Fundraising for Gathering Purposes

MissTeja · Post by **MissTeja** » Tue Oct 21, 2003 4:47 am

Alrighty folks...I'm going out on a limb here. Some of the ideas are going to obviously result in being somehow unfeasible or just lacking enough community interest to uphold. However, I've been racking my brain for awhile on just what types of fundraising a spread-out community such as our own would be able to actually participate in. Obviously, funding has been a major issue here - in everything from keeping the Board up to trying to schedule a Gathering, etc. So, I brainstormed and came up with a few potential ideas. If any of you think there is some possibility of interest in any of the following, feel free to further the discussion.

[EDITED: Cause I felt like it.]

So anyways folks, just thought I'd put those out there. If you guys do not believe that any are feasible, that's okay. I just thought suggesting them couldn't hurt. Obviously we would have to do some specifics on such things as currency exchange, but I know there are many around here that are good at that stuff.

Jestyr · Post by **Jestyr** » Tue Oct 21, 2003 5:11 am

The problem is that the vast majority of these involve us selling stuff to ourselves and using the "profits" to fund a Gathering, which seems rather redundant.

So, just for kicks, say each calendar was $10 to produce, and 20 orders were taken - each purchaser charged $15 for it...WHAM! There's $100 and 20 happy people with super cool Bulldrek Calendars.

Or, just for kicks, say we skipped the calendar and each person just put their $15 straight into Gathering monies. Wham; we have $300 towards the gathering, not $100.

Let's face it, no-one's going to want to buy any of the Bulldrek-specific stuff except... Bulldrekkers. And if it's Drekkers paying for it, why not shunt *all* that money into the Gathering instead of giving it to Kinkos for calendars, or whatever.

I mean, say 25 Bulldrekkers go to the Gathering; why divert some of their available funds to Kinkos or t-shirt printers or whoever? Why not use all the available funds *for* the Gathering itself?

The only other way of looking at it is to say you're selling this stuff to all Bulldrekkers, even those who have no ability (or desire) to go to the Gathering... effectively, then, you're asking a whole bunch of people to pay for your holiday, which they won't be attending. That sort of sits wrong with me, I dunno.

Sorry if this all sounds negative... it's just that fundraisers really only serve a purpose when you're raising funds from *outside* the community that's supposed to benefit from it. If you can think of a way to do an external fundraiser, cool. But I think an internal fundraiser is probably largely a waste of money.

MissTeja · Post by **MissTeja** » Tue Oct 21, 2003 5:27 am

I agree with many of your points. My whole view on it, though, surfaced from what I've seemed to view and experience in "communities" beyond Bulldrek. People tend to be more inclined to give if there is a definite reciprocation of something in return. I work on the Fundraising committee with two of my organizations at the University and it seems, as frustrating as it is, in order to gain funds for us to put on events, many members would rather have a bunch of small fundraisers (the t-shirt one is extremely popular - we do it reoccuringly, practically each month) rather than cut a check for a large sum. This may be in part because that many member are students who do not work. I guess my intent was, between that and ideas such as a Dollar Drive - to make options available for those Bulldrekkers who either, A. Do not know for a fact as to whether or not they will definately be attending certain events, or B. Just don't have the cash to shell out large amounts at a time.

I agree that it is unfair to ask those who wouldn't be attending such events due to lack of interest or what not, to contribute to such a thing, but though I entitled the thread "for Gathering Purposes," I really meant Bulldrek's Financial Status as a whole. We only recently made it in the black in regard to just the financial aspect of keeping the Board itself up and running. I think it's going to take continual effort to keep it there.

Like I said, I was going out on a limb posting the ideas, and if no one finds interest in them, seriously - no offense taken. I just wanted to pose some "different" ideas that might encourage the funding of Bulldrek.

Jestyr · Post by **Jestyr** » Tue Oct 21, 2003 5:37 am

MissTeja wrote:I really meant Bulldrek's Financial Status as a whole. We only recently made it in the black in regard to just the financial aspect of keeping the Board itself up and running. I think it's going to take continual effort to keep it there.

Well, from what Wild said in the Embassy, we're covered for board costs until Oct 2004. I don't think we need to worry about that just yet.

I see what you mean about people wanting a 'return' for their fundraising contribution. I just suspect that Bulldrek is too small a population for repeated fundraising drives to work, compared to a donation drive. (I should note that the donation drives on Dumpshock are *very* well responded-to, without anything being given in return apart from continual service.)

MissTeja · Post by **MissTeja** » Tue Oct 21, 2003 5:54 am

Alrighty then, that works for me. I'll be sure to do more homework before opening my little mind in the future. LOL Thanks for your frontness and honesty, woman.

Adam · Post by **Adam** » Tue Oct 21, 2003 7:37 am

Also, you have to consider that someone with the appropriate skills has to design and lay out such a calendar. If someone is going to donate, say, 10 hours of their time -- conservative estimate based on how fast I saw my roomate lay out a calendar earlier this year, and he's /fast/ -- I'd rather see it go towards something that more members of the board can enjoy and use.

Kai · Post by **Kai** » Tue Oct 21, 2003 1:00 pm

Something that can be done if people are budget slackers however, it there is the option of recurrant subscriptions/fees with Paypal. I.e. people can ask to be invoiced for a total of $200 and every month they'd get an email invoice saying you owe X amount and after whatever months they'd have $200 essentially out of reach for them to use for the Gathering.

3278 · Post by **3278** » Tue Oct 21, 2003 2:28 pm

Bake sale.

Szechuan · Post by **Szechuan** » Tue Oct 21, 2003 2:44 pm

3278 wrote:Bake sale.

Think we can find Vralkie and get some special brownies made?

FlameBlade · Post by **FlameBlade** » Wed Oct 22, 2003 2:12 am

I still say that we go with Teja's idea...

Except that money won't go to Gathering, but rather, go toward continuance of this board.

Any way of fundraising that is "internal" still can be used. Why, you ask? I say, people get cool stuff in and Bulldrek board gets money for continuance. Have people forgotten that Bulldrek almost got shutdown few months ago? Don't take everything for granted. Any way that we can get funds for bulldrek, the better, so we will continue to be in black, and it won't be as much strain for Wildfire/Kai.

So...stop deriding Teja's ideas, and try to look at them in different light.

Adam · Post by **Adam** » Wed Oct 22, 2003 2:55 am

Here's my light: If I'm too lazy to send $20 in, I'm probably too damned lazy to spend days building a calendar.

Jestyr · Post by **Jestyr** » Wed Oct 22, 2003 2:56 am

No-one was deriding Teja's ideas, just pointing out the flaws as we saw them.

And yes, I know no-one wants to see Bulldrek get shut down, but Wildfire herself was saying we could use the surplus money we currently have, plus any more money in donations, for *other* Bulldrek projects.

I still feel that fundraising projects are a bad idea. If we're all skint enough that we can't pay for the board, or for attending a Gathering, or whatever, then diverting our funds towards Kinkos or T-shirt printers seems like frittering away our valuable resources.

If we want to do the projects - CDs, t-shirts, calendars, whatever - for their own sake, then sure, cool. But I just think trying to use the projects as fundraisers is not the optimal way of doing things.

(I need to note here that I do like Wild's suggestion of 'invoiced savings'.)

MissTeja · Post by **MissTeja** » Wed Oct 22, 2003 3:06 am

I didn't take offense. I think everyone understood that my intentions were good.

I figured since people seemed to be interested in stuff like t-shirts, CD's, etc. anyways, might as well take the opportunity to use it as a way to help fund Bulldrek. That, I guess, was a bad idea. I realize that now. It's cool. Really. I must say though, I also liked Wild's idea of invoiced statements.