Data lab
The candle sale, counted carefully.
Every fall we pour candles, track inventory, reconcile payments, chart what happened, and use the data to make the next sale better.
The candle sale, markets, and little extras all count toward the same thing: every dollar onward to good.
Operating dashboard
The tiny candle economy.
This is the working view of the fundraiser: how many candles moved, how many transactions happened, and what the spreadsheet says people actually did.
Across five annual sales.
Across five weekends of orders, preorders, pickup, and the occasional extra.
A practical planning number for vessels, wax, and scent.
193 of 307 recorded payments.
A new add-on that mostly helped gift purchases.
321 sold from 331 prepared.
Growth model
Money, candles, and transactions do not grow the same way.
The fundraiser keeps getting bigger, but each metric tells a slightly different story: dollars raised, candles sold, and the number of checkout moments.
The first sale included candles plus extras like puzzles, honey, and cookies.
Source tracking showed friends, TeamSPS, relatives, neighbors, and business connections all taking part.
The first year with rolling scent inventory exported as a table.
The holiday boutique created the biggest transaction jump and several scents were effectively oversold.
The sale added XL candles, lids, Charcoal Rose, T4G Labs, and Rekindled.
2025 raised $9,048, even with fewer transactions than 2024.
The 196th candle of the 2025 sale was the 1,000th candle sold overall, in the 40th transaction of the event.
Buyer behavior
People tend to buy in pairs.
Order size is one of the most useful planning signals. It affects inventory, checkout, bags, labels, and how much Sunday pickup becomes a logistics puzzle.
2025 order sizes
Candle transactionsPayment mix
2025 recorded paymentsof recorded 2025 payments were Venmo.
Inventory
Scents are the hardest forecast.
2025 added more products: Charcoal Rose, T4G Labs, Rekindled, XL candles, and lids. The inventory board is where the sale starts to look like a tiny retailer.
2025 scent sell-through
321 sold · 331 preparedJust Crackle
12 ozsold out
Winter Wonderland
12 ozsold out
True North
12 ozsold out
Apple of my Eye
12 ozsold out
Oh My Darling
12 ozsold out
Tea Time
12 ozsold out
Charcoal Rose
12 ozsold out
Pumpkin Pie
12 ozsold out
Old Fashioned
12 oz2 left
T4G Labs
12 oz6 left
Rekindled
12 oz1 left
XL Winter Wonderland
24 ozsold out
XL True North
24 oz1 left
What the data taught us
More products need a better checkout system.
Adding XL candles, lids, T4G Labs, and Rekindled made the sale more interesting, but it also pushed the tracking spreadsheet harder. The lesson for 2026 is not just “make more candles” — it is “make the sale easier to operate.”
- 63 True North candles sold.
- 40 lids sold as a new add-on.
- 10 candles left after the sale.
Candle math
What 1,125 candles means in materials.
These are production estimates based on the documented candle constants. They are useful for planning, not nonprofit accounting.
Materials ledger
Each candle costs roughly $10.35-$13.40 in materials.
Materials include the vessel, soy wax, scent, wooden wick, wick clip, candle label, and warning sticker. Labor is donated. When we catch sales and bulk discounts, the real range is closer to $8.28-$10.72. We cover that ourselves, so the full $25 donation goes to the nonprofits.
Good to know: the dollar totals tell the impact story; the rest of this page is the nerdy planning layer behind the candles.
Source notes
The charts have a backstory.
After each sale we write up the results, surprises, and spreadsheet lessons. These posts are the narrative layer behind the numbers.
Things 4 Good 2025 Candle Fundraiser Results
The 2025 results post with the final allocation, the four supported organizations, and the tightest distribution yet.
Read post → Insights · 2025Things 4 Good 2025 Candle Fundraiser Insights
Inventory, transaction, product, and payment notes from the biggest sale yet, including XL candles and lids.
Read post → Impact · 2025Things 4 Good Five Year Impact
The five-year view of the fundraiser: charts, cumulative impact, and the community tradition taking shape.
Read post →From numbers to names
See where the money went.
The stats explain how the sale works. The impact ledger shows the causes behind every dollar.