Secrets to Success: Secondary Fundraisers

What’s the best way to drum up summer Shine dollars?? Secondary Fundraisers!

Everyone knows it is MUCH easier to reach your grand goal when you break it up into reasonable chunks.  This is where Secondary Fundraisers come in – they have the power to make or break your campaign!

Saint Mary's University Football Team at a Carwash Secondary Fundraiser 2011

Read on for all the details of how you can make 

Secondary Fundraisers work for you!

Why are Secondary Fundraisers so Great?

• They offset the costs of Shine Day and help you reach your goals
• They are a LOT of fun
• They keep your Shiners committed and engaged over the summer, leading to an even more awesome Shine Day
• No matter if the fundraiser is big or small it benefits your campaign by promoting Shine Day, increasing your community’s awareness about cystic fibrosis, and of course bringing in cash for your total!

This can be especially important if you have a smaller Shine Day than some schools. When I was the Shinerama Coordinator at NAIT, I had to get my butt in gear and think of as many good secondary fundraiser's as I possibly could in order to even consider reaching our overall goal. It was hard at first but as you brainstorm and figure out what can work for you, secondary fundraiser's will end up being some of your most successful and memorable Shinerama campaign moments!

These quick and easy fundraisers that I’m talking about should typically cost you pretty much nothing, and can be done with few or many people depending on your summer resources. Get as much donated as possible. Food, supplies, media etc. can all be donated if you put in a little time and effort.

Some quick fundraisers to plan and execute are…

• Bar-Blitz - buy or get donated some candy, glow sticks, condoms etc. and call up some bars in your city to get permission to sell your items to their customers. Some schools can raise over $1,000 in one night!
• Sell glow sticks/lollipops/balloons/face paint etc. at hot spots around your city/town on Canada Day.
• Cover - Take cover at bars – some bars make you pay cover at the door and maybe they’ll let you work the door and every person entering the bar that night has to give $5/$10 to get in. 
• BBQ – Contact a local grocery store, Canadian Tire, Wal-Mart and they may have programs to help you out for really cheap. A lot of those places may even let you host the BBQ at their store and sell to their customers. Or do you have students on your campus in the summer? Maybe you could have a $5 burger and pop event one day over lunch! 
• Car Wash – They are easy! All you need is a nice day, a location and volunteers. It’s fairly cheap and tends to reward well. 
• Laundry - Have sport teams on campus? Volunteer to wash jerseys for donations. 
• Tournaments - Organize a tournament that would be popular in your community (volleyball, dodge ball, golf …). 
• Fun Photo Op - When school starts back up do something weird like being a llama (or other animal) on campus and maybe call it the “Shinerama Llama” – Encourage students to take a picture with it for a donation. 
• T-Shirts – Use up left over inventory by selling last year’s t-shirts where ever you can. 
• Sticky Bills - Get some willing volunteers (possibly the executives at your student union/association and/or yourself) to wear a duct tape dress (sticky part outwards) for a day and get as many people as possible to attach money to the dress. 
• Silent/Live Auction 
• Community Events - Does your community have any outdoor music or community festivals that you can hit up? Set up at as many as you can! For example, Edmonton has lots of events in the summer. NAIT went to the Big Valley Jamboree to sell lollipops and it was a big hit! We got on the jumbo-tron back stage to promote Shinerama and even got to meet some of the performers. If you get a guitar they might even get all the artists to sign it and then you can auction it off on a local radio station that helped to put on the event.
• 50/50 – Know the laws and regulations around them! Your Cystic Fibrosis Canada Chapter may be able to help you with this if you ask. 
• Yoga - Get in contact with a yoga studio and hold a karma class. Every studio tends to does them differently so ask around! 
• Big Shines - Shine one of the biggest things in your city. (Baseball bat, tug boat, boot etc).  This is a great one for media attention that can lead to awesome campaign donations.
  
• Local Celebrities / Politicians - Formally invite your Premier and/or Mayor and shine their shoes while you’re at it! Might even be a good way to proclaim “Shine Day” to your city.
• Learn from the past - Look to see what fundraisers have been done previously and continue with some of those traditional fundraisers if they still work. People in your community may look forward to those events year to year.

Former Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach and his wife showing their support of
NAIT Shinerama 2011 just after the students finished shining the Edmonton Big Boot

Enable Donors to Take Immediate Action

You’ll be the most effective at your Secondary Fundraisers if you ensure you always provide a ‘door’ that makes it easy for someone to donate.  So they don’t have change on them?  Make sure you have signage or something tangible to give them that provides another way to contribute!

• Our Shinerama App – This is HUGE because it means you can have a person donate right from your phone! All you need to do is log in to your Shinerama.ca account and go to “get sponsors”. Ensuring you get their donation right away is the best avenue to making sure they do not go home and forget to donate. Available for iOS and Android. 
• Shinerama.ca – Online donations are quick and easy, and they can choose your school, meaning your campaign total gets the benefit.  Plus, it’s a great opportunity for people to see how much impact Shinerama is having all across the country!
• Text Giving – is a totally instant, painless way to donate.  Simply text SHINE to 45678 and $5 is donated to Shinerama.  Hand out text giving promo cards to anyone that says they don’t have time/change on them.

For even more ideas, check out the Shinerama Extranet materials on Secondary Fundraisers.  Your Campaign Advisor is also ready to hear your ideas and requests for help on anything you have in mind.

This is definitely a case where your imagination is the limit! Be creative with your events - some of the best ideas are the ones that seem the most ‘out there’ when they first come into your head.

Lots of Shine Love,

Miranda Holman

Campaign Advisor, BC & AB