fundraiser mom... that's whats happening to me this year. I made up lists of certain areas that consisted of about 15 stores each. I had one person hit couple and the others none. One area is the mall that has tons of stores surrounding it so with only 17 days left I have to go out and hope they will donate. I also have to make lots of follow up calls to see if the donation is ready since barely no one calls you.
I have a question for everyone. I know it always looks better if you deliver your letter in person but most of the time it just gets put on the GM desk so they don't even see you. I am seriously thinking of saying heck with it and mailing all the local places next year and do follow up calls after a few weeks. Do you think managers deny you if you mail your letter compared to deliver in person? I just think it would cause me less stress having to rely on someone else to NOT do their list.
I applause everyone who does all this work for their organization. Its not easy but is rewarding knowing you helped. Ours is to raise money for scholarships. Since I receive funding every year for my kids, I feel its the least I can do for the school. Wish everyone felt like I did then we would have lots of volunteers.
Thanks for all the great posts!!! Our event is two weeks away, so excited.
However my computer crashed a couple of weeks ago and I lost everything. Does someone have a program template they can send me. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Thank you all so much!!
Here's another idea for those of you who live in smaller communities - can't recall if I read about this on this site last year? Maybe you can get a local sheriff or police dept. to drive a child (and maybe 1-2 friends) to school as a prize. Also- for anybody with a local volunteer fire dept. if you know somebody like a Lt. in a volunteer fire dept, perhaps you can arrange to offer a prize like "Fire Chief of TOWN XYZ for a day." The winner could get a special, behind the scenes tour of the firehouse, see where the firefighters sleep, etc, hang-out, etc. Go for a ride in the fire-truck (maybe), slide down the fire pole (does that really exist). Pack it up with paraphernalia from the fire dept (maybe plastic hat, water bottles, t-shirt, etc.) Value: priceless.
Tango: agree with you very much about the follow-up phone calls. That often garners additional prizes that would otherwise not come in.
Kim G: I hear you! I think i'm going to stock up on chocolate for myself. I like that even more than wine. Plus I can consume more chocolate than wine. LOL!
Kim G. - I hope this helps you. I'm the only one who is gathering the auction prizes as well with 4 1/2 months to do so. I have been using the local chamber of commerce websites. They give you a list of which businesses are members. They are more likely to be popular and more likely to give as I see it. They usually have their website links so I just use that and go straight to their contact us section. This has helped me tremendously. If there's a certain business I really want a gift from I follow up with a phone call but I haven't had to do that since a lot of them have been answering their emails.
I also take a 45 minute drive once in awhile. I usually hit business plazas after hours so I can just slip my support letter through the door. In 45 minutes I can hit at least 15-20 businesses. Then I can follow up with a phone call. These two approaches have saved me a lot of time. Good luck to everyone.
