How do I run fundraising and spirit-wear stores with automatic payouts to the team or school?

Set the store up with a live total, a visible target and a split rule. Every order pays the decorator, the school or team and any other party automatically at settlement, so there is no spreadsheet at the end of the campaign and no check to cut.

The split rule lives on the store: the booster club takes a percentage, the rep takes a percentage, the network takes its program fee, the decorator keeps its margin. It runs on Stripe Connect, so the buyer pays once and each party is paid into its own connected account, with a statement showing the orders behind the number. The money never sits with us. The store shows a live total against a goal, which is the part that drives sharing. Campaign dates open and close it on a timer, so a two-week spirit week does not stay open until March. Products print on demand, or come from a bulk run with reservations against it.

The traditional fundraiser is a paper order form, cash and checks in an envelope, a volunteer totaling it by hand, and a payout weeks after the campaign closed. Every one of those steps is a place where the organization loses confidence in its decorator, and where the decorator loses an evening.

This suits decorators serving schools, teams, boosters and clubs, and networks whose locations do. Building one is quick: paste the school's web address and the store stands in 9 to 15 seconds. The caveat: each party receiving a split needs its own connected account, so the treasurer has an onboarding step. It takes minutes, but it has to happen before the campaign closes rather than after.

See fundraising stores, splits and payouts.