Local nonprofit groups get jump on Krispy Kreme's arrival

Local churches, schools and other nonprofit organizations have discovered a sweet way to raise money.

Although Springfield does not have a Krispy Kreme store yet, the company's doughnuts frequently make their way to area streets through fund-raising efforts.

"It's a pretty big thing right now," said Aaron Walling, East Grand Church of Christ youth minister. Walling's youth group sold 250 dozen on South Campbell Avenue in less than two hours. "It seems like almost every other day there is another group doing it."

Krispy Kreme franchise owner Jimmy Strickland plans to begin construction for a store June 1 at the southeast corner of Campbell Avenue and Primrose Street and he plans an October grand opening.

Until then, roadside sales out of vans and U-Hauls, mainly by churches and schools, should continue to flourish, Strickland said.

For now, the groups are making late-night trips to Kansas City and St. Louis to pick up the large quantities of doughnuts to sell to Springfield's morning commuters.

Typically they'll make a 50 percent profit because Krispy Kreme sells the doughnuts to nonprofits at $2.50 per dozen, and the organizations charge $5 or more per box. Strickland said he requires a minimum purchase order of 500 dozen before that price break is available. Krispy Kreme doughnuts retail for about $5 per dozen.

"This is part of Krispy Kreme's culture and history," Strickland said in a phone interview while visiting the company's headquarters in Winston-Salem, N.C. "It's part of our way of being involved with our communities."

The doughnut company has offered fund-raising opportunities since the early 1940s, he said. In fact, Strickland's first Little League baseball uniform was purchased with the profits of Krispy Kreme doughnut sales in 1966, when he was growing up in North Carolina.

Today he owns four stores: three in the Kansas City metropolitan area and one in Wichita, Kan. All of them, he said, go "gangbusters" for fundraising.

In Springfield, it seems people are buying them up in anticipation of the store coming. But there is some concern on the part of organizations selling the doughnuts that it won't be much of a fund-raising option later.

"We thought that kind of a novelty might be good for our church," Walling said. Both Walling and Central Assembly of God Children's Pastor Curt Rozean whose department profited by $1,250 from Krispy Kreme sales think the fundraising might not be effective when the store opens.

Strickland and Krispy Kreme have a plan for that.

The biggest fund-raising programs at Strickland's stores are not from actual product sales, but from sales of certificates and partnership cards.

Each certificate represents a dozen doughnuts, and the certificates are sold at the same pricing structure as the doughnuts: 500 or more dozen at $2.50. Strickland said groups have resold the certificates for $5 to $7 dollars.

The partnership cards are purchased in packs of 10 for $5, and most groups sell them for $15 to $20, Strickland said.

"That's our No. 1 seller in markets where we have stores," Strickland said. He said large groups have collected as much as $40,000 with the partnership cards.

These options offer more convenience to the purchaser, said Strickland, and promise hot doughnuts a signature of the tasty treats.

They also can be mailed to others in close proximity to a Krispy Kreme location, Strickland added.

"It makes it so much simpler," he said. "Those are an easier item for (organizations) to sell."

So, before lines of customers jam up traffic on Campbell Avenue, Krispy Kreme will continue to treat the Springfield faithful through fundraising.

"It's a great way for them to pre-advertise," Walling said. "And they're doing a good service for a nonprofit organization."