Has anyone ever contacted Elderly and/or others whose shops benefit us and we buy from them? Not for ads-- maybe they would donate gift certs and/or gear to our Auction or a raffle at the designated time of year. If this were done far enough in advance, things like the Getaway could be places to get the word out or sell some raffle tix. There could be a raffle chairperson to do this, to send out numbered tix, and to take in the money generated along with any unsold raffle tix. If it caught on with businesses, it could become, even, a monthly raffle.

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Our local Rotary club, Men's Chorus, fire halls and other places do a 50/50 raffle. The prize for trhe winner is half the raffle proceeds. It's done with cheap rolls of numbered tix, sold by org members as they circulate through a larger FR. Maybe FSGW would OK one at Getaway.

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Our Men's Chorus has an annual Pizza Party at our church. The local pizzerias gfive them a non-profit price on sheet pizzas, the people buy a ticket to attend for the free (to them) pizza and soda, there are door prizes raffled off every hour, which have been doiated by local merchants.

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I raised a BOATLOAD of bucks several years in a row for a local nonprofit, and not all of it was direct mail (which would not be OK to do here). There are strategies from that I can share if a FR board forms.

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Challenge Gifts work well on TV and radio, where someone offers to donate a large amount IF the "callers" (posters, here) pony up the matching amount. How it works-- large donor says "I'll give X by myself if you-all will kick in enough among you to equal it by [date]."

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Match Gifts are cool too, where a donotr makes a commitment to match gifts up to sa stated total amount.

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Some of what makes FR work on a large scale is linking up the things already working, in such a way that the org gets a much bigger bang for its buck. I've seen genius approaches in that manner, right here in this poor county. Man, can these orgs here squeeze and make you LIKE it!

IMO the challenge to us is NOT "how" to raise bucks per se-- people in all orgs do it all the time-- but how to adapt effective approaches (A) within Mudcat cultural norms and (B) with modems instead of face-to-face, snail mail, or telephone approaches.

Lesson One is, we cannot be afraid to ask for money. We have to be eager to let people know that they can be part of a good thing, instead of "crying poor." BAD news giving works short-term. GOOD news giving works sustainably, long-term.

~Susan