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3) Market your sale!
Once your package arrives, raise awareness about your sale!! Posters? Put a handful of pulseras on your desk in the few minutes before class one day and watch what happens! Creating a Facebook event page has been super-effective. Also, linking your event page to the Pulsera Project fanpage and website gives students access to
info, pictures and video ( the videos are amazing!!!)
that help explain what the Pulsera Project is all about.
Enclosed with your package will be a short film about the project that is great for showing to other students at club or organization meetings.
Contact your school's newspaper or television station! Many people are unaware that reporters and editors are constantly looking for stories about student volunteer activities!!
4) Sell Pulseras!!!
There are two kinds of pulseras: First, there is one distinct, finely woven style that is made by Sí a la Vida shelter kids and ex'Los Quinchos youths who are 14 years of age and up. Second, pulseras made by Nicaraguan families who are part of our project make many other styles. Both the youths and families are paid fair market value in Nicaragua for their pulseras. This is how the kids earn spending money and it's how the families and pulsera co-op members support themselves. No matter who makes the pulseras, when the pulseras are sold here at home, all of the sale proceeds go to fund programs that benefit young Nicaraguans.This way, not only do we support the artists, but we support the organizations that care for the kids. There's much more information about where all the money goes on the Pulsera Project website.
All pulseras sell for $5, so it's not important to keep track of how many of each kind you have sold. As part of our agreement, you agree to sell all Pulsera Project pulseras for $5. Any change in these prices must be worked out with us and agreed to prior to us shipping the pulseras.
Normally, pulseras are sold with a manila tag with a sticker attached that has a pic and some info. Most of the pictures are of the artists who made the pulseras. A few of the pulseras from last year just have pics of some of the shelter kids. Most of the artists also write their name and age on the tags of their pulseras.
Depending on how overworked our volunteers are, sometimes we send pulseras out without the tags attached, but all pulseras made by the youths have tags.
During a sale, it's not necessary to keep track of how many pulseras you've sold; just count the money. If you count $100, that should mean that you've sold 20 pulseras, and so on. When your package arrives, we will include a sheet that tells you exactly how many pulseras we sent. At the end of your sale, you can simply count how many pulseras are left over and that should square pretty closely with how much money you have collected. In more than 120 semester sales at more than 90 schools, this system has worked well. Minor discrepancies of a few dollars can be expected. They are unimportant.
A sale generates a lot of cash. You should have some way to safeguard the money.
You should also safeguard the pulseras as they represent countless hours of work by the artists who made them.
How you display the pulseras is up to you, but the picture displays are absolutely key in helping people connect to the cause. Try to put the display front and center where the pictures of the artists and kids can shine. You will sell more pulseras with the pictures front and center!!
Also, put plenty of pulseras out on your table!! Pulseras are works of art. Each is unique. Many students will search and search to find just the right style and color. One way to display them is to line up some neatly and put others in a pile. People LOVE digging through piles to find a hidden gem!
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5) When the sale is over.
The displays and remaining pulseras should be put into the box that you saved, the one they arrived in, and sent via UPS .
Just tape the pre-paid mailing label to the box and take it to the closest UPS location.
You won't need any money. The label was sent to you in the box. If you lose it, send the package to
Pulsera Project - 131 N. Wawaset Rd, West Chester, PA 19382
We usually send you many more pulseras than you'll need for your sale, so it would be typical to return quite a few. If you need more at any time, we can send more. Its a snap.
Normally the sale proceeds are sent by check to the same address: checks should be made out to The Pulsera Project. The Pulsera Project is a registered 501 (c) (3), non-profit charitable organization. If your school or organization wants a copy of our government registration letter or other information, please let us know. The U.S. government lists registered non-profit organizations at http://www.irs.gov/app/pub-78/. Our registration was final as of Dec.22, 2009.
We will not send a bill. The box of pulseras and displays should be returned to us within a couple of days after your sales end. Normally it takes a little longer to issue a check from your club, school or organization.
You agree to sell all pulseras for $5 and to return 100% of the sale proceeds as soon as practical after your sale.
In some cases, we partner with clubs and organizations that want to keep some of the pulsera sale proceeds to fund causes in their communities. Though the Pulsera Project exists primarily to benefit very needy children in Nicaragua, we recognize that the world has many unmet needs. We are willing to join with other humanitarians in furthering worthy causes.
Such partnerships should be discussed and agreed to via e-mail before we send a package.
6) What happens to the money you raise?
This is a key component of assessing any charitable organization: Where does the money go? Since its founding, the Pulsera Project was a completely volunteer effort until June 2011 - which is when we hired two recent university graduates to handle the workload that came with nearly 170 school sales. Other than those two small salaries ( see the Pulsera Team page), the project has very few administrative expenses ( like postage and stationary), and the vast majority of funding goes to programs that benefit young Nicaraguans. See the
"Projects"
page for details about our many Nica projects. In short, virtually all of the money raised goes directly to benefit Nicaraguan youth. We personally deliver it. And, with few exceptions, we pay our own airfare and all travel expenses to get it there. This is truly an organization that is worthy of your support.
7) And Finally
Thanks for reading the whole guide !!! So, now you know how it all works: Send us an e-mail that says "I'm in." and include the following things:
1)
Your concrete plan. Tell us when, where, and who. Confirm that you have read all three pages of this guide.
2)
Your name and mailing address.
(An address where somebody can sign for the box. For high school sales, this will be the address of the school.) Include your cell # in case the UPS driver has any problem.
We also need the name, e-mail address and cell # of another person
who will be involved in the project and whom we can contact in case we can't get in touch with you.
If you attend a university, the second name can be another student.
If your sale is in a high school, the second name should a faculty advisor.
3)
The date by which you agree to return the box with the displays and left-over pulseras.
And that's it. With those three things, the pulseras will be on their way!!
One Thing !!! Before planning a December sale, shoot us a quick e-mail to make sure that we'll have enough pulseras. December sales are SUPER popular
and sometimes we can run pretty low on pulseras!!! Gracias !!!
If you have any questions, just shoot us an e-mail or call
pulseraproject_gmail.com
Colin Crane - 610-761-2086
Chris Crane - 610-793-3483
Chris Howell - 610-350-9327
