• Lyttelton West School, Christchurch

"We raised more money than we needed to buy the equipment, so now we're letting the kids vote on how we'll spend the excess. It has been a total success!"
- Andrew Barker, Principal, Lyttelton West School

Lyttelton West School recently tried the Smart Cookie Fundraiser and found that in ten days the primary school, with a roll of just over 80 students, achieved beyond expectation. Mr Barker chose to fundraise with Smart Cookies because he thought it would be a fun and easy way to raise money and he knew Cookie Time were "an excellent company with a great reputation for quality products and for supporting students with dyslexia. And the cookies taste great!".

In comparison to other fundraising products, he thought fundraising with Smart Cookies was "quite simple with a good profit margin".

When asked about the response from pupils he said "students loved the cookies and really liked selling them too. It was a fun fundraiser for them to be involved in".

Lyttelton West School were aiming to raise enough money to purchase a sound system to use during school assemblies and at sporting events. After the first week they found that "the cookies proved extremely popular and very easy to sell, we had to order a lot more to keep up with the demand". By using the Smart Cookie Fundraiser, the students raised more than enough money to purchase the sound system. Mr Barker has decided the students can vote on how the extra funds raised will be spent when they attend the school's Smart Cookie Fundraising award ceremony.

• Kaitao Middle School, Rotorua

“Setting up the fundraiser was easy! The local Cookie ime distributor was very helpful and great to deal with. Product arrived fresh and on time.”
- Rory O'Rourke, Principal, Kaitao Middle School

Kaitao Middle School in Rotorua decided this year they would run a fundraiser to raise money for new sports uniforms. Principal Rory O’Rourke chose to fundraise with Smart Cookies “because we believed that they were a healthier option than the chocolates we have sold in the past”.

Implementing the fundraiser was easy as the school “arranged a very good system of distribution and retrieval of cookies with the students so the fundraiser ran reasonably smoothly”. The Smart Bags made the distribution and handling of the cookies easy.

Through selling Smart Cookies, Kaitao Middle School raised approximately $5,000, which they believe “is excellent and sufficient to outfit all our netball and basketball teams”.

The students were presented with Smart Certificates and Cookie Muncher soft toys as prizes from Cookie Time with the top sellers also receiving prizes given by the school.

• South New Brighton School, Christchurch

“It’s been a breeze to implement in our school. We have six responsible senior students rostered in pairs to sell the cookies to parents and students at the school gate from 2.50pm - 3.15pm each day. The students then collate their sales and balance this money – it’s a great way to get life skills integrated with numeracy skills!” - Rana Richards, Fundraising Co-ordinator

South New Brighton School is running their Smart Fundraiser with a twist! They’re raising money in order to send 75 Year 7 & 8 students to a camp in Wellington at the end of the year. The school is aiming to raise $150 per student, and through their Smart Fundraising efforts they are so far on track.

The six students selling the cookies have had “a great reaction. Smart Cookies are great for those end of day munchies for both the kids and parents.”

Fundraising co-ordinator Rana Richards has “found it extremely easy dealing with Cookie Time. We average between 20-45 cookies sales per day, so we re-order 200 cookies every ten days or so. Getting 200 cookies at a time makes it easy to keep track of the costs, etc. and ordering in smaller amounts keeps the cookies fresher too”.

• Huntsbury Preschool, Christchurch

"The children loved that they were allowed to keep their Smart Bags and the reaction from the families involved was very good" - Sue McLeod, Head Teacher, Huntsbury Preschool

Huntsbury Preschool in Christchurch are using Smart Cookies to raise funds for new outdoor equipment. Sue McLeod, Head Teacher at Huntsbury, said they decided to try Smart Cookies as they "had been questioning the message fundraising with chocolate was sending to the children". Each of the 55 families with children enrolled at Huntsbury received a Smart Bag of 40 cookies which they were given 3 weeks to sell.

Several parents took cookies into their workplaces and sold them to their colleagues for morning tea. Other families bought some of their cookie allocation to use in their children's lunchboxes.

Sue said the "Cookie Time distributor was great and it was very easy to organise the fundraiser with the families. We are very pleased with the outcome of the fundraiser"