Whenever I speak on fundraising I love to leave some time at the end of the session to answer it up to questions. But I always ask those in attendance to share any unique ideas they’ve done/seen/heard. I LOVE the stuff that comes out of this!
At the Christian Alliance for Orphans Summit 9 I did a breakout titled “Creative Fundraising for Your Adoption & Ministry.” During the Q & A time Victoria from New Beginnings shared about their “Freezer Pleaser” fundraiser. They did it as a fundraiser for their Junior Auxiliary but I’m sure it would translate well to a local adoption fundraiser.
First, they had a former member that worked for Sears and arranged to donate a small chest freezer (value of about $125). If you know someone who works for Sears, Best Buy, Home Depot, etc. talk with them and see if they can connect you with a store manager. If they can’t donate, perhaps you could get it at cost?
Next, recruit 30 of your friends to prepare one freezer meal. There are hundreds of blogs devoted solely to freezer cooking, so if they’re not sure what to prepare it’s not hard to find the answer. Make sure they label their meal well and include directions. During the JA fundraiser each member prepared a main dish, bread and dessert as part of their meal.
Then they raffled off the freezer with a month’s worth of meals!
The sold raffle tickets for $5 each or 5 for $20. Most people just chose to buy 5 tickets. Each member of the JA (30 of them) sold tickets face-to-face and collected funds. Living in a small town they also set up a table in front of the football and softball games. The raffle drawing was held during the homecoming football game. (If you have kids, maybe their school would allow you to do the same thing? Or your church?)
They raised $7,000!!!!
Of course your mileage may vary and I think they definitely had an advantage being an organization and living in a small town. But could you raise $4,000? If you sold 200 of the 5 for $20 tickets, you’d make $4,000.
P.S. One tip from Victoria – don’t put the meals IN the freezer. Let the winner pick up the freezer from Sears and then coordinate delivery of the meals. In their case they had a local food factory that let them store all the meals in their commercial freezer and the winner came and picked them up. You don’t want to have to try and move a freezer full of meals 🙂
Oh, my goodness! What a great idea!
thanks
What a GREAT idea! But I’d like to encourage people to check their state laws before having a raffle. In my state, only registered non profit organizations are allowed to host raffles (Like the JA) and there are certain rules that include all tickets must be sold for same price (no discounts when buying 5) I admittedly have *no idea* what type of trouble you could possibly get in for having an illegal raffle, but it is something to consider. Hate to see all the hard work and profits go to paying a fine.
We are wrapping up this fundraiser tonight, and we have raised just over $2500. Really grateful to have met you at the Orphan Summit Julie! This has blessed us SO much!
Yay! I’m so glad to hear it was successful for someone else. Loved meeting you! Will you be at T4A?