The bake sale is an age-old fundraiser method involving the sale of baked goods, such as cookies, brownies, and pastries. While a bake sale may seem like one of the simplest fundraisers, there are certain key elements that can increase your profits and assure that your event runs smoothly.

Location! Location! Location!

The location you choose for your bake sale could make or break it. Be sure to choose an area with high foot traffic and good visibility.

If you plan to set up your sale in front of another business, ask the owner (or other manager) for permission. In many cases, the business will also benefit from the traffic created by your bake sale. Pay attention to what businesses are in the area and try to choose a location for your bake sale that will be mutually beneficial. For example, do not attempt to run a bake sale in close proximity to another business offering baked goods.

Obtaining Baked Goods for a Bake Sale

The most cost-effective way to obtain the baked goods for a bake sale is to solicit donations from supporters. Whatever group will benefit from the bake sale most should be willing to donate items for the sale. Don’t be afraid to solicit donations from various sources. Ask your friends and family to help out if needed.

Buy Bulk Ingredients

Another option for a bake sale is to buy bulk ingredients, such as large buckets of cookie dough, and then solicit volunteers to help you prepare them for the sale. You can either ask everyone to bake a little at home, dividing your bulk ingredients into portions, or find a person or business to provide a central location (like any kind of commercial or catering kitchen), where all of the baking can be done at once.

Pay Attention to Serving Sizes

If you are receiving donations from various sources, it will be difficult to keep the serving sizes uniform. You can decide whether you want your donors to present their baked goods in serving-size pieces, or whether you want to cut things up yourself as needed. If the items are to be pre-cut, be sure to let your volunteers know what size pieces you want. In either case, you should bring a knife in case anything needs to be cut or re-cut.

Determine the Variety of Items

Whether you are doing the baking yourself or soliciting volunteers, it is important to be clear about what you will offer at your bake sale. If you want to offer only cookies, make sure to inform all of your volunteer bakers before they start working. It doesn’t matter what you decide to offer at your bake sale; it is only important that you decide this beforehand and let everyone know.

If you want to assure a wide variety of donated items, make a sign-up sheet on which volunteers can tell you what they plan to bring. This way, other volunteers can see what you are already going to have, and plan their donations accordingly.

Set-up and Serving Materials

A bake sale is usually laid out with minimal presentation - table(s), tablecloth(s) (optional), and chairs should be the only fixtures you need. Make sure you have a place to display a sign (such as the front edge of the table), which will catch people’s eyes and bring in business. You should also prominently display information about your fundraiser and, if applicable, your organization’s goals.

Though serving materials may not be required, you should bring the following supplies:

• Knife
• Napkins
• Plastic gloves for handling food
• A wet kitchen towel
• Bucket of clean water with a few drops of bleach (for cleaning and sanitizing)
• A dry kitchen towel or paper towels
• Plastic forks
• Paper and pencils (to gather contact information from your supporters!)

It is better to have the supplies for whatever comes up, particularly for cleaning up unforeseen messes.

Cash Box

Depending on whether your prices involve fractions of dollars, make sure you bring ample change, including coins and one dollar bills. It may be easier to use only dollars and quarters.

Note: Money is usually very dirty, so whoever handles the money should not be handling food.