Re: - Fundraising

[Guest guest]

Hi - me again! First of all, in order to raise money, a lot of times people want to be able to write off their donations as tax deductions. I would start by seeing if there is a community foundation with an IRS 501©(3) status who would "sponsor" your fundraiser - meaning, they would let all the funds run through them. Having the 501©(3) would mean that all donations would be tax deductible. You and your associates would do the work, the foundation's name would be on all of your material. Monies would be channeled through them - going into their bank account and then out to your expenses and your choice of charity. Also, if you were to do any type of raffle ticket or raffle at an event, you would want to know if the community foundation has a gambling certificate or whatever is required from your city, county, state, etc. There are various fundraisers

you can do. The thing is, NS and sarcoid are such rare, "unknown" diseases that it would be difficult to generate a grass roots campaign, unless you and your associates know a LOT of generous people. But in your case, it would definitely be best to start with a grass roots type of campaign. Me and my friends started raising money for breast cancer awareness by hosting informative luncheons for friends and other people in the community. Any donations were sent directly to the breast health center at our local hospital, and were used to purchase informational material for the patients and their families. At our luncheon, a speaker from the health center came to address our guests, we had a local breast cancer survivor share her story of her battle with breast cancer, and we did some small raffles. We also sold baskets that generated money for the ACS, and subsequently had a portion (well, in our case - all)

of the proceeds (commissions) from the sale donated back to the breast health center. People want to know that their generosity benefits people from their own community(ies). Within 3 years, we started hosting large scale events and included various people from the field to come (ACS, plastic surgeons, etc.) and speak at our event. We went from like 20 guests to over 300 in our 4th year. It was amazing. At that point we knew this was a calling and a huge need. We established our foundation, our fund benefitting patients and secured our 501©(3). This year, in addition to our regular fundraising and co-chairing our ACS Relay Team, I'm going to be going out with an ACS rep to do speaking engagements discussing breast cancer and explaining how our fund works. The ACS wants to work side by side with us to increase breast cancer awareness and help get our funds out to the community of

patients in need. Everything happened so quickly. I pray your mission will take off like a rocket, too. I do have a few fundraisers to recommend, but you do need to have the backing of a 501©(3) organization, whether you are hosting a bake sale OR hosting an extravaganza. I will GLADLY help you get this off the ground, if I can, but I think the biggest hurdle you might have is actually creating awareness about the disease (public interest and concern), deciding how you will use the monies raised, and then reaching out to people asking them for money. As far as organizations who may sponsor you, you might want to talk to the ELKS, the Rotary, a local Business and Professional Women's group (BPW loves fundraising), Amvets, Jaycees, etc. Have a strong pitch ready and see if they will help you. There's your volunteer and 501©(3) answer! Then you

have to decide to raise money. Here are some ideas: - Car cruises - local car clubs might like to do a car show and cruise to raise money for your cause. - Bike runs - bikers are big hearted people, believe it or not! - raffle tickets - have sponsor purchase 30 items to be raffled off in a 30 day month. Sell 1000 tickets numbered 000 to 999 for $5 each to cover the cost of the purchases AND to raise money. Usually you'll spend about 1/3 of the money on the items, but the rest is money for the cause! You'll need to recruit a lot of people to help sell. Sale can be done word of mouth, OR you can contact local businesses such as Wal-mart or your grocer and ask if you can set up a table outside and sell your tickets.. It's not easy, but it can be done if you plan well! Winning number is taken from that day's daily 3-digit lottery number.

A good local printer might even sponsor the printing costs of your ticket as long as you agree that they put their information on the ticket as being the sponsor! - money raffle tickets - similar to above. Have tickets printed, sell the tickets, have a big "pot" for a single day OR smaller denominations for the entire month with a grand prize for a specific day. Thing is, people are used to spending very little for these tickets, so you really don't make as much on them. But they do sell! - out here in PA we have what's called a "Cow Patty." Ok, sit down. You're going to either faint or laugh. They sell tickets for spaces on a huge grid that is painted out in the pasture. It is held on a specific day, and they have food vendors (usually the sponsor does the food and donates proceeds to the cause). On that day at a certain time, they put the cow out in the

pasture. When the cow "does her duty," the owner of the grid where the first plop hits wins the grand prize - could be cash, items, etc. Sometimes this takes forever, others it takes a matter of minutes. You would have live entertainment from a local musician (preferably donated), and people would bring their own food or buy from the vendor(s). I know how awful it sounds, but people around here go bonkers for it! - extravaganzas/galas/formals. Host a ball or other type event (our BPW did a Mexican fiesta that was FABULOUS!) which includes dinner and dancing and raffles. Get the raffle items donated from local businesses. Larger ticket items call for a "silent auction." Our local Arthur Murry's dancers always donate their time to kick off the event with their dance moves and then later invite guests out onto the floor for a few lessons. Before you know it, everyone is out on the

floor having the time of their lives. Make sure all your costs are covered in the price of the ticket and then include a little cushion toward your fundraising efforts. I have so many more ideas, but wanted to give you a little idea of some things you can do. You can get free publicity through press releases and radio and tv announcements - it's easy. And you can usually secure donations from local businesses or family, friends and your church. It's a lot more detailed than what I've said above, but once you get an idea of what you need, I'll be happy to outline all the specifics for you and help you get started that way! I know you can do this! I'm very excited to see what you come up with, too! Just let me know how I can help, ok? Good luck! Jeannie adrian white

wrote: IM WRITING TO STATE REPS TO HELP GET AND UNDERSTANDING ABOUT SARCOIDOSIS AND WHERE IT LEAVES PEOPLE ,I NEED HELP WITH IT SEEMS TO BE A PROBLEM GETTING HELP AND SERVICES FOR ME I WAS WORKING TWO JOS FOR YEARS IM WAITING FOR TO SEND ME MY PAPER WORK .I THEN I TO WAIT TO IF ITS APROVED FOR 90 DAYS THEN SSI TAKES FOREVER .I WOULD TOD A FUNDRASER WITH DRS .ALSO TRAVEL AND PUT ON WAYS OF DEALING WITH THIS Rose wrote: , can you explain a little about what you are doing? Thanks!Ramblin' RoseModeratorFrom: adrian white Reply-To: Neurosarcoidosis To: Neurosarcoidosis Subject: Re: Fwd: Our Weekly Sarcoidosis Chat TopicDate: Mon, 17 Apr 2006 18:51:27 -0700 (PDT)im trying a fund rasing started through the lung foundationtiodaat@... wrote: Is this the one from Trevor's group?I don't know~~~~ *** ~~~ *** ~~~ *** ~~~~The Neurosarcoidosis CommunityNS CHAT:- Has

been cancelled for now.Message Archives:-http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Neurosarcoidosis/messagesMembers Database:-Listings of locations, phone numbers, and instant messengers.http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Neurosarcoidosis/database