Hi everyone,
I am looking to have a fundraiser to help the Hospital that continues to help my Daughter since she was born. I have never started a fundraiser from the ground up and need some advice, ideas, etc. Please if you have hosted a fundraiser please share your tips. This would be given to a specific dept that relates to my daughters condition.

Thanks
Cheryl

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Without Health you have no Wealth!

I think you may have to narrow down your options a bit. What are your objectives? (Obviously raising money, but how large a scale?) Do you want to sell products? Do you want to host a lunch/dinner? Fashion show? Auction? Are others going to be able to help? What are the restrictions the hospital might place on fundraisers in their name?

Hope this helps a little.

I organized and held a fundraiser in June of last year.
I raised $1600 for TTTS, twin to twin transfusion syndrome foundation. My twins had TTTS, one of them just passed away on New Years Eve due to complications from birth from the TTTS.
I did mine with The Wishlist Foundation backing me. I had a pre show(Pearl Jam) party at a local bar. I did the party/fundraiser in SC the day of a PJ show at a location nearby. It gives the fans a place to meet up and hang out before the show and to raise $$$ for different charities. Whoever is hosting the party decided where the $ goes.
The Wishlist Foundation donated lots of things to be sold, tshirts,posters,mouse pads, stuff like that and then people who came to the party donated Pearl Jam goodies(Posters,vinyls, someone even donated a huge hard drive full of Pearl Jam songs) for an auction.
I can't wait for PJ to tour again so I can host another party/fundraiser or two!

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I am so very sorry to hear of your loss, afurrything.

cj/

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First you might look for grants available.

I have all kinds of ideas everything from a silent auction of donated goods to a good old fashioned type of party where everyone pays for dinner and has contests that raise money to a talent show or something like that.


Afurrything I am so sorry for the loss of your twin.

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Yes, sorry afurry... Sad.

Grants are hard to come by right now... speaking from experience.

I've always heard that casino nights are a great way to raise funds... you could probably google how to do it.

We are holding a Bowlathon here in a few weeks that brings in a LOT of money. Also, if you can figure out some sort of ___-a-thon (ie walk-a-thon, bike-a-thon, etc.), those always do well.

I think momshops has some great questions. How big a fundraiser are you trying to hold? Do you have a target group of people you think will donate? Do you have a list of people to participate or are you just going for a public appeal?

We are looking at doing a quiz night next year. It will give us the availability to appeal to a large audience. A basket bingo night or even just regular bingo works great, too. If you can get businesses and people to donate products and services you can hold a live or silent auction in conjunction with one of these events. If you don't want to hold an event and still get auction donations you can set up the auctions on eBay or one of the charity auction sites and send out details to your contact group. Whatever you decide to do make sure you get the word out to newspapers, civic groups, etc to help with turnout.

Good Luck.

Renee

How about a silent auction? Get people (businesses) in your community to donate things/services, and you auction them off at a dinner or soemthing???


How does a bowl-a-thon work??

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Allinaugust, I'll PM you the info.

Cuthie-could you please pm me regarding how a bowl-a-thon works too? I am working on building a skatepark in my community & need all the help I can get. Thanks!!!

[quote=allinaugust;3150797]How about a silent auction? Get people (businesses) in your community to donate things/services, and you auction them off at a dinner or soemthing???QUOTE]

My church does this each year to raise money for summer misison trips and we've had great success.

We have people in the congregation as well as some businesses donate goods and services. Handmade gifts and "activities" go over the best. A member who is a great cook and enjoys cooking for a group might donate his services to come cook and serve a gourmet dinner for eight in your home. Younger members might make a batch of homemade cookies, greeting cards or babysitting. One couple always put on a whole day scavenger hunt/game/meal extravaganza for eight couples. That's always a great money maker since he's well known for putting together great puzzle and his wife is an excellent cook. We're trying to talk one guy into offering dance lessons this year.

We do the silent auction at a dinner/variety show. We charge about $6/person (less for young kids) with a family maximum (I don't remeber how much. I think the break even point is two adults and either two or three kids.). We generally do a couple of live auctions for specific items during the show, just to add some fun (one year we sold a carrot cake for $200...twice. The first buyer told us to auction it off again. He was more interested in a fun way to make a donation.).

It is a lot of work. Cooking dinner for 200 people takes some planning and then about six hours and 10 people. Organizing the silent auction is an even bigger task. But we make between $6000 and $8000 and it's a great family event for our church.

afurrything. . .so sorry for your loss.

I was a co-chair for the benefit auction at my kids old school for years. It was really a major event though. We generally raised about $125,000, but sometimes the costs could be close to $30,000. I'm not sure you're looking to do something on that scale. A couple things to think about. . .how much time do you have to plan this? What are your biggest resources. . .more stuff. . .people. . .local businesses? Who will be the participants. . .donors? I think when you can answer those things it will help to decide what would be the best event. Since it's to benefit children. . .maybe a carnival might be nice, but their are literally thousands of things you could do. The local children's hospital here does a major fundraiser where local groups and businesses decorate a Christmas Tree and then they are auctioned off. They go for thousands of dollars. . .it's not just a decorated tree though. . .they have gift certificates and all kinds of things. . .to match the theme of the particular tree.

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Thanks everyone. This is the first time I have ever tried to organize a fundraiser and I am suddenly feeling very nervous and overwhelmed. My daughter has what is called Klippel Trenauney and I wanted to raise money for the hospital to provide more this particular area. It is rare and doesn't have the funding that other more well known illnesses have. So I guess I am looking to take baby steps here. Love the Bowlathon idea and would love more info how to organize that. I really don't have the funds to put into this so it would rely strictly on donations.

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Without Health you have no Wealth!