What works best for club fundraising in your experience!

[River's Edge]

I thought it might be interesting to hear some suggestions from the community on this topic! Most clubs tend to keep the membership fee low to attract new members and families. Club costs tend to rise! So what has worked best for your clubs?
The perennial favourite in our neck of the woods is the Auction of donated bonsai related items, and the proceeds from a share of the trees sold at auction!

 

[Canada Bonsai]

Great topic @River's Edge !!

I’m in the process of putting together the framework and curriculum for the future Nova Scotia Bonsai Society

Very interesting topic!

 

[River's Edge]

Great topic @River's Edge !!

I’m in the process of putting together the framework and curriculum for the future Nova Scotia Bonsai Society

Very interesting topic!

Contact the Portland Club, they have an excellent curriculum for Introductory Bonsai. I know several clubs that have spoken highly of the material and found it easy to work with.

 

[Bonsai Nut]

Everyone loves an auction, because the people donating feel like they are supporting a good cause, and the people providing the money feel like they got value for the donation!

One thing I will add... don't just limit the auction items to being from club members. An amazing number of retailers / manufacturers will support local clubs if they feel they can get positive PR from it. You can also auction off services! Free styling or free one-on-one critique from a pro during an event or exhibition.

 

[Adair M]

Everyone loves an auction, because the people donating feel like they are supporting a good cause, and the people providing the money feel like they got value for the donation!

One thing I will add... don't just limit the auction items to being from club members. An amazing number of retailers / manufacturers will support local clubs if they feel they can get positive PR from it. You can also auction off services! Free styling or free one-on-one critique from a pro during an event or exhibition.

indeed! I donate a day of my to go to their house and wire, repot, critique, or whatever they want for a day. I basically give someone a full day private lesson.

 

[hemmy]

Raffles with donated items are always fun, especially for newer members. Although, there is always the risk that ticket sales are lower in value than what could have been made on the same item in auction. But if the item or tree stays with a club member then everyone should be happy.

Having a sales area open to the public during club shows with a % going to the club also seems like a good way to generate revenue and let members lighten their “tree load” by selling lower level material.

 

[River's Edge]

Raffles with donated items are always fun, especially for newer members. Although, there is always the risk that ticket sales are lower in value than what could have been made on the same item in auction. But if the item or tree stays with a club member then everyone should be happy.

Having a sales area open to the public during club shows with a % going to the club also seems like a good way to generate revenue and let members lighten their “tree load” by selling lower level material.

I feel you have identified a couple of issues that need to be considered carefully!
1. Raffles seem to work better when higher attendance is a norm. Larger clubs, conventions for example.
2. The tendency to sell lower level material makes it difficult to foster a club attitude of working to improve the level of material. Also it could keep club expectations low and revenue low!
Perhaps it is all about keeping a balance?

 

[hemmy]

I feel you have identified a couple of issues that need to be considered carefully!
1. Raffles seem to work better when higher attendance is a norm. Larger clubs, conventions for example.
2. The tendency to sell lower level material makes it difficult to foster a club attitude of working to improve the level of material. Also it could keep club expectations low and revenue low!
Perhaps it is all about keeping a balance?

True and true! Good point on lower quality material and club improvement. But I think sales of younger liner material can also generate club revenue (and then sell those other flawed, crappy trees to the general public!)

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

Call me old fashioned, but the non profit organisations around here get a solid influx of money through (local) newspaper articles.
Write something about your club and its history and simply ask for donations at the end of the article.
Most local newspapers around here are always looking for extraordinary stuff to write about. I think they'll see bonsai as extraordinary.

Or try your best to go international, especially in the direction of Europe. The EU is granting some art institutions, that do literally nothing except owning a website, a whole bunch of free money. As long as the paperwork checks out and you use a lot of management flufftalk, you might be able to get 40K donated from the European Union to 'benefit European-American visual art relations and increase the exchange of information and ideas' or something like that.
The system is bullshit, but it's perfectly legal.

 

[Shibui]

Club sales tables are not limited to lower quality material. members sell whatever they don't need. Sometimes it is lower quality but there's always someone new that wants something cheap to learn with. There's often good stuff for sale that the member either can't manage any more or did not recognize the potential of a change of angle or layer.
Some of the clubs here also accept commercial vendors at shows. They pay a fee for site and sell whatever they feel they an make money on. No commitment from members to staff or manage so that's almost free money for the club.

 

[BrianBay9]

I have a bad habit of trying to propagate everything - no cutting goes to waste. Hence I often have too much stuff. I will regularly give my excess to new or inexperienced members of the club, but then I ask them to make a donation to the club in lieu of the club's cut if I put it in an auction.

 

[River's Edge]

(and then sell those other flawed, crappy trees to the general public!)

Maybe we should have practice culling sessions for the crappy stuff. Have a spring cleanup, bonfire for charity! To benefit the society for enhancement and advancement of Bonsai. Issue a gold star of the year award to each participant! But not to digress! On to the fund raising suggestions

 

[sorce]

My one experience with an auction, proved that for whatever reason, not only does it not raise money, but also devalues everything for some reason.

I could have walked with everything at the dinner auction for half of the actual value.

That isn't exactly raising money.

Back in the day, we used to sell booster stickers for doors for baseball. No one does it anymore. But a nice bonsai sticker could go a long way.

There is a bowling alley fund raiser popular now.

Sorce

 

[River's Edge]

bowling alley

half of the actual value

It is encouraging to think that somewhere bowling alley's may still exist! Blast from my parents past!

" half the actual value" so true, but only on a good day with " spirited " participants. Profits from the spirits? Maybe if the liquor is donated to the club, then sold , the profits could be the actual revenue stream.
So the key is to get the right sponsors to donate free product!

 

[Gene Deci]

It is not something that can be duplicated but a few years ago we had a club member who loved to collect. He planned trips and scouted out places to go all the time. He was as avid as the deer hunters around here and he was good at it. The thing is, he didn't like working on trees, so he would donate his haul to the club. Even the experienced members couldn't wait to see what he would bring in. It made lots of money for the club and nobody went home disappointed. Unfortunately he moved out of the area.

 

[Ohmy222]

Pretty women always works!

 

[River's Edge]

It is not something that can be duplicated but a few years ago we had a club member who loved to collect. He planned trips and scouted out places to go all the time. He was as avid as the deer hunters around here and he was good at it. The thing is, he didn't like working on trees, so he would donate his haul to the club. Even the experienced members couldn't wait to see what he would bring in. It made lots of money for the club and nobody went home disappointed. Unfortunately he moved out of the area.

Wow , that would work for sure, as you note hard to duplicate that one! Amazing generosity given the cost and time associated with collecting!

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Check out your local county fair. The Milwaukee Bonsai Society gets a thousand or so every year from the Milwaukee County State Fair. If your county has a state fair, sometimes they pay organizations to participate. In Milwaukee County, the State Fair runs 3 weeks. We put up 3 bonsai displays, set up on Thursday evening, tear down on Sunday night or Monday morning. We do 3 weekend shows during the 3 weeks the State Fair runs at the county fairgrounds. The State Fair pays us to have the 25 to 35 tree display and have people on hand to answer questions. Each day someone has to give an hour long "Intro to Bonsai" demonstration, and that is usually to an audience of 20 to 50 people. This all happens in the "Arts and Crafts Pavilion". This is nice income, to have a show and actually be paid to stage it. Check with your local county fair exposition organization. We have been doing it in Milwaukee for over 40 years. This State Fair show is separate from our Annual Exhibit. 2020 should have been the 50th Anniversary Exhibit for Milwaukee Bonsai Soc. but Covid19 has screwed this up.

We do raffles and auctions at our monthly meetings. Also auction and raffles at our annual exhibit. We are not allow to do raffles or auctions at the State Fair. Vendors pay a modest table fee, not a percentage of sales, at Annual Exhibit the table fees are higher, at monthly meetings table fees are lower, and only a limited number of tables are allowed per meeting.

 

[River's Edge]

Thanks Leo, that must be a great help to the club!
Covid 19 has screwed up a lot of things this year worldwide. Hope things improve quickly on your side of the fence.

 

[erich_raudebaugh]

I'm a member of the Bonsai Society of Portland, and we do raffles plus two types of auctions. It's a big club so it works well. One type of auction uses donated trees of higher quality and is a live auction with spirited bidding. Also, anyone in the club can sell anything bonsai related at the silent auction, and the neat thing is that you can choose what percentage of the proceeds goes to the club. People sell stuff they don't want of course, but it's often pretty nice, especially the pots. Unfortunately there's so many people in the club that everyone knows the value of even rare pots...
There are enough people in the club to support raffles with free tickets you get when you go in the door, and you can pick which lot (often several trees and pots!) you want to try for.