Our Pro online nonprofit stores are integrated with Printful, the industry leader in on-demand custom printing services. This integration allows your school or organization to sell custom products without dealing with inventory, shipping, and the related guesswork.
Custom Product Sales for Nonprofits
Product sales are a fundraising staple for many nonprofits and schools. The concept is simple – buy at a lower rate and sell items for a profit. The more you sell, the more your nonprofit earns while, at the same time, raising awareness of your organization and mission. But what can you sell, and to whom?
Unique, fun custom apparel is always in demand. And the great thing about selling clothing is that your constituents wear it around town and show off your brand. That’s right – they advertise for your organization just by wearing what they’ve purchased. So be sure to create fun designs that mirror your nonprofit’s brand.
The best selling custom apparel items include t-shirts, hoodies, jackets, and caps. Coffee mugs, key chains, and other small items which include your organization or signature event’s logo also sell well.
Read more on generating merchandise sales.
How Printful Works
Printful offers on-demand printing and automated fulfillment for online stores. This means that Printful produces your custom-designed items only after they are ordered online. No need for guesswork or printing up extras. You design the items, and Printful prints them only once they have been ordered on your eCommerce store. Printful will then ship your items directly to your nonprofit constituents.
Printful will then charge your organization’s card on file at the nonprofit rate for the items purchased. Your organization reviews this rate when adding the custom product, and sets your product rate above this, to ensure that you always make a profit.
Printful is free to set up and there are no monthly fees. They only charge for what you order, making it a no-risk fundraising option.
Connecting Your Online Store to Printful
Selling custom products from Printful on your online store is a two-part process. First, you will create the initial connection to your store and add the API Key. After your connection has been made, you can start adding products.
Here is how our integration with Printful works:
- Login to your WordPress dashboard
- Click the Printful Link in the main menu. If you have never connected to Printful you will see the Connect screen.
- Click Connect. A new window will open with the WooCommerce Connection message. Click Approve to continue. (DoJiggy’s online stores are built on open-source software from WooCommerce.)
- If you have not created a Printful account, do so now.
- If you already have an account, login.
- You should be taken to the Stores page. If not, click Stores in the main menu.
- Click the “Set-up for an existing store”
- Watch the video and follow all the steps. Don’t worry about the part covering the WordPress setup, that has been done for you!
Adding the API Key
Once you have established a) You have a Printful Account and, b) you are connected to your store, you can now establish a full-time connection using the Printful API Key.
- From your Printful Dashboard, click the Stores Tab, then click the Settings button
- From the Store Menu, click API
- Copy the API Key
- Go to your DoJiggy Engage Dashboard and click the Printful Tab from the main menu
- Click the Settings tab and add the API key.
- Click Save Changes.
Adding Products for Auto-Fulfillment
To add products to your store that will be printed and shipped by Printful, do the following in your store administration area:
- Click on Printful from the main menu
- Since you have previously connected to your store (as above), you should see the Printful dashboard.
- Click on Stores. A new window will open taking you to the Printful Stores tab. If you have an existing store it will show up in the list at the top of the page.
- In the PRODUCT SYNC column, click the Add button. You can also click on the Store name, then click the Add Products button.
- Begin adding products to your store.
Other Fundraising Product Sales
There are other ways that your organization can sell products online if custom apparel is not right for you. How about selling candles, Entertainment discount books, or even coffee? Of course, chocolate and candy sales are always popular, but just remember who your audience is and what you are promoting. Chocolate sales may not be right for school fundraisers, where we are trying to teach children and promote a healthy lifestyle.
Conclusion
DoJiggy Pro eCommerce stores are integrated with Printful, to make your job easy. We also offer Simple Stores for organizations that don’t need this functionality. Ask us if you are interested in automated fulfillment for your nonprofit eCommerce store.
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