Best CAP Fundraiser

RiverAux · February 08, 2009, 11:31:34 PM

What has been your unit's best fundraising activity? And by "best", I mean the most money for the least amount of work.

flyguync · February 09, 2009, 02:48:16 AM

Writing grants to Wal-Mart, office supply stores, and some industries (if any are left). It's easier than washing cars, selling stuff, and hearing excuses on why they didnt partcipate. Also if you get a donation / grant etc give them a thank you other than a piece of paper. We have a plaque made up and put either a sqdn patch or use the CAP seal (car bumper emblem) on it. It goes a long way for the next time you go calling for money.

Flying Pig · February 09, 2009, 03:15:34 AM

Sell fireworks for the 4th of July. He have made over $60,000 as a Sq. in about 6-8 years. One year alone we made about $18,000. You just need people to commit to working the booth. But we were only about a 15-20 member unit. We only have 2-3 people man it at a time usually committing about 1 day over the week leading up to the 4th. Just dont come to Fresno!

Johnny Yuma · February 09, 2009, 03:58:09 AM

Well, the "Women of CAP" calendars flopped, as the average age of a female member of CAP is something like 68 years old. I did hear they sold best at the old folk's homes.

We're currently marching the cadets down to sell plasma twice a week, but the fuel costs for driving many back in the van when they pass out on march back is cutting into our ROI...

Gunner C · February 09, 2009, 07:18:23 AM

Quote from: Johnny Yuma on February 09, 2009, 03:58:09 AM
Well, the "Women of CAP" calendars flopped, as the average age of a female member of CAP is something like 68 years old. I did hear they sold best at the old folk's homes.

We're currently marching the cadets down to sell plasma twice a week, but the fuel costs for driving many back in the van when they pass out on march back is cutting into our ROI...

ROTFL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

TEAM SURGE · February 09, 2009, 07:27:59 AM

Washing the PUD's trucks....we had to do it with 3 cadets and 1 swnior member there was somewhere around 45 trucks.

CAPSGT · February 09, 2009, 06:04:27 PM

Quote from: Flying Pig on February 09, 2009, 03:15:34 AM
Sell fireworks for the 4th of July. He have made over $60,000 as a Sq. in about 6-8 years. One year alone we made about $18,000. You just need people to commit to working the booth. But we were only about a 15-20 member unit. We only have 2-3 people man it at a time usually committing about 1 day over the week leading up to the 4th. Just dont come to Fresno!

Wish I could do that, but Maryland is very restrictive on fireworks to begin with (ground based items only), and my county is one of the ones that bans them entirely unless you have a license to do public fireworks displays.

jimmydeanno · February 09, 2009, 06:18:50 PM

Applebees has a fundraising deal (pancake breakfast) for non-profits. Essentially, you pick a date, they print you tickets. You sell the tickets for whatever price you can get for them, $5.00, $10.00, etc, before the date.

You supply the "help." (Note, only people over the age of 16 can go in the kitchen - so get those seniors together). They cook, you assemble and deliver the food. You start at around 0800 and get done at 1000.

Applebees charges you $2.00 for each person that shows up.

So, lets say you sell 200 tickets at $5.00, that's $1,000 and you only have 40 people show up. Your take home is $920.00.

We're going to be doing this here shortly and it looks like it'll work out well for us. If it does work, it will be our best fundraiser yet as we expect to sell many many tickets and have nobody show up

DC · February 09, 2009, 06:53:58 PM

We haven't tried anything fancier than car washes, though we have been looking into some grants.

We have had the best success with car washes by pre-selling tickets. A lot of people will buy one without any intention of coming to the car wash...

It used to be really awesome because Walmart would match whatever we made, but they stopped doing that last year, unfortunately. We can still bring in about $300 for one Saturday, so it's not too bad.

CAPSGT · February 10, 2009, 02:52:23 PM

Quote from: jimmydeanno on February 09, 2009, 06:18:50 PM
We're going to be doing this here shortly and it looks like it'll work out well for us. If it does work, it will be our best fundraiser yet as we expect to sell many many tickets and have nobody show up

I don't think you can scratch out the real date on the ticket and replace it with a fake one so that everyone shows up on the wrong day. Might want another strategy to get people to buy tickets and not show up, like tell everyone the day before that you think the pancakes are made with peanut products from some plant down south.