You're here because you're worried about fundraising.  You've heard someone say that fundraising is hard right now-- we're in an economic recession.  But we're all here because we are dedicated to fundraising to help beat blood cancers.  It's important for us to remember that cancer doesn't care about the economy.  Cancer didn't take Econ 101.  It doesn't even know whether the economy is robust or recessionary... it is just looking for its next opportunity to take somone's life.  I've been a fundraising mentor with TNT for 3 years, and I have to admit that it is harder to fundraise now than in the past.  We just need to be more creative in our fundraising approach. 

Before you go crazy trying to come up with creative ideas, first make sure you've taken advantage of all of the fundraising support that TNT has made available to you.  To reach your fundraising goal, it is 100% essential that you (1) mail your fundraising letters by the time your chapter asks you to do it, and (2) update your web page with your personal message and story, and get that link out to everyone you know. 

Now, after you've done the basics, here is a creative idea that our team used this summer.  We started with the basic idea of holding a yard sale or hosting a booth a local flea market.  We contacted a flea market and asked whether they would donate a space for us to fundraise for charity.  This flea market has a "charity row" of spaces allocated for non-profits, so we were able to obtain the flea market space at no cost.  The great thing about this arrangement was that the flea market management took care of all the advertising for the market, so we did not have to take out any ads to promote our sale. The flea market promoted TNT by name in print and radio ads for the market.  After we reserved the space and the dates, our whole training group solicited items from their friends, families, business associates, etc.  We also collected homemade baked goods.  The first week we did the sale yard-sale-style, selling used items & baked goods that had been donated to us.  We also sold bottled water.  With the increased traffic at the flea market in comparison to an at-home yard sale, we had a better-than-average weekend profit.  Since it was also recruitment time for the next season of TNT, we made sure that all of our flea market customers received a flyer with info about TNT and the next recruitment meetings. 

So far, this is just the basic yard sale idea.  However, while we were out on this blitz of soliciting donations, one of our team members was in contact with a local business owner who had gone out of business.  He wanted to help us, he said, but his business had just failed.  He happened to have mounds of store inventory sitting in his garage and he didn't know what to do with it.  Our teammate made a creative suggestion, and the business owner agreed-- He donated some of his new merchandise for us to sell for TNT.  He was able to write off some of the value of that merchandise as a charitable donation, and we had a unique supply of new merchandise that we sold at the next week's flea market.  This new merchandise sold for higher prices than the used items donated for the previous week's sale.  As we got the word out, other local business people joined in.  One person who had closed down an online baby products business had a garage full of unsold baby items from that business-- clothing, baby blankets, infant toys, and gift items.  An owner of a local spa supply business realized that she had some spa products that were not moving and she could write them off this way.  Not all of the businesses we contacted were able to donate large amounts-- but most businesses we asked were able to donate one or two items.  In this sense, it was like asking businesses for donations like we would for a raffle-- but it was better for the businesses because they could donate smaller items.  After two weeks, people who were coming to the booth told us that their friends had told them about our booth.  We had new items every week and even we didn't know what we'd be selling the next week.  We closed the flea market booth after 4 weeks. The week after we closed our booth, we had people contacting the local TNT office looking for us to ask whether we had any more of the merchandise for sale.

This idea was great for the current economy because it did a lot of things for a lot of people.  It not only helped our participants raise funds for TNT, but it helped TNT's visibility in our community and helped recruit more participants for the next season.  It helped local businesses get publicity for supporting a charitable cause.  It helped businesses that were having a hard time move some merchandise, and they were able to write off the value of this merchandise.  Our customers got good deals, since they were buying new merchandise at flea market prices.  And when our customers asked whether we had a particular items they were looking for (or a different size or color), we could send them back to the local business for a larger selection. 

The downside was that it was a LOT of work-- our teammates had to solicit donations, bring them to the sale, and work the sale.  At the end of each day we had to pack up all of the merchandise and store it for the next week.  The participants on our team divided the profits by the number of hours they worked.  Because of the way the money was divided I've not got the exact dollar amount raised, but it was over $2,000 total profit.

The economy is tough.  But together we are smart enough, creative enough, and work hard enough to raise this money.  We can do this.  Go Team! 

We'd love to know your creative fundraising ideas for a tough economy... share them in the comments below.