Sorority Fundraising Idea - Bake Sale

Sorority Bake Sale: Cookies, Money, and Tasty Fun!

A tried and true fundraising classic is the sorority bake sale. One of the things sorority and fraternity members love to do is eat. From cookies and brownies to bundt cakes and snickerdoodles, a sorority bake sale is a surefire draw. Plus, it is a fairly easy fundraising event to plan.

As always, the first step in planning your event is deciding on a date. Since a bake sale is simple to have at your sorority house, you do not need to worry about having a venue. This leaves your date fairly open. However, you need to plan at least a month ahead for a good sorority bake sale.

When planning your bake sale, you need to then decide what you are going to sell. Have each sister sign up to bake something. However, you want to make sure there is variety. The easiest way to determine what baked goods will be sold is to have a list of staple items like brownies, chocolate chip cookies, blueberry muffins, and more. Then leave room for unique items like red velvet cake, scones, and more. Let up to two sisters sign up for one type of item. This will prevent too many people making brownies and not enough people making Rice Krispies treats.

Even though it is a bake sale, do not forget the drinks. Many people will be sampling items or eating them there. Bring out your sorority glasses and punch bowls. Allow people to buy drinks there, which will add to your fundraising efforts. This also allows your sisters who lack cooking skills the option to bring and pour those drinks into your sorority glasses.

You will also need to promote your event, so you will want to take advantage of any modes of advertising possible. You need to make sure your bake sale gets on the Greek calendar, and you will want to place advertisements in the university paper. Use message boards and bulletin boards to post advertisements. Then send out flyers to each chapter and post them in each dormitory. With a bake sale, you can invite the whole campus. You will want to put out advertisements about two weeks before the event.

While you are advertising your event, you will also want to take a look at your space and how you want to organize your bake sale. It is usually simple to have each sister represent her baked goods. It actually makes for friendly competition as one sister tries to sell more of her items than any other sisters. You might even consider offering sorority apparel or gifts as a prize to the sister who sells the most baked goods. Have one or two of your sisters function as the cashiers to collect money for items sold. Plus you will need to designate the clean-up committee to take care of putting your chapter house back together after the bake sale.

You will also need to develop a baking schedule for your sisters living in the chapter house. Without a schedule, you will end up with a lot of fighting over kitchen space right before the bake sale. Schedule needs to take into consideration which items can be baked earlier than other items. You can even put up a sign-up sheet for a baking schedule to help.

Set up needs to take place the evening before. You can set up tables with tablecloths and signs for each item. This way all of your sisters will be clear where their items are to go. On the signs you should have the name of the items and price for it. You will also want to designate your spot for your sorority glasses and punch bowls. The night before you will also want your sisters to contact each chapter house and remind the other Greek organizations about the bake sale.

On the day of the event, have your sisters set up their items at least an hour before the doors open. Then let the selling begin.