How to Plan a Pancake Breakfast Fundraiser

Pancake breakfasts are popular fundraising event for charities, kids sports teams, social groups, and other non-profit organizations. Pancakes are cheap to make, feed a large group, and they taste good. But how do you organize a pancake breakfast? Here are eight easy steps to help you plan and organize a pancake breakfast fundraiser.

Plan a Pancake Breakfast Step 1: Pre-plan and establish roles
Hold a meeting with committee members to determine roles for before, during, and after the pancake breakfast. You'll need folks to do the following:
Host and Hostess
Servers
Table clearing and cleanup
Cooks
Photographer
Administrative, advertising, & planning duties

At this meeting, determine your timeline and create a checklist for all duties and roles.

Plan a Pancake Breakfast Step 2: Determine advertising
How will you advertise this event? Will you take out an ad in the local paper? Will you hand out fliers in a parking lot? Or just rely on word-of-mouth? Also, in order to offset the cost of the venue, materials, and rental equipment, you will need to convince local businesses to donate to your cause. Typically, this is accomplished by printing event programs, pamphlets, or even paper placemats with local businesses' ads in exchange for a monetary donation.

Plan a Pancake Breakfast Step 3: Plan the menu
To make everything run smoothly, stick to pancakes-only. In addition to pancakes, provide drinks (orange juice, water, and coffee are all cheap and satisfy most people), and syrup (maple, sugar-free maple, and perhaps one other option are enough). Adding more items to the menu is great for guests but complicates kitchen duties and increases costs. You'll already have pancake batter flinging every which way in the kitchen-no need to add slippery sausage links and messy cinnamon rolls to the mix!

Plan a Pancake Breakfast Step 4: Find a venue with a kitchen:
Verify the place you're planning on holding the pancake breakfast has a kitchen available. Typically, churches, VFWs, banquet halls, community centers, and schools will have a large hall with an adjacent kitchen. Confirm you'll have enough tables, cooking utensils, and chairs to accommodate the crowd.

Plan a Pancake Breakfast Step 5: Procure ingredients:
Ask local businesses if they'll contribute to the cost of pancake batter, eggs, milk, juice, paper plates, and other necessary items. In exchange for the donation, explain to the business that they will receive an ad in your event literature. Purchase the ingredients at a warehouse club store, such as Costco.

Plan a Pancake Breakfast Step 6: Set prices:
Determine ticket prices by calculating any out-of-pocket fees for supplies and add in enough to make a profit. Sell tickets in advance, if possible. This will help you effectively estimate your turnout.

Plan a Pancake Breakfast Step 7: Hold a meeting with volunteers
Ensure all volunteers know their roles by holding a meeting the day before the pancake breakfast.

Plan a Pancake Breakfast Step 8: Follow-up:
Write thank you notes to any businesses that donated to your pancake breakfast event, and include a copy of the literature with their advertisement. Following through with your promise and showing the business what they received in exchange for their donation encourages a healthy working relationship and increases the chances the business will donate in the future. Remember to thank the committee members and volunteers.

Planning a pancake breakfast is a great way to get your organization's name and goals out in the community. Pancakes are cheap, easy to make, and feed a large crowd. Plus, who doesn't love pancakes?