Fundraising is going down the toilet. Literally. But only in the best possible way.
Two years ago, Steve Cogger was in Queenstown on business when his 10-yearold son Thomas called about buying a $20 raffle card to fundraise for a school activity.
“I thought, coming back from Queenstown, there must be another product, a commodity that we can sell for fundraising that everyone needs and that organisations can make money out of,” he said.
Mr Cogger is a businessman and a member of the board of trustees at St Brigid’s School in Dunedin.
He thought raffles were really all about seeking donations. To raise funds, “the person who buys the product must have a use for it“, he said.
He bounced the idea off other parents. He also spoke about the idea to the principal.
“Then it just really developed from there. We went through product trials,” he said.
With some friends, they looked at products that would give the most return and hit upon humble toilet paper.
“You could say there was a robust testing process,” he said, laughing. “We went around to visit some friends one weekend and I slipped into their toilets and changed the roll of toilet paper without them knowing and they used it without even noticing it was there,” he said.
In April, 2015, Mr Cogger and his colleague David Frame set up Trusty Products Ltd, a non-profit company which aims to help any kind of groups to fundraise by selling toilet paper.
“It’s one we use every day. It’s a commodity product. You pay $31 for a box and you sell it for $45, you make $14 per box,” he said.
The toilet papers are sold by pallets. Each pallet has 30 boxes and each box has 48 rolls.
Each pallet costs $930 and the organisation sells it for $1350.
It doesn’t take long to sell as everyone has use for toilet paper, Mr Cogger noted.
“We actually had a school that hooked up with a camping ground. They are actually supplying the camping ground with toilet paper now. The owner owns three camping grounds in the South Island and this one school just clicks the ticket on selling the camping ground toilet papers,” he said.
The company takes a small handling fee to cover running costs and pay an accountant but neither he nor any director receives remuneration.
“We took the approach that for this to work, we have to be totally transparent. [We] have an open book policy. So, if anyone challenges us, we’ve got nothing to hide,” he said. “We put all profit back to the community.”
On the last day of the financial year, the firm donated $2900 worth of toilet paper to Catholic Social Services and the Society of Saint Vincent De Paul and also handed
a cheque of $2100 to St Francis of Assisi Dunedin Trust.
Mr Cogger said giving back to the community is something he really believes in.
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