Raising money for your local group, charity or club has always been very difficult. It is even harder now with the difficult economic times we are now facing, especially here in Southwest Florida. With businesses failing and families losing their house to foreclosure it is becoming impossible to get donations from both businesses and people.
Here is an opportunity for you to get donations from local businesses, while offering them something for their donation: A chance to grow their business. You can do this by offering them “co-op” advertising on shirts. It is no secret that t-shirts are one of the most popular forms of advertising, especially here in Fort Myers where you can wear t-shirts almost year round. Everybody that wears a shirt with a company’s business information becomes a walking billboard for that company. Now you can raise money for your group by offering this service to local businesses. Here is how it works:
First, imagine the front and/or back of a shirt broken up into a grid. The size of the grid is up to you, here are a few examples:
Fort Myers Shirts - Shirt Grids
The above is just a rough graphic, but I am sure you get the idea, and have probably even seen it done before. The grid lines don’t have to appear on the shirt, it is up to you.
All you have to do is decide how many shirts you want to make, and how many squares you want to try to sell. Once you decide those two factors, you need to decide on your price for each square. Another important factor you need to consider when deciding on a price for a square is how you are going to distribute the shirts. You can either give the shirts away for free, or sell the shirt as a fundraiser. If you are going to resell the shirts later, even for a small amount, you can lower your “square” cost which might attract more advertisers.
Here is where it all comes together: We will print the shirts up to 12″ x 12″ in FULL COLOR. If you choose the “3 x 3″ design that would give you 9 squares, each 4 inches by 4 inches. You would then approach local businesses and ask them to buy a square to advertise their business. The following examples explain the next step:
For both examples we are going to assume an order of 100 shirts with the 3 x 3 grid on the back and your group logo on the front. We would print this order for $600, just $6 per shirt with FULL COLOR printing on both sides with no screen, set-up or art charges.
EXAMPLE 1: You are going to give away the shirts for free. That means you would have to raise the $600 for the shirts from your advertisers. With 9 squares, you would have to sell each for around $67 to cover the cost of the shirts and printing. Anything over the $67 is all profit to you and your group. If you sell the squares to local businesses for $125 each you will make $580 profit. The businesses also get their business advertised on 100 shirts for just $1.25 each, plus the credit for helping your group or charity.
EXAMPLE 2: You are going to sell the shirts. This can help you lower the cost that you charge your advertisers. Now lets say you sell the advertising squares for just $99. This creates a profit of $198 after covering the cost of the shirts and the printing. Now, selling the shirts creates a whole new profit center. If you sell the shirts for just $5 each you will generate another $500 in profit, if you sell them for $10 each you will generate another $1000.
These are just examples and are no guarantee of income. You can sell the squares for more or less and sell the shirts for more or less. You can also choose how many squares you want to sell. You also may not be able to sell all the shirts, so make sure you make enough from selling the squares to cover the entire cost.
One of the best features of this is it requires no up front investment from you. You don’t order the shirts until you receive the money for the advertising. Another benefit is that it is also helping the local businesses, they are actually getting something for their donation. If you ask them to just donate $125 they might be a little reluctant. If you give them the chance to advertise their business on 100 shirts for $125 they might be more open to the idea. Some may be willing to pay more than $125, and some might even want more than 1 square.
Be sure to mention to your advertisers that their artwork will be in FULL COLOR. These aren’t the 1 color silk screen shirts that makes every advertisement on the shirt look the same.
Feel free to call us at 939-4282 if you have any questions.
