Fundraising Ideas: How A One Yen Drive Becomes a Copper Coin Collection

The senior kids in our school in Yokohama went with HOPE INTERNATIONAL each year to Cambodia to build schools and libraries. The trip wasn't cheap, and the senior students held several fundraising events each year to help offset the costs.

The entire school community got involved in the Annual One Yen Drive.

A barometre was placed in the front foyer of the main building so that everyone could see how the Drive was progressing.

Each grade, from the kindy kids to IB seniors were invited to participate. Each class had a container to keep the yen in, and at the end of each term the grade that collected the most yen were given a merit award by the Parents Association which was worn proudly by everyone in the year.

All the money was then added together and the barometer updated. At this stage it became a whole-of-school goal.

EVERYONE was contributing and chasing the target! Each year, the school community wanted to 'beat' last years results.

At the end of the year, the grade that contributed the most was given a party by the Parents Association, and the rest of the school, 600+ students were shouted an ice cream for the efforts.

For the 3 years we were involved in the school, the One Yen Drive target was blitzed. It was fun to do, easy to participate in, required no skill and the results were on show for all to see.

Knowing how successful the One Yen Drive was, I tried (and sadly failed) to introduce it to our school in the UK - a Penny Drive. I can't remember the reasons now, but suffice to say, the answer was no. They did like the International Food Fair concept (another chat for another day), and modified it to Festive Fare for the Christmas Market (another chat for another day)


We wanted to have a NEW aspect to our Charity Bazaar for International Women's Club, and I thought why not change a YEN DRIVE into a COPPER COIN COLLECTION?

Everyone has oodles of little coins taking up precious space in purses - and they get heavy. Most of us dump them into a jar anyways, so why not collect them?

Euro Copper Coins 1c, 2c and 5c pieces.

We launched our first ever Copper Coin Collection this way:

• Everyone was invited to participate, tho it wasn't mandatory
• Each participant was given a ziplock bag (or similar) to pop coins into
• We put a plain, white sticky label on the bag, and noted:
• Organisations details
• Date bag is to be returned
• Allocated space for them to write their name/contact phone number
• We nominated a collection period (we did a month) and drop off point (ours was the next monthly meeting)
• Advertise a thank you for for everyone who returns a bag with coins as incentive
• Scratchy lotto ticket
• Complimentary raffle tickets if you have one coming up
• Small bag of chocolate or a pop-cake ( try to have this donated)
• Rather than counting the coins, WEIGH the bags!
• Heaviest bag declared overall winner
• Have a small posy of flowers, or offer a larger number of raffle tickets

There were a few things we didn't factor into this 'great idea' (which it is) 

1. Copper coins are HEAVY!
2. Banks need you to sort them into little plastic bags of the right currency/amount for depositing ( We could have put them thru the currency counting machines at the supermarket but they charge a % fee each time, and as the bags were so heavy it would have taken a few trips. Plus, our members had given the coins to charity in goodwill, we didn't want to 'waste' money, no matter how small an amount on fees)
3. It takes ages to sort into 1c, 2c and 5c (If we do it again, we'll give everyone 3 bags so that they are sorted when we receive them)
4. It takes more time to count the individual coins into €2, €5 and €10 bags.

We had a small Copper Coin COUNTING morning and managed to sort them in a few hours, after I'd spent a few evenings sorting the 21.68 kiloss of coins that were donated. The heaviest bag donated was just over 3.5 kilos Who would have thought!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We raised €194 in coins which is a great start to our Bazaar.

Several people forgot to bring their coins in, and others have simply continued to collect, so we'll be receiving more coins over the next few weeks.

So, two really easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy fundraiser ideas.

Hope you find a way to incorporate them into your next fundraising drive.

Any other suggestions for quick coin-oriented ideas?

What ideas have you seen done somewhere that you modified to suit your needs?

Fundraising Ideas: Penny Sale, But Not A Penny In Sight

November/December could also be known as the Charity Bazaar/Fundraising time of the year as schools, churches, clubs, associations, charities and others host Bazaars, Fetes, Shopping Nights, Marketplaces or social get togethers where money is raised thru any number of ways to aid and support given recipient/s.

Maybe it's more to do with 'end of the year' feeling that permeates the air, rather than Christmas, but there's tonnes of Goodwill to All in most places. Shame it doesn't last all year round.

These events are usually organised months in advance, as opposed to disaster relief type events that are typically thrown together with short notice in direct response to a disaster.

We've all supported markets, bazaars (same thing really), trivia nights, casino nights, wine tastings, auctions and dinners all in the name of fundraising. There's walk-a-thins, jog-a-thons, read-a-thons and anything else a-thon. A few friends have done bike marathons, or extreme sports challenges all in the name of fundraising - nothing is sacred these days as fundraising marketers seek to find novel ways to raise much needed funds from an exhausted and often over extended community.

But, up until last month, I'd never been to a Penny Sale!

Have you?

I was assured it was a lot of fun, and you didn't have to spend more money than you wanted to as the entire thing is done very quietly. There were no vendors, only prizes to be won. How curious, I thought.

I was also told it's a 'very American style of fundraising' ........ fair enough. Another cultural 'thing' to experience and learn from. A few American friends didn't know what a Tombola was. Swings and round-a-bouts, eh!

Penny Sale -

The complete opposite of a raffle.

In a raffle (like a lottery), you buy ticket/s knowing you probably won't win anything but are happy to be 'in it to win it'. When you're ticket is called you squeal 'OH I never win anything!'

With a Penny Sale you have control over which prizes you can potentially win. Let me explain.

The success of a Penny Sale is in the amount of prizes on offer - you need LOTS - lots in terms of variety and lots as in quantity. Vouchers work just as good as products.

The organizing committee decides on price points of tickets, usually based on your audience attending your Penny Sale. The one I went to had prepared envelopes for €20, €30 and €50.

The sign up sheets were numbered and allocated in groups to each purchase amount and were placed in front of each box.

I bought €20 and signed my name against 368 (from amongst the numbers allocated to €20).

My €20 gave me 50 tickets each with 368 printed on them. (Organising these is the most time consuming aspect of the event, and needs to be done by someone who is very organised, with a team to help cut each numbered ticket and place them into the corresponding envelope).

Prior to the open time of the event, all the donated items were placed around the room on tables (as above) with a small black bag behind each. On the bag was a small description of the item. As you entered the room to buy your tickets you could SEE how much was on offer, which was a great motivator to maybe spend a wee bit more than you had intended.

The 3 price points is a great idea, as it allows people to choose and doesn't discriminate. Not everyonen who wants to attend a fundraiser feels they can afford to 'keep up' and so don't go (G and I have been invited to some very high profile fundraisers and don't go for this reason, we write a cheque for what we can afford and send it off to the organisers with a note of apology - gosh, how our secrets out!) as it's done quietly and no one needs to know what you've spent!

Once inside, take your time walking around the tables, dropping as few or as many of your tickets (in my case No.368) into the little black bags next to the items you WANTED a chance to win.

There was no point me putting tickets into baby/toddler items; or artwork so I didn't. But I did quite like the Coach purse, the facial/pedicure vouchers, massage vouchers, Christmas Hamper, a several pieces of jewellery.

If you really REALLY wanted something you put more tickets in to increase your chances of having your ticket pulled out and declared the winner. I dumped numerous tickets into the Coach Purse little black bag (still didn't win it)

Placing 50 tickets was actually a lot harder than you'd think! The friends I went with also found it difficult to 'spend' all their tickets so we ended up walking around the room several times, sneaking a peak into bags to see how many tickets were there, and making decisions close to the time the LAST CALL was made and throwing caution to the wind and putting several more tickets into the items we really, really wanted.

Once TIME was called, we went into another room for a coffee'n''chat, then sat down and listened to the announcements of WINNING TICKETS.

Each item was announced, and the company or person who donated it was mentioned, then the winning ticket announced - it seemed to go for ages. A few of us think there has to be a better way to do this part ..... the more items you have the longer it takes to announce winners. Still, people's reactions were fun to watch.

Without a Penny in sight, the group who hosted the event raised several thousand Euros in a few hours!

There are so many different ways to raise money.

Over the next few weeks, I'll share a few with you that I've come across, and invite you to share your ideas too.

Share your Fundraising ideas!
What cultural differences have you noticed?

Let's create a reference folder of great ideas!

I Did It!

The Flora Mini Marathon started from humble beginnings in Dublin in 1983 with less than 10,000 participants, and yesterday there was well over 45, 000 (majority women) taking part.

Not only do the women of Ireland benefit from taking part in the annual event but Irish charities do too, as nearly every single person running, jogging, walking is doing so in the name of a charity. Estimates from last years Flora Mini Marathon are Euro137 million was raised across hundreds of charities. Not bad for a Dublin-based running club event, eh?

With a total population of 4.58 million, Andrea Pappin asked in December 2012, do we really need 24,000 charities? (325 pages listed in this PDF, if you're curious) all fighting for ever diminishing (if not already diminished, and some are non-existent), Government funding and donations. I've no idea how many charities were represented yesterday, but there were LOTS.

It does make sense for these charities to join forces, merge administrations, share specialised roles, have a stronger, louder voice but they all seem quite happy being local and relevant to their community.

As you know, yesterday was my first time in the Flora Mini Marathon - indeed, my first time ever doing anything like this (other than strolling a new city for hours sightseeing).

MrsD picked me up around 11am, we drove'n'parked in town and met the other three ladies who were walking with  us raising money for Special Needs Parents Association.

Not that any of us are competitive, but we did discuss how much money we've raised to date ... and what sponsorship we were still expecting. They were all very impressed with my amount, considering I am not Irish.

It was a fair walk to the starting area for the YELLOW numbers (ie: walkers) and we managed to weave our way pretty close to the front to get a 'good start'.

It still took us 20:23 to actually cross the official start line. There was a band playing, and onlookers clapping and cheering us on. It wasn't as electric as I thought, but it was still a lovely atmosphere.

We walked and talked.

And talked and walked.

We dodged slower walkers.

Avoided faster walkers.

Joggers in yellow tickets were annoying.

We counted the KM's as we made each milestone.

1km was like, oh ok, so that's one kilometer. Ok, 9 to go.

3km was a bit annoying especially with loads of motivational signs like 'RUN LADY RUN' or "YOU'RE CLOSER TO THE FINISH THAN BEFORE" But this was my favorite

5km took a while longer as we have to walk UP one side of the N11 and then hook back on ourselves to walk DOWN the N11 the way we came.

5.1km and we're on the home stretch.

There were a few very fancy dressed guys supporting their ladies, but this solo effort had to win the prize of the day. He was attempting the 10k's in 5" heels! He was happy for his photo to be taken, so long as he kept walking!

When we reached the 8km mark I thought 'well, that was easy' and found a second wind. Subconsciously I started walking faster, so much so that MrsD told me to slow down - that we'll sprint across the actual finish line. It was hilarious and made me realize what a difference 2-3 times at the gym, merely walking has made to me.

9km's and I felt like I could run the rest of the way (I didn't, but I felt like I could)

BAM! 10km's done and dusted.

I DID IT!

MrsD is a lot more serious than me, so I knew crying as I finished wasn't going to go down well, but I felt as if I wanted to.

Me.

ms-havachat, actually did a 10km walk and wasn't a mess at the end.

In fact, this is me at the finish

A huge thank  you to everyone who kindly sponsored me. I am so very proud of the Euro400-odd that I've raised for Special Needs Parents Association.

I've woken up today feeling great!

I've achieved something I really wasn't sure I could do.

Huge congrats also to MrsMc who walked from Winchester Cathedral to Salisbury Cathedral over the weekend too, raising money for Naomi House.

With friendship

x

Getting Creative with Gift Ideas

Gift giving is great fun, tho can also cause grief.

There are so many reasons to give someone a gift ...... and then there's no reason at all.

The definition of gift is simple - a thing given willingly without payment. 

A gift doens't have to come from a shop, or be wrapped in a pretty box, or be a particular size, or cost a certain amount of money. A gift can be given with nothing in return. (Except at kids birthday parties when some of the take home party bags contain 'gifts' which I don't get)

A gift is simply given willingly.

So if it's that simple, why do we ALL spend time angsting over the perfect gift? Why does it have to be perfect? Why can't it just be thoughtful? Why do we, either consciously or subconsciously judge the quality of the relationship to the gift? (When G gave me the most beautiful ring for my 50th 'someone' said to me 'about time he spoilt you' - how rude was that!? And I remember the embarrassment when an ex-boyfriend gave me a bag of pot-purri for a birthday LOL)

I got to thinking a few weeks ago about gift giving and got so caught up in the 'right gift' and 'how many gifts' that I found myself being an UNwilling gift giver, and at Christmas that sux. I'm not sure I angst over gifts at birthdays as much as at Christmas. WHY????????????

Maybe because on a birthday one gift is enough LOL. Just because the 3 Wise Men turned up with a gift each, doesn't mean we have to give multiple gifts (or is that just us?)

We're taught from a young age to graciously accept a gift; to buy a gift with the person in mind, that it doesn't matter how big or small, it's the thought that counts. MissM received the same book from two different people in Sydney and without missing a beat, she shrugged her shoulders and said (to me) that's OK, i might loose one in a move.

I've mentioned recently the amount of online chatter about Christmas anxiety levels, the sea change in the air in terms of the hijacking of this time of year by retailers and how most of us are drowning in gift-giving-guilt, or food-overload.

Due to the ever increasing and ridiculously expensive international postage, most of our gifts (given or receive) come in the form of light, flat items or are purchased online with delivery (and wrapping gets done at the other end by a gift-helper) while the card it posted and then the two are married prior to the gift-helper giving it to the recipient.

While gift vouchers have never been a favourite of mine, they scream lack of thought or consideration to me for some reason, they have started to appear as regular gifts -  but not boring shopping vouchers, but rather an open voucher for the recipient to choose a live theatre performance, or a dining voucher to a favorite restaurant, or an experience they wouldn't necessarily do, or a donation to a charity that links in with their interests.

Seems I'm not alone in this kind of thinking. Organizational and lifestyle guru, Peter Walsh posted this quick video to his FB page. Last time i looked, he had 63 comments and 479 'likes' + however many hits on youtube.

Like most of you, these past few weeks have been spent trawling the shops and online for the 'perfect gift' I thought back to what sort of gifts we've given over the years and realized that the sea change of gift giving has already started at house. Maybe that's why I get so pissed off when it comes to buying things that go into boxes under a tree.


Donate to a Charitable Cause that is of personal interest to the recipient.

• A group of us pooled our money for a friends 40th a few years ago and bought 40 kids in South Africa (where she was born) inoculations (she's a nurse).
• BF's 50th, made a donation to the Centennial Park Labyrinth in her name because the Park is very important to both of us, we've shared her kids birthday parties there, it's where we have our big get togethers when we're in Sydney, we've picnic'd there for YEARS. The Labryinth will be there for generations and she's into the sort of thing. I can see her grandkids, who aren't even being contemplated at this point in time, running around the area knowing that 'Great Aunty S bought this for nana/grandma' and that warms my heart. So while it seems an odd gift, it really isn't. 
• MissM asked for, and received money from several family members and close friends to build a well in Cambodia a few Christmas' ago. We chose HOPE INTERNATIONAL as this was the charity YIS (her school in Yokohama supported)
• The Sydney Opera House is selling it's 'tiles' as a means of raising much needed funds for restoration and renovation work. You can name your tile, and post a photograph on a virtual sail - which we did for the in-laws and one for mum for Christmas. They all enjoy seeing performances there, and my FIL has a thing for crossing the harbour by ferry and admiring the Opera House, so it made emotional sense to do this. Thanks to MrsA for sharing this amazing idea with me. If you know the same people as me, and are thinking of doing this, please check with me first as I have earmarked a few LOL.
• If a friend volunteers or works for a charity donate to it. My grandmother spent many years at a nursing home in Sydney and each birthday and Mothers Day we would make a donation in her name.
• The obvious one - health issues, medical research touch all of us and a donation in the recipients name is always thoughtful.

Give an Experience (so happy to hear one of my mentors, Peter Walsh saying the same thing)

• In Australia, Red Balloon is the go-to online company for this; and we've used Virgin Experiences when we were in the UK. Obviously there are more online sites who do this now. 
• While not to show off, we've given things like a private surf lesson to our nephew; one day tuition at Australian Dance Company to our budding prima-ballerina-in-training niece; much needed BBQ lesson to FIL to name a few.
• A cooking class to share with a friend on her birthday; theater tickets; art gallery or museum annual membership are other ideas to ponder.

Make something

• MissM's given several pieces of her pottery and artwork made at school to friends.
• Over the years, I've made tapestries, or a decoupage piece, or a mosaic, or photo album to friends 
• We made a video for a BF's 50th, just the 3 of us chatting and walking around our home in Winchester. It took ages to make, and so many retakes cos of poor lighting, or bad sound (and me being extra critical of how we looked, or sounded)
• My godkids gave me a tiny weeny jar when I went overseas the first time. They each blew a kiss into it before putting on the lid. I still have it, and the kisses are still inside.

Even the simple thought of posting a card to someone on moving into their new home, or on a birthday means the world to people these days as we tend to do all this sort of thing via social media these days. 

I think at the end of the day the AHA Moment for me when it comes to gift giving is not how much we spend, but rather on the link between the gift and the recipient. 

Afterall, Mum was right, it's the thought that counts. Which is probably why gift giving for me, for the people I love, is always going to be stressful.

Love to hear your creative gift ideas,

With friendship

x