Planning a Holiday Spirit Wear Fundraiser: A Timeline for Schools

Every year around the middle of November, my phone starts ringing. It's a PAC parent, usually a very nice one, asking if we can get hoodies to their school before the holidays. Sometimes we can. Sometimes I have to tell them the honest answer, which is that we needed to start three weeks ago.

I'd rather you never have to make that call. So here's the timeline we walk our school partners through, working backwards from the last day before winter break.

Why holiday spirit wear works so well

December is the easiest time of year to sell school apparel, and there are a few practical reasons for that.

• Families are already shopping for gifts. A school hoodie for a kid, a toque for a grandparent, a crewneck for a teacher: these are purchases people were going to make anyway.
• It's cold. Nobody needs convincing to buy something warm in a Fraser Valley December.
• It's a fundraiser that doesn't ask volunteers to sell door to door, count cash, or sort boxes of chocolate in someone's garage.

The catch is that all of it depends on the order arriving before the kids go home for the break. A hoodie that shows up in January is still a nice hoodie, but it isn't a Christmas present anymore.

Start with the delivery date and work backwards

Most of the planning comes down to one question: when does it need to be in families' hands? For most BC schools, that's the last week of classes before winter break. In Abbotsford this year, that means the week of December 14.

From there, you count back. Production takes time, families need time to order, and your PAC needs time to agree on what's in the store. None of those steps is hard. They just can't all happen in the same week.

The timeline

These dates are built around Abbotsford's calendar, where the last day of classes is Friday, December 18. If your district breaks on a different day, shift everything by the same amount.

A few notes on that schedule.

Three weeks is the right length for an open store. Shorter than that and families miss it. Longer and people put it off, then forget. Two paydays inside the window helps too.

The last reminder matters most. In our experience a big share of orders come in during the final few days. Send one more notice home the Thursday before the store closes.

Leave the last week of school as a buffer. We aim to have everything at the school a full week before the break. That leaves room for a snow day, a concert week, or a size exchange.

If you're reading this in November

Call us anyway. Depending on the size of the order and what's on the production schedule, there may still be a way to do it, usually with a shorter ordering window and fewer items. I'll tell you straight whether the date is realistic. If it isn't, a January or spring store is a better plan than a rushed one.

What to put in a holiday store

Keep it small. The stores that do best usually have six to nine items, and most of them are warm.

• A full-zip hoodie for the kids, parents and staff who like to layer.
• A pullover hoodie, in youth and adult sizes. This is the one nearly everyone buys.
• A crewneck sweatshirt for the parents and staff who don't want a hood.
• A toque. It's the lowest-priced item, it makes a good stocking stuffer, and nobody has to guess a size.
• A long-sleeve tee or a pair of sweatpants, if you want one more option.

Offer adult sizes on everything. Parents, grandparents, and teachers buy more than you'd expect, especially in December.

How the donation works

This is the part that makes it a fundraiser. Through our Give-Back program, Sport X Canada donates 25 to 40 percent of every qualifying order back to your school or PAC.

It's a donation, and it comes to you after the store closes. Your PAC doesn't buy inventory up front, doesn't handle payments, and doesn't get stuck with leftover sizes. Families order online, we make exactly what was ordered, and your school receives the donation.

If you want the full picture of how a store runs from start to finish, our spirit wear fundraiser guide covers it step by step.

Ready to pick a date?

If a holiday store is on your PAC's list this fall, the next two weeks are the time to get it started. Send us a note or give me a call, and we'll map out the dates for your school.

Wes Sport X Canada, Abbotsford, BC