Running an Order-Taker Fundraiser

An order-taker fundraiser is the classic school or club sale: cookie dough, wreaths, discount cards, pizza kits. You post a list of items with prices, every student gets a personal link to share, and buyers order and pay online or by check. GoodBooks keeps track of who sold what, what needs to be delivered, and puts the money in your books.

Where: left menu, Campaigns — open a campaign and click Order-Taker Fundraiser.

Availability: Foundation plan and up.

Before you start: to take card payments you need online payments connected (Settings → Online Payments). Without it the order page still works, but only offers payment by check.

Setting it up

Create a campaign for the sale (or open an existing one), then click Order-Taker Fundraiser.

1. Turn it on. Switch on Take orders for this campaign and choose the Order page address — a short name like fall-cookie-dough. The address is permanent, so the links you hand out keep working.
2. Say how checks work. How to pay by check is shown to buyers who choose check — for example, "Make checks payable to Laker Music Boosters and send them to school with your student." Leave it blank and buyers are told to make the check payable to your organization.
3. Set when orders open and close. Orders open and Orders close are optional; leave them blank to take orders right away and indefinitely. Before the open date, or after the close date, anyone using a link lands on your donate page with a note saying when the sale opens or that it has ended. (These are the campaign's start and end dates.)
4. Add a pickup or delivery note if you have one ("Orders arrive the week of November 16"). It appears on the order page and in every confirmation email.
5. Make it yours. Give the page a headline and an introduction, and upload a hero picture for the banner across the top (about 1200 by 400 pixels). The page also uses your organization's colors and logo from Settings → Customization.
6. Click Save Settings.

Add what you're selling

Under Items for Sale, type a name, an optional description, and a price, then click the green +. Change an item by editing its row and clicking the save button. The Order number controls where it sits on the page (lowest first). Click picture under an item to add a photo of it — square images look best. Removing an item takes it off the page; orders already placed keep it.

Add your sellers

Under Sellers, paste your roster into Add sellers — one name per line — and click Add Sellers. Each student gets a personal link:

• Click the link under a name to copy it.
• Click Links to download every student's link as a spreadsheet, ready for a mail merge or a handout.

A buyer who uses a student's link sees "Your order supports" with the student's name, and the student gets credit automatically.

What buyers see

Buyers pick quantities, enter their name, email, phone and mailing address, and choose Pay by Card or Pay with a Check. The address is optional unless you set Buyer's mailing address to Require it on the Settings tab (do that when orders are delivered to the buyer's door); choose Don't ask to leave it off the page entirely. The address appears on the Orders list, the Delivery Sheets, both exports and the buyer's confirmation.

• Card: they pay on the spot and get a confirmation email. The cover the card processing fee box is ticked for them, with the exact amount shown, so you receive the full price unless they untick it. Their confirmation lists the fee they covered and what their card was charged. Turn the pre-tick off under Settings if you'd rather buyers opt in.
• Check: the order is placed right away. The confirmation tells them who to make the check out to and asks them to write the order number on the memo line. For a card-only sale, untick Offer "pay with a check" under Settings (checks stay on until your card payments are connected, so buyers always have a way to order).

If someone arrives at the general order page without a student's link, a Who are you buying from? box lets them find the student by typing a name. It only shows a few matches for what they type — nobody can browse your roster.

Keeping up with orders

The Orders list shows every order with the buyer, the seller, the items, and a status:

When a check arrives, find the order, type the check number and the date, and click Paid. The payment is added to Donations, ready to include in your next deposit.

At the top of the page you'll see the total paid and the total you're still waiting on. The Sellers list shows each student's paid and awaiting totals, and What's Been Ordered adds up how many of each item you need.

Export to Excel downloads the whole fundraiser as one workbook with five tabs: a Summary (totals, how many of each item to order from the supplier, money received by card and by check, totals by participant), Orders (one row per order, with the items spelled out), Order Lines (one row per item ordered — buyer, phone, seller, item, quantity), By Participant (every student on the roster, including those with no sales yet, with a column per item so you can see who delivers what) and Seller Links. Amounts and dates are real Excel values, so you can sort, filter and total them. If you would rather have a plain CSV of the order lines, it is under the arrow next to the button.

Watching progress and sharing a leaderboard

The Sales Progress panel on the fundraiser page shows items sold, orders, the money raised so far (paid orders less an estimate of card fees), checks still on the way, a day-by-day chart with a running total, and two top-5 lists: sellers by sales and sellers by items. Click the chevron in the panel's corner to tuck it away; GoodBooks remembers your choice on that computer.

To let your volunteer team follow along without signing in, tick Share a public leaderboard on the Settings tab and save. A link appears below it with a Copy button. The page it opens shows items sold, orders, the day-by-day chart and the top-5 list by items, with each seller as a first name and last initial ("Avery J."). Buyers' names never appear. Tick Show dollar amounts on it as well if you also want the total raised and the top-5 by sales on that page.

The link stops working five days after the campaign's end date (or 90 days after it was created when there is no end date), and immediately if you untick the box. Re-ticking it makes a fresh link.

Reports for delivery day

Three printable reports sit at the top of the fundraiser page:

• By Participant — one line per student: orders, paid, awaiting check, total sold. Handy for prizes and thank-yous.
• Delivery Sheets — each student on their own page: what they need to deliver in total, then every order with the buyer's name, phone and address, the items, a checkbox, and either PAID or COLLECT CHECK with the amount. Print it and hand each page to its student.
• Order Summary — totals by item (what to order from the supplier), the money received by card and by check, and the by-participant list.

Good to know

• Orders aren't in your books until they're paid. Card orders appear in Donations automatically; check orders appear when you click Paid. From there they're deposited like any other payment — see Understanding Deposit Batches.
• These purchases aren't tax-deductible. Buyers receive goods worth what they paid, so they get an order confirmation rather than a gift receipt, and the campaign is marked not deductible when you turn order-taking on.
• Prices are locked into each order. Changing a price later doesn't change orders already placed.
• Removing a seller takes them off the order page, but their past orders keep the credit. You can put them back at any time.
• Buyers are added to your Contacts when their order is paid, so you can see their history later.
• To undo a paid order, refund or void its payment in Donations. Only unpaid orders can be cancelled from the Orders list.