DISCLAIMER: These posts contain hints, tips and ideas from folks that have had some experiences dealing with this. It is NOT meant to be legal advice here - just related experiences. Please consult with a reputable professional if necessary. Date: Thu, 24 Jun 1999 07:52:43 -0700 To: equinerescue@mylist.net From: Pat Calloway Subject: EQ-ResQ: Fundraising Workshop The ever popular topic. Check out the archives at: http://pages.prodigy.com/equinerescue/rescarch.htm and look under the "Brainstorming" section for a text file for a discussion we had back in August on how to raise $$ for rescues. What are some ways your rescue has earned money? What did you learn from the experience and what would you do differently? What are some things that you have spent money on or that have gotten you to donate $$ to charity? Do sob stories work or are you a just-the-facts sort of person? Pat Calloway, Equine Rescue Listowner epona@concentric.net (AZ) http://pages.prodigy.com/equinerescue/home.htm ============================================================ To: equinerescue@mylist.net From: Williams Subject: EQ-ResQ: Re: Sponsorships (Fundraising Workshop) Date: Fri, 25 Jun 1999 13:02:55 -0500 Sender: owner-equinerescue@MyList.net Reply-To: equinerescue@MyList.net, Williams We are just working to set up a sponsorship program with our rescue. I'm open to anyone who has suggestions on how to make this really go over well! Jennifer ============================================================ To: equinerescue@mylist.net Date: Fri, 25 Jun 1999 13:06:35 -0500 From: Williams Subject: EQ-ResQ: Re: Fundraising Workshop We have had one fundraiser so far and we're working on our other one. We ran the concession stand at a local horse show. It did not make us tons of money as turnout at the show was smaller than excepted (seems there were several shows in the area on the same day), but it gave us a lot more contacts - and even got our name on the news. We got members from this - and our newest foster home was a result of the horse show. We're going to run the concession stand again this fall - even if it wasn't a huge financial success, it was a success for the rescue in that people in the area now know about us. We are working on a raffle this fall. Actually, the local Arab club where I am a member is doing most of the work for the raffle. It will be held at their fall show (where we will do the concession stand and bring any horses up for adoption to meet the public). They've done this before for the humane society and raised $600 - so I am hoping it is as successful for us! Jennifer ============================================================ To: equinerescue@mylist.net From: Nonetfarm@aol.com Subject: Re: EQ-ResQ: Re: Fundraising Workshop Date: Fri, 25 Jun 1999 15:08:59 EDT In a message dated 6/25/99 2:02:42 PM Central Daylight Time, vanbasti@tcac.com writes: << even if it wasn't a huge financial success, it was a success for the rescue in that people in the area now know about us. >> It did pay our first vet bill, so I considered it a thorough success!! Susan ============================================================ To: equinerescue@mylist.net From: Pat Calloway Subject: Re: EQ-ResQ: Re: Sponsorships (Fundraising Workshop) At 01:02 PM 6/25/99 -0500, Williams wrote: >We are just working to set up a sponsorship program with our rescue. I'm >open to >anyone who has suggestions on how to make this really go over well! When you say sponsorship, what do you mean? A corporate sponsorship or people paying in a pledged amount of money each month or something else? Pat Calloway, Equine Rescue Listowner epona@concentric.net (AZ) http://pages.prodigy.com/equinerescue/home.htm ============================================================ To: equinerescue@mylist.net From: Jennifer Williams Subject: Re: EQ-ResQ: Re: Sponsorships (Fundraising Workshop) Date: Fri, 25 Jun 1999 14:25:02 -0500 > When you say sponsorship, what do you mean? A corporate sponsorship or people > paying in a pledged amount of money each month or something else? We're starting with a sponsorship program where individuals can pledge an amount per month to help with upkeep on one of the horses. We do everything through fostering right now, and we have some people who have space to foster more than one horse but not all the money to pay for its upkeep, so we're looking into a sponsorship program to give people another way they can help - if they wish. I want to get into corporate sponsorships, too, but I need to do more research on that first (so I am hoping people here will provide some ideas!). Jennifer ============================================================ To: equinerescue@mylist.net From: slyshot@mindspring.com Subject: EQ-ResQ: Re: Fundraising Workshop Date: Sat, 26 Jun 1999 22:32:32 -0400 >but it gave us a lot more contacts - and even >got our name on the news. And those contacts and the news mention are worth all the time spent. This is mostly what you will get from this type of stand, not a lot of money but an increased awareness of your organization and cause. You can also (with permission) set up a table with info on your org. (and those raffle tickets!) outside a Wal-Mart, etc. on a Saturday. The only problem with this is finding volunteers to work the table - pick your best "salesmen". We've had trail riding groups hold benefit trail rides, where the participants get sponsors to sign up for X amount of money, similar to the AIDS Ride. These are great if the sponsoring group is willing to do most of the work involved. "Ghost riders" are encouraged to participate too - people without horses, or no way to get their horses to the ride, etc. These rides always bring in well over $1,000 net, with the most successful one over $6,000! Klondike (Cris May) Days End Farm Horse Rescue (MD) http://www.defhr.org ============================================================ To: equinerescue@mylist.net From: Williams Subject: Re: EQ-ResQ: Re: Fundraising Workshop Date: Fri, 25 Jun 1999 22:31:18 -0500 > You can also (with > permission) set up a table with info on your org. (and those raffle > tickets!) outside a Wal-Mart, etc. on a Saturday. The only problem with > this is finding volunteers to work the table - pick your best "salesmen". Thanks for the idea about Wal-Mart! I really consider the contacts, new mention, etc. to be the extremely successful part of the fundraiser - we need the contacts to make this all work. At the fall show put on by the same organization, we're even going to be able to bring some of the rescue horses into the ring at the lunch break and talk about them - with real live horses who were helped and their stories, we may even get more interested (at the last show, we brought some of the horses but didn't get to tell much about them or 'show them off'). Jennifer ============================================================ To: equinerescue@mylist.net From: Fairwind Subject: EQ-ResQ: Fundraising Workshop Organization: Ohio Hooved Animal Humane Society Date: Sat, 26 Jun 1999 02:10:11 -0700 For those of you who don't know me, I am Beverly and I am the President of OHAHS, the Ohio Hooved Animal Humane Society. OHAHS has had very little success in your "normal" fundraisers. Probably because we have so few volunteers who wish to work that sort of activity. One raffle that was successful for us was the "horse for a month" that we ran about 2 years ago. We sold tickets for $2.00 each and the winner got the use of a horse, which was maintained at our facility, for one month. That particular raffle was a double success, the 12 year old who won the lease on the horse for the month was a child who had just lost her mother to cancer, the horse was a means of therapy for the girl as well as a good fundraiser for OHAHS. One of the means I have chosen to use to help to support the rescue efforts is to use WebSite building to supplement OHAHS. I learned to build Web Pages in an effort to get OHAHS online, in the process I have learned quite a bit! I have formed a company, Fairwind WebPages. http://www.fairwind.net/FairwindWebPages.html Fairwind WebPages donates the building of web sites to rescues, we also donate a percentage of ALL income from sites built for $ to OHAHS. Another income for the rescue will be the site Gaited Horses, http://www.gaitedhorses.net/ The site was launched 1/1/99 and has already generated a good bit of income for OHAHS. The internet can be a means to generate income for the rescues, you just have to learn how to use it! We are still offering free site building for those who need help, email me privately if you would like us to lend you a hand. -- Beverly Whittington President OHAHS http://www.ohahs.org Fairwind WebPages http://www.fairwind.net/ Gaited Horses http://www.gaitedhorses.net ICQ# is 6077317 ============================================================ Date: Sun, 27 Jun 1999 23:38:10 -0700 To: equinerescue@mylist.net From: Pat Calloway Subject: EQ-ResQ: Fundraising Workshop Lots of good input on fundraising. Anyone else have any ideas, suggestions, etc? How many of you sell tshirts or other items from your websites? Some rescues do. Is it a good way of making money or more of a pain or a little of both? Pat Calloway, Equine Rescue Listowner epona@concentric.net (AZ) http://pages.prodigy.com/equinerescue/home.htm ============================================================ To: equinerescue@mylist.net From: Mike & Chris Smith Subject: Re: EQ-ResQ: Fundraising Workshop Date: Mon, 28 Jun 1999 06:11:31 -0400 > How many of you sell tshirts or other items from your websites? ERL sells tshirts, sweat shirts, caps and mugs but not through our web site. We generally don't have enough funds to order enough stock to have on hand at any given time to satisfy a mail order effort. We also don't have the staff to handle the labor involved,(the mugs would be especailly hard to package well since they come by the case, not individually boxed.) We sell the merchandise at Open Houses, information booths, etc and they do very well. I imigine they would bring in a decent amount through the web site if we could deal with the logistics. Chris -- Equine Rescue League Leesburg, VA http://freeyellow.com/members7/erl/index.html ============================================================ Date: Mon, 28 Jun 1999 09:11:22 -0700 To: equinerescue@MyList.net From: Pat Calloway Subject: Re: EQ-ResQ: Fundraising Workshop At 06:11 AM 6/28/99 -0400, Mike & Chris Smith wrote: >ERL sells tshirts, sweat shirts, caps and mugs but not through our web >site. We generally don't have enough funds to order enough stock to >have on hand at any given time to satisfy a mail order effort. Tshirts would be pretty easy to ship. Just need one of those $3.20 Priority Mail envelopes and you could send up to two tshirts at a time that way. Ditto on caps. Probably just one sweatshirt per envelope. Wonder how it would work if you tried to sell some that way the next time you have extras from a run at an Open House, etc? I'd think if it were a really neat looking tshirt that you would have a good shot at selling them. Tote bags are popular too. Equine-L is currently discussing doing a logo and lots of folks would like a tote. With a zipper. Actually people would probably have a tote out and about more than they would wear a tshirt, so it's worth a thought. >We also >don't have the staff to handle the labor involved,(the mugs would be >especailly hard to package well since they come by the case, not >individually boxed.) Yeah, I think anything breakable would be a problem. I know that I've used enough bubble wrap on breakable stuff I've sent to stock a shop! >We sell the merchandise at Open Houses, information booths, etc and they >do very well. I imigine they would bring in a decent amount through the >web site if we could deal with the logistics. I believe that there are ways to set up some sort of online ordering system that takes credit cards. I guess you could not bill until it was shipped (which I think is standard procedure anyway) and wait until you had enough to warrant an order, but you'd probably get a lot of tee'd off people doing it that way since people don't like to wait. ---- How about artwork? Anyone raffle off anything interesting lately? I know someone on the list or that used to be on the list is selling a limited edition art print with part of the sales doing to rescue. Would be nice to get one of the popular photographers or artists to donate a portion of sales of one of his/her prints to a rescue. Crafts can be a good way of raising money too. It can be a lot of work for the crafter on some things, but if it's well made or different, I can see folks buying it. Rubberstamping can make some very nice specialized cards (how easy is it to find just the right card to tell a friend congrats for winning or placing in that show? or good luck in the show, congrats on your foal, etc) and I betcha that they would sell. And it's something that a person could make and donate to the rescue for sales. You wouldn't have to go to the farm/property or even be in the same state or country! There are other crafts of course, but just thinking. How about auctioning off a service to have someone stencil a room? I just did two of mine - don't think I'd feel comfortable offering my services, but there are some that might feel worthy. It would have to be within a certain distance of the stenciler, but still ... ============================================================ To: equinerescue@mylist.net From: "Gary Scuorzo" Subject: EQ-ResQ: fundraising Date: Mon, 28 Jun 1999 11:47:34 -0500 I had a idea our rescue will try in the near future.The next time we get a rescue horse in with no name.Have a contest on picking a name for the horse.It would get the rescue publicity,Get the horse seen for potential adoptors and generate money.Each choice of a name would cost $1.00 and the winner would not only get a prize(anything of value you could get a store to donate TV, Cd player,or even a craft someone made like a quilt this would be your choice)they would also get their picture taken with the horse they named and possibly put in the local paper.The cost is cheap enough where everyone could enter and people just love contests. Maureen Tiny Timbers Horse Rescue ============================================================ To: equinerescue@mylist.net From: slyshot@mindspring.com Subject: Re: EQ-ResQ: Fundraising Workshop Date: Wed, 30 Jun 1999 22:46:20 -0400 I don't know if Days End sells t-shirts, etc. through the web site. Guess I should visit it more often, huh *G*? I do know we weren't allowed to actively solicit (or I believe sell) through the old (GeoCities) site, which was a freebie. The current site doesn't have those restrictions. We also sell them at Open Houses and booths. And if you're lucky enough to have a booth loaded with sweatshirts on a windy October day at an outdoor event ... We do have a permanent 'gift shop' (garden barn) which has DEF souvenirs, crafty items, story boards, and all the various brochures, adoption applications, volunteer applications, (demo horse body parts) and the donation jar, where we take all our visitors after their tour of the farm. Klondike (Cris May) Days End Farm Horse Rescue (MD) http://www.defhr.org ============================================================ Date: Wed, 30 Jun 1999 20:01:53 -0700 To: equinerescue@mylist.net From: Pat Calloway Subject: EQ-ResQ: Fundraising Workshop/Next Workshop Anything else on fundraising? From those of you that *buy* the items or donate to raffles or whatever, what kinds of things really get your attention? How much are you willing to spend on items - what seems to be too much? ============================================================ To: equinerescue@mylist.net From: NHHeights@aol.com Subject: Re: EQ-ResQ: Fundraising Workshop Date: Wed, 30 Jun 1999 23:37:09 EDT Horse tack and saddles. You can never have enough good serviceable tack. I especially look for older used tack. There are people out there who go nuts for the older stuff and will pay top dollar for it. I have seen the antique a-frame saddles get 125. at the live auctions and resell on Ebay for 500+. They call it "collectibles" or "Western Americana" I myself purchased a Mexican sidesaddle for 60. and resold it on Ebay to a lady in Germany for 225. And their listing fees for selling are very reasonable. Allison ============================================================ Date: Wed, 30 Jun 1999 21:02:17 -0700 To: equinerescue@MyList.net From: Pat Calloway Subject: Re: EQ-ResQ: Fundraising Workshop At 11:37 PM 6/30/99 -0400, NHHeights@aol.com wrote: >I have seen the antique >a-frame saddles get 125. at the live auctions and resell on Ebay for 500+. I'd forgotten Ebay (http://www.ebay.com) as a way for charities to sell items and raise funds. Not sure if any of the equine rescues have done it, but a few of the dog charities have had good success with it. And you can set a minimum sales price too. Anyone here do any fundraising via Ebay (or any other online auction) and if so, what was your experience? ============================================================ To: equinerescue@mylist.net From: slyshot@mindspring.com Subject: Re: EQ-ResQ: Fundraising Workshop Date: Fri, 2 Jul 1999 21:32:22 -0400 Several times the topic has arisen of raising funds to support the "unadoptables" a rescue might have. We have tried several approaches, with some success. Since every bit helps, some of you may find these helpful. We have a foster care program. Unlike other foster programs, the horse does not leave Days End. Horses are fosterable at several levels and costs. If the animal is rideable and the person who wishes to foster it is qualified to ride it, the fosterer can ride 3x per week for $75 a month (dollar amount may be slightly more now; that's what we charged when I did it a few years ago). The horse can also be fostered for just grooming, at a lesser monthly amount. And the horse can be fostered by more than one person at the same time, say fostered by someone who rides it and also by someone who only grooms it. In addition we have a sponsorship program called Save Our Seniors specifically aimed at horses we are reasonably sure will never be adopted, although occasionally one is. With the SOS program, a person can assume all or part of the monthly care of a specific horse. The program has been surprisingly successful. The people who participate generally bond very well with a particular animal. They may not have the time, space or resources, including knowledge, to keep the horse themselves, but the program allows them to spend time with the horse and assume a measure of responsibility for it. Full sponsorship of a horse whose meds bill runs $200 a month is a help. Both the foster care program and SOS are helpful for people just starting with horses, as a way to learn proper care and handling and all the other sometimes scarey things a novice horseperson needs to know. Hope you find this info helpful. Klondike (Cris May) Days End Farm Horse Rescue (MD) http://www.defhr.org ============================================================ Date: Thu, 01 Jul 1999 19:17:35 -0700 To: equinerescue@MyList.net From: Pat Calloway Subject: Re: EQ-ResQ: Fundraising Workshop At 09:32 PM 7/2/99 -0400, slyshot@mindspring.com wrote: >Several times the topic has arisen of raising funds to support the >"unadoptables" a rescue might have. TURF (Thoroughbred United Retirement Fund) http://crt-stable.com/turf/ does something very like this. It's $10/month minimum and goes to help support horses that are either being rehabbed or that may be lifetime unadoptables. Funds go to horses at United Pegasus Foundation, CERF and ReRun at this time. > Full sponsorship of a horse whose meds bill runs >$200 a month is a help. So, even if you can't afford $200 or so a month, if you (generic you) band together with a likeminded group of people, you could sponsor a horse who was an "unadoptable" if you got enough (reliable) people together to do it. There are LOTS of ways to help! :-) ============================================================ To: equinerescue@mylist.net From: slyshot@mindspring.com Subject: EQ-ResQ: Re: Grantwriting Date: Sun, 20 Jun 1999 21:12:29 -0400 >I'm curious what funding sources you folks >have found that provide "large" contributions. None, in the beginning. If your org. has no track record they may not even consider making a grant until you can show them how you make your org. run without them. And if they do make a small grant, they will watch closely to see how well you use it. If they are pleased with how you handled the money they gave you, they will probably give you more the next time. Getting the grant can also depend on how you word your request, and how well you tailor it to the goals of the foundation. Also, if you write a grant for money to purchase a trailer say, or to provide emergency surgical care, the grant money must be used for the purpose for which it was requested and for nothing else. > I know all about cultivating small donations from >good hearted volunteers and interested citizens. But these donors >(although invaluable) cannot keep an equine rescue up and going (and >growing!). Yes, they can and do, and they will be there for your organization in a pinch, which is something a foundation won't/can't do. An important part of growing your org. is growing your list of supporters and volunteers. The more people who know about you, the more likely you are to come into contact with those who have larger sums of money they will "invest" in you. But you do always have to prove yourself. Klondike (Cris May) Days End Farm Horse Rescue (MD) http://www.defhr.org ============================================================