fundraising-msg – 2/5/08
Fundraising ideas for SCA groups.
NOTE: See also the files: households-msg, new-groups-msg, recruitment-msg, largess-ideas-msg, travel-funds-msg, crown-cost-msg.
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Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
From: UCCXDEM <UCCXDEM at MVS.UCC.OKSTATE.EDU>
Subject: Re: Feast Formats
Organization: Oklahoma State University Computer Center, Stillwater OK
Date: Wed, 10 Nov 1993 15:36:00 GMT
>Greetings, all, from Angharad ver' Rhuawn.
<snip>
>and I'm drooling at the thought....
>And here, I read regularly about feasts whose budgets are "only" $8, $10,
>and more. HOW MUCH DO YOU GUYS GET, TO COOK A FEAST WITH, ANYHOW?
>-- Sorry for shouting. I'm better now. Really.
>But I am curious what feast budgets run in other parts of the world.
>Cheers,
>-- Angharad/Terry
Greetings to the Rialto and Lady Angharad from Marke.
Here in Mooneschadowe, there is two sets of people who trade off in
doing feasts at our events, the Green Man Tavern and the Purple Pheasant
The average per head budget runs from 3 to 4.5 dollars. The last
Mooneshadowe Guardian event, the budget was allowed $5 per person. The
dishes were set up in 3 courses. There was (if memory serves) 3 Veg.
dishes, and I remember 4 meats (venison, beef, pork, and chicken) and
a Welsh meatless sausage. Interspersed with breads, fruits, and cheeses.
Also, they did serve a simple dessert. This feast was done by the Green
Man people, and the Ansteorran Crown loved it. This feast did make a
profit, which was unexpected. The Green Man Tavern was able to keep the
costs below $5 a head.
Our shire is doing a Valentine's fundraiser on
the 12th of February '94 for the 'moderns' of the area. The theme is
Valentine's so the tickets will be sold two at a time. The budget for
this is 6-7 dollars per person. The autocrats for this are researching
the menu and the serving style and the gossip. The feasters will be
seeded with 10 SCA couples to play completely in Persona, with approp-
riate gossip. Of course this is planned to be an all evening feast. If
anyone wants more info, just email a message to me.
Marke
***********************************************************************
David Mann, OSU CIS, Stillwater, Ok.
H.L. Marke von Mainz, Reeve, Mooneschadowe, Ansteorra
uccxdem at okway.okstate.edu or uccxdem at mvs.ucc.okstate.edu
From: gshetler at envirolink.ORG (Greg Shetler)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Operating expenses
Date: 1 Jul 1994 13:36:06 -0400
Organization: the internet
You know, in Dun Or operating expenses are partially defrayed by passing the
hat at the end of the council meeting. Whatever sum is raised (i.e. 32.17)
determines the year to be looked up in a history reference.. 3217 would
become 1617 (the year is modulo 1600), which would then be 17. If the year is
not interesting enough, the hat goes around again. Say another $1049 is
raised, btringing the total to $$42.66. The year to look up is thus 1066.
Interesting "bidding" wars sometimes arise, as people try to get the amount to
their favorite year(s). This method can raise (and has) as much as $40 to $50
in a single night, from nothing more than simple generosity and fun. This is
often enough to pay for a post-office box, postage, long-distance phone calls,
and miscellaneous expenses for the officers.
---------------------------------------->>
Mordock von Rugen, Hlaford, Outlands Fray
MKA: Greg Shetler
From: charles at krusty.eecs.umich.edu (Charles J. Cohen)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Fundraiser Ideas Requested for Small Shires
Date: 25 Sep 1995 22:34:41 GMT
Organization: University of Michigan AI Lab
In article <95268.164959CS23001 at maine.maine.edu>,
Lisa A. Tyson <CS23001 at MAINE.MAINE.EDU> wrote:
>I believe that my group may be typical of a small shire
> (or incipient shires ) in that we would like to increase
>our shire funds but need good fund raising ideas to choose from.
I can think of a few ways. When our shire did not have enough money
for specific projects, we would hold an auction at one of our local
revels. People would donate something, like some small jewelry or some
garb or a service (like offering to teach someone how to make a
shield, etc).
Another method is to put on a performance, such as a dinner
theater. This takes a lot of preparation and time, but it is
possible. For example, at Cynnabar we would put on a Court of Love
dinner theater show at a restaurant on Valentine's day, where we
recieved a nice amount. I can give lots more details on this, if you
wish.
Best of luck! - Midair MacCormaic
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
From: ojid.wbst845 at xerox.com (Orilee Ireland-Delfs)
Subject: Re: Fundraiser Ideas Requested for Small Shir
Organization: Xerox Corporation, Webster NY
Date: Tue, 26 Sep 1995 15:05:26 GMT
Some ideas that I have seen used preety effectively:
A "bake sale" lunch at your events. food is donated by members
of the group (muffins, quick breads, miniature quiches, pastries,
scones, etc.) and sold for lunch to attendees.
A "garage sale" at an event where members can sell items they
no longer need (SCA related of course) or all of the unclaimed
lost and found from past events. Items can be sold at a fixed cost
or auctioned off either loudly or silently with the proceeds going
to the group's coffers. Items made by members of the group
or services or personalized items (a banner made with the
individual's arms for example) could also be auctioned off.
One fund raiser that is successful for my Barony involves catering
a Yule dinner for a local Garden Club. The Garden Club has dinner/
lectures every few months through the year and we cater the
dinner in December, complete with period dishes (usually trying to
emphasize herbs in keeping with the Garden Center's charter), and
entertainment. For the past 3 years, the dinner has been sold out
within hours of the tickets going on sale, and was so successful the
first year that we had to add a second night. Due to the size of the all, we have been limited to about 60 per seating, but there have been rumblings about
moving the dinner to a school where we'd have a real kitchen and a larger
audience.
We are paid for the
food costs and the profits of the dinner are split between the Garden Club
and our group. Maybe a local church or social group would be interested
in something similar.
Raffling off a well-made item (a war chest or something large and pretty)
also works well - just be sure to check your state's raffle laws first!
A "weeping and wailing" crew set up for a tournament - the more the fighter
pays, the better mourners he gets. A small pitance would get him dragged
off the field by his heels, a large sum would get him a full set of mourners
in veils, flowers, and a grand procession off the field on his shield.
Or perhaps your group could set up paid "services" for the day at an event
- a herald for a fighter, someone who will fetch and carry for a person all
day, something like that.
Hope this gives you some ideas! Good luck!
Orianna
From: VYXA86B at prodigy.com (Susan Miller)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Fundraiser Ideas Requested for Small Shir
Date: 27 Sep 1995 13:07:27 GMT
Organization: Prodigy Services Company 1-800-PRODIGY
You might also auction off the judgeships for assorted contests...up here
in Oertha several groups have raised funds that way, especially for
ethnic/time-period cooking, desserts, and brewing contests cause the
judges get to sample the various goodies. The dessert judgeships have
done best over time, I think.
Flanna
From: ghita at MCS.COM (Susan Earley)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Fundraiser Ideas Requested for Small Shires
Date: 26 Sep 1995 14:55:14 -0500
Organization: MCSNet Services
The New Chancellor of the Exchequer Officer's Handbook (due to be
approved by the Board of Directors in October) has an entier
appendix dedicated to fund-raising ideas. After approval, it
should be delivered to you by the end of the year.
-Ghita
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Maestra Margherita Alessia, called Ghita Member # 32315 Susan Earley
Shire of Rokkehealdan [SW Chicago Suburbs] Brookfield, IL
Middle Kingdom Chancellor of the Exchequer ghita at mcs.com
Purpure, a sword palewise or between two winged cats rampant combatant, that
to dexter Argent, that to sinister Or.
From: Garick Chamberlin <Garick at vonkopke.demon.co.uk>
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Fundraiser Ideas Requested for Small Shires
Date: Tue, 26 Sep 95 23:43:45 GMT
Organization: Drachenwald
I have run *many* fund-raisers for local groups and for Kingdom wide accounts.
By far the most lucrative I have seen or been involved in is a simple auction.
At one local event I went out and spent $30 at second hand stores. For that $30
I got the Tourney Prize (an empty fox) and a bunch of vaguely medeival brick-
a-brac. By combining this stuff with a few leftovers from the contents of my
garage and talking one of the funniest guys in the Kingdom into being my
co-auctioneer we raised over $300 at an after dinner auction the next evening.
At last Coronation I hosted an auction that raised over $600. The best sellers
are Services (personalized scroll from a scribe, poem of derision written about
your enemy by a local bard, etc), followed by booze. Feast gear and armor also
always sell briskly. A peice of rattan that I had payed $18 dollars for and
had used 1/3 of, for example, sold for $25. Pretty much anything you can scrape
up will sell.
The most important part is to have a good auctioneer who keeps it moving, to
keep it amusing, to accept only dollar increments, and to keep it amusing.
For example, when a truly hideous yellow ceramic goblet was getting no bids,
I threatened not to let the servers serve the next remove untill it sold. It
immediately sold for a couple of bucks. The fiendish purchaser immediately
donated it back to the auction. When it came back up, rather than try to sell
it outright, I auctioned off the right to smash it. getting into the spirit,
His Majesty offered to duct tape it to his helm and let the succesfull bidder
take three swings at it. It went for over $20. Thus can a poor mover be turned
into a great bit of schtickt and a hefty ammount of cash.
Another fun fund raising idea, though rarely so lucrative, is the Fighter
Auction. This is much quicker and easier than a standard auction. On the day of
the tourney, you simple auction off all the fighters. The succesful bidder then
receives any prize that fighter wins, rather than the fighter himself. This
works best if you have more than one prize (like a Best Novice, or Best Death),
as then every fighter has a good chance of winning something, so they all go
for good rates. At one event of this ilk with about 50 fighters in the tourney,
Novices were going for about $10, squire level fighters for $10-15, Knights
for 15-25, Viscounts for up to 35, the 2 counts went for about 40 each, the
Dukes went for about 50, and the king himself raised a bid of over $75. I doubt
the main prize was worth more than $50, but the prestige seems to be worth
something too.
Good luck with your fund-raising.
P.S. I wouldn't bother with a raffle. I have found (to my chagrine) that you
can usually auction off an item for more money than would come in on ticket
sales. Raffles are too uncertain for people to sink much money into and they
don't get a good feeding frenzy going like an auction does.
--
Viscount Sir Garick von Kopke
Honor Virtus Est
From: parkerd at mcmail.cis.McMaster.CA (Diana Parker)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Fundraiser Ideas Requested for Small Shires
Date: 28 Sep 1995 02:37:22 -0400
Organization: McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
In article <95268.164959CS23001 at maine.maine.edu>,
Lisa A. Tyson <CS23001 at MAINE.MAINE.EDU> wrote:
> I believe that my group may be typical of a small shire
> (or incipient shires ) in that we would like to increase
> our shire funds but need good fund raising ideas to choose from.
At an event:
- auctions of donated articles & services (possibly including their
server-of-choice for feast)
(the first auction I saw the highest amount went for a box of
Baroness Angharad's cookies - the price jumped $5 every time the
auctioneer ate another one during the bidding :)
- merchants table of donated articles & services
- lunch tables
- raffles or lotteries (3 prizes genders more interest than just 1)
Away from events
- pass the hat (I've seen groups pass it weekly until they'd reached
their goal - or lowered their goal)
- paid demos
- garage sales (group members donate "stuff" - all proceeds to the shire)
cheers
Tabitha
----------------------------------------------
Diana Parker parkerd at mcmaster.ca
Security Services CUC - 201
McMaster University (905) 525-9140 (x24282)
From: mchance at crl.com (Michael A. Chance)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Fundraiser Ideas Requested for Small Shires
Date: 29 Sep 1995 18:32:13 -0700
Organization: CRL Dialup Internet Access
Lady Brynn writes:
>I believe that my group may be typical of a small shire
> (or incipient shires ) in that we would like to increase
>our shire funds but need good fund raising ideas to choose from.
One of the most consistent sources of income that the Barony of Three
Rivers has had over the years has been the Boy Scouts. The barony
routinely does demos for Cub, Webelos, and Scout packs, often at
things like Blue and Gold dinners. While we've never asked for any
renumeration for these demos, we almost inevitably get asked how much
we want afterward. Our standard response is "We do these demos for
free; however, if you'd like to make a donation to our local chapter,
our suggested donation is $50. You are free, though, to donate as much
or as little as you like." Quite often, we end up receiving more
than that amount. To be honest, Three Rivers is in a major
metropolitan area (St. Louis, Missouri), and there are a *lot* of
Scout troops. The number of such potential sources in your area may be
significantly less.
Another option is to run either a food booth, a crafts booth, or a
games booth (or some combination of these) at local church fairs, town
or county fairs, etc., in conjunction with a "typical" SCA demo.
Mikjal Annarbjorn
--
Michael A. Chance St. Louis, Missouri, USA "At play in the fields
Work: mc307a at sw1stc.sbc.com of St. Vidicon"
Play: mchance at crl.com
From: MCKAY_MICHAEL at tandem.COM
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Fundraiser Ideas Requested for Small Shires
Date: 28 Sep 1995 21:17:48 -0400
Organization: The Internet
One of the biggest problems with traditional fund raisers is that they only
draw upon members for the money. More effective fund raisers get money from
outside the group. These types of fund raisers are more difficult to do, and
have to steer a tight moral ground. For instance, I would never consider
having a SCA fund raiser that just asked for money (like the Salvation Army
Bell ringers). Futher, you have to be very careful if you are going to
"compete" with local businesses (from a non-profit stand-point). A group of
us had considered "catering" dinners with medieval entertainment as a form
of fund raising, but this ran into all sorts of problems (in addition to
the competing aspects, health and license issues also being important).
Even within these restrictions, it is possible to do some very good fund
raisers. Some good things to look for: furthers the educational mission of
the SCA, gives people good value for their money, and stays within the
moral confines explained above. The first idea worked quite well for our
Canton, and I highly recommend it. Our local community decided to do a Renn
Faire (but any community gathering will work). We looked for a medieval
activity, that would be involving, but not require too much time commitment.
This turned into an archery booth. We gave 13 arrow shots for a $1 (about
the cheapest thing in the Faire), and gave personalized archery instructions
and medieval history to anybody who wanted it. This raised about $1300 in
a very hetic 2 days (we had completly bought out the cheap arrow supply
within a 20 mile radius too), even after subtracting booth and arrow costs
(bows were loaned for the event, luckily no breakage there). Although we
used archery, there are probably a number of different crafts that could also
be used (should be able to complete the project in about 15 minutes).
The second idea is much simpler, but still needs a bit of planning to
make it go smoothly. Try renting out costumes for Halloween. There is some
risk, but you handle this with contingency charges. Done well, this is also
an excellent place for helping educate the public.
Garick made a comment about raffles not raising enough money. I'll agree
that traditional raffles often have this problem. Two things do make them
better. Have multiple items in the raffle (too many times I have seen a bunch
of really nifty items all raffled off as a single lot). But to make it work
even better, let me suggest the following: Have a lot of items to raffle, and
treat it almost like a silent auction. Make the tickets cheap, and give big
discounts for buying lots of them (25 cents apiece, 5 for $1, 30 for $5, etc.).
Put a jar in front of each item, and have people deposit raffle tickets for the
items they want. Done with good encouragement [selling], this type of raffle
will raise far more money than an ordinary sort. One minor disadvantage is
that you can't easily sell raffle tickets in advance (although one way to do
this is to sell special tickets for a "very nifty" item, basically a seperate
raffle).
Those are the ideas off the top of my head. I'd be interested in any other
ideas as well.
Seaan McAy Caer Darth; Darkwood; Mists; West (Santa Cruz, CA)
Per fess indented argent and vert, three pheons counterchanged
From: 0003900943 at mcimail.COM (Marla Lecin)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Fund raiser ideas for small shires
Date: 26 Sep 1995 14:47:23 -0400
Organization: The Internet
Greetings from Jessa d'Avondale,
One fund-raiser that our canton found very successful was to sell lunch at
an event.
We had run our own event a month earlier, and froze the leftovers (honey
butter, deboned chicken, sauteed onions, oranges, sliced apples and pears).
This kept the expenses very low.
For lunch, we sold lemonade and orange-cinnamon drink for 25 cents a glass
(The orange-cinnamon drink concentrate recipe was posted on the Rialto
sometime last year), along with cheese-onion pasties, chicken pasties,
apple-pear tarts, soup, and bread & butter. We set the prices low, no more
than $1 per item.
If you should consider this, I would recommend the following: pick an event
that several of your members would be attending anyway; ask the autocrat for
permission ahead of time (they may have planned to serve lunch!), find out
how many attendees they expect, and if there might be tables you can set up
at; don't expect to use the site's kitchen - bring your own coolers, hot
plates, etc.
For a couple of evenings' work cooking and baking, we were able to raise
over $150. I have found that no matter how long people have been in the SCA,