<p>My youngest has an opportunity to become involved at a grass roots level with a brand new wild animal refuge. They are just in the beginning stages and don’t even have the land yet, but should have the animals they rescued in place by summer or fall. D would be able to live a passion and volunteer with the critters!</p>
<p>She is trying to come up with ideas to fund-raise for the foundation i our town which is in another state from the animal refuge. She will be doing her own research, but does any one have any experience with wonderful ways teenagers can do fund-raising for something that does not have that local charity tie-in?</p>
<p>Those 2 are not serious suggestions. This is a toughie, but you have me convinced this is a great cause and worthy of your D’s efforts. </p>
<p>She will need a website. Definitely need a website, and a Paypal payment address. Need to make it easy for folks to send in a buck. </p>
<p>2 recent youthful efforts come to mine. One young man went on a long hike to raise money for children in Iraq (can’t remember if he walked the entire Appalachian Trail). He got people to sponsor him (x$$ or even X cents per mile) and I was so impressed with the whole effort I went to his website (yes, he had a website) and paypal-ed $50.</p>
<p>The other less impressive effort. A young college girl friend of the family spent a long weekend at our house. She was only slightly annoying as a guest but she commited the cardinal sin (according to my wife) of not sending us a thank you note. In fact, the next time we heard from her was about 6 months later when she asked us to contribute to her fund raising effort… raising money to send her college sports team to Florida for Spring break! They also had a website. We did not respond.</p>
<p>can she do it with her school, with her organizing it, thus getting a committee together, giving her that leadership role and potentionally raising more money</p>
<p>you could initially do a HUGE garage sale, with friends, family, etc, donating items to sell, it is a quick way to get the word out and make a bit of money, we did that for our girl scout troop once a year and people were happy to donate</p>
<p>at first it may be a few hundred dollars, but it isn’t that difficult to plan, and when people hear its for a charity, they may not haggle so much (well friends anyway)</p>
<p>another idea is a vegetarian cookbook with donated recipes, simply bound and sold to family and friends</p>
<p>could she have a dinner? getting food donated or inexpensively, charge 20 a person and invite EVERYONE she knows…</p>
<p>or a raffle- see if a local store will donate something- Ipod, and raffle it off at one of the events (mom could also front the purchase) my Ds would have bought a ticket for 5bucks to help animals and have a chance at that</p>
<p>I am thinking doing some quick, ie the garage sale to get the ball rolling</p>
<p>ANother idea is asking mommies friends and her friends for old clothes and selling them on consignment or at used clothing stores- it may not be much, bt it could be and it takes little effort</p>
<p>She can do several things that are pretty painless right away while planning for a larger event</p>
<p>A few ideas that I have seen done.
Do outreach to local schools elementary, middle and high schools. If she can get them passionate they will come up with ways of their own to raise money. One I can think of is that someone can organize the students to donate money to the rescue versus buying the teachers end of the year gifts. I have seen this done at holiday time where the families donate to a cause instead of buying the teachers holiday gifts.
Penny drive with the elementary schools.
Organize an event such as a bike ride or run. Make up t-shirts.</p>
<p>Two successful fundraisers I help out with for a conservation group are a native plant sale (plants are purchased wholesale) and a backyard habitat tour. Both are a lot of work though.</p>
<p>A penny drive at school can work - but schools are reluctant to get involved unless she can get a science teacher on board.</p>
<p>I presume the group has a sound fundraising structure in place and this is just “extra?”</p>
<p>To do something with animals, if you have someone who can draw or take good photographs, you could make notecards or posters or t-shirts to sell. The art department of our high school does this. Maybe you could talk to your art teacher to see if she knows a wholesaler who can get things cheaper.</p>
<p>Someone we knew sent all her parents friends and relatives a passionate letter with photos pleading for donations for her cause during the holiday season. It was one way to raise some quick cash as parents are more inclined to help out with a 20 when it’s someone they know in the family or neighborhood. A phone call may be more effective. I am more inclined to give if it is a donation for the project rather than to send the child to do the project. I feel parents/grandparents should pay for their own kid’s summer activities and feel a little put off by begging for donations for transportation costs.</p>
<p>Another method is simply make up some photos and hit the lunch tables at lunchtime. Kids have money but you may not make as much this way.</p>
<p>More college oriented - My daughters college improv group donated all of their profits from their last show to a Uganda Childrens fund. A small group of students had visited Uganda over winter break and came back wanting to help and convinced the improv group to do an added show for their cause. Cost was nothing but with tickets selling at @ $6 each, quite a bit of money was raised.</p>
<p>CGM- these are wild animals, some bird (macaws, etc) some reptiles, but the fun, & most interesting for fund-rasing purposes, are tigers and giraffes, etc.</p>
<p>The foundation and the group is brand new, the fund-raising arm of the foundation is just beginning, it is truly just starting. We hope to have the logo and official photos of the animals available in about a month.</p>
<p>As an interesting and intriguing “hook” many of them are from MJ’s Neverland Ranch and a friend of ours is starting a wild animal park to house them and, in the future, other rescue animals. Thus far our friends have foot most of the feed & care bills plus the purchase prices of the animals themselves. They have been working for about 6 months on getting the foundation, the permits, the land, etc. The city/county/state in their area are all supportive, they have a board, many locals are donating services- web design, legal services, site survey, building materials, animal food, etc.</p>
<p>This D is 16 and already graduated from HS, doing CC classes until she is of the age to go away to university, so she does not have the support of a HS group, but will have plenty of time to devote to the project and could even skip a term at the cc as it is not critical that she stay on the academic track there. She could go back to HS groups and see if any one on the campuses would have a heart for animals and want to support the project.</p>
<p>This is the kind of thing that would totally be a hook for top uni apps, but this D is not interested in hooky schools, she is interested in helping the group raise money & then she will go volunteer with the animals She will likely choose a smaller private within driving distance of family.</p>
<p>Some group at D’s college did a dance marathon to raise money for AIDS medications for people in the third world, and they ended up getting a lot more than they expected. I wasn’t going to suggest this at first, because I thought it would be too hard for your D. to find a place that would let her hold one due to insurance, etc. But since she’s at CC, there’s probably a room at the student union she could use for a small fee. They could have a party animal theme.</p>
She will likely choose a smaller private within driving distance of family.</p>