How Much Does the Average Chipotle
Fundraiser Raise?

If you’ve never held a fundraiser with Chipotle, they’re a fun, easy and delicious way to raise money for your favorite team, club, school or non-profit. Even if you have hosted a fundraiser with Chipotle, you might be curious about what the average fundraiser makes in proceeds. In this post, we’ll discuss Chipotle’s fundraiser percentage, how the funds are calculated, and how much the average fundraiser profits.

Fundraiser Percentage

When choosing a restaurant or business to partner with for your organization’s fundraiser, the donation percentage is undoubtedly a big factor in how you make your choice. Getting the best bang for your buck is an obvious consideration, but you also want your supporters to feel like it is worth their time to come out and participate in your fundraiser. According to fundraising website GroupRaise, most restaurants donate 10-20% of funds back to the organization holding the event. In regard to donation percentage, Chipotle offers a 25% donation amount of event sales. This means if your organization raises $600 in sales, you will receive a check for $150.00. Chipotle does have a minimum sales requirement of $150 in order to receive a check, but this is achievable with around 15-20 supporters on average. If you’re curious about calculating how much your organization could raise, keep reading!

The Average Fundraiser Check

When forecasting how much your organization will earn, it’s helpful to know what the average fundraiser receives. While precise, a fixed number is less useful, because fundraisers vary from organization to organization. If comparing a high school marching band with 300 members to a small non-profit with 50 members, the average fundraiser looks quite a bit different between those two groups. A range is the most useful, in this case. The average total amount received on a fundraiser check is $150-$350. This means the average fundraiser generates $600-$1,400 in “total” event sales.

Fundraisers will certainly fall above and below this amount, but this is a reasonable range that one could expect to see, of course depending on your organization size and the number of people who will show up and participate. The success of your fundraiser most often depends on the latter more than the former, which is why we stress promoting your event so heavily. Tiny organizations who have marketed well have had tremendous events and large organizations have had fundraisers with little to no turnout due to a lack of promotion on their end.

With this information, you can begin to forecast your own Chipotle fundraiser and what you could realistically expect to raise. The last bit of information you need for your fundraiser profit equation is the average amount a person spends at Chipotle. Some participants splurge and spend a bit more than usual (which is great for our fundraising organizations!), but of course not everyone does this. On average, each person spends about $8-11 at a Chipotle fundraiser, but for easy math, one can assume the average spent per person is $10. To arrive at a ballpark number for your forecast, simply take the number of people you believe will attend and multiply it by $10. Remember, this will only give you the grand total. In order to find the actual donation amount, you’ll need to take that final number and multiply it by .25 (to calculate the 25%). This will give you the final check amount your organization would receive, assuming the $150 sales minimum is reached. Remember, this is only an estimate, as the average amount a participant spends fluctuates (and kid’s meals are a bit cheaper). While forecasting what your fundraiser could earn is helpful and fun, the actual turn out of your fundraiser will largely depend on how well the event is promoted!

Hopefully this information around fundraiser profits and Chipotle’s donation amount is useful! With our high donation percentage of 25% and ease of applying (many partners are fully approved and provided marketing materials within a few hours), a Chipotle fundraiser could be your organization’s next big event.