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Doggie Donuts - Easy Rescue Fundraiser with Printable

Remember when I made the dipped doggie biscuits for Valentine’s Day? After sharing these with a friend who is active in animal rescue with Furry Friends Network, I was on a mission to craft an easy to make, can’t resist treat for them to sell at their local, animal adoption events. This is the result!

My friend Annika is the definition of a rescue superstar. Not only does her family foster cats and dogs, she often finds herself in the trenches, literally, rescuing abandoned animals. On top of this, she runs several annual, very successful fundraisers for Furry Friends. These include the always popular Peanut Butter Easter Egg sale (which involves production into the 1,000’s!) and their Fall Mum Sale. (Visit their Facebook page to learn more.) Her dedication and passion to their mission Savings Lives, One Animal At a Time is so inspiring. So much so, now I want to help!

What makes these a terrific fundraiser project is the ease of accessing ingredients and materials, volunteers can make them in their own kitchen in any quantify, they have a decent shelf life and of course, they are too dang cute to resist!

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I started with a premade biscuit. The shape is key. I chose these biscuits made by Three Dog Bakery called Beg-als. They call them a bagel . . . I call them a donut. The shape is perfect. I buy the 25 ounce bag on Amazon and it holds about 30 treats. This works out to $0.25 each.

The doggie donuts are decorated with people grade icing and sprinkles. I use Wilton Meringue Powder and Wilton Gel Colorant for the icing, both available on Amazon.com. These gels are the secret to the super bright colors and they last almost forever. The sprinkles are from my own baking stash.

I follow the Wilton recipe for royal icing. It is 1-1/2 tablespoons meringue powder, 2 cups confectioners sugar and 2 tablespoons water (adjust as needed for consistency). Once made, I divide it into separate bowls and add the colorant. One batch of the icing is enough to do the whole bag. You simply push the top of the bagel into the icing, swirl and shake off excess. Add your sprinkles while wet and allow to dry on a piece of wax paper.

Let’s jump into packaging . . . I wanted something that would protect the donut yet display well, while still using affordable supplies and allow me to complete packaging quickly.

Cello bags are the answer, especially at a cost of six cents each! These self-adhesive cell bags are just the ticket. You can easily see the adorable product, and they stack well together while keeping things neat and protected.

For the printed insert, I found some super cute doggie doodles at Creative Market and added some color to the mostly black and white graphic. Again, this makes them affordable to mass produce. They print two on a page of white cardstock. You can use this budget paper, no need for the fancy stuff. I use my Friskar’s paper cutter to cut them quickly into 4-1/2” wide by 5-1/4” rectangles.

DOWNLOAD THE PRINTABLE HERE!

The per piece cost on this is well under $0.50 each and you could sell at a fundraiser for $3.00 each. What a win for your local rescue! Please link me up with your favorite rescue rockstar!