I had a wonderful time at the CCCA Convention in Philadelphia. You’re pretty much guaranteed a good time when 1800 camping people gather in one place!

On Monday I presented the pre-convention workshop on effective grant writing, and then on Tuesday I presented a seminar on helping your board get involved in fundraising. Judging by the buzz afterward, both seemed to be very well received.

For those in the Tuesday seminar, I promised a list of fundraising ideas for the board. Here you have it…

25 Ways for Each Board Member to Raise $500 or More! (Sorry, the formatting doesn’t transfer).
1. Give from your own pocket first. If you are able, raise the bar by giving a significant gift yourself - $500+.
2. List all your friends who are interested in your organization, or similar organization. Decide how much each one should give. Write to them on your own stationery, include a brochure from the organization and a return envelope. Phone those people who don’t respond in two weeks, Some people will need 10 friends to give $50, and some people need 50 friends to give $10. Most people will need a combination such as: 2-3 @ $50, 4-5 @ $25, 15 @ $10._
3. Give part of the $500. Then ask your friends to join you in giving $25, $50, or whatever your gift is. This is most effective because you are not asking them to do anything you haven’t done._
4. Set up a challenge campaign. Challenge gifts can be quite small. Tell people you’ll give $5 for every $25 they give, or will match every $10 gift up to ten gifts. For added suspense, make this challenge during a fundraising event. You or the host can announce, “We now have the Dave Buckstretch Challenge for the next five minutes. Dave will give $5 for every new member that joins Worthy Cause.”_
5. If your organization has a diverse funding base with several grassroots fundraising strategies in place, use them all:_
a. sell 100 raffle tickets for $100
b. give $50
c. bring 10 people to an event that costs $10 to raise $100
d. buy two gift memberships @ $15 each to raise $30
e. get 15 friends to join @ $15 each to raise $225
6. Help with your organization’s phone-a-thon. Bring the names of people you think would like to join and call until you have raised $500. Or trade names with someone in the organization and call their friends until you have reached $500. This is particularly effective for people who are shy about asking their own friends for money, but not afraid to ask people they don’t know._
7. Acquire mailing lists for your organization. If you belong to another group, perhaps you can set up an exchange, or perhaps you have access to a list of members of some other group. You can ask all your friends to give you the names of 10 to 15 people they think would like to join. You would need to recruit about 25 members at an average gift of $15. Depending on how “hot” your list is, you might need as few as 200 names (to do a bulk mailing) or as many as 1500-3000 (if you expect a 1-2% response.) You would have to have a greater response if you wanted the mailing to pay for itself and also generate $500._
8. Give the organization something they need that is worth $500, such as a fax machine, filing cabinets, couch, adding machine, computer program, etc._
9. Pledge $20 a month, and get one other person to do likewise. Then sell $20 worth of raffle tickets._
10. Teach a seminar on a topic you know: fundraising, knitting, organic gardening, organizing, proposal writing, environmental impact reports, gourmet cooking, dog grooming, starting your own business. Charge $20-50 per person, with a goal of 20-30 people. Either absorb the cost of promotion, or have enough participants to cover it._
11. Give some or a lot of things to your organization’s garage sale, making sure they are worth $500, and then help to sell it all._
12. With 4 or 5 friends, have a spaghetti dinner at a church or union hall or other big room with a large kitchen. Charge $10 per person and feed more than 50 people. You can charge extra for wine or garlic bread, or for dessert._
13. Have a fancy dinner at your home or a regular dinner at someone’s fancy home. Serve unusual or gourmet food, or have special entertainment. Charge $25 or more per person, and have 20 or more guests._
14. Get three friends to help you have a progressive dinner. Start at one person’s home for cocktails and hors d’oeuvres, progress to the next person’s house for soup or salad, the next person’s for the main course, and the last person for dessert. Either charge by course, or for the whole package. To make it extra special (and much more expensive), get a limousine for the evening that carries guests from house to house._
15. Host a wine and cheese party. Do not charge admission and invite as many people as you can. During the party, give a short talk about your organization, and ask everyone to consider a gift of $25, $50, or $100 or more (depending on the crowd). Either pass out envelopes and ask people to give then, or after the party contact everyone individually who came and ask for a major gift. Indicate that you have given, and if appropriate, how much you have given._
16. Get your gambling friends together. Charge a $5 entrance fee, and have a poker evening, asking that every “pot” be split with the organization. Individuals win and so does the organization. You can charge extra for refreshments, or include one or two glasses of something with the price of admission. (Watch the laws in your community on this one. In some communities it is illegal to gamble, even in your own home.)_
17. Do one fundraising event every other month that nets at least $75. This might look like:_
a. Poker party raises $100
b. Fancy dinner (8 people at $25) raises $200
c. Sell 50 raffle tickets @ $1 raises $50
d. Book sale raises $50
e. Recycle newspapers raises $100
18. Solicit small businesses, churches, synagogues, or service clubs for $500. If you are active in a church, or own your own business and are involved in business organizations or service clubs, this can be very effective. You can often raise $200-$500 with a simple proposal and oral presentation._
19. Take a part-time job in addition to your present work, and give everything you earn up to $500._
20. Ask 5-10 people to save all their change for 3-5 months. You save yours. Count it at the end of the prescribed time and use one of the other methods to raise the rest. (You may not need to.)_
21. Ask 2-5 friends to help with a bake sale, book sale, or garage sale. You and your friends bake the goodies, or get the books or other stuff required for the sale, staff it, and help clean up afterwards. This is an excellent way to get people involved in fundraising without ever actually asking them for money._
22. For the fairly rich: give your organization $5,000 as an interest-free loan for a year. They invest it, earn 8-10% and at the end of the year, they give you your $5,000 back._
23. Sell your organization’s materials, buttons, T-shirts, bumper stickers, or whatever else they have for sale. Also, help distribute these to bookstores or novelty shops._
24. Offer to do something your friends and family have been nagging you to do anyway, and attach a price to it. For example, quit smoking on the condition that your friends donate to your group, or get your friends to pay a certain amount for every day you don’t smoke up to 30 days. Agree to match their gifts at the end of thirty days if you didn’t smoke. Give them their money back if you did. (This method could be applied to other healthy behaviors, such as exercising or not eating sugar.)
25. Find out which of your friends (perhaps this is true for you also) work in corporations with matching gift programs. Then ask them to donate and get their gift matched, and ask them to ask their co-workers to donate and get their gifts matched.

(Adapted from: Chardon Press/Grass Roots Fundraising Journal, 1986)

I may not be able to post for a few days - I’ll be at the CCCA Convention (Christian Camp and Converence Assoc.). I’m giving the pre-convention workshop on grant writing and a seminar on “The Board’s Role in Raising Money.” I’ll be back on Thursday morning, if not before.

In our family we work hard and we definitely play hard. Thanksgiving is a time to give thanks to our Provider and enjoy what He has provided.

My wife and I host our family Thanksgiving dinner every year. As you can see, we have a fun family. “Give thanks, for the Lord is good.” May you and yours find peace in the humble posture of thanksgiving this year.

Randy Elrod Click Here for Randy’s Blog introduced me to Josh Cassidy’s blog and I love it! His artwork is food for the soul. Be blessed… Click Here for Josh’s Blog

From the publisher: Benchmarking is the continuous process of measuring your organization against leaders to gain knowledge and insights that will help you improve. This book defines a formal, systematic, and reliable way to benchmark—from preparing your organization to measuring performance and implementing best practices. Benchmarking is an essential practice for every nonprofit. Highly recommended.

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The mountains are good for my soul. Here are a couple pics from a hike in the Smokies.

So many wonderful contrasts.

I was captivated by the texture in this log.

Sometimes you have to stop and just take it all in.

Several folks have shown an interest in the idea of a community foundation. The foundation center has a wonderful fact sheet on the subject. The report highlights the giving patterns of the 700 community foundations in the US. For example, cummulatively they distributed $3.2 billion in 2005 - that represents a 10.9 percent rise from the previous year! 59% of the foundations said they will be distributing more in 2006 than they did in 2005 and much of that will go to human services and the arts.

To read the whole report, Click Here

I’ve been consulting with the Blount County Chamber Foundation for the past two days. They are considering transforming their Chamber Foundation into a community foundation. In the process of researching information on the subject I came across a very helpful article that I’ve attached for your continuing education Click Here

I’m in the beautiful Smoky Mountains of Maryville and Townsend, Tennessee, consulting with the Blount County Chamber Foundation. This is not only a pretty part of the country, but the area is growing at a robust pace. The secret is out - this is a place you want to be!

Our challenge here in Blount County is to establish a foundation that will help meet the financial and management needs of the many nonprofits in the area. The partnership with the Chamber of Commerce is what makes this so appealing.

Tomorrow I’ll be fly fishing with a guide in the mountains!