Expressions has been part of the fundraising landscape in Australia for more than 20 years, offering custom-printed tea towels, bags and aprons. Helping thousands of schools and clubs raise millions of dollars, Expressions fundraisers are easy to run and parents love them.
Fundraising idea:
Products – quality cotton tea towels, aprons and bags that you can customise with artwork
Suitable for – schools, playgroups, sporting groups, charity and community groups, individuals
Profit – variable – suggested mark-up is between $5 and $10
Early Bird Promotion
All screen-print fundraising orders received before June 30 are eligible for the Early Bird Promotion: up to 50 free tea towels, which will dramatically increase your profits.
Orders of 50+ = 5 free tea towels
Orders of 100+ = 10 free tea towels
Orders of 200+ = 20 free tea towels
Up to orders of 500+ = 50 free tea towels
All Early Bird orders are also entered into the draw to win back the entire cost of their fundraiser.
Although this article is sponsored by one of my advertisers, I think they are a great product that I am proud to be sharing with my readers.
About Expressions
Celebrating its 21st year in business, Expressions is a leader in custom-art fundraising. They have award-winning customer service and a range of options that suit any size group undertaking any type of project.
Expressions artwork provides keepsake memories in a inclusive, practical and very usable way.
Options for Fundraisers
Expressions offers three custom artwork options: tea towels, bags and aprons.
Tea towels are the most popular choice and are suitable for all age groups. There are two main options – screen-printing in up to four colours (minimum order 50) or digital printing in full colour (minimum order 20).
Self-portraits are a popular choice for young children, such as schools, childcare centres and kindergartens. Each child draws a picture and writes their name, or contributes a handprint. This is a beautiful memento that can be repeated every year or two – families love seeing how the portrait changes as the child grows.
Tea-towels can fit up to 450 individual images – an entire school. A full class or year group can contribute a portrait/handprint and a name. This style of tea towel is usually screen printed in a single colour (13 standard colours to choose from or provide a PMS to match your logo exactly) or you can request multiple colours for an additional fee.
There are a large range of border designs available if you wish, or the friendly Expressions staff can design a bespoke one for your project using your own personalised artwork or text.
If you wish to have portraits in full colour, you can opt for digital printing which means children can draw or paint their pictures in the full spectrum of colours.
Another popular alternative for tea towels is the busroll style design, where local street names, suburbs or landmarks are printed in single or multiple colours. This is a successful style for large community fundraisers such as school fetes and anniversaries. Other design ideas include quotes, crests and logos. The options are endless and if you have a creative idea, the team at Expressions can help you bring it to life.
The final option is for each person to create an individual artwork which is then printed digitally in full-colour – one image per tea towel. This is perfect for playgroups or upper school art projects, graduating classes as well as community groups. There is no minimum order for individual colour print tea towels.
The tea towels are extra large (50 x 70cm), and made specifically for Expressions from ethically sourced 100% white or unbleached natural cotton. They are thick with a tight weave which ensures smooth, high quality printing. Linen or linen/cotton blend tea towels are available. Please contact Expressions directly for a quote.
Aprons
Aprons are a practical fundraising option for community groups, such as environmental or gardening groups, art groups or even schools who wish to use the aprons as a visual ‘uniform’ for fete volunteers. They are reusable and hygienic to share between people.
They are also a great option for a Father’s Day fundraiser, all the kids can draw a picture relating to their Dad. You could combine with a fundraising BBQ or sausage sizzle for the kids to give their gifts to their dads.
Aprons can be combined with the same tea towel design as part of a COMBO order (50 tea towels and 20 aprons).
Aprons are adult sized (85 x 70cm), can fit up to 300 images and are available in white, bottle green, black, red, navy and burgundy.
Bags
Tote bags are a great option for communities where supermarkets have banned single-use plastic shopping bags. They are also suitable for library bags, swimming bags or to carry sport/dance gear.
Made from 100% cotton drill, these large bags (40 x 45cm, 10cm gusset, 55cm handles) are available in black, navy or white.
Bags can fit up to 150 small images on each side (extra charge for printing on both sides) and are particularly suited to commemorative or busroll style designs.
Prices and Profits
Below is the pricing per item for each option.
Please note that prices for screen printing is for a single colour only. For multi-colour screen prints you need to +$1.50 per item for 2 colours, +$2.50 per item for 3 colours. This is usually when you choose to have the school name or crest in a separate colour, or your town name highlighted in a busroll.
There is a standard $25 shipping fee regardless of how many items you order and where you are in Australia.
Everything is supplied free of charge including a coordinators kits, pens, cards, marketing tools and reply-paid postage. Also included are eco-friendly compostable bags to pack your orders.
You can sell your products for any price you choose, but recommended sale prices are:
Screen print tea towel = $15
Aprons and bags = $20
Full colour tea towels = $25
If a school of 250 students each sold a single standard tea towel for $15, the profit (after shipping) would be $1,725.
If a graduating class of 100 students, each sold two tea towels printed with their unique, full colour artwork at $25, the profit (after shipping) would be $1,675.
If a local community group printed up 300 tea towels with a busroll design in two colours, and sold them for $15 at a community fete, they would make $1,775 after shipping.
Inspiration
There is really no limit to the range of designs you can make with Expressions.
For further inspiration you can check out the success stories on the website including tea towels to celebrate school centenary celebrations, memorial fundraising, Australiana artwork, Fathers’ Day gifts, animal shelter fundraising, art group designs and many more or check out my article on small group fundraising.
To learn more or book your Expressions fundraiser visit the website.
