If you are just beginning a citrus fundraising program, we would suggest offering our Navel Oranges (in both Spring and Fall) or our Honeybell Tangelos (only available in January and beginning February) along with our Indian River Red Grapefruit (available during both seasons). These are by far our largest selling varieties, accounting for more than 90% of our total sales.
You may also want to consider offering our mixed carton of Navel Oranges and Indian River Red Grapefruit. This carton has become very popular with smaller families and individuals who would like to support your organization but who do not wish to purchase a box of each variety.
If you already have an established program that offers Navels, Hamlin (Juice) Oranges, or any other varieties, you will most likely want to continue with those varieties unless the volume sold does not justify the additional effort associated with distribution. Get to know our citrus varieties.
Yes! Our Ship to Home program is completely hands free! No flyers to hand out! No money to collect! Your sale is run entirely online via your FREE custom website. All ordering and payments are done online. Your group will receive digital marketing materials to use to help make your online sale a success! We will ship their orders directly to your customer’s homes for a LOW flat rate shipping cost. We also ship nationwide (*Minus Alaska and Hawaii) expanding your customer range to friends and family out of your immediate area!
You can also combine our Ship to Home program with our traditional programs of “face to face” sales. Your supporters can choose to have their order included on the group truck delivery or shipped to their address of choice!
If you currently sell citrus as a fundraiser and do not see information on an item you have offered in the past, please call our offices. We may be able to provide you with a particular variety or mixed carton as we do special packing on a limited basis.
Note: Custom packing is only available during the fall season and is not offered in the spring.
Please note, it is a common misconception that by offering more varieties your organization will increase sales. This is simply not true! You will not sell three times as many boxes by offering three times as many varieties. You will simply create three times as much work!
Some of our clients have attempted to boost sales by expanding the number of varieties they offer. A large majority of these clients have found their total sales remain the same. However, the time required to unload, sort, and distribute the fruit has increased considerably.
By limiting the number of varieties your group offers, you will achieve excellent results while keeping your distribution easy.
Yes, Florida Indian River Groves will provide your organization with full color promotional materials. These materials include: color product flyers, 3 part order forms, and money collection envelopes. We also supply a variety of digital participation letters, a digital social media packet, and other online resources.
Also, be sure to check out the tips for numerous ways to promote your sale, and be sure to ask a member of our team for additional tips on promoting your citrus fundraiser
Most organizations will sell for a period of two to six weeks. This will give you substantial time to promote your sale while keeping enthusiasm high. Read our post on keeping your group motivated to sell
Yes, we do have a deposit to get started. Here’s how we have it broken down:
If you are BRAND NEW to our programs and you are a Public School:
If you are BRAND NEW to our programs and you are a Church/Civic Group/Non-Public School:
If you have any questions about this, please feel free to give us a call!
If you’re interested in doing a Traditional Sale in the Fall with the truck delivery, we have two delivery options, Before Thanksgiving and After Thanksgiving. The breakdown for the delivery costs are as follows:
We do our best to accommodate everyone’s schedule for deliveries, we do however ask you to be flexible in the event a specific time becomes impossible to accommodate. Unless prior arrangements have been made through our office, we cannot guarantee a specific delivery days for partially filled trucks.
For our online programs, we ship nationwide (minus Alaska and Hawaii) directly to supporters homes!
Please reach out to us if you have any additional questions regarding delivery options!
There is no minimum order. We are able to ship any size order, however for orders less than 100 boxes there needs to be flexibility in your delivery. Any orders under 100 boxes has a $349 delivery fee.
For our Ship to Home Online Only program there is no minimum order amount.
Our cartons are color-coded: navel oranges are in orange cartons; grapefruit are in red cartons; the juice oranges are in green cartons; and mixed cartons are striped.
Your Florida Citrus should be kept refrigerated. It will last longer in temperatures ranging from 35 to 50 degrees,
Also, it’s important to let air circulate around citrus. Don’t place your fruit in plastic bags or film-wrapped trays. Drops of moisture will form between the film and peel and will promote mold growth.
A special note about grapefruit: The skin of grapefruit can develop dark sunken patches if left refrigerated too long. After all, it’s a tropical fruit so it’s sensitive to cold temperatures, but only superficially. Blemishes on the peel don’t affect the fruit inside at all. It’s still delicious.
Read more about Caring for your Citrus Fruit.