Ideas for Raising Funds
By Glenis Hall of the Heart Foundation

The key is to keep it simple.

1.                   Ask for a door entry donation at meetings. Could be a gold coin donation.

2.                   Fines: extract a small fine when members make a faux pas.

3.                   Raffle: ask for gift voucher or gifts from local businesses to raffle.  Petrol vouchers or money (kept within club) are always an easy raffle to sell.

4.                   Trading table: members bring along something from home that they made or don’t want any more and sell within the group.

5.                   Charge an annual membership fee: If you asked for a $5 per family yearly membership fee to join your "affiliated club" this would be quite acceptable and one way of keeping track of members. By saying a family membership this encourages spouses to attend. After all heart disease effects the whole family, even the carers.

6.                   Within the group, host a flower show and vote for the best arrangement or flower by putting a donation in the plate beside that flower. The flower with the most money wins. This idea can be done with a variety of things e.g. photos, handcrafts, vegetables, hats, etc.

7.                   Get together your favourite healthy recipes and make a simple recipe book for members and friends to buy.

8.                   Organise a potluck lunch/dinner party and charge a small fee to attend.

9.                   Have a Melbourne Cup sweepstake (could be any horse race or sporting game). Members buy a horse number or pick the score and the winner collects some (not all) of the takings.

10.               Hold a BBQ day and cook & sell heart healthy food on your BBQ (e.g. kebabs with lots of vegetables, BLT (bacon-lettuce-tomato sandwich), chicken (no skin) 98% fat free sausages, wholemeal breads (no butter), grilled vegetables, fish and so on. Do this outside a supermarket, butcher shop (that supplied you with 98% fat free sausages) on the main street, at a sporting, community event or even on a club day etc.

11.               Put a small charge on hiring out your resources e.g. videos or books.

12.               Ask local businesses to donate a small item that can be auctioned or raffled at a club day. These raffles that cost nothing - are worth doing even if you only raise $10. Every bit helps.

13.               Hold a club garage sale. Club members donate unwanted goods and invite public to a garage sale. All money raised goes to the club.

14.               Apply to NZ Post for community post envelopes. If successful with the application you get your specified amount of free stamped envelopes. Application forms available from any NZ post shop.

15.               Apply to Aged lottery for venue funding costs. Get information from the phone book (yellow pages) under funding. (0800 824 824)

16.               Apply for Community Sport Fund (if your group includes physical activity). Ask for an application at the local Council or Sports Trust.

17.               Do an internet search for "Funding bodies" or "Fund View" and be amazed at what shows up. Make an appointment at your local library and they will help you. This is a free search and will only cost if you download. So take a pen and paper and jot down the details that suit you or your group. That way there is no downloading needed. (www.fis.org.nz email: info@fundview.org.nz or www.fundview.org.nz)

18.               Get the local Pharmacy to sponsor your newsletter. Some clubs use Real Estate Agents, Butcher, Wine Shop, Vege Shop etc. They pay you "X" amount of $ to have an advert put in your newsletter, or they pay for the cost of producing the newsletter.

19.               Keep your eyes peeled in the newspaper as some Trusts advertise they have $ available for certain community projects. Eg COGS is a common one nation-wide.

 Points to remember:

 v      Never give up.

 v      Read the phone book, especially the local community ones.  You will be surprised what you find.

 v      If you do get funding from somewhere - feed back to the organisation you received $ from - as to how it was spent.

 v      You are a community group so have access to quite a lot - if you look properly.

 v      Need help? Ask.  You don’t get if you don’t ask.

 Glenis Hall of the Heart Foundation, who worked with Beth Gordon in Auckland, kindly supplied the following information. Some of the suggestions for fund raising may be new to some of you and could prove useful.  Thanks for passing on this info Glenis.  Much appreciated.  Ed.