Fundraising ideas??

[Minnie M6]

I am looking for any suggestions/ input for a fundraiser I am putting together with some co-workers. One of our co-workers has a 4 year old son who is very ill and needs a heart transplant. He is in a children's hospital around 3 hours north of where we live and work, and she has missed a couple of weeks of work to be there with him. This is a new job for all of us (started in November) so she is not eligible for FMLA. Several of us are donating PTO time, and we had a hot dog and bake sale in the office last week and raised around $1400.00.

We are now focusing on raising money for the family for expenses. A local pizza restaurant which has 9 different store locations has agreed to do a fundraiser for us next week, and will donate 25% of any order (the person placing the order does have to mention the child's name to make the purchase eligible for donation). We will really need to get the word out to make this successful, and I am working on designing a flyer to let people know. Any creative ideas?

We are also going to plan a silent auction, and will be soliciting local businesses for merchandise to place up for bid. I have no experience with this and would love any ideas/ suggestions. The wealth of information on this board amazes me!

 

[Mouse House Mama]

Supermarket Bingo is a great fundraiser with very little overhead. You basically look for people to donate items and then you make up baskets as prizes. The baskets have themes- like cleaning supplies (paper towels, windex. rubber gloves etc.) or baby, or Christmas etc. Then you have a traditional bingo game that you charge for and use the baskets as prizes. Usually you can get a firehouse to donate their hall fir the game. You sell tickets to the event and they include a free bingo card. Then you charge for each additional card that people buy. During the games have someone go around to collect for a 50/50 raffle. Set up a snack table in the hall with coffee, tea, waters, chips, coffee etc. and charge for them. You can make quite a bit and it is a fun night.

 

[TheDizMom]

I think the silent auction is a great idea. See if co-workers can make some of the items or have a special talent that they could donate to the cause. Check with family and friends you know that have talents or things they can make for it. See if your local VFW or neighborhood bar will donate their location and perhaps food and beverages, or perhaps the church that your friend attends would let you use their facilities. Not only would people there know and care about what happens to the family, but they may want to participate in helping to raise money. Find a friend or local talent that might donate their time to perform at the event to entertain the people who attend. You can make the event a pot luck and ask co-workers to sign up for a specific item. Then go to your local TV channel and see if you can get on one of their news programs to promote your event on the air and get more then just your company to attend.


Good luck with finding a good fund raising method and my prayers go out to your friends child and family. I have lost a child myself and so I know how awful it is. I hope he gets his transplant in time. God Bless.

 

[SoonipiLady]

We are now focusing on raising money for the family for expenses. A local pizza restaurant which has 9 different store locations has agreed to do a fundraiser for us next week, and will donate 25% of any order (the person placing the order does have to mention the child's name to make the purchase eligible for donation). We will really need to get the word out to make this successful, and I am working on designing a flyer to let people know. Any creative ideas?

We are also going to plan a silent auction, and will be soliciting local businesses for merchandise to place up for bid. I have no experience with this and would love any ideas/ suggestions. The wealth of information on this board amazes me!

Find out what your local Morning Drive radio shows are in your area. Email them and ask them to announce the event on the air a few times this week.
They are usually willing to do it, especially if they are a small local station. You may e-mail any afternoon drive time talk radio show hosts that have local shows to do the same. More people than you think listen to talk radio in their cars on the way to and from work.

Call your local community TV station and see if you can get them to place an announcement in their rotation. They will usually do that, and though it may not be the most watched thing on TV, some will see it.

Ask local firestations, convenient stores, schools, churches etc., to put an announcement on there outdoor boards for a few days.

Also, you might check with the local kinkos/staples/speedyprint to see if they would donate the flyers.

When you're going to solicit donations it usually helps to draft a letter to leave with the business expalining the event and the cause. You can also make it duel purpose, and have the bottom double as a receipt noting their donation.

Also, after each event, contact the local papers (especially the small ones, like community papers) and thank each person/business for their participation. Many business people read these small community papers and will recognize the "cause" if you ask them to participate in another event for your cause. They are more willing to say yes if they remember that they are likely to be recognized.

Good luck with your fund raiser!

 

[Minnie M6]

Thanks for the fabulous suggestions- I am printing them off to take with me to work tomorrow! Lots of good thoughts here................

Keep em coming!

 

[coolbeans]

we did a pizza fundraiser recently where we (friends and family) were the waitstaff for the fundraiser and got to keep all the tips plus a percent of the nights totals and it turned out great! We printed flyers for all the local convenience stores, hit up the radio stations and free community service ad in the local paper.
we also do bake sales in front of a local grocery store and make craft items depending on the season to sell too.
we have had community yard sales too.
good luck on the fundraising and to the little boy!!

 

[Gillian]

For the silent auction try to tap into the home party sales market. All or most of those people want to get their name out so they are happy to contribute a basket or item in exchange for advertising.

It's a lot of phone/email work. Start with your Avon or Discovery toys lady and see if they will contribute. THEN ask who they know who might also like to contribute. You'll find these people know each other.

A nice thing is to make up a program or at least a flyer with the contact info for all of your merchants. Also let the merchants give out business cards or catalogs to people who view the auction items.

 

[cinjam]

Also, after each event, contact the local papers (especially the small ones, like community papers) and thank each person/business for their participation. Many business people read these small community papers and will recognize the "cause" if you ask them to participate in another event for your cause.

Piggy-backing on this idea: contact the local/county/state papers before each event & ask if they will donate the space (or write an article about) to promote the event. They may even send a reporter to cover the event.

Pur local supermarkets usually come through for fundraisers & donate items as well as publicizing upcoming events.

As for getting the word out about the upcoming pizza fundrasier: did her son attend pre-school before he becameill? If so, can the pre-school get the flyer out for you. How about attaching it to an email & sending it out & asking everyone to forward (we do it for jokes all the time - why not for somethng so worthwhile?). Get it out to the church they attended - for that matter all the churchs.

I have no experience with this, but have heard about it: what about setting up a page on facebook.com or on craigslist.com?

Good luck to you!

 

[scali71]

Not sure of your location but there is a place in Tulsa that sells kettlecorn that does fundraisers and they split 50/50. You can read on them at mykettlecorn.com

 

[mslclark]

We do fund raisers throughout the year for our Relay for Life team (for American Cancer Society). Here's a few things we've done that have raised money:

Cake Sale - $25 each
Prime Rib Dinner - $75 per couple - of course you need someone who is a good cook to be able to make money on these.
Scrapbooking Crop - we just had one and raised over $500 for a 6 hour crop. We asked scrapbooking stores and suppliers to donate items to give each attendee and for door prizes. We charged $20 for a 6 hour crop and each person got a pizza box with a few sheets of paper, some stickers, glue stick, etc. I got the pizza boxes donated as well.

Good Luck - what a nice thing you all are doing!