Sponsorship & Fundraising

[rebowman]

How does this sponsorship thing work? My squadron could really benefit from this kind of thing.

Another idea is fundraising.  Anyone have any ideas for fundraising projects.

2Lt Robin Law
Vermont Wing

[Pylon]

How does this sponsorship thing work? My squadron could really benefit from this kind of thing.

Another idea is fundraising.  Anyone have any ideas for fundraising projects.

2Lt Robin Law
Vermont Wing

Welcome to CAPTalk, Robin.   I hope you'll find a myriad of useful information here.

As for the sponsorship & fundraising bit, I just happen to be a fundraising professional.  I work for a local charity doing development & public relations type stuff.

Sponsorship is one of the best things to strive for, but you may find it will take some time to develop the relationships you need to get corporate sponsorships.  Generally, a sponsorship is when a local company or large company with local presence gives money to a local club, charity, or fraternal organization.  Usually, the company will get some sort of recognition for this -- company signage at a group event, or mention in the group's newsletter, logo on the sport's teams t-shirt, etc.

Sponsorships can vary greatly in size and scope.  We organize an annual awards dinner for my company's consumers, and we get one or two companies to be the "Presenting Sponsor" of the event for a mere $10,000 cash each.  We put their names on the flyers for the event, their ad in our event program, and signage at the event with their logo.  We get a lot of money to use towards our programs.  Very simple.

Other sponsorships don't necessarily revolve around events.  You might offer a "Sponsor a Cadet" package, wherein local companies could offer $400 and completely sponsor a cadet.  The $400 would outfit them with new and complete uniforms, and cover their membership fees and their first year's encampment fee, etc.  Any remaining monies go into the squadron coffer to pay for activities and classroom materials for the cadets.

Obtaining sponsorship is difficult and will require a great deal of effort.  You will need prepared information on Civil Air Patrol, as well as your squadrons annual budget/expenditures, and perhaps an itemized wish-list of items your squadron needs but can't afford.  Then, proposing this information in various ways to local organizations and companies is the big step.  Presentions on what CAP is, and then meeting with the leaders of local fraternal organizations may help -- examples include, Knights of Columbus, Elks/BPOE, Moose lodges, VFW, EAA, Masons, etc. 

In addition, you may want to try and arrange your unit to do a color guard ceremony at a local company, such as raising the flag on their new flagpole, or putting their flag at half-staff for veteran's day, etc.  Once a company sees your program in action, and has seen how you can benefit them and the community, issue a press release of the event and then try and scmooze the company for a donation.

You have to be tactful and professional the whole time, but after a long time of courting relationships with individuals in various local organizations & companies, you may find yourself with some donations.

The smaller fundraisers, wherein you go out and sell candybars or some other knick-knack item that you've got for a buck or two a pop, usually generate low profit returns for the amount of person-hours and up-front-cost you've got to invest in the program.  When you get a corporate donation, it's usually a larger sum (maybe $250 or $500 at the start, but they can certainly grow over time), and it's all profit.  You didn't have to sell 1,000 candy bars to the community to do it. 

Hope some of this advice helps, and of course, I'm always available for questions as are many more of our members.

[fyrfitrmedic]

[sigh]

This is yet another project that my father was working on when he passed away, and yet another project that desperately needs to get off the ground.

[rebowman]

Thanks 1Lt Kieloch, very useful ideas. Now I just got to go out and do it!!

2Lt Robin Law
Vermont Wing

[Pylon]

Thanks 1Lt Kieloch, very useful ideas. Now I just got to go out and do it!!

2Lt Robin Law
Vermont Wing

Getting started is always the hard part.  Once you get things really rolling, it's much easier to see it through.   

Good luck!

[lucylandy]

There are many ways for fundraising like events,pizzas,carwashing and especially now a days it is fundraising candies. fundraising candies is also a successful way. M&M fundraising candy boxes, creative thoughts, labeling, packaging, selling techniques, even lollipops, candy pizzas and fun-filled events, can all work as potential settings for successfully selling candy for fundraising purposes and a wide array of causes.


Admin Edit: Spam URL redacted

[Eclipse]

Sponsorships:
I would imagine there are many variations on this,m however most corporations are much more willing to assist in directly funding something specific (i.e. encampments, renovations, equipment) rather than just writing a check towards operating expenses.

Fund raising:
Be aware that most wings require any and all fund raising endeavors be approved at the wing level, and some types of fund raising activities now require approval at the national level.
The "forgiveness vs. permission" argument does not work as well when you start talking about money, especially if something shoudl go "wrong" in the process.

[stillamarine]

There are many ways for fundraising like events,pizzas,carwashing and especially now a days it is fundraising candies. fundraising candies is also a successful way. M&M fundraising candy boxes, creative thoughts, labeling, packaging, selling techniques, even lollipops, candy pizzas and fun-filled events, can all work as potential settings for successfully selling candy for fundraising purposes and a wide array of causes.

Nice, if you would have waited 10 days you could have resurrected a 2 y/o thread!

Nice way to slip the URL in there too 

[Eclipse]

There are many ways for fundraising like events,pizzas,carwashing and especially now a days it is fundraising candies. fundraising candies is also a successful way. M&M fundraising candy boxes, creative thoughts, labeling, packaging, selling techniques, even lollipops, candy pizzas and fun-filled events, can all work as potential settings for successfully selling candy for fundraising purposes and a wide array of causes.

Nice, if you would have waited 10 days you could have resurrected a 2 y/o thread!

Nice way to slip the URL in there too 

Geez...

I didn't even notice the link first way around.  The bizarre this is that although it appears that the site is trying to sell me something, there's doesn't appear to be any way to actually >buy< anything, and the verbiage must be written by someone with ESL, because it just rambles all over the place.

The domain is held by some VC clearinghouse.

edit: I wonder if this is some kind of metadata-seeding deal?

[Pylon]

Spam URL redacted.

See my first post regarding selling candy bars.

The smaller fundraisers, wherein you go out and sell candybars or some other knick-knack item that you've got for a buck or two a pop, usually generate low profit returns for the amount of person-hours and up-front-cost you've got to invest in the program.

For the vast amounts of effort and time, especially, that you'll put into things like selling little candies or trinkets, it's not that great.  I'd rather my cadets spend the valuable, short amount of time I have with them learning and participating in the Cadet Program.  Let the SM's worry about funding.