Successful Fundraisers?

[Lamb]

What kinds of fundraisers have you personally done for your church, school, other organization that was successful?

 

[Josiah]

I hate fundraisers.

They are all based on horribly overcharging for something you probably don't want - the profit typically going to the company that provides the thing you don't want, the charity getting an absurdly small amount. And the charity putting in a lot of effort doing work that has nothing to do with their charity.

Those cute little girls selling cookies? I just give them a ten dollar bill donation and skip the cookies. Those little BSA boys selling popcorn for 1000% more than what's charged inside the store? Same thing. Now, I'm counting on them not pocketing my contribution.

My beloved and I give about 15% of our income to charity. But we give to only a FEW of them and we do it carefully and deliberately, to ones we KNOW are very good and have excellent stewardship. And typically it's done monthly via automatic payment. But yeah, local Little League, the Girl and Boy Scouts... I'll give a tiny amount in cash if approached.

Blessings!

Josiah



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[Lamb]

I hate fundraisers.

They are all based on horribly overcharging for something you probably don't want - the profit typically going to the company that provides the thing you don't want, the charity getting an absurdly small amount. And the charity putting in a lot of effort doing work that has nothing to do with their charity.

Those cute little girls selling cookies? I just give them a ten dollar bill donation and skip the cookies. Those little BSA boys selling popcorn for 1000% more than what's charged inside the store? Same thing. Now, I'm counting on them not pocketing my contribution.

My beloved and I give about 15% of our income to charity. But we give to only a FEW of them and we do it carefully and deliberately, to ones we KNOW are very good and have excellent stewardship. And typically it's done monthly via automatic payment. But yeah, local Little League, the Girl and Boy Scouts... I'll give a tiny amount in cash if approached.

Blessings!

Josiah



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How about when your church has fundraisers?

 

[Castle Church]

When I was in Youth one summer we did one where we had a bunch of plastic pink flamingos and someone in the church could pay to "flock" your house. A few youth would take the flamingoes one night and put them all in your front yard. You could then pay to "flock" someone else, or just let the youth minister know you were not interested and we would come get them.

I forget exactly how much each flocking cost, but it was something like $25. Someone donated the flamingoes, so there were not any expenses as the kids drove them around and put them out. We had a few "flocks" of 25 birds going at a time, so it was quite successful.

 

[Josiah]

How about when your church has fundraisers?

Never does.

Now, my former CATHOLIC church, OMG, no one was expected to give ANYTHING to Jesus unless there's something in it - a tamale, a ride on a pony, a polish hot dog, something.


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[tango]

Overall I'd second what Josiah said. If I want to support a charity I'll give them some money rather than paying well over the odds for something I don't really want. The kind of "fundraiser" where I pay $15 for a product from some nearby business that's normally $8 but the extra goes, well, hopefully to the charity but you can never be entirely sure, when I don't particularly want the product anyway, isn't something I have any interest in doing.

When our church does fundraisers the money goes directly to the cause. We've done a few things - dinners, auctions, all sorts of things. Usually they are well attended and well supported. Admittedly when we have an auction there's always an element of flexing when it comes to bidding - sometimes things go for silly low prices and every once in a while a bidding war breaks out just for the sake of it. Usually I'm not really into that kind of thing either - it seems like people shouting over each other to show who is giving the most money - but there are a few specific things I'll really go for because I know they are good. Those things are typically specific home made goodies made by specific people in the church. Everybody knows how good they are.

 

[Lamb]

Never does.

Now, my former CATHOLIC church, OMG, no one was expected to give ANYTHING to Jesus unless there's something in it - a tamale, a ride on a pony, a polish hot dog, something.


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You don't have any groups in your church that try to raise funds like a Youth Group or a ladies group?

Overall I'd second what Josiah said. If I want to support a charity I'll give them some money rather than paying well over the odds for something I don't really want. The kind of "fundraiser" where I pay $15 for a product from some nearby business that's normally $8 but the extra goes, well, hopefully to the charity but you can never be entirely sure, when I don't particularly want the product anyway, isn't something I have any interest in doing.

When our church does fundraisers the money goes directly to the cause. We've done a few things - dinners, auctions, all sorts of things. Usually they are well attended and well supported. Admittedly when we have an auction there's always an element of flexing when it comes to bidding - sometimes things go for silly low prices and every once in a while a bidding war breaks out just for the sake of it. Usually I'm not really into that kind of thing either - it seems like people shouting over each other to show who is giving the most money - but there are a few specific things I'll really go for because I know they are good. Those things are typically specific home made goodies made by specific people in the church. Everybody knows how good they are.

Ah, so you've taken part in dinners and auctions? Did they earn enough money for their cause?

 

[tango]

You don't have any groups in your church that try to raise funds like a Youth Group or a ladies group?

Most of that sort of thing is funded through the church budget. Every once in a while there's a fundraiser for one cause or another - the youth group raised some money to go on a mission trip, for example. Sometimes if an event is hosted in our hall we'll have a bake sale in the kitchen, that raises money for the kitchen.

Ah, so you've taken part in dinners and auctions? Did they earn enough money for their cause?

I'm not sure whether "enough" is always a relevant concept. Sometimes an event has a specific target, for example the kids raising money for the mission trip had a goal although had they missed it there was enough in the youth budget to cover the shortfall (they raised enough that they didn't need the budget). Other times we look to help with a specific need even without a specific goal in mind. We had one couple leave the area to set up a youth ministry elsewhere and we raised several thousand dollars to help get them started. We have a couple of people in the church with very specific needs (I won't go into detail on a public forum) and sometime we raise funds to help them.

Although I prefer a simple request for financial help than an invitation to pay over the odds for something I don't want, there is a big difference between paying $20 for a $10 item I don't want (because it's for charity, innit) and hoping that at least some of that $20 makes it anywhere other than the business behind the fundraiser, and paying $20 for something I will use knowing every penny of it goes to a cause I can support.

Sometimes we'll host a meal where we accept donations rather than setting a price. It's the kind of thing where people could come along and eat heartily without contributing anything, or eat very little and contribute generously. It's also handy because for people with less predictable incomes it means if you're having a bad month you can still attend and eat and not be expected to pay a specific amount, and if you're having a good month you can give a little more without specifically overpaying. It also means that people who really can't afford to pay much (or maybe can't afford anything) aren't made to feel like they aren't welcome.

 

[Josiah]

You don't have any groups in your church that try to raise funds like a Youth Group or a ladies group?

The Youth Group is funded via the church budget.

We don't have a ladies group.



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[Lamb]

If there was a fundraiser like this, would you participate: a science project board filled with envelopes taped to it and in each envelope is a random amount between $1 and $10 for you to donate to that fundraiser. You don't know how much you're donating until you pick an envelope and you can choose as many as you want. Would that be something you'd do?

 

[Josiah]

IMO, if you want to get donations, sell the NEED/OPPORTUNITY rather than the gimmick. Why is this a worthy thing? Why would I WANT to support this? For me, I don't care how my donation is being lessened by giving me something I don't want.


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[tango]

If there was a fundraiser like this, would you participate: a science project board filled with envelopes taped to it and in each envelope is a random amount between $1 and $10 for you to donate to that fundraiser. You don't know how much you're donating until you pick an envelope and you can choose as many as you want. Would that be something you'd do?

Probably not. It doesn't seem to offer me anything at all, beside the chance to give an unknown amount. Why not just ask for $10 and be done with it?

 

[Josiah]

Why not just ask for $10 and be done with it?

MAYBE the cause isn't worthy.... something more needs to be added, made the point? Seems to ME, if the cause is worthy of my $10 then why deduct from that to give me cookies (or whatever) that I don't want?




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[Lanman87]

What kinds of fundraisers have you personally done for your church, school, other organization that was successful?

I've never done anything for my church. We don't tend to have fundraisers. The closest thing we have is a sister church has an advent market in November where vendors sell Crafts and Christmas decorations. Our church provides staff and organization help for the market. The vendors sell at their normal prices but agree to donate part of the profits to a particular mission organization/project.

Now as for school/youth baseball/marching band I've sold all kinds of overpriced garbage. Mums, apples, sheets, frozen pizza, chicken stew, chocolate bars, and BBQ Ribs. The ribs were actually really good and I had people asking me about them the next year.

My community used to have an annual "bean day" where one of the local groups would cook huge pots of pinto beans and cornbread and sell them to the public for some community group (I don't remember which one). Anyway, that came to a halt when they didn't cook the beans properly and gave dozens of people food poisoning.