I live in Michigan and you may have heard that we’re going through some bumpy times around here. With the massive layoffs in the auto industry, we have unemployment rates in this state that are unheard of and the ripple effect is being felt everywhere. I work in the fundraising industry and just try finding donations in an economic climate like this one. My company was approached by the Board of a hospital that needed to raise funds for equipment upgrades. The amount of money they were looking at for this campaign would have been considered substantial a few years ago, but today the prospect of raising $50 million is daunting. I was assigned to a team of six staff who were in charge of planning the fundraising. The first thing we did was to plan out a mass mailing campaign, directed at every home in the greater Detroit metropolitan area. We knew that this was going to be somewhat of a long shot, especially after seeing the blocks of foreclosed homes that fill many neighborhoods. But one thing you learn in fundraising, especially when the money is going toward a project that benefits the community at large, is to cast a wide net. As the senior staff member on the team, I took on what has increasingly become one of the key components of any major fundraising initiative -the golf tournaments. Like them or not, golf tournaments attract the participation of corporations, and its corporate dollars that make or break a campaign of this magnitude. We pulled out all the stops and booked two tournaments at a very prestigious club, one in the early summer and one for the fall. I used all of my contacts to line up a list of local pro sports players to help draw attention to the events and I ordered hundreds of custom printed golf shirts to give away as promotional items, as well as high quality printed Tee-shirts for our volunteers. The shirts were particularly well received, and since we were able to order them online and supply our own graphic (which was embroidered, not just silk screened), demand for these was high. That’s an acceptable expense, considering the additional exposure our fundraising venture receives every time someone wears one of those shirts somewhere. To date, we’re half way to our goal. The spring golf tournament was a success, especially given the fact that many of the companies we used to count on for attendance don’t even exist any more. The fall version is set to go and we hope that helps put us over the top.
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