Planning your Mother's Day Stall

So, you’ve decided to run a Mother’s Day Stall—fantastic choice! This is one of the most popular fundraisers because it’s simple, fun for the kids, and can generate great profits for your school or club. Here’s how to make it a success.

Step 1: Timeline & Checklist

Start early! Here’s a basic timeline to keep you on track:

• Term 1, Week 4-6 at the latest: Form a small organising committee
• Term 1, Week 7-8 at the latest: Source suppliers & place orders
• Term 2, Week 1-2: Promote the stall via newsletters & social media
• Term 2, Week 3: Finalise volunteers & confirm stock arrival
• Term 2, Week 4: Stall setup & execution!

Step 2: Sourcing Products

There are three main ways to stock your stall:

• Wholesale suppliers: Many businesses sell pre-packaged Mother’s Day gifts in bulk
• Local & handmade items: Partner with local artists or “Buy from the Bush” businesses
• Donations: Ask your community to donate small gifts to keep costs down
• Check out the next article in this series just looking at items for Mother's Day Stalls!
• Order your stock so it arrives at least a week ahead of schedule, preferably two.  Be careful not to over-order as many places will not accept returns.

Step 3: Pricing Strategy & Budget Planning

• Keep prices simple (e.g., everything $2, $5, or $10)
• Aim for at least a 50% markup on wholesale items
• Consider offering “bundle deals” (e.g., 2 items for $8)

Step 4: Promoting Your Stall

• Advertise in the school newsletter and social media
• Send reminders home with students
• Use posters around the school
• Consider offering pre-purchase vouchers via online school payment systems
• Send home a secret ‘gift guide’ (just don’t show mum!) a few days before so they can ponder their options and siblings can compare their ‘intentions’ to make certain you don’t end up with 3 manicure sets.

Step 5: Recruit Volunteers

• Online Roster: Consider setting up an online volunteer roster where people can allocate themselves against time slots. A good one is www.signup.zone which is free apart from premium features like a custom url.
• Men: Encourage the men-folk to participate. It's Mother's Day, after all!
• Timing: If you have a class roster set up far enough in advance, see if you can let parents know when their little one will be visiting so they can choose a suitable time slot.

Step 6: Running the Stall

• Setup: Arrange gifts attractively & clearly mark prices. Consider placing them in order of cost starting with highest price.
• Payments: Prepare a float for change and figure out how to manage pre-booked vouchers.
• Volunteers: Assign specific tasks (cashier, wrappers, stock helpers)
• Stock control: Keep a tally to prevent shortages

Final Tip: Have Fun!

Kids love shopping for their mums, and a well-run stall makes it a memorable experience. Encourage volunteers to get into the spirit and have heaps of fun!

PS I'll add the following section here because you might find some of the info handy. It's from a Facebook thread in our group a while ago - I didn't want to ditch it when updating this article as it has a lot of nuggets, so here goes:

Question: I’m just wondering if you could ask your community for tips on running their Mother’s Day Stall

1. Gifts that sell well

2. Prices to charge and recommended mark up

3. How many gifts they buy compared to the population at the school?

4. Do they package their gifts or how do they present them? 

Responses:

• We have all gifts at $5 each. Some are just one item ie photo frame or nice mug and some items are combined ie notebook and a pen. Keeps it very simple for those handling the money and mostly not much change required. We also sell grandmother/nanna etc gifts. Often kids buy just 1 but some get 2-3 or even more. Getting the numbers right is tricky!
• We asked for donations and received around 30 gifts. We purchased the rest from Kmart around the $2 mark and separated them and gifted wrapped. Sold for $5 each. School is 200 kids we had around 250 gifts. Sold 242 gifts. We made over $700 profit.
• We buy from catalogues, but also get a large quantity of donated items. Our prices range from 50c to $10, with the bulk of items around the $5-$6 mark. We limit the items to 1 or 2 small gifts each, with an opportunity to come back and purchase any excess stock at recess. We put an extra $2-$3 on items, we also have a few small free items(eg A4 “Best Mum” certificates, small chocolates with tag) etc for those children who have no money. We have around 200 students, and usually profit $1000 from our stall, and another $200 for the raffle.
• Mugs, candles, tea towels, manicure sets, garden tools, oven mitts, etc all sell really well. We have just over 400 students and I purchase around 250/300 items. We make sure the kids and parents know it’s first in best dressed! Mark up around 50% depending on prices but we aim to have nothing over $10! We don’t package the gifts they come quite nicely package.
• Mugs, pens and photo frames sell well. 50c-$2 mark up (we run it as a service not a money maker). One item per student (not all buy, some buy 2-4) 
• We buy plain brown paper bags & get a different class to decorate them each year. Last we trialled ink pads & stamps (like love hearts flowers I love you thank you) and they turned out fantastic & easy to do.
• Anything that is cute with Bears or Hearts on it tends to sell well with the younger children. Lots of times they buy for stepmoms and also Grandmother’s so usually more presents than the number of students. Also have a few cheaper gifts or some that you can give to the kids who can’t afford to buy anything. We used to give a box to the principal after the stall and they would give them to the kids in need. Ask kids to bring their own bag so they can hide the present from their mum when they get home. Also get kids with siblings at the school to check what they have bought so they don’t double up.
• We have a theme. It was tropical last year. We introduced sand art activities so the kids could make something at the stall. They loved it. We have 280 kids and made a profit of $2200 as we had lots of donations. We cater for four gifts per child plus activity and sold out of everything.
• We buy stock the week after Mother’s Day & Father’s Day and store it for next year. Items go out for $0.50 each in department stores and supermarkets.