Case Study: How Driven Coffee Fundraising Transformed Shakopee Swim & Dive’s Annual Budget
What could your sports team do with an extra $1,000 in the budget? For the girl’s Shakopee Swim & Dive, it turned out to enable quite a bit. We sat down with Coach Jess Meyers to talk about how switching to Driven Coffee’s fundraising program helped transform the high school team’s fundraising efforts and annual budget.
The Problem: Inefficient and Low-Profit Fundraisers
Jess, the new coach for the Shakopee Swim & Dive, wasn’t at the school when they started using the Driven Coffee fundraising program a few years ago, but she’s heard all about the issues the Booster Club had with other campaigns.- Low Engagement — Wrapping paper was a bust—who needs to buy new paper every year in September? Popcorn did alright, but not everyone really enjoys the pre-popped offerings.
- Disappointing Profits — These fundraisers made money, but not much. The Booster Club wanted to provide food before meets and have olympic trainers come work with the team, but there wasn’t money in the budget for it. The fundraisers only helped cover basic needs—and just barely.
- A Major Burden — The products arrived very unorganized which made distribution a big hassle for the coaches and parents. They were left having to hand out everything product-by-product.
The Booster Club realized there had to be a better way, and that’s when they discovered Driven Coffee. The Driven Team came by to one of the Booster Club meetings and brewed up a handful of coffee samples for the parents. "You guys made the setup process very easy. Emily was very flexible to come out and do samples—and not very often does that happen—so that was a bonus the team really liked." We’ve partnered with the team for a few years now, and the growth of the annual fundraiser—and the team’s budget—has been pretty dramatic.
The Fundraiser: Greater Profits For Less Work
While this was Jess’s first year conducting the fundraiser, it was obvious to her how much the Booster Club liked selling these coffees from their first meeting. "In the first meeting we had with the Booster Club, I noticed it’s something they’ve really enjoyed. I think it’s a perfect thing to sell as a fundraiser that’s not a difficult sell at all." Freshly roasted coffee beans, as it turned out, were able to solve the three big problems the team had with other fundraiser companies.- Strong Engagement — With coffee being a fast-moving consumable product, the team had no issues selling. It was a no-brainer from the customer side: buy craft coffee for the same price as the grocery store, except now they’re freshly roasted and part of the sale goes to help empower these swimmers to thrive this season.
- Better Profits — With greater sales came greater profits. Quite a bit greater, in fact. For the past few years, the Booster Club has been able to provide several things for the team that weren’t possible before (more on this later).
- Low Effort — When sales were complete, we roasted the coffee beans to order, dropped them off at the school, and the parents took it from there without having to spend a second worrying about freezer space or melted deliveries.
"You guys were able to just drop our stuff off at the school and as a parent the delivery and distribution part is so easy. A lot of parents like that the product is easy to store, hang on to, and deliver." The team set a goal last year: $150 per student, understanding that only a small portion would actually try to sell and make it there. Amazingly, 25 girls reached the goal and went beyond. One student even passed $700—a new fundraising record for the team! "For the girls, it’s kind of an easy sell. They have people that look for them and wait for our fundraiser and have made it a tradition to buy their Fall coffee from us."
Here’s Where The Money’s Going
Thanks to a stronger Fall fundraiser, the Shakopee Swim & Dive team has been able to afford a handful of things that weren’t previously possible. Here are just a few of them:- Meals before meets
- Olympic coaches who come to train the girls
- Bigger, better pool equipment
