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United States: Evanston Nouveau members got the idea for Purple Pinkie in 2022. “We were thinking about creative ways to get people interested in polio,” says Club President Gerald Farinas. “A lot of clubs do ‘pints for polio,’ where they’ll partner with a tavern and get them to contribute a couple of bucks from each drink. We thought, ‘We’ve got to go beyond that.’”

 

Working with Sketchbook, the club crafted a unique, memorable beer and an effective fund-raising plan. Each fall, Sketchbook donates a dollar from each pint of Purple Pinkie served on tap and another dollar for each four-pack sold. The campaign contributes $2,000 to $3,000 to the antipolio effort. That may not sound like much, but multiplied by many hundreds of fundraisers across the globe, these World Polio Day efforts drive Rotary closer to its annual fundraising goal of $50 million.

 

There’s something in it for the club’s partners at the brewery too. “The Rotary club makes a good amount of noise around it, so we get noticed. All the buzz helps a lot,” says Cesar Marron, Sketchbook’s head brewer and managing partner. “It looks very different from our normal cans, so it brings in a lot of questions. It’s super unique.”

 

 

A couple of days later, the club held another Purple Pinkie event at Sketchbook’s other taproom in neighboring Skokie, Illinois. Attendees got the chance to meet members of the Chicago Stars, a National Women’s Soccer League team the club has collaborated with before. Such connections have a lot to do with the fundraiser’s success, Farinas says. It was natural to reach out to Marron, whom some members were acquainted with. And to design that eye-catching Purple Pinkie can, the club tapped a staff member at Rotary’s world headquarters in Evanston, Chris Brown, an artist who has designed album covers and one other beer can for the brewery.

 

“It’s easier to go where you already have these relationships than to look for the best possible business partner you can think of,” Farinas says. “We could have done that, but then the negotiation would probably have been much more difficult. It’s easy to approach people you already know.”

 

Now that’s some treasured taproom advice. What else can we learn on a global tour of World Polio Day fundraising efforts? Plenty. Key among the findings: This is a golden opportunity for clubs to connect to the power of Rotary’s global network, bond your members through a meaningful long-term project, increase your visibility in the community, and, just as importantly, have some fun.

 

 

 

United States:  As a franchise owner for Dunkin’, the largest doughnut chain in the United States, Dave Baumgartner knows more about flour, frosting, and deep-frying than fundraising. But when Margo Hughes, the franchise marketing manager and fellow member of the Rotary Club of Knoxville, Tennessee, suggested he sell purple-frosted doughnuts for World Polio Day 2018, he knew a good idea when he tasted it. Seven years later, he’s helped clubs across the American South and Northeast raise $7.7 million for polio eradication. It hasn’t all been smooth frosting: He once mistakenly shipped five buckets of purple icing overnight to a baker in another state. Still, “it’s been a great program,” he says. “People need to feel good about eradicating polio worldwide, and that takes some education.”

 

<PHOTO: Courtesy of Cindy Gammons, John Downs, Margo Hughes