Popcorn Fundraising

Our pack has one fundraiser each year, selling Trails End popcorn. The fundraiser takes place in September and October, and our Scouts have a lot of fun doing it—earning rewards for their efforts along the way.

Why we sell popcorn…

• Generates income for the majority of our pack operating budget.

• Subsidizes the cost of materials for pack and den programming, and to purchase and maintain pack equipment: the sheds, the pack trailer, camp grills, sun/rain canopies, coolers, etc.

• Popcorn money also supports our local council which provides campgrounds, summer camps, special events, program support, leader training, and administrative staff.

• Over 70% of total revenues from popcorn sales stays local to our pack and council.

Personal goal

We ask that every returning* scout aim to sell for a sales target of at least $500. This amount can usually be achieved in just a few hours of storefront sales, but many scouts sell much more via online or wagon sales to relatives, friends, and neighbors, or by taking extra storefront shifts.

(*Note: Lion scouts and all new scouts regardless of rank are not required to participate in popcorn sales because the popcorn selling season is at the beginning of the program year and they’ve had little opportunity to experience scouting by then. But of course we welcome new scouts to participate in popcorn if they are eager to develop their salesmanship skills and help the pack.)

PACK-WIDE COMPETITION

Each week, we will look at the total online and wagon sales for that week—across the entire pack—and the top individual seller for that week will get to soak a Cubmaster!

Top-selling Den Reward

At the end of popcorn sales, after the last box or bag is sold, we will calculate the average sales per person for each den from all methods (online, wagon, and storefront) and the den that has the highest average per person will earn a pizza party at their November den meeting!

How it works

Our Popcorn team manages the inventory and selling opportunities for the Scouts. As parents, we need your help to manage the logistics of selling popcorn with your individual Scouts. Scouts should never be selling alone.

Any time you have questions, please email Marrilee A., who leads us as Popcorn Kernel.

Trails End Account

Every Scout must have a Trails End account to sell popcorn. Regardless of how you sell: to friends & family, your neighbors, coworkers… a Trails End account is required to log those sales, keep inventory counts up-to-date, facilitate processing-free credit card transactions, and manage schedules.

If you don’t already have an account set up for your Scout, click here to register. You are registering as a “Parent, On Behalf of a Scout.” If you have multiple Scouts, you will create multiple accounts. Note: Pack 0421 is part of Capitol Area Council and Armadillo District.

Each should have a unique username, i.e. ‘scoutfirst.lastname’ (Note: you may use the same email address with different accounts. The username is the unique identifier, not your email address)

Mobile App

Three ways to sell

There are three ways to sell popcorn:

• Storefront

• Online

• Wagon

Each is described in more detail below.

STOREFRONT Sales

Storefront sales are fun and easy. Most scouts in our pack earn the majority of their sales through storefront sales.

We have already identified the stores where we can sell, and the time slots we can be there.

The Popcorn team will bring a table, popcorn, a tent for shade, a cash box, and a Square reader to the location.

Your scout should wear their uniform and be ready to cheerfully ask people if they would like to support our pack by buying some popcorn!

Each parent needs to have the Trails End app downloaded and working on their smartphone. You should log in to your Scouts account before arriving.

All transactions must be tracked through the Trail’s End app. A Square reader will be made available to use for credit/debit card sales. There will be a money box available for cash sales.

If there are two scouts working at a shift, they will evenly split the sales credit. It doesn’t matter which parent registers the sale through their app. As long as both scouts are scheduled to be at that shift, the calculations for credit will be done automatically.

Only one parent needs to register each transaction through the app, but you may register two different sales on two smartphones at the same time. You may have two separate parents simultaneously be logged into their separate scout’s account to make transactions at the same time. i.e.: if each scout is selling to two different customers at the same time, you don’t have to make customers wait to register their sale on one smartphone.

When you arrive for a shift, if there is another scout (or scouts) already selling there, you should wait until their shift is over to change positions. Credit for sales will be determined by the time of day and the scouts scheduled at that location.

ONLINE Sales

Online is the most straightforward way to sell popcorn. When you create an account for your scout, you can also set up a personalized page and URL for your Scout.

Just fill in some content about your scout, and then you can preview your page before you share it with family and friends.

Click here to see what an active Online sales page looks like, when you send it to family & friends.

WAGON SALES

Wagon sales are like traditional “door-to-door” or “neighbor-to-neighbor” sales. For these sales, you can walk with your scout to homes or send a sign up sheet to work colleagues.

Sales still need to be recorded in your scout’s account

When making Wagon sales, you still want to be sure to use the Trails End app. You can start an order on your phone’s app and then send your neighbor their order via text message. They can then complete the order (address, email, phone, and payment info—including credit card, Google Pay, or Apple Pay) right from their own phone. You can also take cash, and registered it as a cash sale in the app. Either way, the app also allows you offer an email or text receipt.

NO popcorn Required

If you want to pre-sell popcorn you can indicate those sales as “Undelivered” and still take payment. This way the Popcorn Team can account for the inventory and arrange for you to deliver later.

Toggle between the correct option, “Delivered” or “Undelivered” as you go through the checkout process in the app.

You can also take a manual approach and bring a printed order form door-to-door, but you’ll need to manually record those sales later that day, online. This is what the form looks like when you click “Record Wagon Sale” in the account dashboard.