Fundraising

[Michero]

We are having Robert Garmong speak at our university on liberty, and we need some ideas to help us raise the money. We've gone through all the traditional ideas of begging and bake-sales etc. but we wanted to do something related to the speech and objectivism. We plan to ask local businesses to advertise at the event and perhaps have one big sponsor. Any other ideas? We are looking to raise between $1500 and $2000 anything more would just be gravy.

[deedlebee]

Appeal to local businesses for donations (advertising for them, stuff for students). Depending on the items offered you might want to consider having a raffle or a silent auction. How that is related to Objectivism depends on how you advertise the event. "Profitable businesses donate more!" (That might be cheesy, but hopefully you get the idea)

Non-Objectivist related is to have a food-sale that is unique and widely appealing. Ice cream is always a huge hit (and apparently equally loved by both the sexes!) and could probably be resold at a tidy profit. Another idea might be to see if a local club would be willing to hold a fund-raising type night, with a percentage of the profit of admission going to your club. (Or a movie theater, or a park of some sort.. any place that can hold a crowd and offers entertainment). Another idea (though perhaps the most cumbersome and least profitable) would be to collect old and used books for resale at local shops.

Probably not the best ideas ever, but I hope they help. Good luck!

[Michero]

Appeal to local businesses for donations

Actually we plan on having a playbill in which local businesses can advertise --as well as putting up posters. We also want a pamphlet table where they can pay a fee and place their info. We've though of getting vendors and a sponsor. We are trying to stay away from "donations" as long as possible.

Probably not the best ideas ever, but I hope they help.  Good luck!

All ideas are welcome-- and when it comes down to the line and we have to break down and do a bake sale or something ice-cream is a good idea I never though of.

(Fixed quotation blocks -sNerd)

Edited September 14, 2005 by softwareNerd

[softwareNerd]

Are you planning to publicize the Robert Garmong event outside the campus: to any local group(s) of Objectivists you might be aware of?

At the few campus events I have attended, the word of the event got out to the local Objectivist community and a fair number of people from off campus turned up. A donation box would be set up at the door for contributions. I always contributed, and I'm sure other "outsiders" must have too. That might be a way to get some additional funds toward the next event.

[Felix]

What's the topic of his speech? Try and sell something related to the topic. Books, CDs, Posters or something.

You can ask in shops, if they would let you sell it on a profit-share basis. We have these stands very often at our university.

Advertise this in areas related to the topic. It will be something about law, ethics and/or politics. So advertise it widely among philosophy-, law-, and politics-students. Ask professors in these areas, if you can make a short presentation before the lecture.

I'm just thinking about a business that could make money with the people who will appear there and with whom you could make a deal. Something like lead-generation for a business. But I just can't come up with something right now.

Maybe someone else has an idea.