Many people think of dry soup mixes as something that you pick up off the supermarket shelf, throw in the cupboard, and use once in a while when necessary.  Not many people though, have probably considered the possibilities that dry soup mixes have when it comes to fundraising efforts.  There an number of different ways that dry soup mixes can be used for fundraising.

Consider how cheap it is to put together a dry soup mix in the first place.  For example, let’s say that a group decides that it wants to have a fundraising effort to go on a trip.  However, the group needs to put together a fairly cheap fundraiser, quickly.

Looking around, the group decides to do a dry soup mix, and use a glass jar, wooden spoon, recipe card, wooden bowl, and ingredients.  Many of the members already have the glass jars in their homes, and the rest can be picked up cheaply at the local hardware store in lots of fifty.  Recipe cards can be picked up for a few dollars, and the discount store also has the bowls, and wooden spoons.

After deciding which dry soup mixes to do—typically a variety of two or three will sell better for fundraising efforts than just one—a trip to the grocery store is in order.  Selecting the ingredients needed, members can then go back, and carefully measure them out into the jars in the order directed by the recipe.

Next, sealing the jar shut tightly, group members should carefully tie the wooden spoon upside down to the outside of the jar, and then set the jar inside a bowl.  Finally, the option of either tying a recipe card onto the jar or tucking it under the jar would be the last step—but that would be up to the group’s discretion.

Prices would have to be determined based on cost of the materials—glass jars, wooden spoons and bowls, recipe cards and ingredients.  Perhaps the ingredients for a Seven Bean soup would be two dollars when priced out, plus a dollar for the other items.  That would mean the group would be able to charge anything over that for their fundraising efforts to go on their trip.

Decide if the group is going to have a one-time event fundraiser—that is, a table sitting in front of a department store selling the dry soup mixes or something similar.  Or is the group going to have order forms of some sort to take advanced orders, and possibly grow the number of sales?  Or, will the group do both types of events?

Making the public aware of the elementary school fundraising efforts requires some time—making some posters, using word of mouth—those are the two cheapest ways to do it.  Larger organizations, such as Scouting organizations, have radio spots, but posters and announcements work very well.

Dry soup mixes can definitely be good fundraisers!