Elementary · Summerville, SC
$45,000 from a 1,200-student elementary school outside Charleston.
The second of the two biggest sales of the fall, and the one that shows a third-week-of-September launch is right on time.
Students
One elementary school in Summerville, South Carolina, outside Charleston.
Days
Opened September 21, closed October 9.
In sales
Tied for the largest sale of the fall.
The school
An elementary school in Summerville, South Carolina, about half an hour up the road from Charleston. Around 1,200 students, which is big for an elementary school and big in the way that matters for a product sale. Every one of those kids has a family, and most of those families know somebody who will buy a candle or a roll of wrapping paper.
Brian does not name the school. The town, the size, the dates and the number are real. If you want to talk to someone there, book a call and ask.
The goal
At an elementary school the goal usually belongs to the PTA or the PTO, and Brian’s advice to them never changes. Pick one number the whole school can chase. Say it out loud at the kickoff. Put it where the kids walk past it every morning.
What this school’s money was for stays with the school. How the number was set is the same as every sale Brian runs. One target, agreed before day one, built backward into a two-week plan.
The sale
The sale opened September 21 and closed October 9. Nineteen days. It opened the third week of September, after open house and after the first round of forms had gone home, and it closed the second week of October, so delivery came back while everyone was still in the building and long before the holidays.
The school ran the fall gift catalog with the sweet treats included. Cookie dough, popcorn, wrapping paper, candles, kitchen goods, tote bags, magazines. The VIP Duck prize program ran the whole sale, with each student’s progress tracked in the admin site so the school could see on any morning who was selling and who needed a reminder.
The online store opened the same day as the sale. Every student got a share link. A parent can text that link from work, and the person who buys from it gets the order shipped to their door, in South Carolina or in any other state. The school’s in-person orders shipped back pre-sorted by student. The whole program is on how it works, and the Southeast calendar is on the Southeast page.
The number
$45,000 at close. That tied the Charlotte charter school for the largest sale Brian ran in fall 2026. Forty fundraisers, more than $700,000 in sales, and these two at the top. The anonymized list is on the results page.
What made it work
- The calendar. Opening the third week of September meant the kickoff landed on a settled school. Nobody was still learning the bus route. Closing the second week of October meant delivery came back before the fall calendar got crowded.
- A whole-school kickoff and a prize program the kids tracked themselves. The ducks are collectible and the prizes stack, so a second grader has a reason to ask one more relative. The admin site let the school see the numbers every day and act on them.
- A link a parent can send from work. The online store did the selling an order form never could, and every one of those orders shipped direct to the buyer. Twelve hundred families' worth of relatives and coworkers, and the school never carried a box for any of them.
- One person watching the numbers. Brian checks every sale daily and calls the school when a midpoint push would help. Two weeks is long enough to flatten out. The second-week push is what keeps a big school's number climbing to the close.
If your school looks like this
A big elementary school, 900 students or more, with a PTA or PTO that wants one fall sale to carry the year. The program is the same whether you are in Summerville, Savannah or Spokane, and it starts with a call.
Questions people ask
We are in South Carolina and Brian is in North Carolina. Does that matter?
No. Brian runs every sale by phone, email and the online store from Greensboro. The products, the store and the shipping come from Giving Market, a Booster company, and ship to any school and any supporter in the country.
Late September feels late. Was it?
It was right on time. A sale that opens the third week of September and closes the second week of October gets delivery back well before the holidays and misses the back-to-school pileup. Brian builds the calendar backward from your start date.
What does a big elementary school get on delivery day?
Pre-sorted boxes, one per student, shipped to the school. Online orders never come to the school at all. They ship straight to the buyer, in any state.
Ready to raise more this year?
Tell Brian about your school or team. He replies within one business day with a plan and a date.