Fundraising ideas........

[stewartcolbert08]

Okay guys, I need fund raising ideas where I dont have to sell magazines or chocolate. LOL We just found out that my 23 year old cousin has heart cancer and she is 5 months pregnant. They moved her to a special hospital in Huston TX and have started her on a low dose of chemo to start treatment on the tumors and to monitor the baby. The problem is that her insurance sucks, (go figure), and our whole family is scattered through out NM and CO so her family, (mom, dad, brother, boyfriend) are putting out crazy amounts of money to be with her in Huston and trying not to get fired from jobs. So the rest of us are trying to raise money for them for deductibles and traveling costs. The hospital is being as helpful as they can but all they can do for them as of now is put them on the waiting list for one of the discounted apartments they offer. Any ideas you guys have for me would be very much appreciated!

[Droopy]

1. Car washes

If you can get a business with a large parking lot that will let you use their water, you might be able to come up with some money there. I don't know what the climate is like where you are, but this might be pretty good just coming into spring with all the folks out there with salt and sand on their vehicles from the winter snows.

I'm sorry to hear about your cousin. Cancer is terrible at any age, but it is particularly so with someone who is so young.

[stewartcolbert08]

2. Yes

car washes are definately on the agenda, we are just waiting for it to warm up a little bit and thank you for the kind words, it was crazy ya know. We thought she just had a cold or bronchial infection or something and then out of nowhere with this. I appreciate the thoughts!

[leftyclimber]

3. Try to get the local press involved, especially the TV news.

This the kind of stor that will make the news; don't be afraid to be aggressive and to use the media outlets in the area. Set up a bank account with the most popular local bank, harrass the most popular TV stations to cover her story, and get them to show her story on the local news. People will donate money in droves.

[stewartcolbert08]

4. How do I do that?

[suninvited]

5. Your bank should be able to tell you how to make

setting up a fund raiser account legal.

Then just start making phone calls. Newspapers, television news stations, etc.

[stewartcolbert08]

6. awesome!

thank you so much, i am going to look into that this week!

[Chan790]

7. Big fundraisers for that sort of thing here are benefit dinners...

You charge for the meal and beverages (usually about $5, but you could do more.) and also set up a collection bucket. (Low cost, high payout. High time commitment, but most of which is social time spent talking to and thanking people.)A lot of times the Men's club (or the Elks, Masons, Odd-fellows, etc.) will donate the space if you tell them that's what you're using it for or if you (or someone you know well enough to ask them to make the approach for you) is a member.

I've seen all sorts, but pasta seems to work best because it's easy to cook in huge quantities, cheap and almost universally-loved. I mean who doesn't love a home-cooked spaghetti and meatball dinner? (Know your community. If chili or a fish fry or tamales would work better for your town, go with that.) You can buy huge bags of meatballs at Costco fairly cheap or call your local restaurant supply out of the Yellow pages. Someone you know has got to have a 20-gallon saucepan, better if you can find two...you can cook 30-40lbs of pasta at a time and just let the sauce simmer for hours.

Advertise by word of mouth, hang flyers on community boards (supermarket, local apartment complexes, Starbucks(ask the management first, I never said no and neither did my store manager when I was just a barista)), call the local newspaper (ours ran these sorts of stories all the time and gives free ad-space to fundraising events.), ask the venue host to talk it up to their members, sometimes the local media will throw you a free plug.

Another idea that I've seen work is something my college roommate throws yearly to support a friend who was paralyzed called a "Beef and Beer". Same idea, except you serve roast beef, mashed potatoes, veggies and beer. You can charge more for that...$20-$30, but it's harder to pull off because you need to obtain a permit for the distribution of beer and the person serving has to go to a class usually...you'd have to call your local officials to get specifics for your jurisdiction.

[yellowdogintexas]

8. Three words: Community Garage Sale. This is a lot of work and would take

a lot of volunteers but you can raise some serious money if you have enough stuff. Our church raised $40k in Fort Worth with one.

a friend of mine had leukemia and a civic group in his town had a community garage sale and bake sale.

When the donations came in, they culled out the really nice stuff and put it on a silent auction. Also some businesses donated items for the silent auction also.

One year for our church auction, a guy donated his grandmother's Cadillac..vintage, in perfect condition with only about 35K miles on it. We put it on silent auction and raised a lot with that.

CiCi's pizza shops down here do fundraisers. Make arrangements with the managers and then they designate a day for the charity. For that day, anyone who wishes to do so can designate a portion of their check to the charity. Donation bowls also were out. Church youth groups do this a lot; youth members are stationed at the entrance to advise you can 'pledge' your meal and then you just tell the cashier. YOu can put up posters in the windows about it etc.

My Sunday School class has a combination live and silent auction every year during Christmas. We donate things like say a meal for 3 couples held in the home of the person donating the event and it is then live auctioned. Usually the auctioneer will start at say $50 a couple.Lots of hands. Then $75, and so on. Once there are 3 couples left it is over and what ever the amount is at that time, all 3 couples pay that amount. So a nice dinner for 6 that costs maybe $50 to prepare may end up raising $450 ($150 per couple)...A friend and I did a Spanish tapa party together and had 6 couples at $125 per couple I think. We donated the party and the class got the proceeds. The guests had a great time.

The things we auction off are limited only by the inventiveness of our members, which is high. All girl shopping trips, a 'Makeup and Martinis" party, homemade cakes (my speciality), a week in someone's vacation house, Lawn Care, an afternoon with a class member who is a certified instructor for Restorative Yoga.

Then the silent stuff can be anything. Jewelry, Christmas stuff, food, gift baskets, crafts, etc.

We raise between $8 -$12K depending on the year. Our class is smaller now so we didn't raise as much as in past years but we did OK.

So a community garage sale with an auction at the end of the day might be good. And you can have someone sell hot dogs, sodas etc at the garage sale too.