Your organization has a vision, a mission, and a following. Your supporters believe in it, and your swag should support your values, too. Think about what a powerful statement you make when you tell your supporters, “All of our tote bags, custom t-shirts, and mugs are American made and union printed, so you know they’re ethically produced.” Wouldn’t your donors feel better about their supportive swag, knowing this?
You can maximize your print-on-demand program and still support the ethical standards your supporters (and staffers!) want to be associated with your organization’s custom merch. And, you can maximize your budget when you use Print-On-Demand. Here’s how “less is more” when it comes to using this merch creation technique.
1. Less Financial Risk
You need custom swag, but what’s the right quantity? What if you just need a few t-shirts for an event? Or a tote bag for some special donors? WIth print-on-demand you don’t need to take the financial risk of investing in bulk inventory. You won’t have to pay for merch that’s left over, because you’ll just be getting exactly what you need. No more bulk orders of hundreds of t-shirts based on (hard to calculate) size estimations and demand projections! You just pay for what you need, as the need arises. Chances are you’re operating on a pretty thin margin already. So use print-on-demand to shrink financial risk down to size!
2. Less Overhead Costs
Buying swag, storing swag, tracking inventory – what a pain for organizations already strained with staffers who multitask too much! Don’t use your space to store swag and have unsightly boxes of t-shirts, mugs, tote bags and what have you strewn around your fundraisers’ offices. Save time (and therefore, money!) by eliminating the need to sort, pack, ship, box, unbox, re-box, check quantities, track quantities on hand…… well, you get the idea. With print-on-demand your overhead is lower because you free up space and staff time dramatically.
3. Less Material Waste
If you’ve ever had the heartbreak of having to get rid of merch that’s no longer relevant, unwanted by anyone (even your most avid volunteers), and yet still taking up space, then you need to get to know the joys of print-on-demand!
No need to have fire sales or pawn off old merch on people who – honestly – will likely throw it away the minute they get it home. Ditch the need for estimating and forecasting demand, as well as the probability that some of what you order will wind up in the landfill!
We still believe in bulk ordering swag for onsite events and national campaign efforts, so print-on-demand can’t be the perfect solution to every situation. But when you have specific offerings on your web store, and aren’t ready to invest in the behind-the-scenes infrastructure, that’s when printing on demand is a home run.
Plus, if you’re a very small organization and can get away with offering just a few quality merch pieces, now you can get a Swag Shop from Worx that makes your life even easier! You can choose up to 3 items, design your merch, and then point your constituents, donors and allies to the store at a unique URL on our website. Then, we do the rest – from printing through fulfillment! You can see some nonprofit swag shops on our website for ideas.
If you want to know more, we’d love to speak to you!