Each issue of The Fundraising Hotline includes a combination of new or unusual do-it-yourself fundraisers, fundraising product or event ideas, fundraising tips, news, trivia, book and/or software reviews, and maybe even a little humor.  We hope that each issue will contain information that is beneficial to you.  Good luck on your fundraising efforts.  We know how much work it can be! 

    Do-It-Yourself Fundraiser Of The Month   

Flag Subscription Service:  This is an ongoing fundraiser. Basically, it is a service where your group installs a nice national flag in the front yard of the subscriber on each of five or more patriotic days.  The flags are put out early in the morning and retrieved in the evening.  This is particularly appropriate for Scout groups.  

The subscription cost for 1 year is $25-$50.  The first year, expect to clear about half of the proceeds after paying for the flags and accessories. Renew subscribers annually.  Subsequent years are mostly profit - allowing for the replacement of damaged or worn flags and receptacles.  Advertise in local neighborhood papers, "sell" door-to-door, or set up a booth outside the local grocery or at sports events.  Confine your 'sales' to a geographic area that's doable for your group.  Split the coverage area and assign 2-4 person teams to each.  That way you can get finished quicker and provide back-up coverage when a team member is out of town.  Be sure to leave a contact number with your subscribers so they can refer friends and neighbors who want to participate.  This project can raise funds and make your participants and supporters feel good.  More Details

PTA and PTO: What's The Difference?

PTA’s and PTO’s both bring parents and educators together for the benefit of their children, share many of the same goals, and use many of the same strategies.  However, there are differences.  A PTA pays dues to the state and national organization and abide by state and national group rules.  In return they get member benefits and a voice in the operations of the larger organization.  A PTO, on the other hand, is a more generic term for groups that focus all their efforts and funds towards their individual school and community. The acronym PTO is the most popular name, but other common names include PTG (Parent Teacher Group), PTC (Parent Teacher Club), PTF (Parent Teacher Fellowship) and HAS (Home and School Association).  They are all good!

  Fundraising: Hands-On Tactics For Nonprofit Groups 
by Peter L. Edles 

This hands-on operations manual remedies the funding crisis by showing nonprofit professionals and volunteers how to design and run successful fundraising campaigns for their organizations. Combines sound, cost-effective strategies for building better organizational, management, sales, and marketing practice along with insider tips for training solicitors, cultivating donors, and organizing small and large gift drives that capture the emotions and imaginations of potential supporters. Sample letters, scripts, invitations, pledge cards, acknowledgement letters, press releases, budgets, grant proposals, and action checklists guide readers every step of the way toward fundraising success.  You can find a copy at your favorite bookstore or on-line retailer for about $12.00.

Entertainment Publications, Inc:  You can easily make the money you need when you sell products people want.  Last year alone we helped schools and groups raise more than $95 million! Offer Entertainment® coupon books to your supporters and they'll thank you for helping them save 50% on the things they love to do...eating out, movies, travel, recreation, and more. Sally Foster® giftwrap, chocolates and gifts is #1 in giftwrap fundraising. Local representatives are ready to help you every step of the way.  Don't miss out!  Contact us today for more information.

Fundraiser News Briefs 

Longview, TX: Pick of the Litter (POL) and Animal Protection League (APL) held Dog’s Day Out. Included walk around the lake, contests and goody bags for dogs and owners; Chattanooga, TN: Ronald McDonald House holds 12-hour scrap booking fundraiser at the Hixson Church of Christ; Ithaca, NY: Literacy Volunteers of Tompkins County hold Scrabble Challenge. Eight-person teams had 20 minutes to fill the board with high-scoring words; Franklin, MA: Franklin Education Foundation holds Adult Spelling Bee. Forty teams competed in sixth annual event; Watertown, CT: Lions Club conducts cow chip raffle to convert a baseball field to a softball field. Supporters bought tickets representing specific squares in a grid placed over the field; North York, ON: 150,000 Ontario pupils collect pennies for The Easter Seal Society of Ontario. Each school received posters and donation buckets; Tollhouse, CA: Sierra FFA chapter holds Donkey Basketball fundraiser with 10 donkeys, 30 FFA students, and over two hundred spectators; Jefferson City, MO: Football team does yard clean-up, landscaping, cleaning out garages, and more to raise funds.

Father's Day

The idea for an official Father’s Day celebration came to a married daughter, Mrs. Sonora Smart Dodd, seated in a church in Spokane, Washington, attentive to a Sunday sermon on Mother’s Day in 1910 two years after the first Mother’s Day observance in West Virginia. Mrs. Smart wanted to honor her father, Henry Jackson Smart, a Civil War veteran, widowed when his wife died during the birth of their sixth child. This father then raised his six children alone on a rural farm in eastern Washington state. Mrs. Smart's  father was born in June, so she chose to hold the first Father's Day celebration in Spokane, Washington on the 19th of June, 1910. In 1972 sixty-two years after it was proposed, Father’s Day was permanently established by President Richard Nixon.