Fundraising Ideas.

Hoorah · June 08, 2009, 02:23:04 AM

What can we sell for fundrasing that would be good to sell.

Johnny Yuma · June 08, 2009, 02:29:24 AM

Plasma. You can donate 4X/month at about $25.00/pint. That's $100.00 per cadet a month. Load up the van and drive 'em down.

davidsinn · June 08, 2009, 02:56:02 AM

Quote from: capcadetwilliams on June 08, 2009, 02:23:04 AM
What can we sell for fundrasing that would be good to sell.

Questions are supposed to end in a question mark.

Did your squadron ask you to come up with fund raising ideas? If so the intent was to come up with them on your own and not to have them give them to you.

Pylon · June 08, 2009, 04:02:12 AM

I am typically against selling anything for fundraisers, with a few exceptions. 9 times out of ten, fundraisers have a low-yield to high-manhours ratio. Lots of people, and/or lots of time and effort needs to be put in to reap a relatively low reward.

For many squadron needs, grants, corporate giving programs and private funding exist which could easily provide with often as little as a request letter or a quick face-to-face meeting. Those are high-yield to low-manhours in ratio.

CAPSGT · June 08, 2009, 11:03:00 AM

I agree that sales are generally a bad investment of time. A lot of people would rather just donate the money instead of buying some junk they don't really want to begin with.

Although I am getting ready to do a fundraiser selling tickets to a minor league baseball game. The nice thing about that one is that we are using it as a morale boosting/social event for the unit (get a lot of squadron members going to the game) and a recruiting tool (members bring friends).

A lot of restaurants have "benefit nights" where they donate a portion of their sales to the unit. The details vary from restaurant to restaurant, and some require some staffing the unit for the event, but otherwise it can be a chance for the members of the squadron and their families to all go out for dinner and have a good time raising money for the squadron.

Orville_third · June 30, 2009, 10:03:20 PM

Quote from: CAPSGT on June 08, 2009, 11:03:00 AM
A lot of restaurants have "benefit nights" where they donate a portion of their sales to the unit. The details vary from restaurant to restaurant, and some require some staffing the unit for the event, but otherwise it can be a chance for the members of the squadron and their families to all go out for dinner and have a good time raising money for the squadron.

Our squadron has done something similar, however, we have had to (recently) submit it to NHQ for approval. Any suggestions as to how to allow this without having to jump through so amny hoops?

Also, it has been suggested that Cadets (and Seniors) hold a plane wash. (Like a car wash, only with planes...)

jimmydeanno · June 30, 2009, 10:18:45 PM

PLANT FUNDRAISER: Our unit just completed a plant fundraiser two months ago. The deal was 50/50 on the sales. We ran it for two weeks with the cadets selling stuff. Each cadet who participated sold about 200 dollars worth of plants which netted us around $1,200 for the unit. That's twice what we spent last year out of the squadron kitty.

APPLEBEES: Applebees offers two different fundraisers that work pretty well. The first is a pancake breakfast. They supply the cooks, the venue, the dishes, etc. You sell tickets in advance for whatever you want to; 5, 7, 10 dollars, whatever you'd like. They get 2 dollars per person that shows up. That means if you sell 500 tickets at 5 dollars ($2,500) and only have 50 people show up, you only need to give them $100 - netting you $2,400. They give you a two hour period of time on a weekend morning. You need to supply people to serve food and some prep people for the back. The catch is that you can't have anyone under 18 in the kitchen.

The second one they call "dine in to donate." This is a predetermined night where a percentage of the sales from anyone who says they are there to support your cause gets donated to you. You don't even need to be there. So, you arrange it ahead of time and you can negotiate the amount. The local store manager said he'd be willing to donate 15% of his sales from that night to us. On a weekday night they average about 5K in sales (non alcohol). That'll give you $750 dollars if you can convince everyone coming in to participate.

There are a bunch of other restaurants that do similar, but I'm familiar with the applebees ones. Hope that helps.

RiverAux · July 17, 2009, 10:04:56 PM

QuotePLANT FUNDRAISER: Our unit just completed a plant fundraiser two months ago. The deal was 50/50 on the sales. We ran it for two weeks with the cadets selling stuff. Each cadet who participated sold about 200 dollars worth of plants which netted us around $1,200 for the unit. That's twice what we spent last year out of the squadron kitty.

Was this working a roadside stand or something door to door?

Not a whole lot of ideas got thrown out on this thread....

Daniel · July 17, 2009, 10:10:27 PM

Sellling for worlds finest chocolate worked for my karate class im talking $3,000.

catch is you have to wait for easter to sell the stuff people will buy

jimmydeanno · July 17, 2009, 10:15:24 PM

Quote from: RiverAux on July 17, 2009, 10:04:56 PM
QuotePLANT FUNDRAISER: Our unit just completed a plant fundraiser two months ago. The deal was 50/50 on the sales. We ran it for two weeks with the cadets selling stuff. Each cadet who participated sold about 200 dollars worth of plants which netted us around $1,200 for the unit. That's twice what we spent last year out of the squadron kitty.
Was this working a roadside stand or something door to door?

Not a whole lot of ideas got thrown out on this thread....

The plant fund raiser was a "door to door" type fundraiser, like Girl Scout Cookies. They had a list of available plants, and order sheet, and their cute little faces to say, "I can't go to summer camp unless I sell 10,000 petunias..."

In reality, most of them just took the forms home, mom and dad brought the order sheets to work and gave them back with some orders.

You submit the orders to the local nursery that you've partnered with and you get some boxes with the plants in peat pots ready to plant. Divvy them up and give them to the people who ordered them.

It really wasn't very much work at all and had good results.

infinitefoxfire75 · July 28, 2009, 12:34:39 AM

Quote from: capcadetwilliams on June 08, 2009, 02:23:04 AM
What can we sell for fundrasing that would be good to sell.

Our Squadron have any type of fundraiser you can think of. It's awesome to ask your cadets to take a survey on what they would buy then think of a way to sell that. We had a cadet with an innovative idea to sell "goody bags" aka gift bags during the summertime.