A year and a half ago my 7 year old son was diagnosed with a rare form of Juvenile Arthritis. It is terribly frustrating because very little is known about it, every time we ask questions, we hear "we just don't know". At any rate, there isn't a lot of awareness/funding for his condition and we have decided to participate in an "arthritis walk" to help do both. Unfortunately, I am terrible at asking people for help and money. I was wondering if any of you mamas who may have done things like this have any advice about how to proceed. How do you ask friends and family to donate without being awkward. How do involve your school or approach businesses. And any fundraising ideas, ie lemon aid stand, would be very helpful.
Thank you so much!
The walk you are participating in should have a fund raising campaign already put into place, so that you can use it to help raise money. Example; American Heart Association will have a website that you can personalize and send out the link to friends/family/business partners etc.. and they can donate through the site. I would ask the organization you are walking for about this. Good luck!
If you are participating in the arthritis walk, go to there website and there will be a lot of terrific ideas. It will probably be a form letter that you personalize and "tell your story" and can use to email family and friends. They are using very compelling and give a link to donate to the cause to support your participation in the walk. You can also post a link to it on a Facebook page which might be broader audience than just the ones that you send emails to. I know several people who have done this for MS, Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and ADA. If they are interested, they will do it. If not, you have not bothered them by just sending the email. You could see if your area has a local newspaper that runs one to two times a week. They might be interested in running a story if he has a rare form of the disease and include info on the walk and how to donate. Good luck!
I am a premier designs jeweler, who does fundraiser shows. You host a show and I give you 10% of my profits, which is 1/2 of the retail cost. Contact me at ____@____.com for more details.
We have fundraising socials and "Bud, Spud and Steak" fundraisers here. A social involves renting a community club, getting a liquor license and selling admission tickets. Businesses and individuals donate items for silent auction draws, 50/50 draws are done, there is a dj and a cash bar, and a light lunch is served at midnight. A Bud, Spud and Steak is done in a bar early in the evening before it opens to the public. Admission tickets are sold, the bar provides steak, potato, salad and a beer, the liquor license and the dj. There is a silent auction and 50/50 draws. A portion of all drink sales goes back to the fundraiser. I was part of the planning committee for a social fundraiser in the fall and we made about $3000.
If you want to raise funds on your own. You could always ask people to sponsor you in the walk. Or if you really want to have fun, you can turn it into a game. I am a consultant with Thirty-One Gifts. One of the popular things in my area is a Football-Poollike game called squares. You would make a grid of squares and number them from 1-100. You could sell the squares for $10 each. That would total $1000. With Thirty-One it takes $200 to make a "show", so you would pick a number once all the squares are sold. That number would win $200 in products and the other $800 would go to the cause. It is a win win situation, You get $800, the consultant gets credit for a show and the winner gets $200 worth of products.
Check in your area for consultants who might be willing to help you out with this. You might even be able to find a few Direct Sales Consultants who would be willing to help you out. I would love to help you, I have a niece with JRA, so it hits home for me, but I am in NJ.
Let me know if you have any other questions!! I would be more than willing to help you out in any way that I can!!!
Raffle, silent actions, community sale where you sell table spaces, etc.
If it is an organized walk, you should be able to send an email to your friends describing the event with a link to their website.
If this is something for your son, you could organize it through the school gym teacher where they would pass out flyers through the weekly folders, etc.
You can also sign up for GiveForward. http://www.giveforward.com/
