What sort of things do you guys do to raise money for your squadrons?
(apart from bag packing)
We’ve done sponsored walks and bike rides, quiz nights with a raffle/auction and when we do a community event the CWC do something attached to our recruiting stand.
Something I’ve spoken to the CWC about is a coffee morning. Not very exciting but the place I live (a village) has got organisations and individuals that do these as a fund raiser and for a little work raise between £400 and £600. This is quite amazing for a cup of tea/coffe & cake and a go on a tombola or raffle. For my money this beats working your backside off all day doing bag-packing. We’ve done 4 bag packs and been knackered by the end of the day.
Bag park tends to be our biggest fund raiser but as for everything else
we take part in a local RBL Sponsorred Poppy Walk. 50% of what we raise goes to the Poppy Appeal, 50% is donated “back to us” (we keep it) for our own funds.
back in 2011 we targeted everyone to raise £70 in recognition of the 70th anniversary…not all did manage it but most.
we normally have 20-25+ Cadets walking (+staff and CivCom) and and although not all will have much more than £40 in sponsorship some really do make the effort* and raise £200 or more…we have picked up £1000 from that event in the past
*the end of year awards night includes a trophy awarded to the Cadet who raised the most money
we do about 6 or so “community events” during the year (Car marshalling, water stations at fun runs etc) and get ~£200-250 for a days work.
our CivCom seem insistent that our Socials (Discos/Balls etc) should make money and have turned a profit in the region of £200 based on ticket sales and raffles if what i have heard is to be believed (personally i am against social events being a fund raiser)
other than this our CivCom are very good at getting money out of our local business, applying for grants and the like…we even won an award in our local town for “help in the community” which came with a prize fund.
The Committee of a Sqn I was on many years ago ran a ‘100 Club’ for a while but then gave up due to lack of interest from both them and the Club ‘members’. I like the overall idea of ‘Clubs’ though, as part of a broader fundraising plan.
Sucking eggs and all that, but for those who are not familliar with these ‘Clubs’. It’s just a monthly (or quarterly or whatever you want) lottery with a limited number of ticket holding ‘members’. A proportion has to be given out as prizemoney each draw and I think there may be a legal requirement for a certain percentage to be given back (Perry any idea?); I also think that the Sqn has to be authorised by the local Council to run lotteries, again, I’m hoping someone like Perry will confirm. I think there was a £40 first prize and £20 second prize every month, the rest went to Sqn funds. I’ve seen monthly 100, 200 and even 500 Clubs before; the 500 Club was on a big RAF Stn with charities getting the surplus. People tended to keep their ‘membership’ for a while (whole tours usually for Clubs on Stns) and there was often a waiting list to join.
They can be a pain to manage, especially setting up and ‘selling’ the membership first time round, but once established, it gives a steady income, particularly if you are doing monthly ones, and the chances of winning are not bad.
[quote=“steve679” post=14641]Bag park tends to be our biggest fund raiser but as for everything else
we take part in a local RBL Sponsorred Poppy Walk. 50% of what we raise goes to the Poppy Appeal, 50% is donated “back to us” (we keep it) for our selves. [/quote]
This is illegal, one charity and not make a donation to another. The RBL or RAFA cannot give cast to the ATC or a Sqn. You have to make it clear from the start where the money is going.
we do…the Cadets are made aware that they are raising funds for both and should inform those sponsoring them of the fact.
the RBL in questions is happy for 50% of what we raise to be retained as a “donation” (for want of a better phrase) for the efforts of the Cadets raising funds