One Group's Adventure in Fundraising
Desirée
Lenard
Wenatchee WA USA
From: LEAVEN, Vol. 40 No. 4, August-September 2004, p. 93.
I am a Leader in Wenatchee,
Washington, USA. Our Group has been in existence for about three years
and maintains regular meetings with a small core of mothers and a handful
of members—three of whom are now Leaders. We have flyers in new
mother packets at Central Washington Hospital, but our attendance has
remained relatively low and the sale of a new membership is infrequent.
Last year, our Group discussed
the idea of going into debt with LLLI to purchase several copies of
The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding to sell at our meetings and in our
community. Not being fond of debt, I was hesitant, but our Group consensus
was to incur the debt with hopes to not only pay it back, but to be
a little ahead of the game with our finances.
Last October, I completed
my application for LLL leadership and fervently joined our longtime
Leader in the efforts to draw more mothers to our meetings. Having spent
much time on the LLLI Web site, I already knew once I finished my application,
I could then access the "Leader Only" pages. To my delight,
I found several fundraising ideas that were worth exploring. I brought
ideas to our next Enrichment Meeting. We decided to expand an idea contributed
by Conni Sowin, Illinois, USA. It was a success! We organized the Women’s
Spring Boutique, scheduled for Saturday, May 8—the day before Mother’s
Day.
Considering this was our
first attempt at a fundraiser and we pulled it together in about six
weeks, we were very uncertain about the possible outcome of the event.
We had 12 vendors confirmed and at the last minute someone called responding
to a flyer in the community and asked if she could also be a vendor.
After talking with sales representatives who have participated in bazaars
and craft fairs, we decided not to require a flat fee for vendors’
tables, but that it would be reasonable to ask that they contribute
10 percent of their sales (a minimum of $20 US) to LLL Wenatchee.
I am happy to report that
the fundraiser was a success! Our event ran from 11 am to 3 pm with
about 60 people attending the event. At the entrance, we had an LLL
table with information, books, meeting notices, and a bake sale. In
addition to the debt we had incurred with the purchase of copies of
The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding, we also ordered copies of Dr. Sears’
The Baby Book on credit to sell at the event. We had all but two vendors
pay us right away and we’re not only out of debt with LLLI, but
we’ve got about a $90 (US) cushion. We’re also expecting money
from two more vendors.
While there were three vendors
who did not sell anything at the event, which was disappointing, two
have indicated that they hope to be contacted to participate again next
year.
Being a relatively new and
small Group, having a "balance" to speak of is an achievement
on its own. We are definitely interested in continuing this as an annual
event. We’re hoping that as the event becomes more of a community
expectation, attendance and profit will increase for our vendors and
for us. We made some positive connections with vendors and will surely
talk about what we can do to make it more of a success in years to come.
Author’s Note:
Thank you to Connie Sowin in Illinois for sharing your idea on the
Web site and thank you to my teammates Darcy West, Annette Mueller,
and Gretchen Coker for making this event happen.
Desirée Lenard
and her husband, Frederick, live in Wenatchee, Washington, USA with
their daughter, Karin (2). Desirée has been a Leader in the growing
Wenatchee LLL Group for one year and works full time as a bilingual
teacher. Desirée can be contacted at drmlenard at fibercow.com (email)
for more information on this fundraising project.
Page last edited Sun Oct 14 09:31:09 UTC 2007.
