London, ON Fund-raiser Idea(s)

I was on the Rebel Legion board today and found an old thread where pilots were showing off photos of their costumes in various scenarios. I noticed a few of people in their costumes washing cars.

How would you guys feel about doing a costumed car wash sometime in the spring/summer as a fund-raiser for the group?

If anyone has any other ideas for raising money, feel free to suggest them here!

 

Ok, here's a little brain storming.

car wash
lemonade stand
pop can drive
photo stand
appearances
bake sale
bizzar/craft sale
raffle
auction
party
dance
donation/tax write off


Now lets look at the "How, who, when, where & why"
first off I can't do weekends and I don't like to loan out my costumes.

car wash: would best work on a Sat, Sunday or Holiday. Where can it be done, we need traffic and access to water.

lenonade stand: again would best work on a Sat, Sunday or Holiday. Where can it be done, we need pedestrain traffic.

pop can drive: again would best work on a Sat, Sunday or Holiday. This is a lot of walking door to door.

photo stand: again would best work on a Sat, Sunday or Holiday. Where can it be done, we need pedestrain traffic. Camera & printer is easy, but would people to cheap to pay and just get out thier phone cameras.

appearances: We've been trying this and people (parents) want Darth Vader and 2 Storm Troopers.

bake sale
bizzar/craft sale: This should be at like a school or church and could be combined with the photo shoot.

Auction: We need something of high value that people would pay a lot for. Could lose a lot of money it's high risk.

party
dance
Halloween show: could be held at the garrison.

raffle
tax donation: we need to be a registerd not-for-profit group. I would really like to bring this one up again. The cost is $150, if each member pays $10 month for $120 year. 75% of that is tax deductable. Also everything we do like building these Ewoks, the parade and May celebration. everything that we put into it is tax deductable. We have the board of directors, all we need to do is the paper work pay the fee. Then keep very good books and file tax forms every year.

 

Yeah, I wasn't thinking about weekends and availability. Hmmm......

Well, I think we should get started on registering as a not-for-profit right away. Some places I've looked at only contribute money or extend opportunities to promote yourself if you have a number. And some businesses give discounts if you are a registered not-for-profit too. Perhaps we can add a 'click here to donate' section to the website and link it via Paypal to a bank account in the name of the group. I believe we can also introduce paid memberships (like $10 a year or something), which can also go through the website.

Info on registering an Ontario not-for-profit.

Perhaps we can work a raffle into the May event to raise some money - in addition to selling the pillows, etc. Ideally the raffle prize would be donated, unless it is something we could get a really amazing deal on and we know we can make a profit on the ticket sales. We could even implement some 'stag and doe' type games like a toonie toss to win a prize.

I like the idea of doing something at Halloween too. I'll think about that one.

 

We can't legally have a raffle with out being a registerd not-for-profit group and register the raffle with the city and pay the tax value of what we are raffling off.
At the celebration we ask for donations, sell pillows and t-shirts. With this we give people a ticket and draw prizes as a thank you to those who support us.