Plan Your Date and Venue: Proper planning is the first ingredient for success. Make sure your sale does not conflict with another important event in your community. Reach out to your school, church, or community center for permission to host your bake sale.

Check City and State Guidelines: Before planning the event logistics, be sure to research local city and state guidelines and obtain any required permits to host a bake sale.

Choose Your Bakers: The more baked goods you have, the better your odds are for a successful event. With this in mind, choose as many bakers as your heart desires. Reach out to them in plenty of time before the event so they have ample time to prepare.

Choose Your Theme: Having a theme is a great way to get people involved and excited about your event. Themes can be based on anything like your favorite animal, season or holiday. Be creative!

Consider a Friendly Competition: A competition is a great way to get people excited about what they are baking. You could base your competition on the most creative idea, best-selling item or best cake.

Decide on What You Are Baking: Cupcakes, brownies, and cookies are always winners when it comes to bake sales. It's also worth thinking beyond baked goods with candies and chocolates! Remind your bakers that if possible, food should be individually wrapped in plastic, foil, or waxed paper.

Advertise Your Bake Sale: One of the best ways to reach a large group of people quickly is through social media. Be creative with posts and invites. Be sure to include date, time and location.

Consider Food Allergies: Consider displaying food allergen labels to ensure optimum safety. Major allergens include peanuts (peanut butter), eggs, wheat, soybeans, milk and milk products (e.g. butter, buttermilk, cheese) and tree nuts (e.g. almonds, pecans, walnuts, cashews).

Plan Your Display: Decorations are essential for catching people's eye. Be creative with your decorations and remember your theme.

Pick Your Prices and Staff: Plan how much you will charge for each item ahead of time to give you less to do on the day of your event, and ensure you have enough hands on deck to collect money and bag items.

Take Pictures: Post lots of pictures on social media to showcase all of the great items for sale and show everyone having a fun time!

Plan Your Date and Venue: Proper planning is the first ingredient for success. Reach out to your favorite local restaurant to see if they offer a dine to donate program. Make sure your event does not conflict with another important event in your community. The restaurant manager will help you schedule the event. Schedule your Dining to Donate at least four weeks in advance to allow ample time to properly promote your event.

Create an Event Flyer: Most restaurants will require supporters to bring the flyer in on the date of the event to get credit. Some restaurants will even create the flyer for you! Post it online, email it to friends, hand it out to friends, family, neighbors and everyone you see.

Advertise: Social media is always a great source for getting the word out. Let all your friends, family, co-workers, etc. know about the Dine to Donate event. Post flyers at church, at the gym, local bulletin boards, etc. In addition to distributing and emailing flyers, try a unique advertising technique such as inserting your flyer into the school newspaper, weekly newsletters/e-newsletters, or even uploading the flyer to your Facebook, instagram, or blog. Make your flyers stand out by printing them on brightly colored paper like orange or neon green. Remember, all guests MUST have a printed copy of the flyer with them.

Encourage Friends and Family to bring one Person Each: This is the easiest way to double your donation total. If you know one of your friends or family is attending, encourage them to bring one more person with them.

Enjoy: Enjoy a great meal, hand in your flyer and have a great evening with friends!