With the demise of bag packing thanks to click and collect and the banning of being allowed to car marshall at events would anyone care to share any wizzo fundraising ideas that are working for them.
In my experiance most squadrons are running on the subs difference between what comes in from cadets and what is paid to wing, some squadrons are also claiming Gift Aid and getting grants usually via contacts on Charity Excellence or from local companies or now from the Air Cadet Charity. Easy fundraising is another one, does not yield much as people forget to go through it.
Squadrons with a mini bus then this is probably not enough to provide what the CO wants and keep the bus on the road, hence me putting this out here to see what others are doing.
Maybe 20 years ago ( yes I have been involved that long and more) I pulled into a motorway service station and the local Sea Cadets in uniform in the doorways doing bucket collections. Talking to the guy in charge he told me that is was their main fundraiser and easily topped ÂŁ1k a day. However things have changed since then and I am sure that would not be approved by core these days even if we could get permission from the service station or where ever.
Car washing is a potential nightmare ( you scratched my car !) , having a trading web site selling squadron clothing and accesories works and is something I have first hand experiance of.
I wouldn’t say bag packing is dead, we did a bag pack last month which raised over £1k, another was done just before Xmas and raised £1.5k. Other Sqns I have connections with are getting similar amounts.
Having just got back from Tesco’s, the place was heaving so not sure click and collect has taken over, not in this neck of the woods anyway🤣
I am aware though that in some areas, supermarkets aren’t allowing groups in but that seems to be in the smaller towns with one supermarket meaning they get constant requests so they’ve stopped allowing anyone in.
While I agree self checkouts have made Bag packing “harder” it is far from impossible. I have seen the drop off in totals collected since their introduction, and again with a loss of customers carrying cash to drop in the bucket but we still bring in 80% of what we did prior to these changes.
There are some units which use a QR code which sends people to a basic payment screen to offer a donation, others using card machines.
Regarding the bag packs we found that smaller shops like B&M, home bargains etc produce larger donations many because it was more cash purchasers than card purchases.
It all depends on how you market Easyfundraising to your parents and squadron staff. We have raised £100’s through it mainly by targeting a few key times of the year. Firstly the new intake will have the QR code and be told how it works etc. We then do targeted marketing campaigns our “January Blues” one has worked really well, That is targeted at holidays for the summer and alot of the big ones such as Expedia, TUI and Hotels.com offering up to 4.25% if the price of a holiday is £2000 (summer holiday quite easily) that’s £85 donation straight away. We also target the Christmas shopping market with “Santa’s Specials” both for supermarkets and shops, the parents get Facebook posts, newsletters (by e-mail) and reminders at the committee meetings. With Easyfundraiser you get out for what you put in, personally I have found if it just sits there you wont raise that much.
If you have something specific in mind, apply for a grant. We’ve done Tesco blue tokens, RFCA, Lord Lieutenants fund, local council and RAFA, to name a few. Various staff work for companies who do annual donations to charities - they put the Sqn as their nominated charity.