The deafening noise in the playground told us our fundraiser was a huge success. Pupils screeched with delight as they ripped open the chocolate bar wrappers, searching for the winning tickets inside.
There are 150 pupils at our school, and we sold all 180 bars of chocolate within an hour, making £450 profit. The PTA had worked hard on the organisation and we ended up with zero costs.
Seeking sponsorship took the most time and involved some serious networking! We wrote emails, made phone calls and visited various local businesses in person – with letters in hand and children in tow!
As a result, we secured some great prizes, including a night at Horseshoe Hideaway glamping site, four Vue cinema tickets, an abseiling session for two and a bottle of gin from local distillers Goose Foot Gin. Courier company DHL contributed two tickets to a Manchester United home game as a prize and paid for most of the chocolate bars. The community champions at our local branches of Tesco and Sainsbury’s donated Nomo bars, which are vegan and free from common allergens. Parents covered the costs of printing.
We printed the wrappers and winning tickets at home and met in a local pub for an evening of preparation. We placed each bar in its new sleeve and sealed it with tape, inserting our five prize-winning tickets into randomised bars, including one of the Nomo bars. It took a few hours!
To decide on a selling price, we took into account factors such as the retail price of the chocolate bar, the cost of printing and the amount people would pay to enter a competition like this. We also considered the cost of living. We decided to sell each bar for £2.50.
On the day, we placed an A-board advertising the prizes alongside a stall at the school entrance. We crossed all our fingers and toes that the prize-winning tickets weren’t all found in the first few sales! It was wonderful to watch pupils with winning tickets race off to the school office to claim their prizes.
Sarah Nickson, chair, Friends of Coupe Green, Preston (150 pupils)
Tips and advice
- Link your fundraiser to a special occasion such as World Book Day or Valentine’s Day.
- You may need a licence. Check out our handy guide.
- ‘Wonka’ and ‘Golden Ticket’ are listed at the UK Intellectual Property Office as trademarked by Soremartec SA, part of the Ferrero group. Avoid any potential problems by asking someone creative to design unique labels with a different name.
- Leave the original chocolate bar wrapper underneath, as it contains allergen information.
- Calculate how many bars you will need based on the number of children in your school.
- For the best value chocolate, try wholesalers, supermarkets or online retailers. Ask for donations or seek sponsorship to cover the costs. Approach a chocolate company with an ethical reputation or a smaller, local business. Prioritise Fairtrade chocolate to ensure your purchases support sustainable practices.
The dark side of chocolate
Many leading chocolate brands work with companies linked to illegal child labour, slavery and human rights issues. Read more about ethical chocolate and find ratings at thegoodshoppingguide.com/ethical-chocolate
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