Please be in touch with us before you actually do anything so we can verify that you are doing it so if any one contacts us about it there is no confusion.
Our goal is to find someone who will do some sort of a fund raising event to raise a base sum of money and also to have a goal of bringing together in on accord one to two hundred persons to pledge to give and who will give 3 dollars a month for the next three to four years.
Or someone to do any part of helping us to accomplish the above.
We are also open to alternative ideas. We want to start to do something proactive to help poor persons in other countries climb out of their poverty. Mostly by empowering them to be able to open and work at a small business that would make jobs for others providing a serve or making a product which there is a market for or to finish their education or to do good works in their town such as spread AIDS awareness and prevention information to their neighbors and to all those at risk.
If you cannot do it yourself help us find someone in your area who would do it.
Here is a layout of some basic ideas to follow if you should decide to bite the bullet and give this a try. If you try, we will appreciate it and we suspect it will work. If you have a special field of interest or work and are aware of some event that might be well received in that field or interest, try it.
1. You get some friends together and dream up and event. Come up with an event you would be willing to try to sponsor to raise funds. It could be a once a year flea market, a street fair, a festival, a play or concert or art show, or a trade show for a special niche. You could hold an auction or a party. Hold a Halloween parade or costume party with prizes. You could hold a prayer vigil or a pancake breakfast. Hold a trade-a-thon where people can bring stuff they do not want and others can come and get whatever they need free. Charge each person three or ten dollars to attend. Hold a progressive party or diner. That is where a group of persons goes from one of their homes to another having a different course of a dinner at each house or place. Hold a restaurant night where you promote persons going to restaurants in town and each restaurant agrees to give a percentage for the cause and has a place for donation s for the cause that night. You could even go from pub to pub in the area and take a collection on a pre determined and advertised night or whatever night unless drink offends you. You could hold a fifty/fifty unless gambling offends you.
If gaqmbling offends you you can hold a fifty/fifty but state before you sell the ticket that it is rigged and these men in Africa are going to win everything. Then make sure that happens.
Whatever you do: It can be something simple or something grand.
If you want to do a street fair or a festival it is best to try to have rides at it. You may want to contact a few other organizations in the area and say to them that you are planning to hold a street fair type event and see if they want to participate. The more who do the better it will turn out. If you get the right ones they might do most of the work. If two or three groups all hold events on the same day along the same street in the same area it should increase participation. This last part is If? You want to hold that sort of an event. Hold something you want to hold and would enjoy setting up. Something you would enjoy seeing happen in the area. Think also of a time in the next two years when this would be best to do. Think about other things that go on in that market. Try not to compete, unless you can compliment each other. Be wise and creative. Send separate letters to the President, Vice president, the first lady and your state and local elected officials telling them you are planning this event and invite him to attend. If they decline write back and ask him to re-consider. If they decline again try a third letter. Finally in a forth ask him to send a contribution and a representative from his office or cabinet. Also, invite past presidents dignitaries and older famous persons you night like to see there. Invite sports stars. Do this first to give them time to reply. They can say yes or no. it is worth doing. If they come it should greatly improve your success. If any of these decide to come it will make it easier to get others to join in. You know. Chicken little.
2. Try to make it in a field and location with which you are familiar. You probably should plan it well in advance. Be creative. Keep It Simple, Make It Fun. These events are most successful when you can get radio stations or TV stations or area Papers or magazines to co-sponsor them. Then they help promote them for you and with you. However, an event can be successful even without media support.
3. Approach all area media and ask for help. Either one by one or all at once. If any are interested that is good.
4. Hold a meeting to invite possible volunteers to. Make up a post card with an announcement for the meeting. "We are going to hold an event (Name of event and date) we need grass roots support and persons to help plan and organize it.) A meeting will be held at such and such a location on Date. For more info call ( give number ) or visit set up a web site with basic information. ( www.freeservers.com will give free website just make up basic message with date of organization and planning meeting.) Send one set of postcards at least six weeks preferably eight weeks before event to all area radio stations, TV stations, and newspapers and magazines. You can get a list of them in the Gale directory at most libraries. Also, ask the local librarian there may be one for your area. You should have to send out about thirty to fifty post cards. It is a very cheap way to get a free ad. You could in addition about a three weeks and week before the meeting call several local radio talk show formats and mention the idea and invite persons interested to come. If you have basic Ideas formatted by then you can also try to get to be a guest on one of those local shows. Then sit down and make a list of thirty persons you know. Call them and invite to help and to come to the meeting. If you have picked an event that may be of special interest to certain persons you might do some extra work to get the message to them. This should be about eight to six months before the actual date unless you have already got the media sponsors.
6. Hold the meeting. Don't worry if nobody shows up. But in most cases a few do or someone calls to show interest. It might help if you make the meeting an informal inexpensive party and then you can invite your friends to a 'casual party.'
7. With whoever you have gotten by now discuss, plan and set up the event. Whether it is a street fair or party or Specialty show for a niche or whatever. Invite the Boy scouts, girl scouts, boys and girls clubs, Kiwanis, rotary, lions, and all such area clubs and any non profit group to volunteer to help and to come and set up a table to promote their causes or make a demonstration. Ask them for a donation, they can decide the amount, to help cover the expenses of the event. Or if it is a street fair and you have a ride company coming, work it out with the ride company and you can (check with us) have special tickets printed up. You can sell the tickets to the event to the groups at a discount and let them sell them to their members and the public and make money for their group doing it. For example you could have sheets of ten tickets, worth ten dollars and you can give them to the groups for 6 dollars and they can sell them to the public in advance for giving the person who buys then a .00 discount for buying early and the group can make for each sheet they sell. This way you can sell tickets before the event. For rides for example. This can help raise attendance. It will bring in cash before the event and help finance it. You can even let businesses and stores buy them wholesale and sell them at discount retail. The tickets could be for rides or food at the event but then make sure you have at least a fifty percent mark up on everything you sell for tickets at the event or you could lose money. However, if the tickets clearly state this is to help a charitable cause some may just buy tickets and never use them. This same idea applies if you are just going to hold a neighborhood carnival in your back yard or if you are going to hold a trade show.
8. Make a list of fifty area businesses and charities, religious institutions, colleges, college Greek orgs, that you have seen which have supported other public events and write a post card again keep it simple and sweet and ask them if they would like to co-sponsor the event. Invite a few area celebrities. Go the library and get the address book or something like it and send a post card to ten to fifty celebrities and ask them if hey would be willing to attend the event. ( You can also use internet means to reach these persons. )
9. In some cases, depending on what event you hold it might be best not to mention what the charity is for in others it may be best to mention it. Use your digression and what ever will bring the best response follow that path. ( DO not misunderstand this. We are always happy for everyone to talk about the cause. But if you just went to hold a party and invite a thousand persons you could say it is a party and there is an X dollar charge to attend. Make sure the cost well oversees the cost of the party per person attending and if it is a party where saying what you are raising money for is not going to have any benefit you may not even need to mention it. At the party, you can have a wishing well or you can actually take some time and explain what is going on why you are doing it. ) But in most cases you will mention the cause.
10. Then devise an advertising budget, keep it as flush and low as possible. Call the two or three area billboard cops and see if they will do you one free one. Sometimes they will do it for the cost of the paper to make the sign but only go for that if they are going to give you a good location. Your best bet is the free post card driven ads. You can get one extra one in by holding a pre-event rally or whatever a month or so before the event and them you can get a second set of post cards out for that. Check your area media and see what they want in the form of PSA's. If you have, the means use Internet for some local promotion. We do not know yet how to be effective via Internet locally. Use craigslist and some others to advertise it and try to get more volunteers.
11. Be sure to send out last set of postcards before the event early enough so they are put on and used timely near the event try to do another guest on a radio show.
12. Contact the list of volunteers and set up meeting date after event to plan for the next event ( If you want to do it)
13. Hold event. Have fun. At event, have several means of getting pledges from attendees to give .00 a month for the next three years. This is such a low amount that anyone who wants to give will be able to afford it.
14. By then you will have been in touch with us. We can try to help you as you go through all these things so you are successful.
15. After the event hold a meeting to evaluate how you did how you might have done better and if you want to do it again. Sometimes events that have run for centuries started in a way like this. You may want to hold it every three years of for a different cause. You may want to pass the baton to another.
16. Send us a check for what you raised. You are welcomed to have someone help oversee the use of those funds. the more you can raise the more persons we shall try to help with it in an idea similar to what we have explained in our web site e-mail.
On the other hand.
You may have a better idea or want to do something less complicated or something else.
Since we are beggars here, we cannot be the one who decides what you will do. There would be some work involved and you should make sure before you start that you are able to do what it would take to make it work.
Alternatively, you can let us know what you have in mind or had in mind and how you would prefer to help. Then again, you could help us find someone in your area who would like to set up and run some event. If you do something and it works well you could end up creating a job or two here for an American as well as a few jobs for others overseas.
If you want to help but all this is too much for you to do you can help by spending time on the internet reposting this appeal onthe Craigslist in your area from month to month or in other ways.
Also you could just get persons together or go up your block and get persons to join us in giving three dollars a month.
OUr number 1-212-696-8984 and our email richardhobbs@walla.com
