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Fundraising & Sponsorships
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Findyouthinfo.gov has a database that has a program tool which provides you with information about program designs that successfully deal with risky behaviors. The Program Tool database contains risk factors, protective factors, and programs that have been evaluated and found to work. While many other similiar youth organizations are on this list, neither Boy Scouts of America nor Learning for Life are on this program list. More information and guidelines for nominating programs for this list can be found at:
http://www.findyouthinfo.gov/cf_pages/programtool.cfm#faq1
I think it would be really helpful, both in buidling our case in fundraising and recruitment to be on this list.
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Two executives from my council have been doing Community Group FOS Presentations this year to try and find new ways to raise money in a tight economy. They have made and are scheduled to do presentations with such groups as Service Clubs, Chambers of Commerce events, Fraternal Organizations and any other community group that may want to hear about our organization. Results are still being gathered but I wanted to throw the idea out in case others could use it. It is just like doing a Family FOS Presentation but personalized to the group being addressed. I have attached a PowerPoint Presentation that SR. DE, Kevin Harris, created for his presentations. I hope this helps others out.
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An idea hatched by our VP of Planned Giving while I was up at GNYC and then implemented by Mike Mahon of the staff has fallen out of my bag of tricks here at the Shore and had some success. Smells like a best practice or at least an idea that can be plagiarized easily.
You promote the idea of bequests and other planned giving instruments by asking people to join your 1% Club, where they agree to leave at least 1% of their assets to the Council Endowment upon their passing. It's easy to udnerstand and opens up conversations on other planned gift opportunities (we've gotten one life insurance policy) and helps to identify bequests already out there you don't know about. Plus, with bequests being revocable it's less likely folks will change if you recognize and make a big deal about it. Members get a lapel pin, presented at an Executive Board or other applicable meeting, and we recognized the first group - representing over $200,000 in planned gifts to the Jersey Shore Council - at our recent annual meeting and dinner. That presentation led to one other person coming up and asking questions about it after the dinner.
We'll only get more and more commitments as we promote and spread the word on the program. Someone try and get themselves to Jersey Shore about 20 years from now - a whole bunch of planned gifts should be flowing through.
Craig Shelley, SE, Jersey Shore Council
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As most council do, we make every effort to do our FOS presentations at a Blue and Gold Dinner with each Cub Scout Pack. We have also developed and encouraged a Red and Green Dinner for Boy Scout Troops and a Green and Yellow Dinner for Venturing Crews. They follow the same format as a Blue and Gold, but with a flavor specific to the older youth programs. These events give us an opportunity to make our FOS presentation to the families of our troop and crews. We usually make the presentation at the first of the Red and Green. We have found tremendous success with these unit driven events. For the last three years we have completed and exceeded our annual Council FOS goal usually by the end of April or the first of May. We also do not have access problems - getting into all but one or two of the units in the entire council. The parents and Scouts are already use to the Blue and Gold concept from Cub Scouting and they love the sense of family the same events develop in the old Scout programs. - A simple concept that makes reaching our FOS goal so much easier.
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Bring along a bearskin, place the bearskin over a bucket, and ask every Cub Scout to come up and "feed" the Bear an FOS pledge card. The Scouts get very excited about feeding the bear! This increased responses to the Friends of Scouting Campaign.
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Golden Eagle Dinner
Community Event Fund Raising Best Practice
The Okefenokee Area Council, located in Southeast Georgia, conducts its Community FOS Campaign early with the end of April as an annual completion goal. The Community FOS Campaign is based on several events called “Golden Eagle Dinners”. The Golden Eagle Dinners honor an individual from the local community for their service.
Preliminary Planning:
A community leader is first recruited to be the Chairman of the dinner. Once accomplished, the Dinner Chairman and other Volunteers select and recruit the Dinner Honoree. After the Honoree has been selected, all individuals and companies from the council’s existing donor database as well as potential new donors are contacted by the Dinner Chairman, other community leaders, and district/council volunteers. These persons are personally invited to the dinner and to renew/make a gift to Scouting.
Dinner Agenda:
The primary speakers for each Golden Eagle dinner are Eagle Scouts specifically selected by the council who deliver themed messages with personal anecdotes accompanied with a PowerPoint presentation. Each Eagle Scout ends the presentation with request for a gift from the Dinner attendees. The Dinner Chairman then recognizes all Dinner and Corporate Sponsors and presents the Dinner Honoree with a recognition item after presenting a short biography recalling the Honoree’s life and achievements. Once presented, the Dinner Honoree then makes a brief acceptance speech. Throughout the dinner, Scouts from the local communities conduct Scouting activities that represent “Scouting in Action” for the observation of all attendees. Examples of the “Scouting in Action” are mobile setups of a Pinewood Derby, the council climbing wall and other static displays. In addition, each dinner attendee is personally thanked for their contribution and attendance by Scouts circulating the event during the dinner.
Results of Event Specific Fundraisers:
2004 - 2008 Time Actual $ Raised
2004: No dinner-12 months and raised$147,000
2005: 3 Dinners-4 months and raised $199,000
2006: 4 Dinners-4 months and raised $249,000
2007: 4 Dinners-4 months and raised $287,000
2008: 6 Dinners-4 months and raised $310,000
Would you like to “see” an actual Golden Eagle Dinner?
Then, Go to: www.OurNetNews.com
Click on Community.....then, click on Glynn County......then, click on Boy Scouts Golden Eagle Dinner dated May 10, 2008
Is your council interested in the Golden Eagle Dinners? If so, please contact either Michael Hartigan, Scout Executive, Okefenokee Area Council or Michael Watkins, Finance, Governance Assessment & Planning Specialist, Finance Impact Department – Council Solutions Group.
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We used the NESA Eagle Directory, the accompanying CD ROM, and the council's excel database, to data mine 80 prospects from one district. We invited them to a Dec.1 alumni gathering, and had a lively event with 20 attending. They represented mid to upper level management, including one retired Eagle, class of 1944. The reunion dinner inspired some good stories, and each participant was invited to a string of upcoming cultivation events. Big surprise was how many Eagle alumni live and work in the same community, and never met each other until that event.
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We have sent personal e-mails to all the Eagles in the NESA list - both those currently living in our area and those who achieved their Eagle through our Council. The e-mail offered them our bi-weekly e-newsletter to reconnect them with Scouting activities. Although approximately 15% of these e-mail addresses were bad, nearly 25% of these Eagles responded positively and requested to be added to the e-mail list. For our Council, this means 150 Eagles we had no contact with before are now touched bi-weekly. Several of those 150 appreciated the outreach enough, they expressed strong interest and have been re-engaged as commissioners and other opportunities. I do believe the key to this outreach was making it permission-based (we didn't add any e-mails of people who didn't say they wanted the updates) and not automatically assuming these Eagles SHOULD be involved because of their history.
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Orlando’s Corporate Dodgeball Tournament
The Central Florida Council put together a highly successful dodgeball tournament fundraiser event on August 16, 2008. The sold out event raised over $40,000 for its first year. 64 dodgeball teams participated with 1,100 fans in attendance and over 4,000 fans watching the tournament live via an internet TV channel. The winning team was awarded a traveling trophy a la the NHL’s Stanley Cup called “The Golden Baller” and a cash prize of $1,000.
There were two goals for our tournament: Recruit young executives in the Orlando area for Volunteer opportunities and fund raising. Because of the success of the inaugural event, the Central Florida Council has already begun working on next year’s version with a few improvements on the fundraising side. Due to the initial success, we have developed a packet of background information, marketing materials and other information for any councils interested in developing their own tournament. Contact information is listed below. At this time, several councils have tournaments scheduled for 2009.
Here are a few keys to success of organizing a successful dodgeball tournament:
- Find a location first.
- Start Early (at least 6 months or more ahead).
- Develop an executive committee for the tournament and fill it with local business leaders with the expertise needed (marketing, technology or web design, sales, promotions, etc.).
- Have detailed, assigned tasks for each committee member with definite deadlines for completion.
- Tournament Director should attend several tournaments and/or leagues of different sports and observe the tournament directors at work.
- Marketing, marketing , marketing , marketing
- Review all rules and regulations of sport and strictly abide by them
- Tournament design should maximize playing time for all teams (complaint from participants of first tournament – some teams played only twice). A modified round robin type of organization is suggested.
- Do not be afraid to ask for sponsorships. Use your board members.
- Add additional revenue streams like team photos, logoed water bottles and T-Shirts.
Orlando’s Corporate Dodgeball Tournament Director:
Chris Crowley
Senior District Executive
Fort Gatlin District
Central Florida Council
407.703.0273
ccrowley@cfcbsa.org
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The “Paddles Up” or “Fund a Need” is a technique of raising money at your special event. This technique is based on a simple formula:
500 people attend your event. At this event you have 10 live Auction items and 50 silent Auction items. If each item is sold to an individual attendee to the event, then that would equal 60 individuals that contribute more money to your organization as a result of coming to your Gala. This leaves 440 individuals (Let’s say for sake of argument 220 couples) that leave only paying the price of a ticket for admission and contributing no more to your Organization. There are other reasons for them to attend and if you have told the story correctly, you may gain much more from some of these couples in the future but why not ask them for to become a stakeholder now, while you have them in attendance? This is where the “Paddles Up” concept comes into play.
If your Auction is ordered in a “Bell Curve” system then the perfect place to conduct this appeal is in the middle, directly after your best item is sold. As you sell your highlight item (Let’s say it’s a new Lexus) for $25,000 the crowd cheers and applauds. The energy in the room is high.
The Auctioneer then says,
“Ladies and Gentlemen I’d like to pause the Auction for a moment and bring us back to why we are here. I’d like to ask Betty Jones to come up and speak to us for just a moment. Please give her your attention.”
Betty then speaks for a moment or a well done video is introduced and shown. The key here is not more than 3 minutes of an appeal is made. Once the “Heartstring Pull” is finished the Auctioneer takes the stage and says,
“Now ladies and gentlemen its time for a little program we call “Paddles Up! I am going to call out a dollar amount. If you will contribute that dollar amount directly to support the __________________ program I want you to raise your bid number up in the air. I’ll read off your bidder number, the number will be recorded and that dollar amount will be added to your Auction bill at the end of the evening.
Let’s start at $5,000. Who will give $5000?”
Now what you have done to prepare for this is asked an influential donor to start you off. He raises his paddle after a slight pause, about 3 seconds.
“Great! Bidder Number 53! Who will join him?” says the Auctioneer.
From this point you ask again but at a lower amount. The Auctioneer asks again but this time for $2500, then $1000, Then $500 and finally $250. The key is that first gift. If you had a donor who begins at $5000 by the time you reach $500 Bidder cards all over the room are gong up. People are saying to themselves,
“Well, all if that guy can give $5,000 I can give $500!”
Let’s do a little more math. Remember those 220 couples? Well let’s say that 30% of them step up and give an average of $500. That’s 66 couples at $500 each for $33,000. The power of exponential giving is tremendous. You may have 1 or 2 at $5000 and a few at $2500 and $1000 but the real money starts adding up at the smaller amounts. You can even begin a smaller first call amount. Say $1000, $750, $500, $250 and drop all the way to $150. 125 donors giving $150 is $18,750.
This technique is good for small and large auctions. Big black tie galas or small golf tournament final dinners are good places for this appeal. Anywhere you have a crowd of individuals assembled. There are some limitations and procedures of course. All the attendees have to have a bidder card and that means an Auction. You can’t just conduct this appeal at every board meeting and the appeal works better if you can be specific about the need being funded. That’s why this is sometimes referred to as “Fund-a-Need”
As a Professional Auctioneer I have used this technique over the last 5 years raising $154,000 at one event in about 5 minutes. It works! When we conducted it for the first time here in Austin we raised more money than we needed for the special project. Nice problem to have!!
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When working with your steering committee remember to look at your local churches that have completed a capital campaign. Their workers make good prospects to be on your Major Gifts committee and they already have a list of potential donors who believe in many of the values that Scouting and the church share.
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Councilwide we only have about 15% of our families supporting Friends of Scouting. How can we raise that percent? With a better sales pitch? Premiums for giving? Stronger messaging? What level of percent participation do the rest of you have?
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