Fundraising ideas?

So, our dojo has a leaky roof and it's getting worse by the minute. We're looking at a significant sum of money to get it repaired (mid to high four digits)...anybody got any fundraising ideas?

Bronson

Open a shop on cafepress.com, sell T-shirts, mugs, mousemats etc. with club or Aikido designs on them, stick 2 - 5 bucks on the price for the roof fund.

How about a T-shirt with an "I fixed the roof" slogan on it?

rgds

Bryan

Have a sponsored throw-a-thon, all the students get sponsored, stand in a line and be thrown by one student, once all the students have been thrown the student in the middle swaps with the next and so on, i'm sure many people have done something similar in warm-up's at the start of a class.

Every year the university class I am involved with put on a Martial Arts Festival in aid of cancer research. we get loads of clubs from the area, representing as many different kinds of martial arts as possible, give everyone a 20-30 min set and let them get on with it. You can charge 5-10 bucks to get in and have a raffle and stuff. We also get a local weapons shop to come in and sell their stuff (if you get a sympathetic guy they may donate 15% of all sales to your fund like ours does).

Most important if you are going to do this is tell as many people as you can (i.e. newspapers, radio local T.V it all helps to get people on seats)

Hope it helps
Steve

You might consider selling blocks of course fees in advance at a bargain price. If successful, the dojo will be a little crowded, but you'll get the money up front to work with. Also, you may want to see if weather damage could be the source of the problem. There may be some insurance benefits there. Another thing to consider is doing the work yourselves to save money. Also, if roofing is taught in a nearby vocational school, they might take the project on at a substantially cheaper rate, possibly just for the cost of materials. Doing demos in shopping malls may draw attention to the problem, and can be more effective if you feature children.

Go to some of your local services clubs. Pitch the nonviolence and benefits of training. They can help with funds.

Special topic seminars as fund raisers.

Get some local coverage with press relases to the media abut the benefits of training and stating you situation.

Good luck.

Bronson Diffin wrote: So, our dojo has a leaky roof and it's getting worse by the minute. We're looking at a significant sum of money to get it repaired (mid to high four digits)...anybody got any fundraising ideas? Bronson

Are any of your students professionals ? Any do massages ? Any pilots ? Any artists ? Any accountants (end of yr is approaching...)?

Have an auction during a xmas party, or something, and auction their services.

Garage sales. They aren't that hard to do. Students donate goods around the house that they don't want or need or have been saving to sell themselves. Bring all these things to one good location and have a big sale! All procedes go to the roof. Should be good for several hundred dollars depending on the items you have up for sale.

Sell your location and get a better one? If you do own your building, it might be something to consider. Moving sucks, but... if the market is good where you are, people will buy your building, leaky roof and all. That will give you the capital to put down on something else that needs no or fewer costly repairs. Get a good REALTOR to consult you on this. Just something to think about.

When we had to replace our mats, one senior student sent letters to friends and family saying, "We're a registered non-profit, it's tax-deductable, would you consider us in your donation plans this year?" I would never have been able to bring myself to do this, but it did help get the mats paid for. (Doesn't work as well if you are for-profit, though.)

Is there any possibility of sub-leasing the space (presumably after you get it fixed)? Another
mat-using group might be able to use the hours when you aren't there. Our lease doesn't allow this, but we have had a couple of overtures from smaller clubs who would love to share the dojo space. (Just make sure to hash the details out in advance, to avoid conflicts later on.)

Mary Kaye

Not sure how you're katana work is, but bamboo cutting was popular at our fund raiser. Raffle was good as well.

Find a high ranking Aikido person that people would want to train with. See if he would be willing to come and teach having travel and meal expenses covered only. Have the seminar at no charge but accept donations for the roof fund. You should clear between 3 and 5 thousand dollars. The trouble is finding such a generous person of enough fame or standing to attract between 60 and 100 people.
Best wishes,

Thanks for all the great ideas

I'll forward them onto the folks in charge and see what we can come up with.

Thanks again,

Bronson