Your group has great sellers. Your product is solid. But you’re still relying entirely on your own network, members, parents, and close contacts, to hit your fundraising goal.
Local business partnerships change that equation entirely. A single well-placed partnership with a garden center, grocery store, or popular café can put your fundraiser in front of hundreds of people who have never heard of your group. It can double your visibility without doubling your effort. While there are many ways to get the word out about your fundraiser, local partnerships are often the most overlooked.
The challenge isn’t finding willing businesses. Most local businesses want to support community groups, it builds goodwill, attracts customers, and gives them something genuine to talk about. The challenge is knowing which businesses to approach, what to say, and how to make the relationship feel like a genuine win for both sides.
This guide walks you through all of it.
Which Businesses to Approach First
Not every business is an equal fit. The best partners for a wreath or holiday product fundraiser share two characteristics: they already serve an audience that would buy your product, and they have a reason to want community visibility.
Here are the strongest business categories to prioritize:
- Garden centers and nurseries
- Grocery stores and food co-ops
- Home décor boutiques and gift shops
- Cafés and coffee shops
- Florists
- Cemeteries and funeral homes
How to Make the Ask: A 5-Step Approach
Most groups get this wrong by leading with what they need. The businesses that say yes fastest are the ones who see their benefit clearly from the first sentence.
Step 1: Do your homework before you walk in.
- Know the business owner’s name.
- Know something specific about their community involvement, a past sponsorship, a local event they support, a cause they are associated with.
A generic ask gets a generic answer.
Step 2: Ask for 10 minutes. When you reach out, whether in person, by phone, or by email, frame it as a brief conversation, not an ask.
“I’d love to share an opportunity to get your business in front of 200 families in the community this fall. Do you have 10 minutes this week?”
This lowers the barrier and signals you respect their time.
Step 3: Lead with their benefit. Open the conversation with what’s in it for them, not how much your group needs to raise. Strong openers:
- “We’d love to display your business name on every order form we hand out to the community this season.”
- “We can promote your shop on all our social media posts during the fundraiser.” (For specific ideas on this, see our guide on social media fundraising strategy ideas).
- “We’re looking for a local business to serve as our official pickup location, which puts our customers walking through your door.”
The ask for support comes second, after you have established the value they receive.
Step 4: Give them a clear, simple option. Businesses say no when the ask is vague. Refine your approach with these fundraising sales pitch tips and tricks to ensure you give them a specific, low-effort option to start:
- Display a small stack of order forms or brochures at your counter
- Let us set up a table outside your location for one Saturday
- Share one social media post promoting the fundraiser to your followers
- Act as a product pickup location when orders arrive
Smaller asks get faster yeses. A business that says yes to brochures often becomes a much bigger partner in year two.
Step 5: Follow up with something written. After any verbal agreement, send a brief confirmation, an email or a one-page summary, that outlines what was agreed, what you will provide them (recognition, promotion, a thank-you post), and the timeline. This signals professionalism and makes the relationship feel official, not casual.
What Businesses Donate to School and Community Fundraisers
The most common forms of local business support for product fundraisers fall into four categories:
| Type of Support | What It Looks Like | Best Business Types |
| Display space | Counter brochures, window display, in-store signage | Boutiques, cafés, florists, garden centers |
| Selling location | Table outside or inside their business on peak shopping days | Grocery stores, hardware stores, garden centers |
| Promotional support | Social media posts, email newsletter mention, in-store announcement | Any business with an active customer list |
| Product pickup point | Receiving and holding orders for your buyers to collect | Businesses with storage space and regular foot traffic |
Cash sponsorships are less common from small local businesses and harder to ask for without an established relationship. Start with in-kind support, display space, promotional posts, a pickup location, and build toward financial sponsorship as the relationship develops over multiple seasons.
How to Make the Partnership Last Beyond One Season
One-time partnerships are transactional. Multi-year partnerships are what actually move the needle for your fundraiser, and for the business.
After your fundraiser ends, do three things:
- Share the results. Tell your partners how much your group raised, how many community members participated, and how their support contributed. Numbers make the partnership feel real and worth repeating.
- Recognize them publicly. A social media thank-you post tagging the business, a mention in your group newsletter, or a handwritten note from group members goes a long way. Businesses remember who acknowledged them, and who didn’t.
- Reach out early next season. When creating your fundraising calendar make sure you contact your partners in late summer, before you have launched your fundraiser publicly. Give them first right of refusal on the same partnership role. This signals you value the relationship and aren’t just coming back when you need something.
Groups that approach local business partnerships this way find that by year three, the outreach nearly runs itself. Partners proactively ask when the fundraiser is starting. They promote it without being asked. That kind of community momentum is what turns a good fundraiser into a great one.
Frequently Asked Questions
What businesses are most likely to support a community fundraiser?
Locally owned businesses, garden centers, cafés, boutiques, florists, grocery co-ops, are consistently the most responsive to community fundraising requests.
How do you ask a local business to support your fundraiser?
Lead with their benefit, not your need. Frame the ask around what visibility, foot traffic, or community goodwill they’ll gain, then make a specific, low-effort request like displaying brochures or sharing one social media post. Vague asks get vague answers; specific asks get decisions.
How do you get local businesses to display your fundraiser products?
Approach businesses whose customers naturally align with your product. For a fresh wreath fundraiser, garden centers, florists, and home décor boutiques are the strongest fits, their customers are already shopping for seasonal products. Bring a sample if you can; seeing and smelling a fresh wreath closes more conversations than any pitch.
How do you make a local business partnership mutually beneficial?
Offer something concrete in return: their name and logo on your order forms, a social media shoutout, a mention in your communications to members and families, or recognition at your group’s events.
Give Your Business Partners Something Worth Promoting
The easiest local business partnerships to close are the ones where the product sells itself. A fresh balsam fir or noble fir wreath, the kind that fills a room with fragrance the moment it’s unwrapped, is exactly that kind of product.
When you walk into a local business with polished materials and a product people genuinely want, the conversation changes from “can you help us?” to “of course, when do we start?”
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Looking for more fundraising resources? Read our guides on how to write a fundraising letter, engaging the community in your fundraiser, and tips for leading a successful fundraiser.
