creative fund raising ideas?

[zoom-zoom]

I like the cookbook idea. We have friends in the JDRF organization who have done the garage sale thing, but I LOATHED the ONE I did for myself, so I'm not sure I want to do that, even for charity.

I know a lot of restaurants will help with fundraisers...some will do a portion of their day's sales, others (like Buffalo Wild Wings) will do a coupon, where 10% of the table's bill goes towards the charity. I also did a short campaign with FlowerPowerFundraising.com that worked pretty well. Pretty soon I need to set up one for their Fall shipment.

[_kim_]

Thanks for all your suggestions. I have a couple more ideas I might pull out close to the end if I find I still need to raise more. For now, I'm still just contacting family, friends and coworkers. I've also been collecting bottles/cans from coworkers (both beverages they get at work, and their stuff from home) and have made $35 from that so far, soon to make more (as I have a bunch of stuff sitting on my patio...). Oh, and I almost forgot, one of my yoga teachers ever so kindly offered to make an announcement about my ride after class. Due to various scheduling conflicts (her being away, me not being able to make it to class) I think she's only announced it a couple times, but I'm hoping for at least one or two more announcements. And I will hold my second and I think final raffle I'm thinking by the first week of September--going to contact one or two more restaurants about gift certificate donations. Man am I going to be glad when I don't have to fundraise anymore!

And if anyone happens to have money burning a hole in their pocket that they'd like to contribute towards four bicycle advocacy nonprofits and the National Resources Defense Council, my fundraising page is here! ;-)
--Kim

[NbyNW]

Last year when we did the Ride to Conquer Cancer, we kept leapfrogging a guy who had a car tire strapped to his rear rack.

The story they told at the finish was, for every $100 that he raised, he pledged to add a kilo of weight to his bike. The per-rider fundraising goal was in the $2500-3000 range, so this was how he motivated his friends and colleagues to donate!

[_kim_]

holy moly! definitely hadn't heard of that one...

[Possegal]

Last year when we did the Ride to Conquer Cancer, we kept leapfrogging a guy who had a car tire strapped to his rear rack.

The story they told at the finish was, for every $100 that he raised, he pledged to add a kilo of weight to his bike. The per-rider fundraising goal was in the $2500-3000 range, so this was how he motivated his friends and colleagues to donate!

Holy moly indeed. Glad I never thought of that idea. I can barely ride my big old self around on my bike.

[nancielle]

A couple of years ago when we were raising money for our AIDS walk several of us joined together to hold a tag sale. We cleaned out our homes and made a decent amount of money. One member of the group offered to hold it at her house (fortunately the weather cooperated) and we took shifts being there.

For a charity walk I'm doing next month I'm holding a raffle on a jar of jelly beans (got a bunch of raging sugar addicts in my office). X/ticket on guessing how many beans are in there. Again, it won't be making bucketloads of money but it'll bring in something.

Contact your local newspaper about doing a human interest piece and including your donation site.

With some willing partners, you might find a church group with a kitchen that will let you do a breakfast or dinner (we've done pasta dinners in the past).

Are there any summer fairs or festivals in your area that allow people to set up informational tables? You may be able to get permission to set up a donation table.

Will your local bike shop(s) allow you to put up a donation flyer or maybe even a donation container?

That's all that's coming to mind right now.

[bluebug32]

I did LiveStrong a couple of years ago and my friend who sells Arbonne offered to host a part in which LiveStrong got a certain percentage of the proceeds. Apparently many of these companies will help support such causes this way. It ended up being a fun party. My friends came out to support my ride and sampled and bought products and there was a raffle. I don't remember exactly how much I raised, but it was definitely worth it.