Best Fundraising Ideas

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mhearne
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Joined: Wed Feb 19, 2014 1:52 pm
Location: Los Angeles area CA

Re: Best Fundraising Ideas

#61

Post by mhearne »

kristaday. I started a new post with same title "Best Fundraising Ideas" in the Local Unit Finance Section under Clerks and Technology Support with my post of some fundraising ideas. I did this as I felt the comment thread here had gone too much "Off Topic" and wanted to try to start fresh with this topic. As always, everyone's helpful thoughts on the specific topic - Best Fundraising Ideas -on that Section is greatly appreciated. Thanks!
mdnelson07
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Re: Best Fundraising Ideas

#62

Post by mdnelson07 »

I live in a ward with a smaller YM program on the east coast. This past year for Valentine's Day we held a "Sweetheart Dinner". We set the price of dinner at $15/person (typical what would be spent on a normal dinner-date) and was held in the cultural hall of our building. Our motto during the planning was to spend as thrifty as possible while making the dinner feel nice since it was on Valentine's Day. YM and their parents/leaders donated time to set-up/decorate. We also found businesses to donate breadsticks, noodles, Alfredo sauce, etc so most of the food did not cost. Other food items (i.e. appetizers, salad, dessert) were either brought by the boys or YM leaders or purchased. We held a small silent auction on a side table with donated talents by ward members (i.e. a few voice lessons, photoshoot, etc). We did not want an auction with people shouting out dollar amounts. Doesn't make for a good environment for less-wealthy ward members.

Pros of the dinner:
- successful enough for our needs
- it was great value so we didn't feel like we were taking money from ward members under the name of "scouting".
- once the dinner was over the fundraiser was over. No long, enduring paperwork, commitments that we had to follow up on
- we had adult leaders and parents willing to help out
- we cut down costs wherever we could so there was very little overhead of the dinner

Cons of the dinner:
- Despite being successful, I would never encourage our YM presidency/Scout Committee to organize this type of fundraiser on Valentine's Day again. Valentine's Day should not be spent year after year as a YM fundraiser. If there was another day during the year that we could mark with this dinner then I think it would be
- Relatively little support from the boys who were going to camp. They practically showed up 15 minutes before the dinner with a plate of brownies and served as waiters during the dinner bringing plates to and from the kitchen/serving area
- Very time consuming the 24 hours prior to the dinner with food prep and set up
Gary_Miller
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Location: Emmett, Idaho

Re: Best Fundraising Ideas

#63

Post by Gary_Miller »

mdnelson07 wrote:- Relatively little support from the boys who were going to camp. They practically showed up 15 minutes before the dinner with a plate of brownies and served as waiters during the dinner bringing plates to and from the kitchen/serving area
This would be because the YM Presidency and the Scout Committee did all the planning and organization without involving the Young Men. If the Young Men were involved in the planning and organizing then they would of been the ones doing all the work with the leaders just providing support, which is how it should be. These YM could of picked the menu, picked up supplies, set up the dinning area, cooked, sold tickets, ect.. They could and would have done it all if they were involved from the start.

I think sometimes we forget what the word "Adviser" means.
Eurekatate
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Re: Best Fundraising Ideas

#64

Post by Eurekatate »

I have a question. I keep seeing on here that members should be asked to pay for camp first then explore fundraising. So I'm the YW president in my ward and we are trying to come up with fundraising ideas. I would love it if I could convince my bishop to let the girls families pay the difference for camp and those that can't the ward help. Anyway, I cannot find anywhere in the handbook this order that keeps popping up in this thread.
1.wards pay
2.families pay
3. Fundraiser.
Cannot find it anywhere. So could someone direct me to where it is in the handbook? Thanks
russellhltn
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Location: U.S.

Re: Best Fundraising Ideas

#65

Post by russellhltn »

Eurekatate wrote:I cannot find anywhere in the handbook this order that keeps popping up in this thread.
1.wards pay
2.families pay
3. Fundraiser.
Cannot find it anywhere. So could someone direct me to where it is in the handbook? Thanks
Handbook 2: 13.2.8: Funding for Activities

"Possible exceptions to the funding policy in the preceding paragraph are listed below. If the ward budget does not have sufficient funds to pay for the following activities, leaders may ask participants to pay for part or all of them:"

"If funds from participants are not sufficient, the bishop may authorize one group fund-raising activity annually that complies with the guidelines in 13.6.8."

While that's not exactly "families pay", as a practical matter, if you ask a youth to pay for something, they're going to turn to their parents.
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donasp
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Joined: Mon Mar 05, 2018 2:01 pm

Re: Best Fundraising Ideas

#66

Post by donasp »

auctions of "goods" including food items is taxable and therefor not in keeping with counsel.
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