OK, there is no polite way to ask this...Anyone good at fundraising?

I'm not going to go into the details here because many people have already heard the whole story about us and the Northwoods Humane Society.

Does anyone have any good suggestions about ways they can raise funds to build a new shelter?

I'm asking this as a serious question and would appreciate some serious answers (although a bit of humor isn't a bad thing, either).

If anyone needs more information or details about anything feel free to write me at NHSHelper@wi.rr.com

And, as always, thanks in advance

Ours mails raffle tickets to everyone on its mailing list. Those are usually pretty easy to sell; I always wind up taking them my collected money & asking for more to sell.

Ours has a "dog walk" party each spring, like a little pet fair. I know there are lots of ways they raise money w/ that, but the only one I can think of right now is the photo contest: several categories, and one votes for one's favorite in each category by stuffing a bill into the slot under the photo.

Yours probably has way better ideas than that -- let's exchange!

The shelter in Iron River is run strictly by volunteers. They don't really have a 'plan' that I can see as to how to raise funds.

They DID do a raffle last year. They sold 300 tickets at $50.00 each ($15,000) and then gave back $7000 in prizes. Well worth it, I thought. (We missed out on the chance to buy a ticket because they were all sold out by the time we got involved with them.)

Paul and I are trying to help them get stuff together as much as we can.

Currently I'm putting together an "Information Station" where people can grab info on subjects like "Poisonous plants", "Adopting Older Cats", "Travels with your pet", etc.

We're going to hold a rummage sale here in Milwaukee during the summer with items donated by my mom, my aunt, our personal banker and a few other people with all proceeds going to the shelter.

We also put out donation cans at the flea market shows we do and donate 10% of our sales to them, too.

However, I've never been much involved in fund-raising (selling pizzas in high school for camera club doesn't count) so I'm kind of at my wits end.

If you'd like to discuss stuff please do feel free to write me! I'm sure you've got some great thoughts or that we could come up with some together.

You probably need to work on getting some businesses involved here. You may try and work out something with the local labor folks--as in volunteer labor type stuff...

You could maybe talk to a local building supply place about getting materials at cost.

You could maybe ask to go into the local manufacturing plants and solicit for funds from employees.

If you want to get a bit more extreme with it--you could start working companies like Iams or Eukanuba (pet food makers) and see if they can help you out. Try contacting Animal Planet TY network even!

Something that I have seen done here locally, is a celebrety date auction and "black tie" ball. They hold this big deal dance once a year and they auction off dates with local celebs (TV guys/radio personalities/politicos) Gives everybody a chance to pay $50 to put on fancy duds and go out to play--but the celeb date auction really brings people in because the Celebs plug the event ahead of time so somebody will come bid on them!

You can try some grantwriting, but I'm not terribly optimistic about that in today's climate. A lot of funders are strapped for cash as well these days...

Just my two cents!

Laura

Thank you for the thoughts. I'm hoping to take several days off in April and go up there and spend a few days talking with them and other people. That's why I'm trying to get some thoughts now that I can go armed with.

I once saw an ad with a cute little kitty.

The photo was of a cat with a gun held to it's head and the caption was something like, "Contribute........or the cat get's it!!"

...course, nowadays, you could park a carbomb next to the cat.

Good luck, it's a good cause

The main problem that they have is the town has a population of about 3500 people. The local economy sucks.

Hell, we gave them a check for $146 after one show and you'd think we were giving them the keys to the city or something. One of the volunteers CRIED!

I got a wonderful card from one of the volunteers with a letter inside talking about how great we were, etc. I was embarassed. I wrote her back:

Dear Cynthia,

Thank you very much for the card and the note. They were very nice!

So Clare and Vicky told you about us, huh? I wonder if I should be afraid.

While we appreciate the sentiments we’re not ‘amazingly generous’. We only help as much as we can. The people who have donated to us – be it money or items – are the generous ones. We’ve gotten to meet many of you firsthand and know the work that you are doing. These folks have never met any of you but still are willing to help. THAT is amazing. It’s not often that people surprise me but those who support our efforts to help you do it every time they make a donation in the can or give us cash to send off to you.



Each time I talk to Clare or Vicky on the phone they are always saying thank you to us never realizing it is to them that we are grateful. They, and you and the rest of those who volunteer their time, show compassion to those who are unloved, unwanted or otherwise in need. THAT is something to be grateful for. We donate money and items. YOU donate something far more valuable. Yourself. So every time you get an envelope in the mail from Hearth & Home Gifts it is merely our way of saying, “Thank you for a job well done!” I only wish we could do more.

You all have enriched our lives already. The addition of these guys to our home has been far more fun than words can say. They make every day an adventure and it is thanks to your efforts that they now thrive in our home. Right now Dot is sleeping in my lap and Cider is sleeping next to Misty. Without Northwoods they would never have survived to make it here.


So, who should be thanked?


I hope that we get a chance to meet everyone the day the new shelter opens. We want to be there with our Northwoods family when the doors open for the first time so we can see people going “OOH and AHH” over something that we were all able to help bring into being.

We look forward to several visits in the coming year (at least as long as you all can stand to see us) and are eager to help in any way we can.

So, on behalf of Paul and Ken I’d like to say “Happy New Year” to all of you! We wish you all good health, continued happiness and much success.

Sincerely,

Will Bowden & Family
Northwoods Volunteer (SMILE)

I've heard (cough-cough) that they can be terrific fund raisers.

In fact, there's this little company I know that has scripts and production packages. . .

www.mysteriesbymoushey.com

eileen from OH (shameless self-promotion time)

. . . over the years. All I can say for certain is, if I knew how to do it easily, I wouldn't be sitting here giving you free advice.

I can remember some of the details for a campaign to build a new YMCA building in the small town where I grew up. The people who wanted to start the campaign hired consultants. They told them that 90% of the funds would come from a few major donors (of which my father was the smallest), and we needed to find one person who would contribute 10% of the funds. The last 10% would come from minor contributions from a large number of people, as much to get them vested in the project as anything else. You should put the names of the major donors on a plaque that will be prominently displayed at the new facility and have an awards dinner to thank them and present them with a framed certificate or plaque that they can hang on their den or office wall. You will want to schedule a time when one or two representatives can meet in the home of a prospective donor, or take them out to dinner at a medium cost restaurant.

Getting some literature together is important, so that you can make presentations to individuals or groups more easily. Power-Point presentations may be a good idea. Consider a web site where people can contribute by credit card or PayPal. They don't cost much anymore and they are good advertising.

Try to solidify your core campaign members, weekly meeting are good, punctuated by occasional social gatherings. Consider simple snacks at the meetings. You can delegate one person to bring drinks and another snacks for the next meeting, that way you are sure those two people will show up. Some people call this stroking.

garden party with good food and wine and run a silent auction...contact major banks, travel agencies, resorts, jewelery manufacturers, spas, and corps asking them to donate a service/goods or product then plan the venue .....advertise (all the papers ran ads and wrote it off as charitable contributions)invite everyone including the wealthy and if possible seek out a local celeb and ask them to host and auction these things off.

it worked for me last summer ....we raised $30,000 that day for capitial towards the purchase of building for a youth center...