Raising Funds for LLLI
From: LEAVEN, Vol. 40 No. 6, December 2004 - January 2005, pp. 128-29.
This year, over 400 La Leche
League Groups all over the USA held fundraising events between May and
September to celebrate breastfeeding and to raise money to support the
ongoing work of LLL. The details below are merely glimpses into the
various activities that were planned for World Breastfeeding Week (WBW)
2004. What is your Group planning for next year’s WBW? Whether
you’d like to coordinate an event like one mentioned in this article
or modify a fundraiser to suit your area, it’s never too early
to start planning for 2005.
New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
Susan Vicknair Theall
Jefferson LA USA
To celebrate World Breastfeeding
Week, LLL of Jefferson, Louisiana planned an LLL Family Fun Day in the
local shopping mall. Due to the publicity in the local newspaper and
on the news, we had a large turnout. My co-Leader, Rachelle Noullet,
was interviewed for an article on breastfeeding and WBW, which appeared
in a prominent spot in the local newspaper on the Monday before our
Saturday event. The day before our fundraiser, the local weatherman
held up one of our WBW t-shirts on the evening news and announced the
event. One of the anchors, a former breastfeeding mother, also commented
on the importance of breastfeeding.
On the day of our celebration,
we walked one mile inside the mall and celebrated with a cake (donated
by a local bakery). To attract both parents and children, we had mascots
from a local baseball team attend. We also set up children’s activities.
Every child in the mall brought their parents to our tables. So far,
we have over $800 in sponsor money, with more expected.
This was a successful event for the New Orleans, Louisiana, USA area.
We took advantage of the opportunity to sell WBW merchandise as a Group
fundraiser and sold t-shirts and tote bags to eight other LLL Groups.
Whittier, California, USA
Julie Johnson
Whittier CA USA
The LLL Whittier, California,
USA Group celebrated World Breastfeeding Week with a luncheon at a Greek
café. To encourage attendance, we let everyone know that the
first 50 families to arrive would receive a totebag of goodies. We purchased
50 totebags and sold advertising space on the outside of the bags for
$100 and inside the bags for $30. We raised $1,000 one month before
our event! Many of the businesses who advertised in the bags also donated
items for raffles and door prizes.
To encourage individual LLL
members to make donations, we decorated flower pots that read, "LLL
of Whittier: your coins help us grow!" We distributed the pots
before the WBW celebration to all of our members with the instructions
to save coins during the month of July. In coins alone, we raised $195.
Over 130 families helped
us celebrate. The restaurant donated 20 percent of the lunch proceeds.
A local store also donated a $50 gift card to help with expenses and
matched $250 of donations. Between the tote bags, coins, and lunch,
we’ve brought in close to $1,500 so far. We’re still waiting
to hear from a couple of other local businesses as they approve matching
donations.
One thing we will do differently
next year is buy more pins to sell to attendees. They were a huge hit
and we sold out of them fast. There were "World Breastfeeding Week"
pins and "Human Milk for Human Babies" pins. We decorated
them with gold ribbons to represent breastfeeding as the "gold
standard."
We generated a lot of money
and raised awareness of LLL. We look forward to having our World Breastfeeding
Week Celebration next year!
Columbia, Missouri, USA
Julie Jacobs
Columbia, Missouri, USA
LLL of Columbia, Missouri,
USA held our WBW event on the campus of the University of Missouri-Columbia.
Over 130 people gathered to help us celebrate.
Since this is the fifth year
our Group has coordinated a Walk, we have already established connections
in the community. It was surprisingly simple to promote our event and
ask for donations from businesses and health care providers. The Walk
was also featured on two different news broadcasts. Our Group collected
a total of 18 prizes to give to top fundraisers and raffle off at the
end of the event.
Our Group raised over $4,400:
eight sponsors gave $250 each to have their logo included on the back
of a "Babies Were Born to be Breastfed" t-shirt; local businesses
gave $550; health care professionals gave $300; and we collected over
$1,500 from individuals. After the expense of printing t-shirts, $3,600
will benefit LLL at all levels.
Kentucky and Indiana, USA
Virginia Delaney
Louisville KY USA
The Kentuckiana Chapter held
our WBW celebration at the local park under large tents. Over 400 people
attended and we raised around $3,000.
Our fundraiser had 23 exhibitors,
children’s activities, and a silent auction that featured over
135 donated items to bid on. We kept track of what items were popular
with attendees so we can gear our donation requests for next year.
To pay for the tents and
other expenses, we had t-shirts printed and got four major sponsors
at $400 each, as well as four contributing sponsors.
We sold tickets (50¢
each or 15 for $5) for any children’s activity or the raffle. We
also offered a free table with more than enough donated food to feed
all of the attendees. A donation jar on the food table brought in around
$100.
Our event went extremely
well, but we also learned what we can do differently for next year’s
celebration. We will definitely start the planning much earlier. We’ve
already begun the process by sending thank-you cards to exhibitors and
sponsors along with a postcard informing them of the next event and
asking them if they would like to participate again. We hope to have
all sponsors lined up by January and all exhibitors by May 2005.
Spending World Breastfeeding Week Funds
Now that LLLUSA
Celebrates World Breastfeeding Week (WBW) is officially over,
the 400 plus Groups that participated have additional funds
in their Group accounts to use to further the LLL mission.
Some of the exciting things they are doing with this extra
money are shared in this article.
LLL of Whittier,
California, USA has decided to spend $25 (US) bimonthly
to buy a box of 100 to 150 issues of NEW BEGINNINGS. Before
distributing them to doctor’s offices, they label each
magazine with their Group’s contact information. To help
make their funds stretch even further, they applied for and
received a corporate grant of $1,000 (US) to add to their
WBW event profits.
The Matthews/Union
County, North Carolina, USA Group is updating their Group
Library and helping Leader Applicants purchase the seventh
revised edition of THE WOMANLY ART OF BREASTFEEDING and the
third revised edition of THE BREASTFEEDING ANSWER BOOK.
LLL of Osage
County, Kansas, USA is a newly formed Group, but their
WBW money has enabled them to publicize their LLL Group extensively
across their county.
They distributed
binders to every doctor, WIC (Woman, Infants and Children)
counselor, and Parents as Teachers (a statewide governmental
program that mentors parents) representative. Each binder
contained a dozen LLLI tear-off sheets, an LLLI Catalogue,
a copy of NEW BEGINNINGS, and their Group’s meeting brochure.
Mugs and pens with LLL logos on them were also distributed.
A portion of the WBW profits also made it possible for the
Group to donate THE WOMANLY ART OF BREASTFEEDING to health
care providers and offices, as well as folders of tear-off
sheets and brochures to chiropractic offices, dental offices,
and pharmacies. This outreach was made possible by having
a cooperative WBW event with Osage County’s sister Group
in Topeka, Kansas, USA, who donated $400 (US).
The Leaders of
Great Bend, Kansas, USA brainstormed with members of
their Group to decide how to spend the 2004 WBW money. Some
of their ideas include:
- Provide every
mother in the hospital with THE WOMANLY ART OF BREASTFEEDING.
- Partner with
doctors and ask them to hand out "new mother packets"
to clients.
- Set up library
and bookstore displays during World Breastfeeding Week.
- Have an LLL
booth at fairs and expos.
- Place an ad
in the newspaper describing a monthly online chat session
on breastfeeding.
LLL of Morristown,
Tennessee, USA held a fair to raise money during WBW.
Leaders Sandra Wieber and Kerri Courtier explained that they
would like to use some of the money to find an additional
Leader and to add new books to their Group Library. They plan
to continue buying business card magnets, which includes meeting
and contact information. They hope to have enough to insert
into all the new mother packets at area doctors’ offices.
They are also ordering cards to congratulate new mothers in
the hospital. Part of the money will be seed money for next
year’s WBW event. They also plan to have professional
signs made and would like to purchase an ad in the local newspaper.
Now is the time
to think about all that your Group can do to further the mission
of LLL with a WBW fundraisers. Dozens of ideas for easy to
plan events are on the LLLUSA Web site at www.lllusa.org/lllusa/fundraising.html.
Invite the members of your Group to brainstorm and begin planning
for WBW 2005.
|
Page last edited Sun Oct 14 09:32:08 UTC 2007.
