Posted by Southwest Beverages on 8/21/2016
“Thanks for coming,” I said to Paula, Kristin and Christina,
three of the Moms who have agreed to work with me this school year on the
fundraising committee for the Colorado Springs Pikes Peak High School. “Ladies,
the reason I invited you here this morning was to discuss with you the various
fundraising events I want to plan for the school year and to tell you a little
about the products that will we be using to fund each of our fundraising ideas.”
“Don’t we have a choice in the products?” Kristin asked.
“Ladies, with all due respect, I know each of you were involved
with the PTA’s fundraising ideas for the past two years and have held a number
of events such as car washes, dances and movie nights and have sold endless
products such as popcorn, candy bars, trail mix, candles, magazines and the
ever “popular” cookie dough. Ladies, while the students appreciate your fine
efforts, there are easier ways to raise the money we need to fund this year
school’s events.”
“Such as?” Paula curiously asked.
“For the past three years I have been in charge of
fundraising for my son’s high school back in Dayton, Ohio. In his junior year
we raised nearly $90,000, $88,300 to be exact, that funded the senior prom, the
graduation night party, the year-end teacher’s luncheon and new uniforms for
the cheer team.”
“Wow! Are you kidding me? Christina stated with interest in
her voice.
“No, I’m not kidding you, Christina. And we did it by having
just three fundraising events.”
“What were the three events?” she asked.
“The first occurred in late August when the kids came back
to school. We sold Kemosabe gourmet flavored coffee. The second occurred in mid-November
when we sold Sippity hot chocolate and the third occurred in Late January when
we again sold Sippity hot chocolate. Do you know how easy it was to sell hot
chocolate in Ohio in mid-November and mid-January? The one that occurred in
mid-November yielded nearly $51,000 because everyone bought the hot chocolate
as Christmas presents.”
“I never heard of Kemosabe gourmet coffee or Sippity hot
chocolate,” Paula stated.
“Neither have I,” Kristin added.
“Both are dry mix instant beverages that are of exceptional
quality. Both the Sippity and Kemosabe brands are manufactured by Southwest
Beverages, which is based in Tucson, Arizona. All their products are 99.9 %
caffeine free and 100 % gluten free, which is perfect for our students to sell.
The Kemosabe gourmet flavored coffee comes in five delicious flavors-mocha,
chocolate cinnamon, chocolate hazelnut, chocolate irish cream and crème butterscotch.”
“Humm, I bet the crème butterscotch is delicious,” Paula
injected.
“It is. As a matter of fact, it’s my favorite,” I replied. “Every
time I drink it, it reminds me of when I use to go to my grandmother’s house
and she would have her candy dish filled with butterscotch candies,” I added. “That
fundraiser generated a little over $14,000.”
“$14,000! Paula pronounced. We didn’t raise that much from
selling magazines, cookie dough and candles combined!”
“So tell us about the hot chocolate fundraisers?” Kristen
asked.
“Well, again, we had two. One in mid-November and one in
late January. The Sippity hot chocolate literally sells itself. The flavor
descriptions themselves are mouth-watering. They have, of course, the
traditional chocolate and chocolate marshmallow flavors, which are probability the
best chocolate and chocolate marshmallow hot chocolate on the market, but then
they offer chocolate cinnamon, chocolate peppermint, chocolate raspberry and
pumpkin spice, which are absolutely delicious.”
“I love chocolate raspberry, anything,” Kristen
energetically stated. “Where do we sign?” she added, suggesting she agreed to
have Southwest Beverages as their school’s fund raising events for the school
year.”
“As I said earlier, ladies, I worked with Southwest
Beverages before and I can tell you they are the nicest and most professional
people to work with. They do everything from determining our financial
objective, to writing the fundraising events broadcast letter to supplying us
with posters and product samples. The way it works is simple. There are no
up-front costs on our behalf. We can either take orders the traditional way, by
having each of the students knock on doors, or sell electronically by soliciting
orders through an e-mail message. Either way, the representative from Southwest
Beverages will guide us though the entire process.”
“How much do we make? Paula asked.
“$3.50 a box,” I answered.
$3.50 a box! Paula proclaimed. No wonder you raised nearly
$90,000 from three events. This is going to be easy.”
“Well, ladies, the way it works is that we take order for each
box of coffee or hot chocolate for $10.00. Once our event is over we send Southwest
Beverages our order together with a check for the number of boxes ordered at $6.50
a box. We keep the $3.50 a box profit. Within 10 to 15 business days our order
arrives. We distribute the order to our customers together with a thank you
letter to our donors telling them how much we raised and how the money will be
spent. While we sign off on the contents of the thank you letter, Southwest
Beverages prepares it.”
“This all sounds wonderful,” Kristen stated as she looked to
Paula and Christina for support.
“I’m in,” Christina replied.
“Me too,” Paula added.
“OK then. It’s decided. I’ll call Southwest Beverages this
afternoon, discuss with them our fundraising ideas and arrange for the three fundraising
events.”
Written by Bob Jenkins, Founder & Chief Executive Officer of
Southwest Beverages Bob has had the privilege of working for some of America's largest
and well run public and private companies, including Philip Morris, Canada Dry, Dr
Pepper, Cadbury Schweppes, Snapple Beverage Corporation, Tasker Capital Corp. and
The Water Club and River Cafe - two of New York's finest fine dining restaurants. He
has worked in various capacities as Finance Manager, Controller, Director of Finance,
Vice President Finance & Administration, Chief Financial Officer, Secretary, and
Treasurer.
Bob holds a Masters of Business
Administration degree in accounting from the University of Tennessee and a Bachelor of
Science degree in accounting from the University of Arizona.
Southwest Beverages is a manufacturer and marketer of two
brands of premium quality dry mix beverages: Sippity hot-cocoa mix and Kemosabe gourmet flavored coffee. All Southwest Beverages products are
uniquely blended flavors that contain all the ingredients necessary for you to enjoy the
ultimate hot beverage experience. Simply add water and stir-then sip, savor and
enjoy.
For more information, please visit www.southwestbeverages.com.
Sippity, Sippity Lite, Kemosabe, Kemosabe Lite, Southwest Beverages, It's A DRY Mix and Comfort In A Cup are each registered trademarks of Southwest Beverages.
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