Fundraising / Charity Ideas Blog

Paul McWhorter’s math class might go down in history as the coolest ever. Several of his students were looking for a service learning project and boy did they come to the right math teacher! Paul’s  daughter Elizabeth is currently working as a missionary nurse for an orphanage in Kenya. During a web chat with student juniors Austin Stapp, Blaine Mitchell, Alex McMayon, Mary Lou Martinez, Ryan Espinosa and Lane Griffin a plan was developed to help the orphanage kids.

“The children at Mattaw receive a well-balanced diet and are well-nourished,” McWhorter said recently in an email from Kenya. “However, when we rescue orphaned or abandoned children off the streets, they are often very malnourished and suffer from a number of health challenges.

“I mentioned (to the students) that vitamin supplements would be a good thing for all the children, but in particular would be beneficial for those children just rescued, and those with more serious medical conditions.”

The Eldorado Texas students have developed a Web-based project called Cards for Kenya that raises money to buy vitamins for children.

But before we get into that we have to meet another player in this. His name is Peter and he’s a budding photographer. Peter is one of the children at the orphanage and one day he became fascinated with a camera. Since then he’s been chronicling his friends and experiences at the orphanage. The idea of selling his photos came to the Eldorado students and it seems like a great exchange for everyone!

The project has raised more than $900, and with part of that they bought a three months’ supply of multivitamins. Paul McWhorter visited his daughter over the Christmas holidays and took the vitamins with him to save on shipping costs. The students will soon be sending another shipment.

Since then the high school students have received their fare share of exposure. They have done interviews for local lions clubs and radio stations and today their blog was updated with a front page article on them!

Check out their website cardsforkenya.org and I think you’ll find these are cool kids fundraising for a great cause. These students show us that school fundraising isn’t just about raising money for the campus but helping those in need. Great school spirit if you ask us!

If you like Peters pictures or just want to support the cause, purchase a print on their site.

Now you tell us, how is your school or charity project taking action and getting involved this year?

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Not all of our posts can be light and fluffy. Today we have to get into more of a serious tone.  Well today we have to get into tough issues.

With tight financial times and budget cuts many schools are cutting services and activities.  Without fundraising, many school districts are looking at starting pay for play fees for their sports programs. Students will be looking at increases of 150% while services like busing to events would be slashed. Many schools are also looking at dropping the amount of sports offered and cutting costs just about any way they can.

 40 states are coping with budget shortfalls totaling $140 billion, which will threaten America’s 14,000 school districts for the next five years, one analyst said Thursday.

Disadvantaged students will feel the pinch the most. Many families won’t be able to afford to send kids.  Registration for student atheletes will decline and multi sports players will have to choose between activities. Some very serious financial decisions will have to be made for this year and the 2012-2013 sports season.

 If your school or community is fighting to keep their sports teams going then please consider calling us. At the very least we can give you information on what can be done for you. There are ideas you can use to help you keep these sports programs available to students. We have ideas that will work and are designed for teams in your position.

Contact us for school sports fundraising ideas.

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Ok …so anybody out there know how to get customer service from twitter? We’ve sent a few emails to them and altough they promise a response in a day or two, I’ve crossed off a month or so on the calendar just waiting ( I did some research on the web and I’m not liking what I’m seeing  ).

 I was wondering if anybody out there has had issues with their twitter account and how they resolved it.

Comments appreciated.

   Everyone needs a night out at times. Giving the ladies time with their friends and an opportunity to see the latest fashions is a great occasion. With a tie in to raising money, you can turn this event into a successful fundraiser. If you are helping your local school, church or community organization fundraise for their needs, a fashion fundraising gala is an exciting opportunity for everyone involved.

 This is a larger more complex fundraiser to put on so you need a team of people to help. It has such excitement to it that people will be willing to help.

Gather The Talent

 Ask local colleges or universities if their students would look exposure for their fashions. Students are looking to make a mark for themselves and get noticed for their talents. This is a great opportunity for them because they can publicize their clothing and get noticed.

 Contact local modeling agencies and ask if their models would donate their time to the event. This works in the same way as the fashion designers. Models will do it for the experience and if the cause is a good one. Models will volunteer their time to make connections in their industry as well as the cause. It also gives them experience walking a runway so it fills out their modeling resume. You always have volunteers who would take advantage of this time to wear new clothes in such a fun event.  

 Accessorize Your Models

 You can make a few calls to local clothing stores because the models will need shoes, at a minimum. Other nice touches like jewelry, scarves, and hats give companies a chance to showcase their stock. Offer to put in free advertising for the businesses. The local companies will appreciate the good press.

 Sell Tickets

 Have your volunteers and participants sell tickets and put up posters. Advertise the event at work, schools, social media sites and churches. Your going to be running a fairly large show with lots of volunteers involved, so tap into their network of friends. People know people and this will generate ticket sales plus added advertising.

 There are other outlets for cost effective advertising in your area.  Call local radio and TV stations which donate a portion of their time to local fundraising activities. All these avenues take just a minute to fill out a form but add a lot to your bottom line.

A Concession Stand For Extra Income

 Have a few finger foods at an on site cafeteria. Food and drink will add an extra stream of income to your night. It’s a finishing touch to your night and takes a few minutes to organize.

 Those are some tips to help you run a successful fashion fundraising gala. I’m sure you can add more to our quick list. What worked for you when you produced yours?  Drop a comment and help others who are thinking of doing this activity.

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    I’m always excited to see the spring fundraisers start, it means there are new fundraising ideas coming  ( plus I’m closer to wearing shorts, which is important too! ). We get to see schools and community organizations start hitting the streets. Everything starts thawing and beginning to move again.

People respond well to the thought of spring. They come out from inside and are looking forward to getting going again. Outside activities like Gardening come to mind for a lot of people. We’re seeing great fundraising ideas tied into this.

In Ontario the 219th Toronto Scouts are putting on their own version of a green spring fundraiser. They are really rolling up their sleeves and getting into it. The fundraising work that kids in scouts and sports teams have been doing lately has been good for generating money, helping the environment and for keeping people active.  Check out our post Hockey Team Puts On Environmental Fundraiser.

The  Scout Troop, headquartered at the All Saints’ Kingsway Anglican Church at 2850 Bloor St. W., will be taking to the streets of south Etobicoke,  Saturday March 31 this month, taking orders for peat moss, top soil, manure, mixed soil, pine bark mulch, indoor potting soil, and natural cedar mulch.

“Gardening products are something people can use, which is why this is such a good fundraiser,” said parent volunteer Mary McGavin

The money generated from the door to door spring fundraiser will be used to send the troop to the 2013 Jamboree in Calgary.

For more information, call McGavin at 416-234-9519 or Scout Master William ‘Skip’ Nickle at 905-820-7179

For those of you interested in other gardening ideas you can check out our spring flower bulb fundraisers. Guaranteed to bloom so even if you don’t have a green thumb these bulbs will still flower for you.

So many organizations need a little bit of your time, so choose an organization that interests you and get involved.

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Monthly Observances

National Epilepsy Month

National Nutrition Month

Save Your Vision Month

National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month

Weekly Observances

March 5 – 9 National School Breakfast Week

March 5 – 11 National Sleep Awareness Week

March 18 – 24 National Poison Prevention Week

Daily Observances

March 8 World Kidney Day

March 10 National Womens and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day

March 21 Kick Butts Day

March 22  World Water Day

March 24 World Tuberculosis Day

March 27 American Diabetes Alert Day  

We help many Non Profits raise money for their causes. So to help them we’re spreading the word on their issues. If you have an event that is happening this month and you think it belongs on the list or wish help fundraising for it, leave a comment or contact us  .

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We would like to take a look at a link exchange with similar blogs and websites.

Do you have a website or a blog that is closely related to ours? It should cover one of the following: Fundraising Idea topics, Charity news and maybe even general good news topics.

If you have a blog or website that covers these topics in some way we would like to hear from you. We would look at your site and consider adding a link from our blog. You would put a link to our blog as well.

If this seems interesting to you send us an email at justfundraising@gmx.com . We’d love to hear from you.

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   I’m gonna file this under the good news category. Ok here’s how I figure this fits in to this blog.  Random Acts of Kindness are performed by people who do their part to make this a better world. Pretty much what I think fundraisers do, they pick something that needs a little work and they go out and do it. Whether that means fundraising for school sports, church fundraising or Non Profit it all counts.

 Thus I think this post belongs here.  Are you feelin me?

The Random Acts of Kindness Foundation is a webpage full of ideas from people doing their part. They have stories about random acts of kindness and teacher resources for starting a movement in your school. Check out the teacher lesson plans and kindness stories for teachers.  The news you hear on TV and radio seems to focus on the negative and hardly touches on the positive. I think you’ll feel uplifted to hear such good things coming out of schools.

There are plenty of resources for those not in school so don’t feel like your off the hook either!

            Helping Hand

Ok so we challenge you to get involved in some way this year. Get up off the couch, put away the DVD season packs and donate a little time and effort to your favourite cause. Contact us for fundraising ideas when your ready. We’re waiting for ya.

PS

Drop a comment and let us know how your Random Act of Kindness went.

Also

Stuff like this never really makes the news. But it should. Click on the share buttons to spread the word.

It’s worth it.

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We try and bring you interesting stories and tips from the fundraising world. It’s interesting to see the ideas and success stories from people helping their causes.

This post is actually about us because we have an simple and interesting  way to help your efforts.

We have a really great deal on scratch cards until the end of the month. The scratch cards are simple to start and can be used with groups as small as 5! Even if you have a fundraising event planned a scratch card fundraiser can be tagged on quickly and easily.

Until the end of February we’re kicking in two bonuses:

• 30% extra free cards
• 1 Free custom T-shirt per card

Whether your fundraising for your school, sports team or community, now is the time to act.

Contact us at 1-866-880-8884 

Next time we’re back to the fundraising stories…we promise!

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 Everybodies favorite Dark Knight is now fighting Hunger.  DC Entertainment and Warner Brothers announced that it will create a fundraising campaign to fight hunger and drought in the Horn of Africa.

The We Can Be Heroes Campaign will generate the funds for Save the Children, International Rescue Committee and Mercy Corps with its 100 percent gift-matching campaign and specially branded merchandise.

“We are a global company, and this is a global issue,” Warner Bros., Chairman and CEO Barry Meyer said in a statement. “By marshalling our expertise in consumer and fan engagement and creating global awareness, we hope we’re able to inspire others to join us in becoming ‘heroes’ and make a difference.

Check out the video that’s been produced for the campaign:

Help Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, The Flash, Aquaman and Cyborg fight huger in the Horn of Africa by buying a shirt, mug or thermos or ipod case.

While doing some research for this post I’ve read a lot of comments about what governments should be doing and who isn’t doing what. People have even dropped comments about not supporting these campaigns in an act to force govenments to help out. While in theory there might be something to this, in the meantime cutting off the funding for this campaign is only hurting those who need it the most.

Please contribute by spreading the word about this by clicking on our social media icons.

Comments appreciated.

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