Help: Fundraising for Morocco!

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Vanessa on August 1, 2008 at 4:52pm

Hi Rich,

I love your website! That is really fantastic. Fundraising can be a lot of work, but ultimately it can be a lot of fun. It is really inspiring to see your friends and family support you and your dream of volunteering in Morocco. You are doing the right thing by getting started early... You just have to keep up with it! I just sent you an email with some resources on fundraising that you can look over. Here are some other ideas:

Have a yard sale - have your friends donate old items they dont want and then have "by donation" yard sale. You can advertise your yard sale on craigslist.org and post around your neighborhood.
Car Wash or bake sale
Dinner parties are a lot of fun... you can ask for a suggested donation of $30 for a night of food, music and games, just be sure to stay within your budget on supplies. Even if you dont get a lot of donations at the dinner, you will raise awareness and maybe get more donations down the road (when someone else hears about what you are doing)

I've heard of volunteers doing sponsored sky dives, hikes or even shaving their head/beards!

I also encourage you to reach out to family and friends offline.. by writing letters that go in snail mail! People will be surprised to see a letter in the mail and are less likely to throw it away as maybe deleting an email forward they received.

Best of luck!
Vanessa
Program Manager of Morocco, Guatemala & Thailand

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Meredith on August 8, 2008 at 10:36pm

I'm fundraising for Morocco as well, and I took a stereotypical college fundraiser and ran with it -- bake sales! I specialize in vegan and alternative-sweetener products with organic ingredients. I have a website with some choices and I also offer to bake special requests; I deliver them to people or meet them at convenient places for transactions. So far, it's been a lot of work, but it also brings in some extra donations that I wouldn't have gotten otherwise (since people like overpaying for whatever they order because they know it's for a good cause). Good luck!

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Alissa Smith on August 13, 2008 at 4:21pm

Hey Rich,

The website is kind of sick. Awesome job! My fund raising experience is fairly limited but, I managed to scrape together the funds for a seven week India program just by sending letters to my parents friends and my family. I explained what the program was and why I was doing it. I think I started off the letter apologizing for yet another letter asking for money. Most people really got a kick out of that and responded well.

Seriously though, I literally went through my mothers address book and pulled out names and addresses of people who I thought would give me money and did it that way. Its pretty simple. You don't have to go all out in fundraising, because usually, people will surprise you and give gads of cash. LOL.

But good luck and have fun!
Alissa

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Cassie Hayes on August 17, 2008 at 11:26pm

Hi Rich,

Travelocity has a "Change Ambassadors" grant for CCS volunteers of up to $5000, visit their website to learn more and see if you are eligible: www.travelocity.com/t4g

Best,
Cassie

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Li on September 15, 2008 at 11:49am

Hey Rich,

I just saw this post and I thought you may be interested in knowing that CCS has just created some banners and buttons that you may want to use on your website to help with your fundraising efforts. You can link the badges to your MyCCS page! Hope you find them useful!

http://www.crossculturalsolutions.org/how_to_enroll/fundraising/bad...

Li

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Haley Stasinos on September 22, 2008 at 4:07pm

Hi Rich-
Your website was great, I really hope you are successful with your fundraising for Morocco! All I did to fundraise was send out a letter to all my parent's friends, as well as my dad's clients. I honestly wasn't expecting to receive a lot of attention and donations; however, I've fundraised over 1500 dollars for my trip. Most people think it is an amazing opportunity and are willing to support my volunteering in Africa! Good luck!!

Haley

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Rich Henderson on September 22, 2008 at 4:14pm

Thanks! =)

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Rich Henderson on September 22, 2008 at 4:15pm

I applied for this - cross your fingers! =) Thanks!

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Rich Henderson on September 22, 2008 at 4:15pm

I like these a lot! Thanks

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Rich Henderson on September 22, 2008 at 4:16pm

Lol a lot of people seem to find that people throw money at them... it has been quite the opposite for me! I've sent out tons of letters to all of my family and friends, all of my moms family and friends, and while I've gotten some donations, not as much as I'd have hoped!

Thank you though, I'm sure I'll get there eventually! =)

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Joss Ellams on September 29, 2008 at 11:16am

A good but slightly crazy one I heard was a football team buying 20 of those plastic pink flamingoes that people sometimes put in their gardens.

They would place all of them in one garden with a note saying they had been ‘Flamingo Flocked’. It was $10 to have them removed, $10 to have insurance against it happening again and $10 to ‘Flamingo Flock’ someone else!!
It depends on the neighborhood you live in to how successful it could be!!

Google it - there are some pretty funny photots!

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Emily Harrison on March 2, 2009 at 11:43am

rich- for a prospective volunteer your website was extremely informative, thanks for posting!

▶ Reply to This

▶ Reply to This