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Fundraiser Ideas for Rural Department
I am a member of a very small rural fire department. I have been a member of this department for 3 years, and during that time we have had only one fundraiser. It was a fish fry and did not raise much money. My Chief has decided not to have one since, because he does not think we can have a successful one. He told me if I have a good idea, he would let me have a fundraiser and put me in charge of it. Does anyone have any ideas for fundraising in a rural department?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Paul Montpetit on
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Chicken barbeques work well, selling calendars with Birthdays works for us...as I see it if you make even a few $$ it is better than what you started with.....Gun raffles work, bottle drives....a letter campaign to everyone in your Fire District.....
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Permalink Reply by Austin Young on
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My department has a pancake breakfast every year that brings in a pretty generous profit.
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Permalink Reply by Derek R. on
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Do you have other members in the dept who are just as interested in fundraising as you are?
Is so, I have an idea which we use successfully every year that generates thousands of dollars each year. It does take a little time and preparation, but, depending on how important fundraising is for your dept, it is WELL worth it in the end.
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Permalink Reply by Jeremy Pickett on
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yeah depending on the idea, I think I could get some people involved. what is it?
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just sent you a FR. I can help you along as you go, if you choose to give it a try.
It's an auction that involves several members of your dept. and the community you operate in.
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yeah sure just let me know what it is. i'd appreciaite it
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Permalink Reply by ashfire on
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I think what controls your fundrasining is your area and populace. What interest the people in your area? I guess I would have to ask how rural is your dept? Is it separate from town or village or just a spot on the map?
What size is your station and how many units?
Two of our county's considered rural volunteer stations have changed over the years. One just had their station renovated with a three bay drive thru addition for two pumpers, tanker, two brush trucks and ambulance and turned their old apparatus area into new offices, rec area, training room, bunk rooms and bathrooms. They have a nice hall which was added years ago. They also have two baseball fields.
The other built a million dollar hall separate and behind their station so they could use their station just for apparatus and renovation for offices, bunk room and rec area. They have two pumpers, ladder tower, mini pumper, brush truck and ambulance. The apparatus area was used for years for fundraising like BINGO, dinners, classes and community activities.
Most of our stations run BINGO, dinners, wedding receptions, community activities.
Some stations have been fundraising by letter mailings in their areas using a company that does the research of addresses, prints the letters and mails the letters. The dept pays the company and all the mailing go to the dept.
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thanks for your response.
We are pretty much not even a spot on the map, lol. There are about 3,000 people that live in our district. Our station is small. We have 3 bays. One bay has a tanker, one has a pumper, and one has 2 brush vehicles.
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Permalink Reply by Wayne Peterson on
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In my last deptartment we ran a movie called "into the fire" put out by the Firemans Fund Insurance Company..They will send you all kinds of stuff including a free DVD copy of the movie. Its great, give it a try. We did it in the winter when not much to do outside!
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Permalink Reply by Matthew on
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My department has always had luck with cookings, we usually cook 3-4 times a year (fish, chicken, bbq) also have good luck with car washes, raffles (gift cards, rifles, etc) and road blocks. We also host a yearly trail ride for horses (wouldn't recommend that one, lot of blood, sweat, and tears go into that). We sell chances for deer hunts on commercial shooting plantation as well, also have a "Hole in One--Closest to Pin" contest. Approx. 140 yard drive to the pin, it's not perfectly straight, it has a very gentle curve to it. They pay $5 for 3 shots, or $10 for 8 shots, w have prizes for closest to the pin, for runner's up (clubs, bags, shirts, sleeve of nice balls, free rounds of golf at a country club, etc), and a large cash prize ($2,500) for a hole in one.
You might could look into seeing if there are any area flea markets, would be a great place to sell food, might also work at some sort of church yard sale. You could also sell chances on a gift card to Wal Mart. Another idea that is a little out there but worked REALLY well for a local High School was to take the school football field (you could use something roughly the size of a field, needs to be fenced in though) and mark off sections and arrange them into some sort of grid system. You then put a price on each section ($5, 10, etc) and turn a cow (or goat even) loose on the field, which ever section the cow/goat "fertilizes" gets a cut of the profit.
...I know how weird that sounds, but believe it or not people really got into that. Maybe you can get some ideas, but as Ashfire said how well your fund raiser does depends upon the interest of your populace.
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Permalink Reply by John Karl Ambrusch, III on
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BAKE SALE; never fail!
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