Happy Friday, everyone!
Here is this week's poll question:
What is the best idea you've come across for a fund-raiser for an individual or organization in need?
Looking forward to reading your replies!
We organized for a Kenyan with sipanl cord injuries to go to South Africa on a wheel chair to raise funds to construct a rehabilitation centre for paraplegics here in Kenya. ( From Nairobi To South Africa )This was after the realisation that South Africa was the nearest country to Kenya that had such a centre. This caused many Kenyans who suffered spinal cord injuries to lack access to the much needed treatment and care.And through this campaign we managed to raise Sh73 million from individual Kenyans in 60 days.The campaign aimed to raise Sh250 million for the construction of a rehabilitation centre on a 12 acre piece of land in Kiserian.The ground breaking ceremony for the construction of the centre is expected to begin in September.
During his two months journey, he would cover an average of ten kilometres per day wheeling on his manual wheelchair.But this would depend on the activities lined up for the day.During the campaign period, there were at least 516,000 subscribers who subscribed to the one shilling per day contribution. By use of Radio we mobilised listerners as we played messages from him, The activities along the way we well covered by television stations as well. For example the town mayors would welcome the guy in their teritories and we recorded and aired all these......................
The last thing anyone wants to add to their schedule is a lousy, overpriced dinner that takes you away from home another night. The solution...
The No Banquet Banquet.
Fancy invitations go out announcing that __ will not be the date, __ will not be the time, __ will not be the location, __ will not be the caterer, __ will not be the speaker (very prominent name), __ will not be the entertainment (very prominent name), etc. Get permission from all parties to use names. Make sure to list the cause as always. The price to NOT attend will be about half what it normally would be. Try to get most of those involved to pay a small sponsorship to NOT be involved but be on the invitation and the promotion. Get a company to be the presenting sponsor to pay for cost of invitations, mail.
The gimmick is no one is going to be there. Expenses are extremely low. More people will pay not to go. The tongue in cheek threat is that the organization thought they would try something different but if it doesn't work they can always go back to the lousy, overpriced dinner that takes you away from home another night.
For 18 years, we have the Sugar Plum Cookoff (rather than bakeoff - Pillsbury called us down on that). Hosted by a local car dealership - two days before Christmas mostly women bring in their baked sweet deserts - anything from cakes - to pies - to cookies - elaborate gingerbread houses. We have about 6 judges, consisting of local celebrities and government leaders. Prizes are awarded to the top ten - in various categories. Then we auction off each item, winners or not - over the air during a six hour live broadcast. 100% of the proceeds go to Hometown Heroes. A local group of business people who formed to help and nurture children with cancer and assist and bond with their families for emotional and financial support. They grant wishes, pay for hotel stays for families while children are under treatment, build wheelchair ramps, spend endless hours with the kids, during happy times and the most painful of times. Wal Mart closes their doors on Christmas Eve to allow the children to come in and shop with money from Hometown Heroes. They also sell Christmas trees to raise money and we do live broadcasts for that as well. There are a ton of details to work out for the cook off - Prizes - refrigeration - registration - volunteers - Morning Show live from the dealership, entire station participation - but is very rewarding to all involved.
Kathie Easton - WIXE - Monroe, N. C.
Sam,
Congratulations - what a terrific effort!
Most impressive.
Rod
This past Monday evening (9/17) a fundraiser was held at the Moscow, ID Pizza Hut, to benefit the Todd family. Sonia Todd was recently diagnosed with terminal cancer. It's a heart-breaking story.
The fundraiser's organizer used Facebook and flyers (image at left) to invite people to eat at Pizza Hut that night; 20% of the proceeds would be donated to the family.
How well did it work? Response from the community was remarkable. The store experienced its largest daily sales total to date, more than tripling its average daily sales of $2000.
But then the story took an ugly turn. The next morning a Pizza Hut employee answered a knock on the door and was confronted by a man in a hoodie, wearing a ski mask and brandishing a pistol. The gunman forced the employee to open the safe. As they were waiting for the time-lock to open the safe, two more employees showed up. The gunman locked all three of them into the walk-in refrigerator and absconded with the cash.
However...
One of the employees had her cell phone with her and called 911. Police responded quickly and found a suspicious looking character walking in a nearby residential neighborhood. When he spotted them, he dropped his backpack. It was found to contain thousands in cash, a pellet gun resembling a semi-automatic pistol, and a ski mask. When police told the man to stop, he turned around and an officer spotted something black in his hand, so he immediately used a Taser to disable him. The black object turned out to be a cell phone.
The creep was arrested and is now in jail, awaiting his day in court.
Our Morning show DJ on the Country station lives on the roof of our mall for a week collecting donations for the Child abuse and Neglect Council. This year the donations were up he came off the roof this evening with $129,458 dollars in donations. Our station had over 40 sponsors for this event also.
Jack -- I love this idea! Have you used it? How has it worked?
Thanks,
Steve / RadioNewark.org
Something that I think is a REALLY COOL fundraiser concept... the Big Soo Coupon Book! It is NOT something we do, but we help to promote the book on the radio. This year there is a new owner... it was something I looked at buying I like it so much! You could EASILY add this concept to your community if it is not being done! (http://bigsoocouponbook.com/)
The cool thing is... the new digital version!!! (I helped him get that part put together... it will save THOUSANDS in printing costs) and everyone seems to like it a bunch!
This book has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for local charities! I just hear them talk about it at our church today! The book sells for $45 and the non-profit get's $10 of that (you could do more if you only did the digital version)
The businesses that are in the book LOVE it too! They see hundreds of these coupons every year!
Wish I could do this one myself, but it is ALREADY being done here! ;o)
Personally, have not used it but know others that have. Lots of money raised. Tons of free pr. Still sell sponsorships.
Hi if a person was to do this in their area how would they charge? Do you charge the restaurants in the book? Do you sell it on the radio? Who puts the big coupon book together for our local area for the digital version? How do people pay for it on line?
Thanks
For 16 years, they made the book with coupons from local business owners that gave a GOOD offer (usually buy one get one free) and the business didn't pay a dime!
They make money by SELLING the books (for 16 yrs they sold them for $37.50)
This year they charged business owners a nominal fee ($125 I think) for the three coupons on the page.
They also doubled the size of the book and bumped the price to $45
I would keep it free for business owners (you can say... "if it doesn't bring in business... it is free")
I would also keep the book below $40
The digital version was created by Bell Creative in Las Vegas... great people!
Let me know if you are thinking of doing it... I'll get you any info you may need!
95% of these books are sold for Christmas (may be a tight deadline for 2012, but could be done)
This sounds like a fun idea, Kathie. People love good food and picking up good recipes from others. Add the fund-raising aspect for a charity everyone gets behind and one can see how this might be huge.
Have you saved any audio from this event, either promos or bits from your live broadcasts? Would love to hear them!
For several years 'way back when our stations did business with an outfit similar in some ways to the one you describe.
The station would run a heavy schedule of ads promoting the availability of the book (which bore the station's logo on the cover) against a percentage of total sales of the coupon books, with a minimum guarantee of $2000 or so. Merchants were solicited by the coupon book's salesperson a month or two prior to printing them. They were encouraged to offer freebies, not so much BOGOs, as a way of introducing new customers to their businesses. There may have been a charitable aspect to it, but I don't recall for sure.
The coupon book publisher hired local people to run a boiler-room telemarketing blitz for several weeks, concurrent with the radio schedule, pitching the books over the phone. They called everyone who had a telephone number. The radio ads gave the effort a degree of credibility that it might not have had otherwise. Most years the promotion was mainly free of incidents, but occasionally a merchant would stop honoring his offer before the expiration date, triggering the threat of legal action (they had signed contracts) or ill will, depending on the situation. It was mostly a good promotion though.
However, when the Do Not Call Registry was introduced, precluding the wholesale canvassing of the community by phone, the promotion lost its steam and soon went away.
Sounds as though your coupon folks have figured out a better way to do it.
They are using a HEAVY radio schedule.
Last year they discounted the books in December... he is now struggling to get people to pay full price (which is EXACTLY what I predicted last year)
