HappyPurim's blog » Details and Advanced Issues

Mishloach Manot Themes – Purim Basket Themes

happypurim — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 18:58:50 +0000

It’s become super popular to distribute Shalach Manot baskets with themes. I don’t know how, when, or where this “minhag” got started, but it has really caught on. Our clients are always asking us for ideas, so we thought we’d put together a comprehensive list and post them here. Please email me (ari (at) happypurim.com) if you’ve got any suggestions, or simply add the great ones you’ve seen to the comments below.

I already have a list of 15 or so; I’d like to get a few more before I post them next week. Click Here to see the list of themes.

Thanks and Shabbat Shalom,

Ari

Tips For Raising More Money

happypurim — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 16:18:48 +0000

So you’ve been running a Mishloach Manot fundraiser for a couple of years and want to increase the amount of money you raise? We’ve got some tips for you.

1. Baskets for personal use: Level of difficulty: Easy; Dollar Potential: A couple of thousand dollars

Sell baskets for “personal use” to your members. In addition to the “communal baskets” that are the mainstay of this fundraiser, offer baskets for sale to your members for them to distribute on their own. Your members likely have friends, family and neighbors who are not members of your organization, whom they would like to give baskets to. Instead of making baskets on their own, or purchasing them from a store, why not give your members an easy solution that supports your school or synagogue at the same time? You should charge a higher price than what you charge for “communal baskets” – you must ensure that you’re making a profit off of these baskets! This is very easy to add to your Purim project by using Happy Purim’s Personal Use” module.

2. Shipping Baskets: Level of difficulty: Hard; Dollar Potential: A few thousand dollars

Selling personalized baskets with delivery or shipping included is a great way to significantly increase the revenue of your fundraiser. Many of your members probably order shalach manot from stores or websites and have them shipped to friends and family across the country. Why not capture those orders for your organization? This does add a significant amount of extra work, but people are usually willing to pay a nice premium for this service (just look online for what others charge). Happy Purim’s “shipping basket” module makes this much easier to do by capturing the addresses and personalized messages for these special orders.

We have some other ideas, and tips that can ONLY be done using our system–feel free to call 646-345-4032 or email Ari (at) HappyPurim.com to find out more!

Shalach Monos Pricing Details: Should you charge a “setup” fee?

happypurim — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 15:59:14 +0000

Charging a setup fee for your purim project is not user-friendly in that you make it prohibitively expensive for those people who only want to send to a few people. Your members that plan on sending mishloach manot to many people will do so regardless of whether you charge a $20 setup fee and $2 per recipient, or simply $3 per. You will probably make the same amount of money from these “big spenders” regardless of pricing, but you risk alienating those members who only want to send a purim basket to 2 or 3 people (those members who don’t know a lot of other members, but may be interested in sending to the Rabbi/s and Cantor). Yes, you won’t make the $20 set-up fee from them, but there’s a good chance they wouldn’t have spent $26 to send mishloach manot to 3 people—but they would likely spend $9 to send to 3 people without thinking twice.

If your logic is that people should cover the cost of their own baskets, a setup fee won’t necessarily achieve that. Your members are paying to SEND greetings, not receive them. If a person doesn’t participate, but someone sends to them, they’ll still receive a basket, despite not paying your setup fee.

We would also recommend against a setup fee for reciprocity for the same reason that it may keep people from choosing this option. Reciprocity is a great feature that usually helps you raise more money by serving as a “catch-all.” That is, it is intended as a backup in case someone sends to you, and you didn’t send to them—you would select this option to ensure that everyone who sends to you receives from you. As the administrator this hopefully increases the total number of names selected, and thus, the money you raise. A problem arises when your members rely on reciprocity and either don’t place an initial order at all, or a very small one. At HappyPurim.com we do not allow “reciprocity-only” orders because we must capture the members credit card to charge them for their reciprocal order. We can also setup your account to require a minimum number of baskets to be ordered in order for the member to select reciprocity. The best idea however, may be to charge a higher amount, but not much higher, for reciprocal orders. For example, if you’re charging $2 per regular recipient, you may want to consider charging $2.50 per reciprocal.