Fundraising

Fundraising is a topic that's comes up early and often. It's going to need to be done. There are a lot of options for raising money as a non-profit organization - but also a lot of restrictions.

There's a limit to how much money that our chapter can have in the bank and still keep our nonprofit (tax exempt) status. We also have to be careful about 'selling' product.

For example, if we 'sell' a subscription to a monthly newsletter and then fail to deliver said newsletter one month, we may be obligated to supply a refund. Whereas if the newsletter subscription is included 'free' with membership, then there is no liability if we decide to take a break from publishing in July and August.

That same rule governs our submittal guidelines for advertisements. It's a case-by-case situation in which the advertiser might compensate us for the advertisement by 'donating' the postage for that month's issue or some similar contribution.

As we enter into the fundraising stage of this project, there are sure to be raffles and drawings and all manner of solicitations. It's a great time to get creative about what we, as an organization, can offer people for free-with-donation.

It's also a great time to consider the possiblity of widening our fundraising market to include non-members. It's easy to forget sometimes, but we are locksmiths and we have valuable skills that most people do not posess. Could we get a booth at a neighborhood home show and raffle off a few full-house re-keys with security assessment?

We could offer free advice, maybe split the raffle funds with the local neighborhood association in exchage for taking up the space and - in a strange twist of fate - market ourselves in the process!


Comment below or email mnaloa@gmail.com.