The founder of one charity shares her tips and advice for this step-by-step guide to fundraising with merchandise

Fundraising is a crucial task for any charity. There are many ways to do it, but an increasingly popular approach is creating a set of merch (usually t-shirts), to sell to supporters. We spoke to Geraldine Morelli, who runs small wildlife conservation charity, Wild & Free, to find out the key things to know for successfully fundraise using merchandise.

For Morelli, merchandise is “critical” to helping her fundraise. “I had to find another way beyond asking people around me for donations all the time,” she says. “Donations are generous but had nothing in return beyond a thank you. I thought giving something to people would encourage to donate. And it’s working.”

How to use t-shirts to fundraise – a guide

Step 1: Speak to supporters of your charity
Step 2: Design an amazing t-shirt
Step 3: Order the correct stock for your merch
Step 4: Promote through your charity socials
Step 6: Collaborate with other charities
Step 7: Summary

Step 1: Speak to supporters of your charity

Before embarking on any new project (especially if it requires some investment), it’s important to do some market research. Get a sense of what similar organisations are doing and, in the case of charities, speak to your supporters and find out what kind of fundraising they might be open to. Morelli did some research into what other animal charities do. “Most have a shop,” she says. “I always thought people from the UK wouldn’t be interested in merchandise, but after doing some surveys through Instagram, I found out 85% of people said they’d be interested in buying it.”

Printing t-shirts for your charity or fundraising project? At ICON Printing we offer a discount of 10% to registered charities

Step 2: Design an amazing t-shirt

So you’ve discovered that your supporters are up for buying some merchandise. The next step is the design. This is important because you want to produce a product people will actually want to wear. For Morelli, keeping the design simple was important. “It needs to be seen, and the logo needs to be there,” she says. She created a t-shirt design featuring the charity logo – which uses the silhouette of a monkey from a photo Morelli took while volunteering – so it was meaningful to her, as well as communicating the essence of the charity.

Another consideration is making sure the website is clear. “For my most recent design, I made the website much bolder and clearer so everyone can see it. I changed the tagline into something more punchy too,” says Morelli. “I often see charity t-shirts with loads of splashing colours a lot going on. I like things to be simple, elegant and have the key message. But you want it to be a nice top, so people are happy to wear them.”

Step 3: Order the correct stock for your merch

Ordering the correct stock is very important and something organisations often get wrong. ICON Printing suggest getting a spread of sizes weighted to the most common ones but still covering the top and bottom ends. As a rough guide, if you were to order 100 t-shirts, we would suggest 10XS, 20S, 40M, 40L, 10XL.

Morelli learnt from past mistakes here. At first she just ordered the two sizes she thought would be the most popular and immediately had to deal with requests in sizes she didn’t have. “It’s a good idea to order a little bit of everything in different sizes and colours,” she says.

Printing t-shirts for your charity or fundraising project? Get in touch with ICON Printing to find out about our range of merch

Step 4: Promote through your charity socials

Once you’ve got your stock, it’s time to start selling. Social media is always going to be important for charity fundraising and this is the moment to start utilising it. Share links to your shop with high quality photos showing off your merch. Morelli uses social media – particularly Instagram – to build a sense of excitement around new merch going on sale.

“I didn’t have to advertise much,” she says. “What I do now is little videos. I’ll do an announcement, wearing the t-shirt, saying they’re available and on sale. These videos would get me loads of new visitors, lots of clicks, it gets people excited and you get orders”

This personal touch can be really effective, says Morelli. “I did a teaser for the children’s t-shirts asking which designs to print. It was really valuable to get the feedback and people feel like they’re part of it; it’s a small charity, it’s personal.” This personal touch underpins the whole process: “Everything I send I put a personalised card and note with,” says Morelli.

Step 5: Collaborate with other charities

A final suggestion for helping you sell t-shirts and raise more money is to collaborate with other groups and projects. As Wild & Free is a charity with a strong commitment to the environment, Morelli got in touch with the Plastic Free Shop – a charity aiming to reduce waste. Now, if you purchase a t-shirt from Wild n Free you get a 15% discount code with the Plastic Free Shop. It’s a way to say we care about the environment, it’s a nice image for the charity and it means people are not only helping the charity, but the environment too if they want,” says Morelli. “Collaboration can also give an extra incentive to buy.”

Step 6: Summary

There are a few key steps to fundraising as a charity with t-shirts and merchandise. The first step is to do some research and, most importantly, to speak to your followers to get a sense of demand. Secondly; get the design right. You want something simple and bold that gets the message across. The third stage is ordering the correct stock – make sure you have a spread of sizes and colours. Fourth: promote through your socials. Let your followers know you have new stock for sale and build a sense of excitement for new releases. A fifth and final thing to consider is collaborating with projects that share the same ethos – it’s another way to get the word out and fundraise more successfully.

Printing t-shirts for your charity or fundraising project? At ICON Printing we offer a discount of 10% to registered charities, as well as fast turnaround printing with a wide-ranging catalogue from t-shirts to caps to bags. Get a quote in 2 minutes online