Traditional vs. online fundraising: how product fundraisers compare

When you compare traditional and online fundraising, the biggest difference is who handles the product and the money.

Traditional fundraising often means you have to go door-to-door with paper order forms to sell products like candy or cookie dough. Online fundraisers let supporters shop right from a link, and the product ships directly to them, so neither you nor your kids have to collect money or deliver orders.

How traditional product fundraisers work

If you’re considering a traditional product fundraiser, you’ve probably come across options like selling candy bars or collecting orders through a catalog or brochure. The main difference between these traditional fundraising methods is timing: whether products are ordered before or after supporters buy.

Either way, your team handles a lot of logistics. Someone has to store boxes of chocolate bars where they won’t melt or keep tubs of cookie dough frozen, collect payments, sort orders, and sometimes track down missing (or mysteriously eaten) inventory. That’s a lot to manage when you’re already busy running your team.

Products on hand (direct sale): buy first, then sell

With a products-on-hand fundraiser, like a candy bar fundraiser, your team orders products in advance and sells them directly to supporters. You usually pay for those products before making any sales, which can strain your budget, and your team is on the hook for anything that doesn’t sell. So before ordering, you'll need to estimate how much your team can sell.

Order forms and catalogs (pre-sale): take orders, then deliver

With an order-form fundraiser, like a cookie dough fundraiser, pizza kit, or catalog fundraiser, you collect orders from supporters using a brochure or catalog, then submit them to the fundraising company once you have all the orders. When the products arrive, your team has to store and sort them, then make deliveries and chase any outstanding payments.

How online product fundraisers work

With online fundraising, your team shares a fundraising link so supporters can check out products and order online. Typically, there’s no inventory you need to buy upfront, no cash you have to collect, and nothing for your team to deliver.

Double Good lets you run a virtual popcorn fundraiser right from your phone. Each seller creates a personal Pop-Up Store® with their photo and a short note about what they’re raising for, then shares the link with friends and family. Supporters order and pay online, and their gourmet popcorn ships straight to their door. Your team keeps 50% of every sale, with no fees or minimums. 

Traditional vs. online product fundraisers side by side

Here’s how traditional fundraisers – both products on hand, and order forms and catalogs – and online fundraisers compare.

Exact practices vary by company and program, but these are the most common setups.

Choosing an online vs. traditional fundraiser

• Budget: If money’s tight, skip products on hand. Order-form and online fundraisers let your team start selling without buying inventory first.

• Volunteer time: Between practices, games, and everything else, your volunteers only have so much time. An online fundraiser takes the least coordination, with no order forms to count, cash to collect, or deliveries to make.

• Reach: If a lot of your supporters live out of town, an online fundraiser makes it easy for them to buy. A traditional fundraiser works best when most of your supporters are local.

You don't necessarily have to choose between an online or traditional fundraiser. Some teams use both throughout the year, depending on their needs. You can also compare other types of fundraising, like events and donations, to find the best fit for your team.

Double Good offers both traditional brochure fundraising and online popcorn fundraising, so you can choose what works best for your team, but we’ve found that teams who use our online fundraising platform raise 3x more than our brochure model. 

Online fundraising removes 90% of the hassle of traditional fundraising: no cash, no paper forms, no storing inventory, and no product distribution. If you’re looking for a fundraiser that’s easy to manage, with predictable payouts and no upfront costs, a Double Good online fundraiser is a good place to start.