3700 Bags Delivered 10,000 To Go

[69RoadRunner]

So glad we could do our mulch fundraiser this year, although my back might have a different opinion. (Not me in the forklift).

[Armymutt]

Tell us more.  This probably beats popcorn

 

[69RoadRunner]

16 minutes ago, Armymutt said:

Tell us more.  This probably beats popcorn

 

Oh absolutely it does. I HATED selling popcorn in Cub Scouts. I felt guilty selling something that was so absurdly overpriced and didn't yield a great deal for the pack.

Our mulch is $4.25/bag for 10-29 bags. It's $3.75/bag for 30+ bags. That's the delivered price. We stack it where you want it. Sometimes that's 20 bags along the side of the driveway and another 30 in the backyard.

That's a bargain for the customer.

When I joined this troop, this fundraiser blew me away. It's taken years of developing it.

Typically, in February we deliver flyers to surrounding neighborhoods. We know where our best customers are and we increase/decrease the number of flyers based on how big the troop is.

We order from a wholesaler who delivers the mulch Thursday night or Friday morning on pallets. 70 bags on a pallet. We also rent 2 forklifts from them.

We then rent 6 to 8 Ryder trucks. Forklifts put 3 pallets in the truck. 

This year we had parents who have an Amazon delivery business use their computer system to create each list of deliveries. It batches houses on the same street and starts from furthest point out and brings us back to the pool where we reload. It also ensured we always delivered all 210 bags, which meant some partial deliveries. We are emailed our route that opens in Google Maps taking us from house to house.

A parent or 2 drives a chase vehicle with scouts, parents and whoever a scout brings to help deliver.

Everyone who is delivering signs in and designates the scout who they're working for. We take revenue minus expenses and that gives us what we made.

The committee sets aside a certain amount of money for general operation of the troop. Then we take the rest and divide it by the total hours worked to get an hourly rate.

Multiply hours worked for/by the scout by the hourly rate and that is the scout's Scout Bucks. Scout Bucks can be used for any scout activity and dues. We make it clear it does not actually belong to the scout.

If you work the flyer delivery and bring some help for mulch delivery, you won't have to pay for a single regular activity or membership dues. In normal times (we canceled last year) the committee would also grant a stipend for summer camp and high adventure, depending on how much we made.

It also would pay for the full cost of adults at regular activities and summer camp plus a larger stipend for high adventure.

This past year, we've had to operate as a more traditional troop as few had available Scout Bucks. 

The scouts work really hard and earn a good amount money. I feel good about the product and price for the customer. It's a win-win, but this is not easy to start up.

[mashmaster]

We spread it for $2/bag.  It is a very popular fundraiser here in Texas for our troops, school bands, baseball teams.....  Spreading is the high margin part and the big work part.

[Armymutt]

That's cool.  Probably a bit much for our 8-Cub pack, but probably a good one for older kids.  Wonder if we could do the same thing with pine straw here in NC.

[69RoadRunner]

1 minute ago, mashmaster said:

We spread it for $2/bag.  It is a very popular fundraiser here in Texas for our troops, school bands, baseball teams.....  Spreading is the high margin part and the big work part.

We often get asked about that. We make enough with delivery that we haven't done that as well.

In fact, we were making too much and sometimes had to take delivery into Sunday. By too much, I mean you risk your non-profit status if you pull in too much. So we did a better job limiting the amount we will sell based on the size of the troop.

However, our troop trailer is over 20 years old and we probably should save up for a replacement. Losing our fundraiser last year really hurt that effort. We literally held out until about 10 days before delivery last year, then the restrictions made it impossible.

[69RoadRunner]

2 minutes ago, Armymutt said:

That's cool.  Probably a bit much for our 8-Cub pack, but probably a good one for older kids.  Wonder if we could do the same thing with pine straw here in NC.

This is NOT a good fundraiser for Cubs. Some of our youngest scouts are not able to carry a bag of mulch. We typically make them the bag counter, ask the owner where to stack the bags, hand out the thank you and they also sweep out the truck each time we return.

These bags can double in weight when they're wet. And they are almost always wet. I'm guessing the wet bags weigh 40-50 pounds. Just a guess.