Advice on Fundraising

First of all, I have big news....we got our FIRST donation today!! YEA!!! Thank you Christi and Dustin for your online donation! You guys have such great hearts. You have done soooo much for Lil' Chris. I'm so glad you guys were our FIRST donors!! Which reminds me...I sold $50 worth of the jewelry that Christi made to raise money for Lil' Chris!! YEA!!!! I'm still taking orders if you are interested;) Click here to see pics and prices of the jewelry.


Tonight I was a true CF mom!! I put my "Help Cure Cystic Fibrosis Because I Love My Son" shirt on, and of course my necklace that I bought from Christi, and hit the town to raise money for a CURE for CF!! Thanks to Alma(another local CF mom) and her husband who made copies of the flyers for our fundraiser for this Sunday at CiCi's Pizza from 5pm-8pm(sorry, I had to plug that in;) I went to a whole bunch of stores to give them flyers to put out. Some of them put it on their counters for customers to see or take, and others said that they can only put in their break room for their employees to see.

I wasn't just handing out the CiCi flyers. I figured, if I'm going to do this, I'm gonna do it right! So I talked about doing corporate sponsors first or donating at the store level, then lastly I would tell them about CiCi's and give them some flyers(except for stores already in the food business;). I stumbled on my words the first couple of places I went, but then I got settled into a routine once I realized what people needed to hear to make them donate.

So first I would introduce myself and then tell them I am raising money to find a cure for Cystic Fibrosis for my almost 2 year old son. I then went on to tell them a little history about CF. That CF is a disease of the lungs and digestive system and how CFers produce unusual thick sticky mucus that clogs the lungs and other organs and how their bodies don't absorb nutrients. Then I would go on saying how 50 years ago, children with CF didn't live to see their first day of elementary school, but because of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and past CF moms like myself doing this kind of fundraising, my son's life expectancy is 37. My goal is to help find a CURE, or at least help the life expectancy to be 87 by the time Lil' Chris is 37 years old. I found that this key phrase helped a lot!

Then I would go on to tell them all the different options they had to participate in finding that cure. I showed them the sponsorship opportunities form that I had and how if they donated $125, we would advertise their store name or short message on one of the roses that we are going to use to make a "65 Roses Garden"(little rose stakes in the ground). If they donated $300, their logo would be imprinted on all walker maps and bulletins and be displayed at the halfway point of the walk, they would have a banner, and they could promote their company with their own decorations. It goes all the way up to $5,000 to be a Site Sponsor and get everything plus more, including a press release to area newspapers. If they seemed interested, I would give them my name and phone number to contact me. My husband actually typed my info on mailing labels so I could put it on the papers I handed out, so I wouldn't have to hand write it every time. He's so smart=) It had my name, phone #, site to donate on line in honor of Lil' Chris, and of course my blog site:) LOL

If they couldn't do any corporate sponsors, then I would ask if they could donate at the store level or make a team to walk with us, or donate a gift card or merchandise to help raise more money by raffling them off or something. So far, only JC Penny's gave me an Ohio State t-shirt and an Indian's t-shirt to raffle off. YEA!! I was soooo excited, b/c that was the first positive response I had gotten all night. Fashion Bug seemed really interested! They might do the Pin Ups, where they ask customers if they want to donate $1 to find a cure for Cystic Fibrosis and in return they write their name on the pin up and they....well I think the name says it all....they pin it up on the wall to show their support. I'm really hoping I can get more stores to do this.

I went to every store in this little strip...from Elder Beerman to a Chinese Restaurant. I didn't care what kind of store it was, it didn't hurt to ask (and even if it did hurt, my son is well worth it;) I got better responses from the stores that I thought never would be interested! The Chinese Restaurant seemed to really like the idea about advertising their name at the walk. I don't blame them the way the economy is right now, advertising is key right now.

So, my advice...go everywhere, even to the places you think would never in a million years donate...you might just be surprised;) Be prepared with lots of copies of corporate sponsors papers, pin up papers, and flyers for your walk. I even carried a notepad and pen for those who gave me their corporate phone numbers to call or those who said to call back and speak to a manager. Also, for future reference, once I got outside of the store, I would write down the name of the store and what kind of response I got and what papers I gave them. That way I would know who would be calling me and what I had given them, and what the managers name was.

I hope this helps my fellow CF mommy bloggers;) If you have any other great fundraising ideas, I'd love to hear them=)

I'll keep you updated on the responses that I get,
M
PS. Click here to make an online donation.