with a defined project that benefits the school or program.

Simplify – Specific plan to maximize your gourmet popcorn fundraiser:

KISS – Keep It Simple Stupid. Make this your best by making it easy.

  1. Give each seller all that they need – enough brochures and product knowledge to sell.
  2. Give each seller expected fundraising goal and a total group goal. (Example: Sell $100 each or 10 popcorn bags.)
  3. Let them know what the sale benefits and what it will fund, be specific.
  4. Give sellers a daily plan for the duration of the fundraiser. (See downloadable 14-day plan below.)
  5. Provide an incentive plan. (Provided by some popcorn fundraising companies, or create your own.)
  6. Find highest profit offered from popcorn fundraising companies.
  7. Find all of the above from one popcorn fundraiser company.

3: How To Run a Successful Popcorn Fundraiser?

When to do your Popcorn fundraiser?

The best time to sell popcorn is the most popular time of the year for popcorn. The best time to run a fundraiser is the most popular time of year for a fundraiser.

So, when is the best time for a popcorn fundraiser?

Well, Spring is a great time to sell popcorn for some groups. Boy Scout popcorn fundraisers are done either in the Spring or Fall depending on the area of the country.

Fall is a great time for schools to sell popcorn also. Start of school and Fall weather settling in makes it a good time to sell.

But, there is one time of year when most gourmet popcorn fundraisers are ran and that time is late fall into the holidays.

According to one of the biggest popcorn fundraising companies, from Halloween to Christmas, there are more popcorn fundraisers completed than any other time of year.

No wonder all of the grocery stores have the 3 gallon tins of popcorn stacked at the entrance and exits at Christmas time.

Grandparents have a tin of popcorn sitting beside the recliner in the living room every holiday season proves that this is a great time of year to sell this product.

It also makes for a great Christmas gift for the person that has everything.

There are other great times to sell, but this is the best time given by popcorn fundraising companies.

How long do you run a popcorn fundraiser?

Most groups run this fundraiser for 2 weeks or under. Some groups have had a lot of success with one week.

One popcorn fundraising company said it best:

“Most fundraisers only sell their products in the first week and the last week. The planners sell week one and the procrastinators wait until the last minute. That’s why we eliminate the rest of the time and limit sellers to two weeks total. It even amounts to higher sales for most teams.”

PoppedPerfectly.com

There’s not enough time to forget about the fundraiser and there’s just enough time to contact all of they potential buyers.

Some online fundraisers are only 4 days long, which takes a lot more preparation and not much sales time to reach out to friends and family.

How many people do you need?

This is a tough question to answer with so many variables.

Groups can sell with as few as 2 or 3 people or can sell much more with hundreds of members.

Most teams can sell 5-10 items for each seller.

To see if it’s worth it to you to sell 5-10 items for each member, just calculate your potential profit and make the call.

Most groups average making between $1,000-$5,000 profit with a gourmet popcorn fundraiser.

What to expect from a popcorn fundraiser?

  • Fast fundraising – Better organized teams raise more
  • Lots of cash on hand – Have somewhere to deposit the cash.
  • Some confusion: customers asking for descriptions of flavors and thinking they ordered something they didn’t.
  • 2 weeks to sell, then about 2 weeks for delivery.               
  • Distribution issues: Again, student pack or organized groups make this much easier to handle.
  • High profit for little down. Up to 60% profit for no money down payment.

To improve your income potential, you need to take into account:

  • Season (is popcorn popular during this time?)
  • Location (Is it easy to get to customers for sales and delivery?)
  • Participation (How many in your group will actually sell?)
  • Incentives (Do you need to offer incentives, if so, what to offer?)
  • Timing (How long do you have to fund your project?)
  • Income-level in your area (Works best in low to middle income areas.)
  • Parent buy-in (Get this before starting any fundraiser.)
  • Funds needed (Can a popcorn fundraiser deliver your needed funds?)

Use a Simple Incentive-Based Program

Your popcorn fundraiser excitement level is how all of the participants are going to perform.

In general, you want a program that offers low level incentives and increasingly high-level seemingly out of reach goals.

Discount Fundraising

Why is this important?

An incentive for students makes it easy to estimate your total sales.

Most will shoot for the lowest incentive.

For example: 3 sales gets a keychain

This isn’t a big deal for a donation only fundraiser.

But for a gourmet popcorn fundraiser with expectations for raising a large amount for a big project?

Incentives are a BIG deal.

You also want your incentives to be super clear and understandable.

In other words, you don’t want an incentive plan like this:

This messy plan usually creates confusion and misunderstanding the goals.

Clear incentives will help you reach your goals faster and easier than you think.

Popcorn Fundraiser Prize Programs:

Each of these programs offer a Prize Program. Prize programs are usually free as are in these programs.

Do You Qualify for the (BEST) Popcorn Fundraiser?

4: Who does a Popcorn Fundraiser benefit?

Groups that do well with selling gourmet popcorn:

  • Schools
    • Elementary
    • Middle
    • Pre-Schools
  • Dance Studios
  • Football teams
  • Baseball Teams
  • Basketball Teams
  • Bands
  • Youth Groups
  • Churches
  • Boy Scouts
  • Fire Departments
  • Charities
  • Family Fundraisers
  • Teams
School Fundraising Ideas
school fundraising ideas

Case Studies: Teams that have had success with popcorn fundraising:

Tim Hartnett started a fundraiser last fall with his church youth group in California with 25 members.

His team received gourmet popcorn brochures and got a sample of the product for free to try.

After sharing the sample with the team, he knew they could sell a lot of popcorn.

Two weeks later, Tim called the popcorn fundraising company, PoppedPerfectly.com to place his final order.

He was surprised at how much they sold considering they “Only had 2 weeks and 25 members…”

Tim and Wonder Window team sold $5,640 in gourmet popcorn.

His group used the money raised to improve their local community.

Tim has already planned on another fundraiser for the Spring.

Black Gold Dance Studio:

The dance studio owned and operated by Drew Tonini was struggling to raise money for competition.

Drew and her Black Gold Dance Studio had about 100 team members that participated in the fundraiser.

The dance team was looking for an easy way to fund their team competitions and uniforms.

Drew chose a gourmet popcorn fundraiser from PoppedPerfectly.com for a great profit.

They ended up selling a ton of popcorn for their group size.

The team delivered a final order total of $7065.

Drew is very pleased and was surprised she was able to deliver her most profitable fundraiser in under 2 weeks of sales.

Chapter 5: Team Profit Expectations

Most popcorn fundraisers offer profits between 25% and 50% profit.

Several groups offer 50% profit for teams with some asking for a minimum amount of sales and others with no minimums.

Some fundraising companies offer free shipping and other groups have a shipping charge tied to orders with in-person sales or online sales.

Check the popcorn fundraising company list below to find different profit margins and earnings.

Earnings expected will be depending on sales.

Most companies sell product for $10-$20.

With profit margins, teams can expect high profits from sales.

Average money earned from popcorn fundraiser:

# of bags soldMoney Raised
100$500-$5000
250$1250-$2500
500$2500-$5000
1000$5000-$10000
2000$10000-$20000

Chapter 6: Popcorn Fundraising Companies Comparison:

In this chapter, we will do a deep dive in to each popcorn fundraiser company and give the ultimate comparison of every available popcorn fundraiser.

In the below chart, you will find each company’s profits, costs, size of products, shipping charges, secret charges, bonuses, and total profit on an average sale.

Popcorn Fundraiser Reviews:

CompanyBag SizePricePrice/ozProfitSorted?Free ShippingOnline?Free Start?Profit/$1,000 in Sales
Popped Perfectly24 oz (gallon)$16$.67/oz50%$500
Popcorn Fundraising6 oz$11$1.83/oz50%$425
Double Good24 oz (gallon)$24$1/oz50%$401
Just Fundraising11 oz$10 $.91/oz40%$400
Popcornopolis18 oz$15$.83/oz50%$370
Poppin’ Popcorn (ABC/Goodies/Best Popcorn Fundraiser)24 oz (gallon)$16$.67/oz40%$300
Fundraising Zone7 oz$8$1.14/oz40%$250
Deanan1.4 oz$2$1.43/oz50%$100-$250
DiscountFundraising.com

As you can see, there are definitely many different options as far as fundraising goes.

If your going for size, there’s one company… Price?, there’s another. If you want the best profit popcorn fundraiser, again another company.

You will need to decide what your customers will be willing to pay for the popcorn and how much you will get in profit to determine if it’s worth the price or bag size.

There are some surprises in the chart that most parents and teachers of fundraising groups are not aware of.

Free Shipping Popcorn Fundraiser

There are smaller bags in some fundraisers and way lower profit in other very popular fundraisers.

When it comes down to it, you are a steward for your organization and need to make the most for your group.

As you can see from the chart, there are high profit popcorn fundraisers that you can choose and make the most for your team.

Add this to Free Shipping and save up to $130 and you’ll get the highest profit popcorn fundraiser available.

One note about the popcorn fundraising companies listed, there a several companies tied to “Poppin’ Popcorn.” Poppin’ Popcorn is a popcorn fundraising company owned by Goodies Factory, which also owns “Best Popcorn Fundraiser.” Also, ABC Fundraising is a distributor of Poppin’ Popcorn Fundraising. Although they are all tied to the same company, as you can see from the chart above, there are some that offer different options as far as profits and shipping.

Types of Gourmet Popcorn for Fundraising:

Flavors vary depending on the fundraiser, but each one offers several different varieties of the same flavors most of the time.

The most popular flavors are Caramel, Cheddar, and Chicago Style (which is Caramel and Cheddar mixed.)

  • Different Popcorn Flavors:
    • Caramel (and variations including Salted Caramel)
    • Fruity (Rainbow)
    • Cheddar
    • Hot Cheddar (Jalapeno Cheddar/Habanero Cheddar)
    • Chicago Style (Cheddar/Caramel)
    • Kettle Corn
    • Queso
    • Chocolate Drizzled
    • Strawberry Shortcake
    • Spicy Chicago Style
    • Caramel and Nuts (Hokey Pokey)
    • White Cheddar
    • Butter (Movie Theater)
    • Salt and Pepper
    • Salsa
    • Vanilla
    • Cookies and Cream
    • Dill Pickle
  • Turnaround time
    • Delivery time for most popcorn fundraisers are 5-14 days from order. Delivery varies for each fundraiser based on factory location and final destination.

How to do a Virtual Popcorn Fundraiser? Online Popcorn Fundraising or Contactless Popcorn Fundraisers :

The following offer different varieties of online fundraisers, profit margins can be lower than in person and time frame varies.  

CompanyMin. Cost of one orderbag sizecost/ozlength of sale
Popped Perfectly$2424 oz$1/oz2 weeks+
Double Good$3224 oz$1.33/oz4 days max
Popcorn Fundraising$206 oz#3.33/ozunknown
Poppin Popcorn/ABC/Goodie/Best Popcorn Fundraiserhttps://www.poppedperfectly.com$2424 oz$1/oz2 weeks
Just Fundraising$1911 oz$1.73/oz2 weeks
Deanan$3016$1.88/oz5 days

Bonus Chapter: Top 10 Popcorn Fundraiser Tips

  1. Offer a small incentive to sellers for 5, 10, or 20 bags sold. (A free gallon bag of popcorn for 10 sales, 2 bags for 20, or a smaller snack bag for 5, and so on)
  2. Have a daily plan for your sale. (If it’s a 2 week sale have a punch list or action item for each of the 14 days of your popcorn fundraiser.) Get my FREE 14 day Ultimate popcorn fundraiser playbook here!
  3. Let your team know the goal of your fundraiser. (Equipment/playground)
  4. Give your team targets to sell to: Grandparents, church, other teams, parents work.
  5. Have your group post a product to buy on social media.
  6. Order a sample to taste test and order enough for at least all of your leaders to try. (A Great product will sell itself.)
  7. Give your sellers an early end date, then give them more time. (Tell them it ends on a Friday then announce that they can have until Monday.)
  8. Order at least one of each extra popcorn flavor with your order. (You will inevitably have someone that wants to try a flavor they didn’t order.)
  9. Ask your team to sell their goal all in the first week. (That way, they will all have a good idea on how well they will do.)
  10. Keep a list of buyers for next years popcorn fundraiser. (Contact them with your order forms next year, before the sale even starts.)

Conclusion

That’s all for my complete guide to Gourmet Popcorn Fundraisers.

Thank you for your attention as I have discussed all of the details of this guide.

Now I’d like to hear from you:

What tip from this guide do you want to try out first?

Are you going to try offering an incentive to your team for a high profit popcorn fundraiser?

Or maybe you want to give an online popcorn fundraiser a try?

Either way, let me know by leaving a comment.

Do You Qualify for the (BEST) Popcorn Fundraiser?

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