Yankee Candle Fundraisers:
Easy Ideas for School Fundraising

The difference between a candle fundraiser that clears $1,500 and one that clears $4,000 is rarely the product or the size of the group. It’s timing, a clear per-seller goal, a kickoff that actually lands, and a couple of well-placed reminders.

The steps below are what experienced coordinators do, in the order they do it. If you’re looking for more inspiration, check out our guide on candle fundraiser ideas.

Step 1: Choose the right candle program for your group

Start by matching the program to your supporters and your calendar.

If you’re selling in the fall and want the Yankee Candle name on the catalog along with gift wrap, chocolates, and other giftable items, Winter Wonderland is the pick, and the tiered 40 to 50% profit rewards groups that can push past $2,500 in sales. If you want a sale that sellers can explain in one sentence, Heritage Candles at a flat $20 with $8 profit per candle is simpler to run and works any time of year. The Holiday Heritage version is the shortest and lightest option, with six scents on a one-page flyer, which suits a group that only has a couple of weeks in December.

Think about your sellers too: younger kids and first-time groups do better with one product at one price, while PTAs and booster clubs with experienced parents can handle a full catalog. If you’re not sure, request the free kit and look at the actual catalogs before deciding.

Step 2: Set a goal and do the math backward

Decide how much you need to raise, then work out what that means per seller.

With Heritage Candles it’s easy: a $2,000 goal at $8 profit per candle means 250 candles, so 25 sellers need to move 10 each. With Winter Wonderland, use $15 as your average item price and remember the tiers: a $2,000 goal needs about $4,500 in sales at 45%, or roughly 300 items across your group.

Give every seller a specific number, not a vague “do your best,” and tell them what the money buys. “Eight candles each covers the bus to regionals” sells better than “help us fundraise.”

Build in a stretch goal as well, because with Winter Wonderland the whole order jumps to 50% profit once you cross $5,000, and that’s worth pushing for.

Step 3: Get approval and lock in your dates

Get written approval from your principal, league, pastor, or board before you order catalogs, and check that no other group is fundraising in the same window.

Then pick a two to three week selling period. Longer sales don’t raise more money; they just let people procrastinate. For a holiday candle sale, you want orders submitted by early to mid November, because orders ship two to three weeks after processing and supporters expect their candles before they give them as gifts.

That means kicking off in October or the first days of November. Put the end date on every piece of communication you send, and give yourself two or three days after it for the stragglers who always turn in late.

Step 4: Request your free kit and set up your account

Request Fundraising Zone’s free kit, which ships within 24 hours with sample catalogs and a guide to running the sale, or sign up online in about two minutes with no credit card.

An account manager will reach out within one business day to confirm your seller count, dates, and catalog quantities. Give them an accurate head count so every seller gets a catalog on day one; running out mid-sale kills momentum.

Decide at this point whether you want the prize program or the 2% cash back option, since prizes need to be announced at kickoff to do their job. Ask for your online store links to be ready before kickoff too, so parents can share them the same night.

Step 5: Kick off with a real event, not just a flyer

The kickoff is where most of your sales are decided. Hold a short assembly, team meeting, or announcement after a service where you show the catalog, pass around a candle if you have a sample, and state the goal and the end date out loud.

Send the parent letter home the same day with the online link included and the deadline in bold. If you’re using prizes, show them, because kids sell for a prize they’ve seen. Explain who to sell to: grandparents, aunts and uncles, parents’ coworkers, and neighbors, in that order.

Sellers who leave the kickoff knowing exactly who to ask and what to say will start that evening, and the first two or three days of a sale typically produce a third of the orders.

Step 6: Push the online link to out-of-town supporters

Every seller gets a personal online store link, and the groups that raise the most treat it as a second sales channel rather than an afterthought.

Ask parents to text the link to relatives in other states on day one, since those are people who would never see a paper catalog. Online orders ship directly to the buyer, so you don’t handle those at all. Post the group’s link on your Facebook page and in the parent group chat, and encourage parents to share it on their own feeds with a line about what the money supports.

Online sales earn a flat 40% with Winter Wonderland, which means a grandparent in Florida buying three candles adds real profit with zero extra work for your volunteers.

Step 7: Send a midpoint push and a final reminder

Sales always follow the same curve: a burst at the start, a quiet middle, and a scramble at the end. You fix the middle with one well-timed reminder about a week in, ideally with a progress update like “We’re at $1,900 toward our $4,000 goal.”

Numbers motivate people in a way that “please keep selling” never does. Remind parents specifically to take the catalog to work, because coworkers are the most overlooked buyers in any candle sale. Then send one final reminder two days before the deadline to catch everyone who meant to order and forgot.

Keep each message short and include the online link every time.

Step 8: Collect, reconcile, and submit

On the final day, collect order forms and payment envelopes, then take two or three days to accept late orders before you close the books.

Check every form’s math against the money collected before you tally, because this is where mistakes happen and it’s far easier to fix a $14 discrepancy now than after the order ships. Add up the totals, confirm your final count with your account manager, and submit.

Payment for the product is due before shipment, and your profit is the difference between what you collected and what you owe, so a clean reconciliation makes that step painless. Keep a copy of every order form until the shipment has been distributed.

Step 9: Distribute and close the loop

Your order arrives in two to three weeks, delivered inside your building and sorted by seller with Winter Wonderland, so handing out orders is a matter of matching names to boxes.

Check the shipment against your order forms as soon as it lands and report anything damaged or missing within a week. Pick one distribution day and stick to it: send boxes home by classroom, set up a pickup table at the next practice, or hand out after a service.

Then thank everyone, publicly, with the final number raised and what it’s going to pay for, and hand out prizes right away. Groups that announce results have a much easier sale the following year, because supporters remember that their candle actually did something.