What is the most successful fundraiser you have put together?

I want to brainstorm and share some ideas and outcomes of your rescue groups different ways of fundraising. What have you sold? What is most popular? How did you get people involved?

Running a rabbit shelter (or any shelter) is not cheap, the cost of food, board, litter and then vet care adds up, specially when you have over 100 rabbits. So, how do you make enough to keep afloat?

 

 

You may have an easier time soliciting supplies and services than finding dollars on an ongoing basis. Do you have a source that will donate hay and straw? Have you searched for a vet willing to volunteer spays and neuters?

Andi, does your rescue have a cap on how many rabbits they take in? Are you looking into affiliating yourself with the BC chapter of HRS possibly? It won't pay money but increase your credibility when you look for vet services or approach co. for donations.

We already have Vets & Clinics who help us. We are capped now, no new foster homes so no more animals can come in. I am only looking to brainstorm more ideas on fundraisers. Get an idea what others are doing, sharing what has worked or not worked for us etc.

Posted By Andi on 06/21/2010 01:32 PM
  no new foster homes so no more animals can come in

What does that mean? Foster homes are there to lighten the burden not increase it.

--for raising funds, I can suggest again finding supplies from farmers/companies and selling them locally. For example, hay. You could purchase a round bale and have a hay sale for the benefit of the rabbits by packaging the huge bale into small boxes that would appeal to a one-rabbit household.

the hay sale idea is from HRS. -- are you affiliated with them?

The BB store has an affiliate link where you can get a 7% commission on sales that you link from your site to BB's site - email Jennifer and ask her about this.

K, I'm sorry I don't want to sound grumpy but my question wasn't "what can i do" or 'ideas' it was "what has been done before".
I want to brainstorm other peoples fundraising efforts that have helped them, maybe even go over what they would not reccomend.

I don't have the energy to go over every effort we have done, every group we are affiliated with, what is in place and such. I don't have every detail either.
 

 

I think Petzy's suggestion of affiliating yourself with HRS is a good one. Most International organizations have worked out some fairly sophisticated options for running an affiliated branch of an organization that have proven to be successful. I imagine that they have criteria for becoming a member, but if met, they would have a division in Fundraising that can assist you with their own expertise. They may have connections to affiliates that provide goods or services that are used in fundraising.

As a staff member of a non-profit arts organization, there's nothing more helpful than a fundraiser who is experienced. Ideas are their stock in trade, and making connections through networking and mutually beneficial activities are where they excel. It's a very special talent and the organization that has a fundraiser with a good track record on the staff is lucky indeed. You want to identify such a person or department and pick their brains, hire them, or associate with their organization. A good fundraiser would do anything from landing you a good spot for a booth at a local crafts fair where you can promote your rescue to introducing you to a wealthy patron who loves bunnies and writes a fat check as a donation in exchange for a naming on your site. The bigger the organization you work with, the more options, opportunities, and resources you can access.

Posted By Andi on 06/21/2010 03:12 PM

K, I'm sorry I don't want to sound grumpy but my question wasn't "what can i do" or 'ideas' it was "what has been done before".
I want to brainstorm other peoples fundraising efforts that have helped them, maybe even go over what they would not reccomend.

 

Are you addressing me with this? My suggestions were taken from my experience, except the HRS affiliation. I was not able to do that as your province is the only one with a chapter. I was trying to think in terms of your region.

 

I suggest networking with Best Friends:

www.bestfriends.org/networkcharities/ncorgapp.cfm

They are probably one of the best known and successful animal rescue groups in the US.  When I was doing rescue I got tons of info from them.  They are masters at sending out emails weekly about what is going on at their sanctuary and asking for donations. 

Thank you everyone for the information and suggestions/links, They are appreciated.

Petzy, Apparently I am not communicating well today. What I was hoping for was "We did a bake sale at a local church and made $$ and it was great blah,blah, blah" or "We had a booth at ___ fair and sold cards, it didn't work out b/c people wanted dog stuff not bunny stuff" that kind of thing. I understand going out and asking for companies to sponser and/or donate services or products they sell is much better then asking for money, and we've done that. Heck we had a large rabbit food company going to sponsor us as long as they could put our name on their bag. When they found out how many animals we actually have to feed they didn't want to feed that many mouths, and we were not willing to let them use our name to sell their product for a handful of bags of food and nothing else.
We have 3 Vet clinics that help us, I'm not at liberty to say just how or what for each, but am more then happy to spread the word about their clinics. They are listed on the website as a sponsor, and get cards and such for their offices to show their support to us.
I don't have information on others, but I know We've had a sponsor for fresh greens, rabbits toys accessories, storage locker space for all our supplies and trade show gear, packaging & marketing materials, paid for newspaper adds, stickers, etc.
We also can take any bales of hay that are broken, at a feed shop, and they donate any wrecked bags of litter/feed, and such as well.

Okay, have you seen all the wonderful events that the rabbit rescue groups have listed on this site? Now, I cannot say what funds they bring in but they must bring something in...

The group I was with before I resigned from the board did a fabulous basket raffle but it was a ton of work and basically my friend who was the President at the time pulled it all of with her time and lots of her donations and donations from a few other people and of course, the board members. We made I think $1800.00 for this plus we did an open house at the sanctuary which brought in about $1000.00 at the most.

We did the usual thing as well with the vet talk - who doesn't love this!

My guinea pig rescue friend does a "hoedown" - okay I live in Texas - and it's a fab event where she does vet checks and a raffle and pictures and the whole nine yards but it's a ton of work - honestly don't know how much money she brings in but she gets ton of media on her event because I guess it's so unique with the guinea pigs.

It's nothing that hasn't been done before though.

Oh we also did a rabbit spa day (nail trims, grooming - different stations) and asked for a donation per family - fun but you have to find a place that allows rabbits - and you have to sell products and you have to give a brush for each family with the donation. Not entirely sure how much we brought in for this but it's not terribly unique but people love it.

I also used to scour what other rescue groups (dog, cats, etc...) did in my area as far as benefits and fundraisers. Got tons of good ideas from them - I didn't limit my ideas to rabbits and if they were having events that I thought would be good for us, I'd ask if we could be invited...many groups were very open to this.

One time we did an event with a classic car group and some other rescue groups it was called "Paws and Wheels" - great idea but it flopped but still I think it could work.

Another group did a fundraiser with a Harley Davidson store and I think those Harley riders have money and they love to give to charities - they really are generous...these bikers are always doing stuff for charity.

Posted By Sarita on 06/21/2010 04:23 PM

I suggest networking with Best Friends:

www.bestfriends.org/networkcharities/ncorgapp.cfm

They are probably one of the best known and successful animal rescue groups in the US.  When I was doing rescue I got tons of info from them.  They are masters at sending out emails weekly about what is going on at their sanctuary and asking for donations. 

I passed this along to the head head hancho, She said we'd been in touch with them before adn that they said the fundraising aspect of their charity network is not yet for Canada. She asked to be added to the lists in Canada,  but we aren't there yet - so she is contacting them.

I will continue my browsing. I think so far our most successful are the Bottle & Penny drives. I just wish it was easier to recruit new volunteers, people are so busy these days and the volunteers who are around and do so much get burnt out

 

 

I agree, those are a huge part of the frustration of rescuing. I know I got burnt out on it. It's good for people to take a break from this type of volunteering because it can be so physical and so emotional.

I get it, Andi. You needed somthing very specific and I was taking it somewhere's else. No worries.

My local rabbit rescue is run out of the lady's house and she held a garage sale and asked people to donate any unwanted furniture or items that she could sell in it (all money made went to the rabbit rescue). It made over 1000$. She is making money to build a separate building from her house for the rabbits!

Hi Andi, we have had the most luck with a yard sale once a year. We have a rabbit club that meets a few times a year and we give free nail trims. Since very few of those people want to pitch in and actually volunteer or foster, we just ask them for donations for the yard sale that we have every October. It usually brings in about $2000 - which is our entire budget for the year. Alot of work for the person who hosts it (you need someone with a barn or storage building to hold onto the stuff for a few months) but it's totally worth it. also, i am screen-printing our own shirts now - costs about $1.50 to make one shirt (after $30 worth of set-up costs to make the screens) and if I sell them for $10 at the meetings, that will be a nifty profit.

I'm a little late to this thread myself, but here in oregon, us Rabbit Advocates do monthly outreaches at a pet supply place, where we do nail trims and grooming for people (for donations) as well as have an adoptable bunny or 2 there. We give out tons of bunny info, answer questions, sell RA merchandise, etc.

And every month we also do a hay packing party, where we get together and pack 10lb bags of local grown hay to sell for the RA fund. We sell em for $10 per 10lb bag. Not bad at all! Its a mix of timmy, oat, orchard, rye and something else that I can't remember. My bunnies love it

Those are the 2 monthly things we do, oh, and at the monthly meetings, there is often some RA stuff to buy, as well as little silent auctions for cute bunny-decorated stuff. got me a snuggly bunny pillow one day

That's the RA fundraisers that I can think of