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Has anyone had luck getting classmates to make donations?

Forums: General Discussion
Created on: 12/18/09 01:06 PM Views: 3328 Replies: 12
Friday, December 18, 2009 at 1:06 PM

We sent out a very nice email asking for donations and/or advertisements for the program. That was over a month ago and the only response we got was from someone telling us it was a bad time of the year and that we should continue using our own money and build it into the cost of the ticket or create a t-shirt as a fundraiser.

Needless to say we were very discouraged.

Thanks, Ann

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Friday, December 18, 2009 at 2:53 PM - Response #1

Anticipating that very issue, I have elected to 'solicite' donations AFTER the first of the year, asking for door prizes, give-away items [or money to help buy the same], funds to rent a margarita machine, buy a keg of beer or two, etc.

Give-aways are really rather inexpensive, but, finding items that are good for male and female class members takes a bit of consideration.

Our reunion will be in May, and most of our 'fixed costs' are already set for the most part, i.e., rental of facility, DJ, photographer, security*, caterer is lined up [a month ahead of time we should be able to give them a 'definite' number to prepare for]

Steve

* - here, if there is ANY alcohol, security has to be hired [off duty police] - no exceptions.

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Friday, December 18, 2009 at 3:11 PM - Response #2

Hi~ I just wanted to give you hope. We had our 30th class reunion this past August. We sold t's and steins before the reunion through the site and at a very reasonable cost. (We went direct thru a distributor) The t's were printed and we sold them for 10.00. The mugs were etched and these went for 12.00. There wasn't as much participaton as we expected.

Well we had a big plastic jug with a balloon tied to the top and labeled it, "donations for website" and carried this to both events. The donations were more than generous and more than we ever imagined. It was enough to pay for this site for another 10 years. We even had enough to pay ourselves back for what we incurred out of pocket. Goodluck!

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Friday, December 18, 2009 at 3:23 PM - Response #3

Can I ask where you ordered the steins and t-shirts? Also, did you take orders or did you buy a bunch of them? I don't want to be stuck with a bunch of t-shirts that says RHS Class of 72!

I was just a little aggravated with the response telling us to use OUR money, when all we were hoping for was $5-10 donations.

Thanks, Ann

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Friday, December 18, 2009 at 3:49 PM - Response #4

There seems to be magic in the "in person" meetings. I've only been asking for $5-$10 from each person for the site, and seldom get checks in the mail. At our mini-reunion I was surprised how often people gave $20 unsolicited donations and said, "spend this wherever it's needed". (Next time we'll be certain to put out a donation jar)

We just finished a fundraiser for bricks the high school was selling to raise funds. I gave classmates 2 months, and very little came in. When I posted on the site that the deadline had passed, I got more than the entire time we were collecting....go figure!

One of our classmates suggested that a progress chart might help...think I will try that for our spring fundraiser.

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Edited 12/18/09 3:50 PM
Friday, December 18, 2009 at 3:53 PM - Response #5

We had great success getting donation before our reunion. We set up the reunion planner so classmates could purchase tickets to the reunion online. Along with tickets, we added a "Donations" item for purchase with a price of $5. Classmates were able to enter any quantity of "donations" they wanted. We let the class know what we were using donations for and almost everyone donated something. Some could only donate $5 and some donated a quantity of 20 which resulted in a donation of $100. We also used the PayPal Donations option, but only 2 people used that. We raised enough money to keep the website going for years and have annual mini-reunions each year. Good Luck!

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Friday, December 18, 2009 at 4:02 PM - Response #6

We took orders prior to because we didnt want to get stuck wth them either. It was through the reunion link and they could send check or use credit card. The tees were great quality and true to size. We had our logo on the front and words, and on the back we had the two names of the places that our events were held and the date. ( got permisson and logos from them) We had plate charges that me and the other admnistrator paid for out of pocket up front. Bring sharpies with you because many wanted signed shirts! The mugs/beer steins were 10-12 oz and we had our warror head logo etched into the glass with words, too. These were also nice. I'll warn you, everyone will ask you if you can post a picture of the items before they buy. We didn't. I just gave them an exact description and told them it wasn't real estate they were buying. How can you mess up a shirt and mug?!

The broker I worked through used distributors close by so that shipping costs were at a minimum. The website is www.takingitpersonallypromotions.com. 757-869-9084 ask for Cheryl. Let her know that Lori gave you her info so she will know and be able to go back into her files to show you what we had ordered. We also made a slideshow for the reunion and it was such a hit. We begged and searched for pictures from our youth, created it and presented it. We sold these for 12.00 each and sold out. We bought the software and made copies very inexpensive. If you want to check out our slideshow, go to our site and go into memory lane. Its not protected. It' s the first one and has the warrior head.
Let me know how it works out!

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Friday, December 18, 2009 at 4:17 PM - Response #7

In September, our grade school held a reunion. The committee started with $37.00. We advertised the event locally, ordered a minimum number of t shirts and rented a hall.
Severel businessess, friends and classmates donated items to be raffeled off. These included gift certificates for dinners, a money tree, car care products, live plant decorations and craft items and etc. The t shirts were sold, and when we ran out, orders were taken.
When all was over, we made enough to pay all expenses, and to rent the hall for next year.

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Friday, December 18, 2009 at 4:21 PM - Response #8

The slideshow has to be boring for people that aren't n our class and its about 30 minutes long. Thing is, we did a good job on it and it goes through the years from grade school all the way to graduaton and we included in memory and credits for the music. I think this we used one true media. Point is, it will give you an idea, even if you have to sit through it..lol...it went perfectly--people laughed when we wanted them too and the crowd gave the reactions to it all that we hoped for.

we DID NOT pre-sell these. We waited until after dinner the first night and played it on a big screen. We announced they were for sale. We sold bunches..12 bucks for awesome memores.

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Saturday, December 19, 2009 at 3:41 AM - Response #9

I have had no luck on donations! Sad

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Saturday, December 19, 2009 at 9:17 AM - Response #10

We had of couple of early, big donations and then a couple of smaller ones trickled in after that. We even had one of our big donators challenge the class to match donations with absolutely no success yet.

I just changed and simplified my donation box look in hopes that it catches the eye. We'll see if it works.

We plan on selling T's and mugs and putting photos on a sub link.

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Saturday, December 19, 2009 at 3:38 PM - Response #11

Sometime after the holidays, I am going to hit my class up again! Right now times are really hard for people! Sad

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Tuesday, December 22, 2009 at 10:08 AM - Response #12

We had marvelous luck. I brought the site up about one year before our 50th class reunion. It was slow at first but by class reunion time I think we have at least 70% of the class on board. We had the largest attendance at the reunion ever and I simply noted the charges involved in keeping the site going. I then asked for donations on the site. From a class of 120 or so living I received donations of over $1,000 which I have bought a ten year membership. So there is hope!

Good Luck!

Libann

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