20 POD Fundraising Items to Sell – How to Win Bulk Orders

Profits from selling retail POD items are being choked by rising ad costs. However, there is a niche that many sellers overlook, even though it brings in bulk orders of hundreds or even thousands of items: selling to schools, clubs, and charities.

This customer group has a very unique trait: they do not buy things for themselves. What they are searching for are fundraising items to sell with a base cost cheap enough to raise money, but with designs meaningful enough that people are willing to open their wallets to support them.

So, in a catalog of thousands of products, which ones will help you win over this customer group? This article will list the most practical product groups for you to launch your campaigns.

Top POD fundraising items to sell

1. Custom fundraising apparel

• T-shirts

T-shirts always have a record-high demand in the market, so this is the most perfect starting point if you want to enter this niche. The reason is that this item has the highest mass appeal, is extremely easy to wear, easy to choose sizes, and has relatively low shipping costs.

You should prioritize designs themed around events, sports movements, or school graduation anniversaries so that when you pitch to organizations, they only need to insert their logo or name. In addition, the profit margin of T-shirts is extremely good thanks to a very cheap base cost, allowing sellers to offer an attractive wholesale price while customers can still easily mark up by 100% to raise money for their fund.

• Sweatshirts

For winter, sweatshirts are a real “money maker," because this is also the time when year-end fundraising activities take place aggressively. This product group has a much higher average order value compared to T-shirts, which means the net profit margin per item will be much higher.

Thanks to their high perceived value, sweatshirts are perfect for sports clubs or winter funds to resell at high prices to gather fund money faster.

To be sure, sellers need to choose suppliers with good fabric quality and high print sharpness. Besides, you can proactively suggest that partners bundle products into combos (such as buying a sweatshirt and getting a free sticker). This tactic helps organizations increase their order value to raise funds more effectively.

• Hats/Caps

Hats are fashion accessories that naturally have a soft price but high perceived value. To increase product value, you should prioritize fulfillment providers with high-quality embroidery services instead of regular printing, such as the Embroidered Cap line from Merchize.

When launching a campaign, focus on minimalist designs with a small embroidered text or logo on the front so that buyers can proudly wear them every day after the campaign ends.

• Socks

POD socks (especially the all-over print line) are a hidden gold mine in the school fundraising niche. In the US and Western countries, the trend of wearing socks with “unique" patterns and vibrant colors to express personality is extremely popular among pupils and students.

This is a “weapon" with a super cheap cost and compact size, making it easy for sports clubs or cheerleading teams to sell in combos with shirts and hats, or use as gifts. To maximize revenue, sellers should design sock models using the school’s primary colors combined with the mascot or exclusive slogan arranged in a repeating pattern.

2. Affordable fundraising products for large-volume sales

• Car decals/ Bumper stickers

Car decals are a lucrative item for fundraising campaigns because they hit the right culture of American and Western people: they always want to stick their children’s school logo or club name on their cars to show public support. Taking advantage of this psychology, teams usually choose stickers to sell to the parent community during Back-to-School fundraising events or sports tournaments.

Tactic: Never sell them individually; instead, bundle them into wholesale packs of at least 50 to 100 pieces. Because the base cost of stickers is extremely cheap, you can easily offer a super competitive wholesale price to help organizations resell them for a high profit margin.

• Stickers

Stickers, on the other hand, are the ultimate “weapon" to attract youth, pupils, and students. This is a popular decorative item because it is super cheap and strongly hits the need to express personal identity by sticking them on laptops, water bottles, or notebooks.

You should package them into Sticker Packs (10 – 30 pieces per pack) based on a theme that matches the fundraising campaign (such as environmental protection, animal rescue, or school anniversary week). Fund boards love this kind of combo for two reasons: they can use them as gifts (incentives) to encourage larger donations, or sell them individually for a few dollars right at the event booths to collect the spare change from visitors.

Even though the value of each sticker is small, when you catch wholesale orders of thousands of packs for the whole campaign, the profit margin in percentage will be massive.

• Wristbands

Wristbands act as a “medal" that shows community solidarity in fundraising campaigns. Just like how the LiveStrong fund created a global craze, wristbands are the perfect product for organizations to gather money quickly thanks to a super low cost and the potential to sell in large volumes at marathons or awareness campaigns.

When pitching to them, highlight the ability to customize messages and colors that match their campaign. Owning eye-catching wristbands with meaningful messages will help organizations resell them easily. Furthermore, when supporters wear this band every day, it accidentally becomes a mobile billboard that helps spread the organization’s fundraising campaign for free in the community.

• Keychains

Keychains are one of the most effective fundraising products thanks to their high usefulness and flexible shape customization on many materials like acrylic, wood, or metal. Student clubs or pet rescue funds especially favor this item because the cost is cheap but it is easy to cut along the outline of the organization’s logo or mascot.

Therefore, you should prepare eye-catching mockups to suggest they turn keychains into an ideal “upsell" product at the booth. In addition, advise them on how to pack them into gift combos with shirts and tote bags. Hitting their demand for quick profits will convince partners to close large wholesale orders.

3. Everyday products with high perceived value

• Tote bags

Canvas tote bags are an indispensable product for fundraising campaigns of environmental organizations, libraries, or book fairs thanks to representing a green lifestyle and high usefulness. This item possesses a huge supporter base; everyone from students and teachers to office workers and housewives needs to carry them daily to hold books or groceries.

On the other hand, tote bags have a very large printing area, so you can easily copy design patterns straight from T-shirts without needing much editing. When pitching, you should advise the organizers to choose thick canvas material to be able to set a higher price for the product.

• Mugs

Ceramic mugs are a popular household item with a long usage time, making them extremely suitable for fundraising campaigns meant for appreciation or souvenirs, such as alumni funds, school anniversaries, and Teacher’s Day. Although they have weaknesses like being fragile and having high shipping fees when sent individually, sellers can completely solve this problem by combining orders to ship to one central address of the organization through fulfillment partners that have safe pallet packaging processes.

Furthermore, you should focus on pitching eye-catching full-wrap printing designs or unique color-changing mugs (magic mugs). Diversifying product designs will help the fund board easily set a high markup price, bringing outstanding revenue to the campaign.

• Phone accessories

From cases to stands, phone accessories are inseparable items for today’s young generation. In fundraising campaigns targeting Gen Z or high school students, this is the fastest-selling product group thanks to its high practicality and trendy fashion taste.

The secret for sellers is not to pack too many phone models, which causes confusion. Instead, focus on the most popular iPhone or Samsung lines, or more smartly, push PopSockets and back-adhesive Card Holders. This stick-on product line can be used for all types of phones, helping the organization completely eliminate inventory worries due to wrong phone sizes.

With the advantage of a very comfortable base cost, you should design in a minimalist, trendy style with the organization’s logo sharply printed to easily offer an attractive wholesale discount, helping clubs close orders quickly to meet the fundraising schedule.

• Notebooks

Notebooks are a classic study and work tool, always maintaining a best-selling position all year round thanks to a large customer base including teachers, students, and office workers. In the fundraising niche, this is a safe product line that does not fear going out of style and has an especially great attraction during Back-to-School time or the beginning of the new year.

Providing premium leather or hardcover options will create a professional, luxurious feeling. In addition, you should advise them to bundle notebooks into “stationery" combos with pens and decorative stickers to increase sales.

4. Seasonal fundraising products

• Wall calendars

Wall calendars are a product with an extremely high seasonal nature and almost no competitors during the end-of-year period. For sellers, this is an item where you do not have to worry about fierce competition regarding shapes or fashion trends.

A tip for you is to exploit personalization in the form of a “photo diary". You should suggest that animal rescue organizations or school departments collect activity photos, pet pictures, or their own meaningful moments from the past year to print on the 12 calendar pages.

• Desk calendars

Unlike large wall calendars, compact desk calendars are an indispensable tool for decoration and time management on a student’s study desk or an office worker’s desk. This item possesses great buying power thanks to its convenience and ability to directly reach users every day.

The secret is still to fully exploit the “visual marketing" factor. Suggest that the school’s art, photography, or fine arts clubs design the calendars themselves or provide artworks they took or drew to print on them. With very stable production prices for this line, sellers can easily control input costs to offer extremely good wholesale deals.

• Ornaments

More than just a simple decor item, ornaments are like a proud keepsake that helps buyers preserve the memory of accompanying the organization. With the advantage of a super soft cost and light weight, this is an ideal product for you to add to your store.

You can design the product in the form of “honor and remembrance" to use as gifts for donors or to sell at large events. Alternatively, you can print images of the school campus, club logos along with operation year milestones, or the organization’s mascot image onto materials like fine ceramic or luxurious laser-engraved wood.

5. Premium fundraising merchandise for higher-value orders

• Umbrellas

Umbrellas are a premium item, creating a big difference thanks to low competition in the fundraising category. Although they only get attention when the weather is bad, an umbrella printed with an organization’s brand logo becomes an accessory that any former member wants to own.

Target alumni funds or sports clubs (like golf, tennis) — places that gather a supporter base with a generous budget. Although the base cost of umbrellas is higher than regular products, the retail value is directly proportional to the quality. In addition, putting umbrellas into an exclusive gift pack reserved for VIP donors is also a tactic that helps you successfully close high-value orders without needing to push too much volume.

• Posters

Posters are an economical but highly effective fundraising solution, specially used to convey powerful messages, artworks, or documentary photos of the organization. The ideal customer base for sellers to pitch wholesale orders for this line is drama clubs, school bands, or organizers of social awareness campaigns.

The advantage for sellers is a super cheap base cost and easy packaging (just roll them up and put them into paper tubes). Therefore, you can sell them together with signatures of prominent members in the team or turn posters into a limited collection.

• Candles

Scented candles are a trendy product that hits right at the self-care trend, making them extremely popular in fundraising campaigns meant for healing, mental health protection, or women’s association events. The selling point of this product line lies in the label design wrapped around the candle jar.

Sellers should prepare label design templates in a minimalist or luxurious vintage style, printed with the campaign’s inspiring slogan. Or, instead of selling each monotonous jar individually, you should guide the organizers to pack scented candles into themed collections or combos of many different scents.

Why should you sell fundraising products?

1. Buyers are less price-sensitive

Unlike the mindset of calculating and comparing prices on regular e-commerce platforms, fundraising product buyers decide to spend money for the purpose of supporting.

What they are looking for is a tangible item to keep as a memory and to prove they are part of the campaign. Because of that good purpose, end buyers hardly hesitate about the price. This allows organizations to easily raise the retail price to accumulate fund money. Thanks to this, sellers can confidently offer the most optimal wholesale price for their store.

2. Superior Perceived Value

When the “charity/connection" factor is integrated into the product, its value in the eyes of customers multiplies many times. You completely escape the price-cutting race to compete. Instead, sellers can focus on providing high-quality product lines at good prices, while customers are still happy to open their wallets because they know the money they spend is serving a meaningful purpose.

3. The “Local Brand" trend for souvenirs

Donors today do not just buy for the sake of the name; they also demand that the product they receive must be beautiful enough and highly practical for daily use.

While fundraising organizations often lack expertise in design and market trends, you clearly understand the styles, colors, and materials that are currently trending. Your support in helping them turn rough school or club logos into fashion products with a “Local Brand" spirit will stimulate supporters to desire to own them and wear them out on the street, instead of just storing them in a glass cabinet.

4. Owning a monopoly position in the market

The combination of the seller’s trend-catching ability and the organization’s brand assets (logo/slogan) will create one-of-a-kind products. No competitor can copy your ideas or jump in to compete on price with you, because the campaign’s customer base is loyal and can only buy products from your supply source. You naturally hold a monopoly position to control the selling price and fully exploit the revenue from the campaign.