New Fundraising opportunities
COVID -19 is thwarting our fundraising efforts and we are attempting to supplement our current fundraising projects with new ones, e.g., the remarkably successful bottle drive. Having a few smaller fundraisers throughout the year helps to spread the risk and provide some upside in the good times; a series of smaller fundraisers might be less work to organize than one big event.
Please read on to see all that we are doing to raise the monies that we love to give away.
A ‘Happy Toonie’ for Ken coulter for taking over the Fundraising portfolio; I am sure, with his perseverance and tenacity, despite COVID restrictions, Fundraising will do extremely well for the Rotary year 2021-22. Status of the various initiatives is as follows.
Online Auction
COVID lockdown and restrictions in most of 2020 did not deter the Auction team to raise $31K. Some of the innovative ideas introduced included: small gift and cash donations to build gift baskets, buy and contribute gift cards with points and approach Ribfest sponsors for sponsorship. Thank you to Ashok, Bent, Bob, Ken C, and the entire team for their excellent effort!
The RCOT kick-off meeting is scheduled for June 3.
Bottle Drive
Kudos to the entire team: Claire, Ken C, Ken A, Bent, Joan, Desmond, Sabih, et.al. for an excellent job! Their efforts have resulted in $12K for this Rotary year and a total of $19K since its inception last Spring. The team is planning to promote the Drive with pictures and videos on social media, plus one year print media report. We do need more volunteers to expand the collections, especially in Condo complexes, the proverbial low hanging fruit.
Bingo
Alan Campbell has agreed to take over Bingo; in addition to coordination of the onsite volunteers which is on hold at present due to lock-down, he will be prime for the monthly reports to the Town and the six-monthly permit applications.
We have raised $10K through Bingo this year. In lieu of onsite volunteering, Ken Auden has diligently written monthly reports on our efforts with SafetyNet, Oakville Art Society, Acclaim Health, etc. and these reports have resulted in a contribution from Delta Bingo. Thank you very much, Ken!
Ribfest
Due to the lock-down, it was decided to postpone the Ribfest from June to August 20th to 22nd, 2021. The Steering Committee will re-start its planning meetings, the first one is scheduled for June 14th.
Online 50 /50
We netted $5K in the Rotary year 2019-20 and we are planning one this year. Key to selling online 50/50 is extensive promotion of our club activities and having a large following on social media:
- Videos and write-ups with photographs of our success stories: student bursaries, international projects, community efforts, etc., to significantly increase our online presence
- Social Media savvy, more active club members.
We cannot have events dedicated to specific causes. The Rotary model calls for the flexibility to distribute funds and support activities as we see fit.
Members are continually suggesting several new fundraisers, some traditional and others ‘out of box’. We need to actively "red and green light" these ideas; those that are green-lighted require further due diligence.
Akin to the Ribfest Steering Committee or Rotary Online Auction Committee, we need to establish a Fundraising Sub-Committee dedicated for evaluating these suggestions.
So, remain healthy, maintain social distancing, stay at home, but think out of the box. If you have any thoughts about any opportunities or fundraising ideas that we could pursue, please forward them to Ken at coultercreative@gmail.com.
Have a great summer!