Rain Online

One of the most telling t-shirt and bumper sticker slogans ever is the one that reads, “It will be a great day when our schools have all the money they need and the air force has to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber.” Witty, clever, and unfortunately, expressive of what a sad financial state our schools are often in (private schools excepted). The reality still holds that schools have to hold fundraisers to support many programs and functions that once were not under threat of becoming extinct. The high school band didn’t NEED to do carwashes. The third-grade drama club didn’t NEED to solicit funds by selling schlocky Christmas cards. The community college associated students governing body didn’t NEED to hawk raffle tickets.

But realistic and accepting as students so amazingly are, today they will go to great lengths to breed and nourish a thriving endeavor, organization, or scholastic program. And some of the clever and effective fundraising campaigns keep them successfully doing so.

One of the more effective fundraisers is the one that involves, yes, food. Especially on a community college campus, for example, where only one food court and two machines vend nutritional snacks or meals, the barbecue, the Chinese food, or any other holiday or ethnic food fundraisers can bring in fast money.

Along the same lines of thinking, fundraisers that work in affiliation with a chocolate company are hugely successful. For example, in Europe in 2002, 752.4 million euros were spent on chocolate candy (according to AIB International); in the US, 1,518,035 tons of chocolate were consumed in the same year (AIB).

The product or service, the offering of the fundraisers, is important. Also important is a streamlined, relatively facile plan.

Define the fundraising effort. How much time will fundraisers need? How many participants would be required? Will there be an up-front cost, or will the base costs be paid once the fundraising is complete?

Organize the fundraiser. Use sign-up sheets or delegate to volunteers. Set a schedule or calendar of steps to be taken.

Use a product, service, or certificate/coupon program that requires no follow-up, no overhead, and is decidedly popular (in advance of the fundraisers).

Imitate other successful fundraisers. Well, don’t sell pizza coupons if the club down the hall is doing so, but if your church held an auction using donated antiques last year and it was a hit, do the same or something similar for the hockey team to get new and badly needed uniforms.

And avoid scams. Go with a fundraising support service that has been in business for years or that has a great word-of-mouth reputation.

And have fun

I have always loved being on the water. Ever since I was a kid, I have been drawn to it. We used to live on a small Lake in Wisconsin, and boating was one of our biggest pastimes. Sometimes, I would get to go on serene morning rows with my father. Other times, a few of us would go fishing in the evening. My favorite adventure, however, was taking out the big party boat with all of my friends and family. The party boat is what we called the pontoon boat. It was a typical floating porch, about 30 feet long and almost as wide. Although it was a big boat by any standards, when I was a kid it looked huge.

Our boat parties were legendary within our social circle. We would motor out to the middle of the lake, moor the boat, and spend the afternoon just hanging out and eating delicious food. My dad was a great barbecue chef, and there would always be good eating on that party boat. We would dive into the water, swim around, lay in the sun, or just hang out and talk.

It was the joy that I got out of those childhood pontoon party boat excursions that inspired me to start my own charter service. Party boats were hardly a typical career occupation in my family. Quite to the contrary, most of my relatives were professionals. We had quite a few doctors, lawyers, business people, and other serious white collar types. Starting a private boat charter service was something that was almost unprecedented in our family. No one had ever done anything like it before.

Still, my parents were proud when they saw that I intended to follow through. I spent a couple years working in a sunset cruise boat tour, getting some experience of the business and saving up enough money to buy my own party pontoon boat. Initially, my party boat was a pretty low cost affair. It wasn’t as luxurious as some of the other cruises, so I catered to people who wanted a more budget conscious trip. I made sure that people always had a good time on my boat tours, and so I was making pretty good money at it. Soon I saved up enough to buy another boat, and soon I had a third one. Nowadays, business is going pretty well, and I get to spend most of my time on the water, doing what I love.