Why Team Fundraising Needs Higher Standards
When it comes to the “Fill Your Freezer” fundraisers here in Calgary, it’s true that other Team Fundraising was first to market with an online platform raising money for teams before we came along. During this time we were sales reps for a large food distribution company and had owned restaurants prior to that. There were a few things we noticed that just weren’t up to the standards that we are used to, namely, food safety. It was appalling to us that food was just being dropped off in a parking lot sitting in unsafe temperatures waiting to be picked up.
Sure money is being raised and big flashy cheques are being presented but we shouldn’t ignore the real dangers that exist when food safety is being ignored.
Being involved in the food business for a combined 30 years, we’ve seen first hand how food bourne illnesses have impacted families. We’ve seen children as young as two that will have to be hooked up to a dialysis machine for the rest of their life because the restaurant they ate at didn’t follow strict food safety guidelines.
Our policy at the food distribution company we worked at was to never leave food unattended, our drivers would need to make sure someone at the restaurant was there to receive the order. We saw a need in the market to take food fundraising to the next level by implementing these standards. What’s even more is that we have connections to the best vendors, we get the best pricing and that gives us an advantage to ensure that you’re getting the best price, the most commissions and the best quality while delivering in a food safe truck, more on that later.
Read the guidelines on transportation, storage, handling and proper temperature control on the Canadian Food Inspection Agency website.
1.2.1 Transportation, receiving/shipping, storage and handling
1.2.2 Temperature control
TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Fundraising Platform
We developed our platform with the end user in mind, people just want to shop just like they do on Amazon. No codes to enter and no need to sign up which ultimately means NO SPAMMING your supporters like Team Fundraising does. You have to sign in to sell on their platform meanwhile we can track all the sales from each of your sellers no matter how big your organization is without having to sign up.
Features Of Our Platform
- Storefront is customized to feature your fundraising organization
- One page design with all the links to the pertinent information
- Countdown timer to create a sense of urgency to your supporters
- Featuring all products from many vendors all on one store
- Fundraising progress bar and purpose to communicate to your supporters
- Social sharing buttons to make it easy to share with your friends
- Track the sales of as many members as you need, great for large organizations such as gymnastics studios without having to login or enter any codes, that means that we don’t spam your supporters after the campaign closes.
- Automatic reporting sent out to the fundraising coordinators daily that includes a campaign progress with all the sellers leaderboard as well as a thank you report so that your supporters know who they need to thank and who they need to follow up with.
Example UR Fundraising Storefront
How Easy Our Platform Is To Share and Track Sales
It’s as easy as simply sharing the link and asking your supporters to shop and pick the team member they want to support at checkout!
Support A Team Member At Checkout
Here’s what the checkout looks like. Teams under 25 members has a simple drop down list and teams over 25 members can type and search making it easy to find who your supporting.
Our Products
We only source the best products from the best vendors, like our steak for example. we buy only Alberta AAA Sterling Silver 6oz Sirloin from Centennial because it’s the best quality at the best price. We purchase frozen and as much as we can and put on layaway so we can lock in pricing. However, we purchase the AAA 12oz striploin steak from a food processor/ distributor called Great Meats because they can source Alberta beef direct and process it at their plant for a better price and they can do it fresh versus Centennial.
Bottom line, we go direct, we get the best quality and the best price so we can give more back to you, the fundraising organization and all the while try our best to match retail pricing.
Click here to see our full product offering
How We Source Direct
We’re able to source direct because we own our own warehouse complete with walk-in coolers and freezers. This allows us to get deliveries to our warehouse and take advantage of special deals from time to time. Like I mentioned about our food experience, we have relationships with all the best vendors, food brokers and distributors in Calgary so we don’t have to rely on selling from just one vendor at a time.
Team Fundraising Product Sourcing
While it looks like we’re the same price as Team Fundraising, we source better quality direct and we give more commission back while meeting or beating their pricing. Your sales will only increase from campaign to campaign. Team Fundraising relies solely on one distributor and only the products they offer, therefore if there’s a price increase (which we’ve seen a lot of lately) they’re stuck with the couple of options they’re limited to.
An Example Of How We Source Products Differently
We sourced Jamaican Patties from Lloyd’s Patty Plus who’s been in business for over 40 years here in Calgary. We knew it would be a top seller because it was a top seller in our restaurants.
The reaction we got from Team Fundraising was to source a local vendor that was selling empanada out of GFS called Good Fillin.
Turns out that we know the owner from our time selling food, he was one of our customers. His name is Max Labhardt and he was the Executive Chef at the Saddledome for over 10 years. He left the Saddledome and started Good Fillin a couple years ago with his wife. He told us that he was getting complaints from people who purchased from Team Fundraising because the big case that GFS sells is meant to be sold to restaurants and doesn’t have cooking instructions and he wasn’t told where it was being sold.
Our product offering will be to sell 4 different flavours in retail packs along with a jar of authentic empanada sauce all in one box direct from this awesome local vendor!
Click here to find out more about our empanadas from Good Fillin currently available on our store!
Example Of Our Current List Of Vendors We Deal With
Here’s a current list of all the vendors, brokers, distributors and manufacturers we have all on one store;
- And many more listed on our website
Product Guarantee
We found out pretty quickly how challenging it was to launch in Team Fundraising footsteps, not because how good they are as a competitor but because we constantly keep hearing how people don’t want to do fill your freezer fundraiser because they got bad products in the past.
We implemented a product guarantee to get people to try our products versus what they’ve tried in the past. We want and value feedback because we hold our vendors accountable on all the products they sell us. We’ve handpicked each vendor we work with for this reason and if they don’t have our back, then we’ll work with others who do.
Full Service Onsite Delivery
All The Vendors On One Store and All On One Delivery Truck
You get to pick what products you want on your custom store and all the products show up at time of delivery on one truck.
If you wanted the same options with Team Fundraising you would have three different stores and they would all be sent out on three different trucks. What do you thing the odds are that all three trucks show up at the same time?
I can tell you from being a sales rep at a food distribution company that my biggest headache was trucks showing up to my customers late and having to deal with my customers complaints.
Imagine the stress with Team Fundraising when only one truck shows up, products are sitting in a parking lot thawing waiting for your other two trucks to show up because they’re late.
We own our own distribution company, that’s how we maintain control of the delivery process.
Our Team Stays Onsite For The Delivery
Now that you understand how our delivery is better, you’ll also love that we stay onsite with our refrigerated truck and do the distribution for you. We don’t really need any volunteers but we would like a couple just to verify the process and greet your supporters. We really do offer a full service fundraiser from start to finish and make it easy so there’s nothing you really have to worry about.
The fill your freezer fundraiser will leave you out in the cold!
Improper Food Handling and The Impact On Food Quality
The Team Fundraising company sells all frozen products and when those frozen products start to thaw, the product starts to purge which is referred to drip loss. “Drip loss is defined as the red rosy colored liquid which radiates from every single cut surface of meat that has been frozen and defrosted. It occurs at the time of meat amid the freezing and thawing.” read more about the effects of drip loss on research gate by clicking here.
Final Thoughts Vs. Team Fundraising
Our grocery store features many local vendors, fresh products, gluten free options, vegan, vegetarian as well as exclusive products you can’t purchase elsewhere. Put us to the test and see for yourself.
“Our goal isn’t just to fill your freezer with food that you forget that you even have. We want your family to enjoy our products so much that you love it and ask to buy more on the next fundraiser!”
