Fundraising

Fundraising…The Big Question?

Here are some thoughts on Fundraising…as many of us know fundraising for anything is often tedious and a lot of work. In my mind that is why we need to follow the rule of SIBKIS (See it Big Keep it Simple).

Large amounts of fundraising dollars are a challenge to get as people will initially get excited and than the excitement will fade. At WTW we have been very blessed by some partnerships and large dollar donors who have always helped us to “get over the top”…while we can pray these can continue to be there, in my mind we should plan as if they are not coming and than be pleasantly surprised when they do.

ONE BIG WEEKEND!
After a fantastic weekend with the McChain and Roselle families over the Memorial Day Weekend at a fun little festival in a tiny little town called Boltonville…I believe I may have the start to our fundraising questions. What I would like to do is get a couple of bands…hint…hint…anyone who knows a band or DJ start schmoozing! There are a few bands who have told us they would help in the past: Goodtime Dutchmen (sweet polka), Copperbox (sweet ecletic polka mix…wait till you see this group live), and I am sure we can locate some others…I have a friend that is playing in an up and coming country band. I say we tour with these bands for the weekend. Find 3 areas that are WTW friendly areas (Walworth/Fontana? Whitewater? Waunakee? West Bend? Kewaskum? Burlington? Edgerton? Milton?) set up for a night and just do it…Think food, music, 50/50 raffle and more. Friday night, Saturday night, Sunday afternoon

The Next Step…
Obviously we all need to sit down and finalize this process…but I believe that we roll out this at the ONE BIG WEEKEND celebration. I havn’t figured it out yet…but how about selling “Dream Stock”? What we are building is WTW’s first International Village a place where anyone in the world can go and stay…think charitable timeshare! Each stock would be numbered 1-1000 as there will only be 1000 stocks. We could have them done up really nice and totally frameable with a picture of preliminary drawing and a spot to put a picture of the final completed project. Obviously the stock would have to be “not legal tender” and have “no monetary value” however we can make the stock worth a week at IV-Hopewell…and maybe that would encourage our “stockholders” to make a trip and plan it. I know 1000 is a lot of stocks…but what if we made each stock worth $100 and got out there to our friends and family, media outlets, at the ONE BIG WEEKEND celebration, etc.

With these two steps completed…we should be far on our way having purchased our land and possibly more. I am hoping by this point we are at least 50% funded with the ONE BIG WEEKEND celebration and the stock sale. Which than sets off what I will call…THE FINAL PUSH!

THE FINAL PUSH…
The final push would be a timed and carefully orchestrated plan of media attack. With members of our group slotted at different Rotarys, Kiwanis, Lions Clubs, Churches, Schools, and other Community organizations…with the right media mix of hometown newspapers, large city newspapers, tv, radio, and more. We would promote group partnerships and sponsorships of our project. We would also continue to promote the stock sale to individuals and promote the final news conference and banquet. (Another fundraiser…but we would do it with an international phonecall from our partners on the ground at IV-Hopewell and include video footage and pictures of the work in progress. This would than be capped off with the projected outlook of the people we are going to help by doing this either by jobs, with water, increased tourism, etc. Also at THE FINAL PUSH would be details of our CLEAN CITY campaign that we will be doing while on the ground at Hopewell and our advertising push to get international visitors to stay in our IV-Hopewell.

Thoughts?