How does one make a small amount of T-shirts as a fundraiser?

August 29, 2021 7:47 PM

My kid would like to make a few t-shirts of their own design, to raise money for a specific good cause. Is there a company that will do all the hard stuff for us?

This is not going to be a big campaign -- just them and several of their friends will buy them, I imagine. What I would like is a website where my kid can upload the artwork, the friends (and strangers) can order the shirts in whatever sizes they want, the company mails the people their shirts, the company takes their cut of the money, and the extra bit goes to the good cause. Does this exist? We're all in the US and the charity is an American nonprofit.

posted by The corpse in the library to Grab Bag (6 answers total)

CafePress does this. Although I doubt they'd take care of the charity end of things. You could just take the proceeds and donate them.
posted by jonathanhughes at 8:10 PM on August 29, 2021

Bonfire does exactly this.
posted by bashing rocks together at 8:27 PM on August 29, 2021 [4 favorites]

Tshirts through the online vendors won't make much money, kids don't have credit cards, etc. You could get light-colored tshirts and iron-on designs. They make a transfer sheet for dark fabrics, as well.
posted by theora55 at 9:31 PM on August 29, 2021

Check out Custom Ink. I have several friends who have used it for fundraising.
posted by bookmammal at 5:14 AM on August 30, 2021

I've been using Threadless for this and the quality is very good. Lots of styles and color choices. I found the user interface not always easy, but I have several designs. Ordering takes 2-3 weeks once you have uploaded your design and selected available products.
posted by j810c at 7:31 AM on August 30, 2021

I would suggest seeing if you've got a local T-shirt/screen printing shop in town or nearby. I'm a community mentor for our high school FRC robotics team, and our local T-shirt shop makes team logo shirts, polos, and hoodies for us every year, at a very reasonable price. It's helpful to be able to chat with someone directly, see and feel what the shirts will be like, before buying.

If that's not an option, I have been using my Cricut and heat transfer vinyl to make single-color and very simple multi-color designs (you don't want something where colors are close to each other or touching; registering multiple decals is tricky). I'm a big fan of the Jerzees Ringer Tee and the Gildan G500 tee. If someone in your circle has a Cricut (or similar decal maker) this could be an easy and inexpensive way to make a small batch of tees.

I have not been pleased with the quality from Cafepress (used to be okay years ago, but they've changed to a pretty washed-out looking inkjet process instead of screen printing), but over multiple orders, I have been consistently impressed with Bonfire. If you're looking for a fairly hands-off, make a few design choices and let the company handle absolutely everything else, Bonfire is the way I'd go.
posted by xedrik at 6:05 PM on August 31, 2021 [1 favorite]