I love fundraisers. Not only is it a chance to contribute to a cause larger than NIU, it is also an opportunity to let loose the salesman inside.

It is a firm belief of mine is that sales are 90 percent performance and 10 percent product. Think about it; would you rather buy a cupcake from students slouched behind a table, or students urging you to “take a break with a cupcake.”

The most successful fundraisers I have seen had three important criteria: a useful product, an embarrassment effect and a demonstration of effort.

Product

Having a timely product ensures your time will be well spent. Whether it is sweets around Halloween or flowers around Valentine’s Day, it is much easier to push a product when people are likely to buy it anyway. Selling hot chocolate in August might not end well.

Your product must also be reasonably priced … or even underpriced. I remember the first bake sale I did was in the Café Hallway at the Holmes Student Center (HSC). We had goods packaged in what we valued as $1 bunches, but since there were two other baked good fundraisers there that day, we soon found ourselves in a race to earn 25 cents.

Embarrassment effect

The best fundraisers embarrass someone. Whether it is having a Carnation delivered to your sweetheart while he or she is in class or watching others make a fool of themselves for a few bucks, money is no better spent; why do you think American’s Funniest Home Videos has been on television for 23 years?

A fine line is to be walked with the embarrassment effect. That is why it is my suggestion not to turn it on your consumers, but instead embarrass yourself.

Effort

As a senator in the Student Association, one of my biggest irritants were student organizations requesting money when they had put zero effort in to raise a nickel themselves, and this frustration extents to fundraisers as well.

When you have an unadorned table, bland product and insipid salesmen, it says you do not want my money enough.