"Hungry for Change" Bake Sales: Event Guide

Thanks for holding a "Hungry for Change" bake sale to raise funds for MoveOn.org's campaign to elect Barack Obama in 2008. Below are some tips to help make your even more successful.

Remember: Holding a bake sale is really fun and simple, but as the coordinator of the bake sale, it’s your job to set it up, invite some friends to help out, and—most importantly—to make sure your helpers know the rules about accepting donations. Don’t worry—it’s not complicated, but it is really important that everyone know the simple rules.

This guide is your best source of information, so please read it carefully. If you have a question that isn’t answered here, check out our frequently asked questions.

This guide is divided into a few simple sections:

• Finding a location
• Recruiting helpers
• Confirming with helpers
• Supplies checklist
• Holding your bake sale
• Sending in money
• Wrap-up

Step 1: Find a Location

First off, you’ll need to choose a great location to hold your bake sale. Look for a public location that will have plenty of foot traffic at the time when you are holding your bake sale. Here are some good possibilities:

• A street corner in a busy part of town
• In a popular park
• In a public plaza or square
• In front of a cool coffee shop
• At a farmers' market or street fair
• Near a local shopping center or grocery store

If you have any doubt as to whether your location is public property, you should check with the appropriate local authorities (such as police, sheriff, city hall, or any local property owners close to your chosen location).  Remember, as the event coordinator, you are responsible for getting permission if required, or paying any fees to use the location you choose. If in doubt, ask!

Also, since this is a political effort, you should stay away from churches and schools. They are legally prohibited from contributing resources or time to a political project like this.

Step 2: Recruit Some Helpers

Once you’ve chosen your location, find yourself some helpers! Invite your friends and family to help out. It’ll be fun, and all they need to do is bake something and drop it by, or help out at the table. To invite some friends, just log in to your host tool site here. Fill in their email addresses, write a message in the lower box, and click send. Please ask them to register for the event so we can see which events have lots of help and which still need extra help.

If you've held a bake sale before, you can click here to see who helped out at your previous event, and email them to let them know about your new bake sale.

Once folks have signed up to help, you can view a list of volunteers on your coordinator tool site by clicking here. In the “guests” section, the “volunteered” column shows who is bringing food or drink and who has volunteered to help with set up or clean up, staffing the table, bringing materials, or contacting the media. We’ve also asked helpers to email you to let you know what kind of food or drink they’re planning to bring — but we strongly urge you to email your helpers to coordinate in any case.

If you’re a member of a MoveOn Council, don’t forget to tell your fellow council members. You can easily send your whole team a message using your Council team page.

Step 3: Confirm with your helpers

It's essential that you contact your helpers to confirm the time and place of the bake sale. They are expecting to hear from you. If you don't contact them, they may not participate.

You’ll also want to contact your helpers to coordinate the details — e.g. to find out what they're bringing or when they will drop it off. To email your helpers from your host page, check the box next to the people you’d like to email and select “send email.”

Supplies Checklist

(Print out this handy supplies checklist to help you prepare for your bake sale.)

__ table (you can use an ironing board for this), and chairs to sit on if you'd like
__ small paper plates/napkins to serve on & cups if you're selling drinks
__ knife/spatula to cut & serve food
__ plastic wrap or sandwich bags to keep food covered and to wrap individual portions
__ cash to make change—especially $1 bills
__ tape to hang your signs
__ a digital camera if you have one, to take pictures & submit them afterwards (We'll feature the best photos on our website!)
__ materials: make sure to print out all the flyers, media materials, and other critical materials on your materials page
__ poster paper and markers to make signs for your table and directional signs directing folks to your bake sale
__ donation forms in case anyone wants to give more than $50

Step 4: Hold the Bake Sale

Try putting up signs around the area where your sale is to attract people to your table. You may also want to eliminate change by pricing things in round dollar amounts, or having paper plates of 1-2 items (e.g. a plate of 2 cookies for $1, or a piece of cake for $2).

In addition to food, you might want to sell juice, soda, or water — baked goods make people thirsty, and if it’s warm out, your drinks may be your best-selling items.

It is unlikely but possible that since we're holding an event promoting MoveOn and Barack Obama, you may encounter some disrespectful people who disagree with us. The best policy is to be polite, ignore them if they won't go away, and remember that our goal is to spend time talking to potential supporters, not to people who disagree with us.

Here are four things you can do that will dramatically increase the success of your bake sale:

1. Big Signs: Make sure the signs on your table clearly communicate, at a distance, the purpose of the bake sale.

2. "Round up." You can increase the amount you raise by asking people to "round up" — they could pay $10 for a cookie instead of $1, with all the proceeds going to the campaign.

3. Extra donations. Ask folks if they want to make an "extra donation" when the buy a treat. People are excited about winning back the White House, so they'll often be eager to pitch in more — but you have to ask!

4. Be Vocal. Ask folks who are walking by to buy stuff. Just say something simple like "Buy a brownie to support Barack Obama?"

Two really important notes on donations: For amounts over $100, we can only take checks. And, for legal reasons, all donations over $50 must be accompanied by a donation form. Individuals writing checks should make them out to "MoveOn.org Political Action."

Step 5: Send In Money

After the sale is done, your main responsibility is to count the money you raised and send it in as follows:

• Click here and follow the step-by-step instructions. It is important that you only use this unique link — so we can report that this money came from your bake sale, not from an individual donation.
• You must write a check or get a money order for the value of all cash or change from your bake sale. After you've filled out the reporting page, you'll get a donation form to print out. You'll also get a tracking number. It's very important that you write this tracking number on your check or money order.
• If you have collected checks in addition to this amount, you can send them in along with your check or money order. Checks should be made out to "MoveOn.org Political Action."
• If you paid for anything that did not come out of your cupboard (cooking ingredients, printing, balloons, etc.) associated with the bake sale, it’s also really important that you fill out the "in-kind donation." This is the information we'll need to submit to the Federal Election Commission.

Sending in the proceeds from your bake sale is simple, but really crucial. People have trusted you to take their donation — so please make sure to follow these steps. If you have any questions, email our volunteer support team at bakesales08@moveon.org.

Step 6: Wrap-up