I am donating all my points - 8899

To the member that will list 10 best ideas for fundraising for an animal welfare...

the animal welfare is on a greek island, that mainly has tourism during summer, locals need lots of education (we are preparing an education program) and participate in our meetings.
Till now we have done the following -

donation boxes in shops
selling t-shirts
selling calendars every end of year
second hand bazaar last summer (good profits)

I dont really use my points and we need some fresh ideas


Thanks to all !!

Ronit

I don't want points and I'm too lazy to come up with 10 ideas

Here in this town they're trying to get a shelter built and have had:

Pet parades - with and without costumes if you wish.

Lottery/drawing - people put in $5 for the dog or cat basket ticket, local pet shops and businesses can donate to it - probably give them a space at a booth you have somewhere and list them as your sponsors.

Little skit and tricks at small craft and art thing - dog was well trained and was also a therapy dog. Public education involved in this too.

You could also write creative articles for your local paper once a week. Maybe include pet care and clean up tips.

-Auction items
-A Casino Night, where people pay for chips and are playing for raffle tickets or prizes.
-Host a dinner/party where people pay to attend (this might appeal to tourists, especially if the food is local favorites)
-Sell some kind of food item, like a bake sale
-Car wash?
-If there's a website, maybe people on the internet would like to "sponsor" an animal by donating money for living expenses
-Sell something that tourists might buy(what are the main tourist attractions?), with the organization's name?

Pie throwing is a big seller! Get a cop to volunteer to get a pie thrown at them!! (I lost 50 buck that way!! I nailed the Chief of Police though! hehe)
Have a DJ sponcer some air time!!
Bake sale!
Door to door raffle tickets (daunting work, but Ive come up with a lot of doe re me for our humane society that way)
Childrens carnival, ring toss, ya know, kids games!
Stickers... have some made!
Plastic rubber braclets with your cause on them, cheap, and every kid in the world wants them.
Donation can in gas stations and stores... keep in mind the lids will need to be taped on or some jerk will clepto theivo your donations!
I like the calender Idea, but its been used alot... maybe try a day to day calendar instead or a monthly one! Or even a weekly one!
Have bottles of water made with pics of the pets, sell them for a couple bucks a piece on a really hot day!

At the end of the summer, some outdoor pools will have a "dog day" the last day (they stop adding cholorine several days before), and the doggies can swim in the pool. It's an amazing amount of fun, and people will pay lots to watch their doggies have fun.

I don't know whether you are in the US or Greece, but here are some fundraising ideas:

Have a charity dinner for the cause.
Charge everyone for dinner plus entertainment.
The bar is no host and be sure to have plenty of Ouzo.
Have Greek musicians play at the tables and get tips (people will give them). Have lovely young ladies stroll with the musicians and dance. (they will get tips, too). BTW, these are persons donating their time and the tips go to you.
Have a silent auction with donated gifts and services that are moderately priced.
Have a live auction for higher ticket items. These can include dinners for 10 at someone's house for food prepared in some special way, a week at someone's condo, a trip on a hot air balloon, etc.

Lastly, have a raffle grand prize. Pick some sort of trip. Get someone who has a place that persons would like to go. Put together others who can donate money for airfare. Charge $25 per ticket, 5 for $100 (or whatever, just so there is a break for the extra ticket.) Make it an elimination raffle. Only sell a set number of tickets. During the evening, call off drawn numbers who did not win. Only have the last 5 remaining ticket holders up "on stage" at the end of the night. This keeps the suspense growing for the ticket holders and for everyone who wants to see who's won.

So, if you are in Greece, change this so it would be a city somewhere else. Make it a theme for the party and the destination. For example, Mardi Gras in France, or the US or in Central and South America. The running of the bulls in Spain, shrimp on the barbie in Australia. It can be something smaller, but always ask donors for as much as they can give.

Oh, how about a trip to see one of the dog or cat shows?

Good luck?

I will divide the points between the most listed ideas...
Thank you ALL !
Some of the ideas are really great ! (I do not think though that cops here will volunteer to get a cake thrown at them.... - although many people would like to hehe)
The baking goods is a very good idea and the lottery is a great one, we can make a round trip ticket to athens by ferry as the first prize or a cruise to a nearby island)
Dogs would not be allowed into human pools... i will never get anyone to allow that...
Rubber bracelets are also a great idea... is a cheap fashion thing ..

It is difficult and we always try to do something to get money.. we do not have the support from the municipality so all expenses for strays are covered by the society.... anyway... we hope to change that...

Thanks again !

Ronit

One of the dog rescue groups here sells bandanas for the dogs to wear. They get them cheap in bulk, then sell them for a dollar or two. They also sell t-shirts.

We have had bake sales, yard sales, auctions, etc. for our rescue group.

I don't particularly want points either - but here's a suggestion anyway...

1. Hold a "PET show" - Get a lot of people together who are willing to dress up as dogs, cats, birds etc, put them on a small parade (maybe they have "owners" and are on leashes) and then ask spectators to vote for their favourite That way it's something fun, different and something the public can be involved in.

2. Sponsored events always go down well; sponsored baked bean baths, leg waxing, silences...

3. Raffles are great - a few really nice prizes and you can raise a ton of money selling tickets.

4. Kiss-a-thon (we had one at high school once) - find a couple of pretty single girls and guys who are willing to devote themselves to a good cause - one buck a kiss!

5. Face painting always appeals to kiddies - maybe 20c per face painted and you can have them queueing forever!

6. Funny face competitions - 20c to compete - get a bunch of kids to pull their absolutel best (or worst, in some cases) silly face and give chocolate or something to the winner. Better yet, give chocolate to all participants - it's amazing what kids will do for candy.

7. Fancy Dress parades and/or competitions for the kids - parade them through a street and have people choose a winner from different age categories. Again let there be a small charge for participation.

8. Bake Sales are fab - but why not set up a stand just for tea and coffee or juice, people can just stop by and get a drink as well while they're there.. that money will pile up.

9. Always have some people with money boxes walking through crowds, someone is bound to make a donation.

10. As for the cake toss - why don't you substitute wet sponges instead? For several reasons - with water, you only get wet, not cramy and sticky as well. Wet sponges don't hit quite as hard as cake either (Trust me, I've had both thrown at me, sometimes deliberately!) If someone is willing to put their face in one of those photo pictures (you know the painted wooden boards so you can have your face on a big busty blonde or something) then you can have a ball throwing sponges at them. It tends to work best with someone in a position of power, f.ex. town mayor




The trick is to make things cost a little, the less something costs, the more people will jump on the bandwagon and pay for it.

A "Fur-Ball" which is a MArdi-gras kind of Black tie event they have a dinner along with a raffel and auction.

Take your pets picture with "Santa" "Easter Bunny" etc...

A Calendar of pet pictures sold for a minimum $10 donation

Golf Tourniment

Walkathon

No points please.

It's spring time. Hold a baby shower for the new spring arrivals. Create a wish list that you can use in the shelter to take care of them.

If you have a location to do this, host a garage sale. Ask the community for donated items that you can sell in that sale (I organized one that made $1500 one year at our local shelter that way - we held ours in front of the shelter).

If you haven't done this in a while, host an open house. Ask for donated items from local merchants and raffle them off at the open house. If the items are big, sell them thru a silent action. If you are interested in this idea, PM me for some cool games that you can host at the open house (like guess the fat cat's weight). If you do this, get yourself advertised in the newspapers, radio and call local TV stations for coverage (I organized this one and made $3500 that day).

Hold a "spay-getti dinner" (with or without meatballs). Find a church or something that will donate use of their kitchen and get some good cooks to make the sauces. With a kitchen you can make the noodles during the dinner. Make it all you can eat and you can charge up to $10 per plate.

Hold a dog wash.

Cookbook: I created 2 for our local humane. Volunteers donated recipes and we got cool pictures of cats and dogs for the cover. The humane society was nicknamed "HELP", so the cookbooks were called "Help with Dinner" and "Help with Deserts". The pet pictures on the front were of things like my dog Sam helping to roll out pie dough. They weren't big (about 75 pages) and not bound, so we charged $5 each and made a couple thousand from them. PM me if you want more information.

With any fundraising event, you want to draw as many people to the actual shelter that you can. If people see the animals, they might just adopt one.

And advertise, advertise, advertise. I was always amazed at the responses I got from radio and TV stations when I called them to ask for coverage. I had 3 TV crews out for the open house.