Best Fundraising Ideas

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Hillshum-p40
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#41

Post by Hillshum-p40 »

The Young men in my ward have done a car wash the last few years (it seems to be against church policy so I won't give details on how it worked [it wasn't a typical car wash]). Every other year or something (I think it was the years the ward did their own camp and not the stake) the young women have held a fundraiser that took the form of a dinner with items and services auctioned off after. Most of said items and services were from the girls and the leaders, but things like oil changes and car washes from local businesses were also auctioned.
"I have never let my schooling interfere with my education."
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cpstaggs-p40
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Self-reliance in fundraising

#42

Post by cpstaggs-p40 »

Interesting discussion. In my experience in working with Youth, camps and high adventures seem to mean more to them if they've paid for them themselves (if the amount is beyond what is allotted in the budget, and as has already been mentioned, scout camps and high adventures oftentimes exceed what our budget can cover). Our YM used to do more involved fund raisers such as garage sales, etc. However, over the past few years, we've discontinued that. We have many members in our ward who are willing to hire YM and YW to do things like lawn work, painting, babysitting, etc. The youth leaders make sure the youth are aware of these work opportunities and, when needed, assist them with rides, motivation, etc. This way each youth is able to earn the money they need, they learn the principle of work and self-reliance, and are able to take pride in knowing that they worked to earn their own money for camp or high adventure.
robartsd
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#43

Post by robartsd »

I remember doing spaghetti dinners or pancake breakfasts as fundraisers in scouts. Sometimes we'd schedule the meal in conjunction with the cub scouts pinewood derby and have quite a day celebrating scouting with those that came.

The most unusual fundraiser I've been involved with involved helping a local business with a seasonal project. Our project was a "Design An Ad" competition in which the newspaper sold advertisements to businesses which local school children would design. The task of putting together packets to send to the teachers of participating classes and sorting the entries by advertiser was gladly contracted to our scout troop. The paper delivered the materials to us and we spent a Saturday morning putting together the packets for each class. We also sorted the packets for deliver. The paper picked up the packets and delivered them to the schools. A month or two later the entries had been received at the paper and were brought back to us to be sorted by advertiser. Again the troop gathered on a Saturday morning to perform the task. Of course the particulars of this fundraiser were not very significant; the key was that one of our leaders found an opportunity to work with a local business on a seasonal project that could easily be done by our youth.
davesudweeks
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#44

Post by davesudweeks »

I know I'm opening an old thread, but would like some advice from the community.

Our Stake Presidency discontinued Scout trips to Philmont a few years ago due to the distance (we are at the edge of a LONG day's drive to get there). They have recently changed their direction and a Stake-sponsored Philmont trip is planned for 2012. As some of you know, Philmont runs over $800 per person and the bishopric is discussing ways to support the Stake while at the same time complying with the wise direction from the CHI. Our Young Men's organization is over 30 youth with about 90% active so we usually have to have 3 full crews at Philmont.

We want to avoid a fundraiser and our initial idea is for individuals in the ward, who are willing and able, provide work opportunities for the youth. They would not pay the youth in cash, but would donate the value of their service to an "Other" account in their name.

If course, this potentially raises a couple of things that have to be worked out: The other account would span all of 2011 and much of 2012. What happens if someone drops out - where do the funds go? Etc. Etc. We won't do anything without running it past the Stake Presidency, but does anyone out there have an experience with something like this?

Thanks for your ideas.
kisaac
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#45

Post by kisaac »

4ward4ever wrote:....
We want to avoid a fundraiser and our initial idea is for individuals in the ward, who are willing and able, provide work opportunities for the youth. They would not pay the youth in cash, but would donate the value of their service to an "Other" account in their name....

Thanks for your ideas.
In whose name, the youth? So, if a youth "earns credit" for doing this work, enabling him to go to scout camp, what do you do with the youth's who "do not" earn the credit because they just don't make it to "opportunities?" Do they not go to camp?

I love fundrasing questions, because there are so many of them!

I won't even touch the CHI questions, but some others: What percentage of the amount paid per boy is paid by a "camp participation fee" paid by the family, and what percent is paid by a fundraiser, and what percentage is from the ward budget? What does your YW organization feel about such an expense for the scouts? Are the parents willing/able to fund higher amounts as "user fees?" How successful is your scout membership drive, and is there opportunity for more "giving", etc, etc, etc.

(you don't need to answer the questions for me, these are just questions I would anticipate you will hear brought up!)
nutterb
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#46

Post by nutterb »

4ward4ever wrote:I know I'm opening an old thread, but would like some advice from the community.

Our Stake Presidency discontinued Scout trips to Philmont a few years ago due to the distance (we are at the edge of a LONG day's drive to get there). They have recently changed their direction and a Stake-sponsored Philmont trip is planned for 2012. As some of you know, Philmont runs over $800 per person and the bishopric is discussing ways to support the Stake while at the same time complying with the wise direction from the CHI. Our Young Men's organization is over 30 youth with about 90% active so we usually have to have 3 full crews at Philmont.

We want to avoid a fundraiser and our initial idea is for individuals in the ward, who are willing and able, provide work opportunities for the youth. They would not pay the youth in cash, but would donate the value of their service to an "Other" account in their name.

If course, this potentially raises a couple of things that have to be worked out: The other account would span all of 2011 and much of 2012. What happens if someone drops out - where do the funds go? Etc. Etc. We won't do anything without running it past the Stake Presidency, but does anyone out there have an experience with something like this?

Thanks for your ideas.
This looks like and smells like a fundraiser to me. You may as well call it a fundraiser. Personally, I think it's a great opportunity for the boys to work for and has the potential to build a lot of character. But my opinion is (severely) biased...to the point that I deliberately chose to volunteer in a non-Church sponsored troop because of fundraising and financial restrictions. But that's another story.

With respect to your dilemma, I see two options

A: Record the money into subcategories with each boy receiving an equal cut of a contribution for every activity at which he participates. The advantage is it's easy to see which boys are pulling their weight and which ones need a kick in the pants. If one of the boys decides not to go, it's also easy to determine how much money should be returned to each donor (if recorded into subcategories at the time of donation). The disadvantage is that this looks like paying for an individual's trip, which--according to my interpretation--isn't really appropriate.

B: Record the money in one category and collect for the total sum of the trip. The advantage is you have a collaborative, team oriented event, and you're nor likely to have to return money (just find a new boy if one drops out). The disadvantage is it's hard to track who has been contributing.

I don't think either option is better than the other. They're just different ideas.
nutterb
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#47

Post by nutterb »

Just to add another idea to the fundraiser list:

Last year our young women combined with the other ward in our building to do a pancake breakfast and Easter egg hunt. Strangely, if you ask the other ward, it was a huge success...but if you ask our ward, it was a total flop. After $700 revenue, each ward took back a profit of about $130. There were a number of circumstances that led to such a poor profit, but I won't detail those. Suffice it to say, I will vouch that careful planning is really key to a successful fundraiser. It takes more than a week to put a good one together.

To add insult to injury, the camp directors from the two wards decided to use all the money (and then some) on t-shirts, hats, pins, and other gimmicks to give to the girls to make camp a memorable experience. Not a penny went to camp gear or camp fees. I just about went ballistic.

After such a tragedy, the young women president and I made a very careful plan for what needed to happen in the future. We put together a list of camp supplies that the ward could purchase to make the girls camp program self sufficient (tents, cooking supplies, mess gear, water carriers, etc), shopped around on the internet, priced out the gear, and determined how much money would be needed to purchase all the supplies.

This coming year, we plan to do a fundraiser with the sole intent of purchasing the camp supplies. The target this year is $600 profit, which will buy about two thirds of the gear, and then another $600 the following year. After that, fundraiser targets probably will range between $0 and $150, depending on if gear needs to be replaced.

The fundraiser for next year will be a sale of truffles for Mother's Day. The girls will be responsible for taking orders ($10 for a box of 12 truffles) from ward members and perhaps friends and teachers. Checks will be made to the ward and deposited in the other account. The goal is to sell 100 boxes.

The Saturday before Mother's Day, the girls will meet to make all the truffles (possibly over two weekends), package and box them, and deliver them on Sunday.

But again, I say, doing a fundraiser for the sake of doing a fundraiser is nonsense. Fundraisers should have a purpose, a plan, and involve a significant contribution from the beneficiaries.
nutterb
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#48

Post by nutterb »

kisaac wrote:What does your YW organization feel about such an expense for the scouts?
I think this is a fair question to bring up to the young women, and if the scouts are going to embark on such a trip, the young women should be given an opportunity to do so. I know Philmont will take female Venturers, so I assume they'd take an all girl crew :D

But they should at least be given a similar opportunity.
jdlessley
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#49

Post by jdlessley »

4ward4ever wrote:We want to avoid a fundraiser and our initial idea is for individuals in the ward, who are willing and able, provide work opportunities for the youth. They would not pay the youth in cash, but would donate the value of their service to an "Other" account in their name.

If course, this potentially raises a couple of things that have to be worked out: The other account would span all of 2011 and much of 2012. What happens if someone drops out - where do the funds go? Etc. Etc. We won't do anything without running it past the Stake Presidency, but does anyone out there have an experience with something like this?
We did this same type of thing for young men going to a scouting event a few years ago (more like a decade). There was concern that the young men would earn the funds from the work opportunities and not contribute them for the event. The consensus was that the young men had to learn two principles. The first was tithing and the second was responsibility. If they did not deposit the funds for the event as earned, after paying tithing, then they were the ones that had to accept the consequence of possibly not being able to attend the event.

Having someone else deposit the funds for work performed by a young man just complicates the issue of tracking and refunding when a young man does not attend. It can be done. But it requires a bit more work and the young men lose out on the lessons to be taught.

The transition to CUBS throws a bit of a tracking problem into this situation. Since CUBS only allows one sub-account level below the Authorized Member Financed Activities account you can either create a sub-account for each young man (The title would have something identifying the young man and the event.) or only one sub-account for the event. For the situation where there is only one sub-account for the event there are issues of tracking the funds for refund purposes. Tracking in a spreadsheet outside MLS could be used. If a young man makes the contribution for himself then the funds can be deposited into one sub-account and each deposit identified in MLS for refund purposes.

The on-line training titled Understanding and Using the "Other" Category, while not updated to align with the terms with CUBS implementation, apply regarding the handling of funds placed in an Authorized Member Financed Activities sub-account. For the situation where the funds are not used for the specified purpose, the funds should be returned to the donor. Having someone else make the contribution on behalf of the young man, even though the young man earned the funds from services performed, unnecessarily complicates the refunding issue.
JD Lessley
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dannykos
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#50

Post by dannykos »

in these difficult times it seems pretty churlish to be counselling our members to live within their means, and get out of debt - when we plan activities which push the envelope of necessity and affordability.

In my opinion we should be cutting our cloth as closely as possible - while still providing opportunities to grow spititually, learn, socialise and have fun.
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