Nearly 4,000 bright yellow rubber ducks were “adopted” in the very first Duck Derby for the Child Advocacy Center of Rutherford County, Tennessee. Ducks were sold for $5.00 each with the funds benefiting sexually abused children and their families. The event was held on Saturday, August 25th at the Sportsman’s Club on the River in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

The rubber ducks were dropped into the Stones River and they made their way across the dam behind the Sportsman’s Club on Medical Center Parkway. Many of the ducks “swam” approximately 300 feet when they were stopped by a barrier boom. Some of the faster (and lucky) ducks swam on into a tube where 11 finishing ducks were selected and awarded prizes. Any wandering ducks were rounded up and collected from the water.

The Child Advocacy Center is very pleased with the success of the unique fundraiser:

“I am thrilled,” Demos said, thanking the Wing Team for their help and all volunteers. She expects next year’s race to be even better. Kristin Demos is the Child Advocacy Board’s fundraising chair.

Source: The Murfreesboro Post

The first place duck won a trip for two to Key West, Florida. The runner-up duck won a family trip to Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. Other prizes include a $1,000 Zero Coupon Bond, eating at Demos’ Steak & Spaghetti House free for a year and a $500 gift certificate to Bell Jewelers.

Source: Duckrace.com

2 Comments »

Approximately 50 teams will participate in the Race to Erase Homelessness Event, on Saturday, September 15th around Lambton County, Canada. The event is similar to the television show “The Amazing Race“. Teams will participate in 10 challenges. Challenges are timed, and the first team to complete the challenge wins the challenge — just like the television show.

Past challenges have included making a “Manhattan Sandwich” at Urban Loaf, carrying a stretcher through a simulated minefield for the Red Cross and working as a team to catch a fish a Bluewater Hatchery.

The race winners and top team and individual fundraisers will be awarded prizes. Prizes include iPods, gift certificates to restaurants, a trip to the Caribbean and Redwings tickets.

Funds raised will benefit the Inn of the Good Shepherd. Race to Erase hopes to raise a minimum of $50,000 for the charity to help fight homelessness. Teams must raise a minimum of $500 to participate in this unique and fun event.

Every year the Race to Erase committee selects a different charity to support. This year’s event is called Race to Erase Homelessness. Next year they will support Goodwill Industries.

Source: The Sarnia Observer, Racetoerase.com

No Comments »

Elsie Hester, 11 hosted a fundraising carnival to raise money for the Pregnancy Care Center of Southeast Texas on Friday, August 24th in Huntsville, Texas. Instead of getting the traditional birthday presents this year, Hester used birthday money to obtain a moonwalk, a slip-and-slide and food. Guests that attended the carnival gave a donation of funds or an item appropriate for an infant (such as diapers) to attend the event. She had selected the charity because she liked the Pregnancy Care Center of Southeast Texas and her mom, Kristen Hester, used to work on the center’s board.

Hester planned the party with approximately $200 in funds. She made flyers on her computer and bought items from Wal-Mart and Michaels to design the carnival. When the carnival was over, Hester planned a special celebratory sleepover with some of her friends from the fifth and sixth grades.

“The carnival was a little big so I won’t have a birthday cake, but I’ll get to play games and go to bed who knows when,” she said. “The girls that helped out were really working hard just because they wanted to, and I wanted to reward them.”

Source: The Huntsville Item

 This was not the first fundraising carnival Hester hosted. Hester held a fundraising carnival for her 10th birthday to benefit the Pregnancy Care Center and 80 people attended.

No Comments »

Do you thank your volunteers, donors and members in the same way — year after year? Would you like to come up with some fresh ideas that have worked successfully for other organizations?

121 Recognition Ideas for Donors, Volunteers and Memberspublished by Stevenson, Inc. offers you 121 valuable ideas that you can put into action immediately. Many ideas involve more effort and creativity than funds. Some ideas are perfect for top-donors where spending additional funds to say “thank you” in a way that continues to develop that relationship with your organization will have great value. There are ideas that will work for many different types of organizations, and this book is certain to get you thinking about how you could adapt these 121 ideas for your own organization’s needs.

One excellent idea offered that will also help develop relationships with your volunteers is #10: Ask Volunteers How They Want To Be Recognized. This idea suggests that a suggestion box be placed out for recognition ideas. Getting an idea of how people want to be recognized is a valuable tool for any organization to have at its fingertips — but many do not look for this input.

You’ll find lots of ideas that are long on creativity and low on cost. Idea #31: 10 Ways To Show Volunteers That You Care is a great example of some thoughtful ideas to thank volunteers. With some brainstorming, these ideas could even be adapted to find ways to thank donors or members. One of the ideas is to create a dollar value of the volunteer’s time and to present them with a “fake” check at your recognition event.

This book lists ideas and gives steps that offer how to put them in place. You will be inspired and motivated reading this book, and come away knowing how you can recognize the people that have been so important to your organization. If you are looking to brainstorm and jumpstart your creative thinking for great recognition ideas, this is the book for you!

Find out more about 121 Recognition Ideas for Donors, Volunteers and Members

No Comments »

The Fraternal Order of Eagles hosted a motorcycle race to benefit charity. The 54-mile race “Poker Run” raised money for research for Alzheimer’s disease and also Muscular Dystrophy. The event held on June 24^th raised $2,000 for the charities. It was the largest Poker Run since the event first began three years ago.

The group, 700 members strong, is well-known for its charitable works. They have raised approximately $90,000 for good causes, such as youth sports leagues and wheelchairs for the Marlborough Hospital in Marlborough, Massachusetts.

The motorcycle ride attracted riders from many locations, such as Hudson, Marlborough and other Metrowest towns in Massachusetts. The Poker Run event was a 54-mile loop that included stops at several local stores before finally returning to the Marlborough Fish and Game club for the picnic and concert finale.

At each stop along the way, motorcycle riders were given a playing card. The rider who wound up with the best poker hand at the end of the ride won $150 in prize money. This year’s winner was Jeremy Erlandson who had four sixes in his poker hand.

No Comments »

Golden Eagle Pony Baseball held their annual Burrito Bingo fundraiser on Saturday, Feb. 17, at the Blue Goose Fruit Shed in Loomis, California. This popular fundraiser has been held for four years, and was inspired by a local soroptomist who holds a tostado bingo every year. Burrito Bingo is an event featuring a burrito dinner and 20 bingo games.

They held the event this year to raise money for their league to fund the purchase of equipment, repair the baseball fields and also to buy a field prep vehicle. During the year the team also holds a raffle that is successful. Players are given tickets to sell for $10 and the league raffles off $1,500 for first place and they also purchase prizes for second and third place. But everyone looks forward to the Burrito Bingo event. This can be either family or evening just for the adults. “That’s what is so great about it. Some bring their kids and they play bingo. Others want an adult night out so they don’t bring the kids. Everyone has a great time,” said Debbie O’Neil. O’Neil was an organizer of this year’s event.

Tickets for the event are $20 and this includes dinner and 20 games of bingo plus punch, coffee and then cookies for dessert. The group also sells soda, bottled water, beer, margaritas. They sell raffle tickets throughout the night for leftover prizes (3/$1 or arms length $10), extra bingo games, and also a 50/50 raffle.

The Secret to Success: Planning Early

Debbie O’Neil suggests that you start early if you would like to do this type of fundraiser. “You need to start early to reserve the hall for a date that will work best for you. An early start on prize donations helps too. We ask for donations from local merchants - we always purchase a grand prize for the last game of the night “black out”. This year we bought a Nintendo Wii,” said O’Neil. She tries to have at least 2 to 3 prizes per bingo game, so that if they have more than one winner they can “make everyone happy.”

“We usually have an A table (one prize list) and a B table (a second prize list) and each game is assigned to a table so the winner can pick from the prizes on that table. We sell raffle tickets thru out the night to raffle off left over prizes. I always try to make each game prize in the $30-$50 range,” said O’Neil.

Bingo Games Are Popular Favorites

To play the bingo games themselves, they just use the same patterns every year. “One is four corners, game two is Railroad Tracks, game three is any bingo and we always spell P, O, N, Y since that is our organization. Some game takes longer than others. We provide game patterns and a list of the prizes to each guest so that they can follow along and see what prizes are left,” said O’Neil.

Great Organization and Terrific Volunteers Make An Event Run Smoothly

Most of the shopping for the event is done the day before, because items need to be refrigerated. “We are fortunate enough to have a local Jimboys who provides us with our main dish; he does this in trade for a sponsorship. This is so nice because you don’t have to spend the day cooking,” said O’Neil. The group decorates the night before and preps as much of the food as possible. O’Neil has been very pleased because clean up usually goes really well because everyone always pitches in and helps when the event is over.

O’ Neil states that having a plan is essential to this burrito bingo fundraiser. “I would leave yourself enough time to have 2-3 meetings with your helpers. This year I had one person handling prizes, one handling decorations, one handled the food, 1 picked up the margarita machine, we always wear T-shirts that match and someone handled that and I was able to oversee everything and do the shopping. You can do all the shopping in 1 day,” said O’Neil.

“I always let people sign up for jobs so they do something they want to do. You need at least 6-7 servers and kitchen runners (restocking food). Usually 2-3 greeters are also needed. When the guest arrive we give them a ticket to provide at the dinner buffet, their bingo tickets, and they can buy drink tickets,” said O’Neil. They sell margaritas and beer which are “huge profit” items for the group. They also sell extra packs of bingo tickets in books of 10. The group uses their entire panel of board members. They have about 15 to 17 people. “Usually there are 2 greeters, 6-7 servers and kitchen runners to restock food. 1-2 people in the kitchen heating and filling bowls, 2 bartenders, then after everyone has eaten the servers move out onto the floor as ‘runners’,” said O’Neil. Runners sell raffle tickets, 50/50 tickets, check bingo cards, take out trash and do a little bit of everything.

Easy-to-do Publicity Makes An Event Popular With The Community

The event has been popular with just about everyone. For publicity they have used a number of sources that have worked well for them. “We rely on work of mouth, selling tickets thru the league, and the local paper. We actually have family members who come from out of town because they have so much fun,” said O’Neil. After running the event for four years, the group is confident that they have the logistics well-organized to create a successful and popular event. “I was told this year was the smoothest and most fun ever!” said O’Neil.

No Comments »

The 5th Annual Nelson T. Gant Foundation Birthday Celebration was held Saturday, July 14th. It was held at the Zanesville Art Center in Zanesville, OH. The event was both a birthday celebration and a fund-raiser for the Foundation.

Ms. Stephanie Kline discovered there were plans in the works to write a book about Nelson T. Gant. She had been working on an educational article about the successful businessman who had begun his life as a slave. Kline had the opportunity to become involved with the writing of the book and the book was presented at the birthday party to the community. Books were sold for $15 and will be made available to area schools in the coming fall. They are also working on a parent-teacher handbook to be published soon.

The birthday party included singers and dancers and a skit portraying Gant.

The foundation hopes to build a new wing at the Gant house and also to create an education center. Monies raised from this fund-raiser will go towards these goals.

No Comments »

So why do people give to charity? What are their intrinsic motivations for giving to any charitable cause?

Economic benefits such as tax savings are much less a reason than most people realize. Kim Klein in the November/December 2006 issue of Grassroots Fundraising Journal states:

Most money given away in the private sector comes from individuals, and most of the gifts are from middle class, working class and poor people. That’s most people: 91 percent of Americans earn less than $100,000 per year, and 70 percent of adults give away money. More than half receive no tax benefit for their giving because they file a short tax form.

So while your organization must be clear about the tax deductible status of your organization, this is clearly not a motivation for most people. You cannot lead a campaign by “offering people an opportunity to give and have a tax deductible donation.” It’s a rather lame argument, much like a car salesman saying “I’m giving you the opportunity to buy a new car.”

More than anything, donors are motivated by thier own experiences and values. A review of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs reveals many of the reasons that people donate fall into the higher categories of love/belonging/social needs, esteem needs, and self-actualization.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at the top 5 reasons that people generally donate to charitable causes:

1. Personal Experience

Donors will often feel an affinity for a cause for a variety reasons related to their life experiences. This is most evident in causes that relate to health. If someone has been diagnosed at some time in his or her life with a serious illness, or one of their close friends or family members has, they are acutely aware of the needs of patients. For example, people who have had cancer often participate in events such as the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life and the Komen Race for the Cure. By donating they are able to contribute to a cause that they themselves have been affected by or honor their loved ones who were.

Many other causes attract support because of a donors past experience. Just today a friend who works at the local Girl Scout Council announced that because of recent flooding in the area their camp had to be shut down. All the remaining weeks of summer camp were canceled and the main building is now just a shell.

While I was in Camp Fire rather than Girl Scouts, summer camp was one of the formative events of my childhood. I went to Camp Fire camp for four years and to our church camp every year until high school graduation. So when Rachel told us about the devastation at the camp I was immediately emotionally stirred. I imagined it was my childhood camp that was destroyed! While I may never set foot on this particular camp that was damaged, a donation will help them rebuild to ensure that children have the same opportunity that I did.

2. They want to make a difference.

People often say they donate or volunteer in order to “make a difference.” This phrase means many different things to many different people.

Some people want to make an impact in the lives of an individual person. They would like to see a lasting and tangible change as the result of their contribution. They may not even be concerned with how long this change takes, just so long as it does take place. Other people want to see an immediate impact, for example food distributed to those who are hungry and other types of emergency aid. Still others have a long term vision for a societal change they want to see take place.

Another element of “making a difference” is simply a grateful spirit that wishes to give back to society.

3. They want to do something active about a problem or take a stand on a particular issue.

Mal Warwick, in his book How to Write Successful Fundraising Letters describes this one quite well:

Today we are bombarded by information about the world’s problems through a wide variety of channels. Although we may isolate ourselves…we can’t escape from knowing about misery, injustice, and wasted human potential. Often we feel powerless in the face of this grim reality. Charity offers us a way to respond.

Many social problems seem too large for any one person to make a difference. Making a donation gives the donor personal power over a complex issue that is much larger than himself. It’s one way that we can feel more in control of our world.

Making financial donations is also a way to take a stand on an issue. Political candidates, lobbying organizations and hot button issue groups all receive contributions from people who are voting with their dollars.

4. They are motivated by personal recognition and benefits.

Mal Warwick, again in his book How to Write Successful Fundraising Letters says, “You appeal to donors’ egos - or to their desire to heighten their public image - when you offer to recognize their gifts in an open and tangible way.”

While the psychological reasons and desires for each of the following motivations are somewhat different, I’m putting them all in this recognition and benefits category:

1. Many people like to be publicly acknowledged for their gifts to charity. On the high end of this scale is a building naming rights program. Donor recognition plaques large and small serve to acknowledge gifts. Sometimes just a simple “thank you” is all a person needs. All of these fulfill a psychological and emotional need to be recognized.

2. People donate because you give them something tangible in return. If someone doesn’t have a strong interest in the cause they may be more likely to make a donation or other type of support when they get something of value in return. This is where special events and product sales often come in. Other times the “thank you gift” is just that extra push that convinces someone to go ahead and donate.

2. Donating allows them to associate with a well known person or social set. The traditional black tie gala is one example of instances where socialites may buy a ticket or table just to “see and be seen.” Other times people may make a donation to a cause that a celebrity endorses, as a roundabout way of being associated with someone they admire. Celebrity endorsement often provides additional trustworthiness to the organization, so the donor will lend support because they become more convinced of the group’s worthiness.

5. Giving is a good thing to do.

While all of the above reasons and many others may be true, there is no doubt that the majority of people simply believe in the value of giving itself. Some give out of an accepted moral or spiritual obligation. Others subconsciously know that it just feels good to give.

Jeff Brooks in his blog post Yet again: scientists show that giving is good says:

Giving is good. It just feels good. Scientists will back me up on that. A recent NIH study looked into people’s brains with MRIs while they made decisions to give….Dr. Jorge Moll, the lead researcher on the study, said what they saw “strongly supports the existence of ‘warm glow’ at a biological level. It helps convince people that doing good can make them feel good; altruism therefore doesn’t need to be ONLY sacrifice.”

As non profit leaders and fundraisers, we face many struggles in seeing our vision fulfilled. A belief in the basic goodness of people and their generosity reminds us of why we started this work in the first place and gives that extra bit of energy to keep going.

8 Comments »

So much of the literature, seminars and talk about fundraising deals with individual strategies. There are many books on how to write fundraising letters, how to plan events, and other “how to” information. Admittedly much of this website tends to focus on “fundraising ideas” and how-to’s.

All of this practical information is extremely useful, especially when you’re suddenly in charge of fundraising for the first time. Having those practical guides can make the difference in whether a fundraising campaign is successful or not. (It can also make the experience much less stressful for you and your volunteers!)

However, one of the most fundamental aspects about fundraising doesn’t seem to get near as much discussion — that is, why people give.

By reviewing the reasons that people give or don’t give to non profit organizations, we can be more sensitive to donor’s needs. We will also be more likely to choose the right fundraising strategy and execute it more effectively.

In this series we’ll cover these basic questions:

1. Why do people donate to charitable causes?
2. Why would they donate to your organization in particular?
3. What reasons would someone NOT want to donate to your organization?

No Comments »

64 minature cars raced along the track at Hobbytown, U.S.A. for their charity race in Glen Burnie, Maryland on Saturday, July 7th. The event raised $870 for Race Against Abuse of Children Everywhere Foundation. While the charity race was the only “charity meet” for the racing season at Hobbytown, U.S.A., racers are at the location weekly during the spring and summer.

The cars are as authentic as they can be: at a one-tenth scale. The racers have to make exactly the same tight turns at a high speed that the NASCAR drivers do. But a real challenge is that the racers are outside of their cars, with a remote control driving their car along the track.

Cars can cost a racer $250 to start, but prices soon begin to rise from there. Gadgets in the car can bring the price of the car up higher to reach several hundred dollars.

No Comments »