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| A Used Books Sale is a Great Way to Raise Money |
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Our church decided to raise funds in a way that would only cost a small
deal of investment a few years ago. Fund raising dinners or selling
items for a company usually require a large amount of investments and
so the profit margin is small.
In the past years, we held several bake
sales and it seemed that people were getting tired of donating and
buying. We held a rummage sale in the spring, but it took a great deal
of work collecting, organizing, pricing and then getting rid of the
items that did not sell.
However, we did notice that people liked books during the rummage. The church members had donated many used books and all of them were sold. We decided that a used books sale would be a good way of raising funds that does not require a large investment.
I personally made arrangements with the local library to take any left over books that they might have. Fortunately, the library offered to donate about a hundred books for the used books sale.
I also wanted to get some ideas to make our fund raising a successful event so I got online. I also talked to a book store owner for some advice on ways to organize the books.
He told me that it would be good if we can create creating an atmosphere during the used books sale that would make people want to linger in. He explained that the more time people spend looking through books the more apt they are to purchase them.
His suggestion led us to the idea of creating a coffee shop book store atmosphere in the gathering space and classroom areas of the fellowship hall. We also asked the congregation to donate books.
We called several of the elderly people of the congregation to see if they needed help getting their books to the church. We also requested asked everyone to sort their books into categories prior to donating. We explained that this would save time setting up the used books sale.
We purchased gourmet coffee grounds and brewed up several pots to help create the atmosphere for our used books sale. People that did not have books to donate volunteered to make bars and cookies, which we sold individually.
We placed groups of chairs in secluded locations throughout the space. This way the invited people can spend as much time as they wanted browsing, drinking coffee and reading the books.
The devotionals, spiritual books and self help books were placed by our chapel area so that people could reflect in a quiet space. The children’s used book sale was positioned in the nursery area. The church member in charged of that area invited several people to read stories to groups of children through out the day.
This gave the parents time to look through the used books sale while their children were occupied. Fortunately, the used books sale was a huge success. We were able to raise funds through the books and the other items we offered for sale.
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