Things 4 Good
Updates on our family’s candle‑making fundraiser for charity. I share insights on costs and materials, celebrate the growing impact and donations raised over four years, and invite readers to help us choose new scents.
- You can see the early inventory trend drops quick which is a reflection of preorders that folk sent in.
- True North was the first scent to sell out and sold just as fast as Winter Wonderland until they were all gone.
- Just Crackle was popular with people buying many candles as gifts.
- Old Fashioned had more than other scents but still sold out quickly.
- Apple of My Eye underperformed and was the least popular scent until the end when there wasn’t as many options.
- Winter Wonderland seems to sell faster when it is on display and people can see there are so many of them. On Saturday we kept 5 of each candle on the table and added more as they were sold. The rate of sales were slower. On Sunday there were 30+ of them on the table. Do people buy more when they see there are so many?
- We sold out! Inventory went negative? Indeed we ran out of candles and I sent an email to let folks know if they were still planning to come. We did have a few people show up after we were out and I realized I had a couple dozen candles downstairs I had poured for myself. I brought them up and we kept raising more money for our causes!
Making Things 4 Good candles!
Spent the morning ordering materials for our Things 4 Good Fall Fundraiser and candle scents and vessels are more “out of stock” than I’ve ever seen. Luckily I have some vessel inventory, but not enough. Might be a scramble this year. I wonder if Makesy inventory issues are tariff related? 😬
I love the scent and crackle of our Things 4 Good candles. For my birthday my sister got me a candle warmer. I didn’t know that this was a thing and gave it a go. It worked really well! The wax performed very similar to burning and the scent was great. Another way to enjoy our candles.
POAP 7276968 at Things 4 Good Scent Survey.
Had a Things 4 Good candle scent survey today. Figuring out new scents for next year’s event.
How much does a Things 4 Good candle cost to make?
Now that we have the fourth year of the Things 4 Good 2024 Fall Fundraiser behind us I thought it would be fun to really figure out how much a single candle costs. We’ve sold them for $25 every year. I know that we raise more money than we spend. But I’ve never done the math to figure out what the materials cost per candle. Obviously our labor is free. That is part of the fundraiser.
Most of the items in the candles have a single price. However the vessels and scents vary, and in some cases a lot. The iridescent and metal coated vessels are more expensive. Scents can range wildly in price. I also buy the larger quantities. Here is how the cost breaks down.
| Item | Cost |
|---|---|
| 12 oz Vessel (12 pack) | $4.75 - $5.75 |
| Soy Wax (44 lbs) | $3.36 |
| Candle Scent (16 oz) | $1.45 - $3.50 |
| Wooden Wick (100 pack) | $0.28 |
| Wick Clip (100 pack) | $0.12 |
| Candle Label (15 per sheet) | $0.23 |
| Warning Sticker (24 in roll) | $0.16 |
| Total | $10.35 - $13.40 |
I usually time my orders to get things at a discount with a deal so the real cost is probably $8.28 - $10.72.
For the Things 4 Good sale we cover these costs. All $25 of the donation goes to the charities. But it is interesting to see where the costs are in the production.
Things 4 Good Four Year Impact
We’ve now done our Things 4 Good Fall Fundraiser for four years. With the amazing support of this community we have raised $22,739 for non-profits! Thank you so much. ❤️
Opening the sale to the public via the Mt. Olivet Holiday Boutique was a great way to get to a lot of new people with a nearly 50% jump in candle sales this year!
Organizations that we’ve supported over these four years include Constellation Fund, Free Bikes 4 Kidz, Appetite for Change, Feed My Starving Children, United Help Ukraine, Agate Housing + Services, Save the Snakes, Free Guitars 4 Kids, American Prairie, Heart to Care Tanzania, Food Recovery Network, Oceanites, SynGAP Research Fund, Water to Thrive, Sprint to Cité Soleil, and World Central Kitchen.
Things 4 Good 2024 Fall Fundraiser Insights
We had a great time hosting our 4th annual Things 4 Good Fall Fundraiser. We raised $7,010 in donations for our four non-profits. I also like to take a look at the data from the sale to learn more for next year.
We made 252 candles in preparation for the sale. We had 72 Winter Wonderland, 36 Old Fashioned, and 24 of the other six scents. We really had no idea what to do for inventory since this was the first year we sold to the public at the Mt. Olivet Holiday Boutique.
We had 78 candle purchases which is a huge 42% jump from last year. On average people purchased 3 candles, down from 4 last year. However averages don’t tell the story. Most people got one candle, and there are a smaller number of people that get a large number — usually as gifts for the holidays. We had 5 transactions for more than 8 candles, accounting for a whopping 76 candles, 30% of our inventory.
This year we had eight different scents, the exact same as last year. We renamed Plain Jane to Just Crackle, and it was similarly popular for folks wanting an unscented candle. We did fine tune the scents though and increased the scent load on some of them. Here is a look at rolling inventory as sales were happening.
Some observations:
We offer folks a number of ways to donate and again Venmo was by far the most popular method, 3.5 times more popular than cash. More people knew what Zelle was this year. I continue to be surprised at how few people have Apple Pay setup. Three checks! I did not offer a method to pay via crypto this year. We’ve only ever had one candle sale in all the years we’ve done it using Bitcoin Lightning.
We are already keeping notes for things we want to do to make next year’s Things 4 Good Fall Fundraiser even better. Send us an email if you have any suggestions!
Also see 2024 Fall Fundraiser Results.
Things 4 Good 2024 Fall Fundraiser Results
We completed our annual candle sale raising $7,010 for the four organizations we picked! That is a 21.8% increase from 2023, double the growth of previous years at 9.7% and 10.3%. A huge thank you to the 78 folks from this community who made this possible by purchasing a wooden wick candle made with love!
As in previous years, we asked people which organizations they would like to support. People could pick any or all of the organizations. We even have some folks request specific allocations versus dividing it equally. We also donated $260.25 for Mount Olivet as a portion of all sales that were made at the Holiday Boutique on Saturday.
Tyler and Mazie enjoy a friendly competition trying to get their organization the most. 🤩
A little more about each organization…
SynGAP Research Fund supported by Tyler
I was first introduced to this condition by one of my favorite YouTubers UFDTech. His son has SynGAP1 which is a rare genetic disorder caused by a variant on the SynGAP1 gene. His son experiences a wide range of symptoms including Epilepsy, Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, Autism, Ataxia, and has about 100 seizures a day. My non-profit researchers this condition and is committed to giving support systems to make the lives of these patients and families easier.
Water to Thrive supported by Mazie
A cool glass of water is something that I take for granted almost every day, without considering that 48% of people in sub-Saharan Africa lack access to this privilege. Women and children walk up to 6 hours each day just to get water, only to have children dying of waterborne disease every 90 seconds. Water to Thrive is a nonprofit that works directly with organizers and communities in sub-Saharan Africa to build wells that have ensured clean, safe water for over 900,000 people since their founding. The educational, economic, and health benefits of even a single well are vast, and Water to Thrive is careful to respect the unique needs and desires of every community they work with. With your donation, we have the potential to fund a well that could serve over 500 people for 20 years! Let’s make water a right, not a privilege!
Sprint to Cité Soleil supported by Tammy
Sprint to Cité Soleil is a non-profit in Haiti that inspires and empowers kids through basketball, mentorship, and a meal. Cité Soleil, Haiti is known for extreme poverty and gang violence, but community leaders know that this can change over time with sustainable, long term programs that build community and peace. This is where Sprint to Cité Soleil comes in, providing a weekly basketball program for over 150 kids. Harnessing the knowledge and wisdom of local people to fuel change in their community, they also employ 10 local Haitians as coaches and 4 as cooks. Sprint to Cité Soleil was founded in 2016 by a teenager in our neighborhood and his friend after they visited Haiti, where his brother is from, and witnessed the needs first hand.
World Central Kitchen supported by Jamie
I first heard of this organization when they were bringing meals to people in Ukraine after Russia’s attacks started. They also are on the ground in Palestine helping people. Most recently they were one of the first organizations after hurricanes hit helping people here in the US. I’ve been very impressed with Chef José Andrés and the impact World Central Kitchen is having.
Also see 2024 Fall Fundraiser Insights for more details from this year. Additionally see results from 2023, 2022, and 2021.
Day 1 of Things 4 Good sale was great and we sold 67 candles for our charities. Getting ready for Day 2 at our house. Have 93 candles left of the 252 we made.
