Posts Tagged ‘raising money’

Bumper Stickers Get Attention for Our Children’s Library 5K Walk

// June 29th, 2011 // Comments Off // Bumper Stickers

PHOENIX, AZ - OCTOBER 21: Newt Gingrich holds...

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Building a new children’s library is expensive and we’ve done a variety of fundraisers. But I would have to say that our 5K walk was one of the most successful – and it wouldn’t have even made it if it wasn’t for the bumper stickers.

One of our volunteers said, “Let’s do a 5K walk.” And everyone agreed. They thought it was a great idea. The best thing about planning a walk is that the expenses are relatively low and many people like walks today as a special event. It’s something you can bring your kids to or get the entire family involved in. For a children’s library, that’s a very important factor. We didn’t want to do a stuffy black tie dinner – an event where children were involved truly fit with our mission.

But we were having trouble with sign ups. With the library under construction, less people are coming. The parking lot is a lot smaller so fewer cars can park there. So even though sign up sheets and flyers are in the main library, we weren’t seeing families sign up the way we hoped. We realized because the library was under construction was probably the challenge we were facing. I was out jogging one morning and noticed the bumper stickers on my daughter’s car. She had one that was particularly funny that always made me smile. Then it hit me…people notice bumper stickers, so why not create one to promote our children’s library 5k?

Our bumper stickers were created quickly and they had our Readie the Owl mascot on them. We asked neighboring libraries to put them at their desks too so people could pick them up there. We gave them to volunteers and board members. We gave them out at the children’s schools locally. Soon everyone knew about the walk and our sign ups soared. We had more than a thousand people signed up for our walk. We were not only excited but a little nervous. It was our first walk and we were almost beyond capacity. These bumper stickers had really worked like a charm.

The 5k walk went well and everyone had a good time. The kids did a shorter walk and there were activities for them. The funds raised went to help build the children’s library. But everyone had such a great time and we had such a positive turn out we are thinking about making this an annual event. With library budgets what they are today, raising money to help the library can be very useful to help add programs and special events for the children once the library has been completed.

Our bumper stickers worked better than sending out a press release, making flyers or simply getting the word out in another way. With a local community event people notice bumper stickers on people’s cars. Whether at the grocery store, waiting to pick up kids at school or simply running errands that car helps to promote our 5k walk for the library. I know we’ll be using funny bumper stickers in the future for other library programs and events.

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Charity School 5K Raises Awareness and Funds with Bumperstickers

// April 13th, 2011 // Comments Off // Bumper Stickers

The Middleton Lake Elementary School was looking for fundraisers and we considered many options. We were looking for one that many people would want to participate – and especially one where entire families could join in and enjoy. We looked at a number of fundraisers and finally decided that a charity 5k walk a thon was the ideal choice. A healthy fundraiser was perfect to encourage children to be physically fit as well as raising money for the new school gym.

Our biggest challenge seemed to be letting families know about the charity 5k to encourage them to sign up and also support families that were walking. We just didn’t have a budget that would support lots of costly advertising. We chose to make bumperstickers promoting our charity 5k and they were a great success. The school office and every teacher had bumperstickers available for parents and families to take and put on their cars. We also gave bumperstickers to a number of the local businesses that supported our walk a thon, like the local deli that donated snacks and drinks.

I think one of our most successful choices with the bumpersticker was that we had a contest with the kids to design it. The top designs were voted on blind – so students didn’t know which other students created them. The best design was selected and announced at our kickoff for the event. It was something that generated a lot of excitement. Even though only one child won, many children had fun designing for the contest. This is something I know we’ll do again because the children had so much fun with it.

The bumperstickers were a great success! After the first week of giving out the bumperstickers – we had to place a new order to get more bumperstickers. It seemed that everyone wanted one for every car the family owned. Some were also giving them to grandparents and other family members – like as a thank you gift for supporting them as a fundraiser for the walk a thon. This was just terrific. Every time we saw the bumper stickers around town we would smile and know that more people in town were being informed of our charity walk a thon. Our dreams of building a new gym were finally coming true.

Things got more exciting when we got a call from the local newspaper. They’d seen a bumpersticker on an employee’s car and asked if they could do a story about the walk a thon. The newspaper was at our school for nearly an entire day, taking photographs and talking with teachers. The newspaper article was a terrific boost to everyone who worked so hard on this event. I know for a fact we wouldn’t have gotten that newspaper article without those bumperstickers.

The day of our walk a thon was momentous. We had quite a crowd. Hundreds of families came out to support their school. Even people that didn’t have kids came out to support the school. It meant so much to us. The walk a thon day was a terrific day. We raised nearly $25,000 after we paid our expenses.

The bumpersticker was such a success with our supporters that we decided to do a thank you bumpersticker saying “I Supported” for everyone. We gave these out at the end of the walk and mailed some of them to the larger contributors. This bumpersticker was just as popular as our original bumpersticker.

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