What are your best fund raising ideas?

[alan wood]

A few ideas for fund raising.
In August 1998 I was fortunate enough to be in the right place at the right time to be guided by an exceptional individual. It was a fund raising project for a local youth group, and at the time was Kevin’s ‘best practice’.

This is how the team raised thousands of pounds and we repeated it in other projects. I just wanted to jot it down, might be of some use. Maybe a good thread to add to for ideas.

The plan was actually very simple
1 Apply for cash from the local council and all other local government funded agencies.
We applied to Halewood Town Council.
Halewood Regeneration Partnership

We approached the local councillor for the area who put us onto some other funding that was available. Cannot recall what that was now.

2 Approach local groups who were known to support local causes.
We approached The University of the Third Age (U3a)
This group raised around £800 with a sponsored walk.

3 We as a group raised funds by our own actions.
a sponsored bike ride in the lake district.
b bag packing at Asda Hunts Cross, Liverpool. ( We did two of these and it was very successful)
c we organised a raffle. We had to obtain a licence from the
local council for this. Local businesses and our Member of Parliament donated the prizes.
4 We wrote to local businesses asking if they would sponsor the club and they did.

5 We sent letters to all the rugby union/league clubs in this country asking if they would be kind enough to donate items that we could raffle. Loads of shirts and stuff arrived from famous sportsmen.

6 We visited the local voluntary support office who had access to http://www.funderfinder.co.uk. This is a data base of organisations that you can make applications to.
Again a letter was sent to a number of organisations and we received funding from them.

7 At the end of the project we put on a ‘thank you’ presentation to all of the sponsors, and presented them with a ‘certificate of thanks’ for their support. The young guys did the speeches. It went down a treat.

And it worked, it was good fun, we had a great time and loads of young
people benefited.

Cheers

Alan

[Mike Lucey]

Thanks for sharing Alan, good formula

Mike

[alan wood]

Hi Mike
thanks for that.
Alan

[Ross Macintosh]

I'm in the process of joining one of the local Rotary groups. It has me thinking about fund-raising ideas that I might be able to propose and get involved with.

The one most in my mind is belt-sander drag racing. A few years ago I saw a news feature about it on a tv news program. How it is done is a 50 foot double slot track is built of wood. It can be on the floor or elevated. Belt sanders are placed in the start position with extension cords laid out along side the track. The sanders have their triggers taped open and when a switch is throw to start the race they get juice and fly down the slot track. Sometimes the tracks are even fitted out to do 'photo-finishes'. The races are a family-oriented spectator event. In the one I saw on tv it was very popular for all ages -- they had brought in seniors from an old-folks home and they just loved it. The kids had fun too. The racers had fun. Everyone had fun. They had different classes of machines from stock to highly modified. Many of the people just decorated their sanders in silly fun ways that allowed them to still be used as sanders. Even very stock sanders can lead to very exciting races. There is lots of action as it doesn't take long to set up between heats. In the races I saw it was a stock Porter-Cable sander from the 1960's that won the whole thing. There are so many variables that it isn't the person with the most money who will win. It can be the kid with dad's old sander modified with barbie-doll heads who ends up winning.

It seems to me these belt sander races could be a good fund-raising event. It is likely the materials for the track could be donated by a building supply store. Community businesses could be solicited for prizes. Local businesses could be asked to put in entries or sponsor entries for things like local youth groups like sports teams etc.

There is lots of info about belt sander racing on the web as it is a growing 'sport', so it should be possible to learn all about what works and how to set such an event up.

Alan - it seems like belt-sander racing might be a good match for you and your woodworking mates!

Regards, Ross

[alan wood]

Ross
Mmmm. Now Iwonder if my wife would be happy trying that out in the lounge. Its a bit wet over here at present.
I'm sure I read an article in Fine Woodworking years ago about these 'races'. Its sounds like a great day out.

cheers
Alan.