Baking for charity, how much to charge for goodies?

gayleygoo

I'm hoping to take part in "Bake for a Smile" fundraising for the charity Smile Train. The idea is that I will advertise (mostly to family and friends) my baking services for a donation to the charity. Just wondering what people think is a good amount to charge for batches of baked goods? I don't have anywhere I could run a stall to sell single portions, it would just be as-and-when someone would like something baked

For example, a batch of 6 cupcakes costs me about 90p to make, with buttercream and sprinkles, I was thinking of offering these for £4 for 6 cupcakes? Is that a lot? Not enough? Its twice what the ingredients cost, but I'm not looking to make a profit or wage obviously so don't want to charge an off-putting amount (all the money will go to charity, the cost of the ingredients and the baking time is my "donation")

I plan to offer other things that I can make well, like brownies, chocolate chip cookies, chocolate tarts and small cakes. I had thought of just charging the same price (£4 or £5) for everything and selling an appropriate quantity for the value. Is that fair for a batch of brownies or say an 8" sandwich cake?

I could ramble on about it all, but it would be lovely if people could tell me what you consider fair to pay for charity bakes?

rarrarrar

Just make sure you are charging for your time and effort, look at what people are charging on market stalls.
The more you can make your baking special ( dietary, decoration etc) the more you can charge.
I personally wouldnt want to expend a huge amount of effort to raise the same amount of money I could have got by just asking for donations - maybe this is rather a contentious remark !

Savvy_Sue

rarrarrar wrote: »

I personally wouldnt want to expend a huge amount of effort to raise the same amount of money I could have got by just asking for donations - maybe this is rather a contentious remark !

No, I don't think so: one of my colleagues baked loads of cookies for a friend who was running a stall at a fundraiser, they didn't all sell (priced at 50p each) and it raised about £15. She said "I almost wish I'd donated that to her, rather than spending all that time baking cookies". We didn't complain as the unsold cookies (now rather broken) found their way to our team meeting...

As for what the OP should charge, I find this really difficult. I look at cup cakes in the shops and think "HOW much??? No Way!" But presumably somebody buys at that price.

If it helps, the supermarkets seem to charge over £1 for things like Brownies in their cafes, so £5 for 6 brownies would be very good VFM. But the difficulty of selling everything in £5 batches is that we don't all want 6 brownies!

gayleygoo

Thanks for your replies!

After checking out prices that home bakers and fancier bakeries charge for their wares, £4 for a batch of something does sound cheap! One cupcake baker charges £9 for 6 cupcakes, very pretty and beautifully made, and I worked out that she probably needs to charge that to be able to make a profit from baking once everything is added in. But then people buy them, so there is a market. Even some simple cakes (like a Victoria sandwich just covered in buttercream) were £40 from a cake shop!

Thanks for pointing out that it may be more worthwhile just to donate the money myself. The hours spent baking could probably be better spent by working more hours in the Chinese takeaway I work in, and donating my terribly low pay from that rather than bake for the equivalent of £1-2 an hour once clean-up time and overhead costs have been factored in!

On the other hand, baking is much more fun. I also hate asking for donations of money as a way of raising funds - I would much rather offer something in return, raising awareness of the charity while reaching my fundraising goal possibly a bit quicker than I could on my own. It's a charity close to my heart too, so even if I only "made" an extra pound or two for the charity, it should still be worth it.

Cupcakes while cheap to make, are fairly labour intensive. Brownies have a higher ingredient cost, but are simpler and quicker to make, so it sort of evens out.

Sorry, I seem to have rambled this will be fairly experimental, but there's nothing to lose really. I think I will give it a go for £5 a batch, even if it's only for a month to see how it goes.