Fundraising Involvment

[Quint31Jumper]

Im sure this is a common issue discussed throughout every firehouse in the country, yet a common problem. We have a department of some 70 members. When it comes to fundraising it is only a core group that does the bulk of the work involved. My question is what success has other departments had in getting the entire (or most of) the department involved? Any ideas will be very helpful. Thanks!

[Flochief]

Hey Qunit we are in the same boat. Our dept is 19 members strong. We are having a fundraiser now. We are raffling off a Holland Gas Grill next Sunday (Oct 8). On the back of the tickets we write the person who sold the ticket. Tickets are $2.00 each. We are going to give away to the person who sells the most tickets a $100 gift card. We also are going to pull another name out and who's name is on the back of the ticket will get a $50.00 gift card.
We could make around $3000 on this.

We try to make it where the members will get something in return, but some people just do not want to be salespeople.

We have tried selling calendars, same results.

If you can come up with some good ideas please let me know.

[Quint31Jumper]

I liked your idea of the gift cards. We have general meeting tomorrow and I plan to bring it up and going to see what the committee thinks about it.

As for yourself, we do a raffle as well, generally we raffle a couple bikes and smaller prizes. We also do an annual dance but its going by the wayside as times are changing. Several neighboring departments do pancake breakfasts which tend to be very successful. You can work with differant churches and community groups for advertising. Some departments also put together something of a party for their raffles, selling beer and food during the raffle which i hear works out well.

I agree, not everyone wants to be a salesman. If we come up with any other ideas ill be sure to get them to you. My email is [email protected].

Thank you for your help

[Bones42]

We simply made a minimum number of fundraising events mandatory. For example, if we do 10 things per year, you have to make 1/2 of them. Yes, guys came up with the "but we're only volunteer" and thought they would not have to do it. We reminded them, the last time they volunteered was when they volunteered to join and follow the rules.

Which would you rather have? A lot of members where a few do the work and the rest just skate on by, or a fair number of members that all share the work? We picked the latter. And have gained more members because of it.

[doughesson]

The last river job I worked for had raffles benefitting various workers' kin when they got sick or injured.Oddly enough,it seemed that the winner always worked in the shop where the guy needing a hand worked.
Maybe a raffle could be rigged to have the guys that show up for calls,training details and fundraising could be the winners.

[kghemtp]

Hey everyone!

This is exactly the kind of thread I was looking for. My wife & I just got home from a whole weekend of fundraising for my career department. It's a food & drink fundraiser at a Triathalon where we make & sell burgers, dogs, sausages, sell drinks, danishes, muffins, bagels, soda, juice, and water. My department is 32 members (4 shifts of 8), and yesterday we had 2 of us there (along with my wife & my partner's dad for a total of 4 people). Today we had 4 members (including the same partner Chris, his dad & GF, me, and my lieut & capt along with my wife, and a couple other non-member helpers). We have a short list of willing participants with an extensive list of "Sure, I can TRY to be there" or "Sure, I'll be there (but I don't mean it)." This benefits our union, which is exactly like benefiting any other organization out there from vollie, call, or FT. My question to the world is, How have departments of ANY kind been able to pursuade/force members to participate in something that the whole group needs AND uses? There's nothing in place for any member, senior or junior on the list. You'd think the junior guys (especially those on probation) would be putting in every waking second to look good for the department (I was the only one during my probie time to take part in most of our fundraising events). I love helping the cause, don't get me wrong, and my wife enjoys it too because it's another thing we can do together AND she likes my group of guys & gals from work, but it gets old when we feel like we're carrying the department on every event. I hope those who have shared the same frustration can come back with solutions that worked for them. Thanks in advance!