Slowbatics

OUR LOCAL RC CLUB, HAMPSHIRE COUNTY RC, IS ENTERING INTO A CONTRACT TO PURCHASE LAND ABUTTING OUR FLYING FIELD.
I AM LOOKING FOR ANY FUND-RAISING IDEAS THAT YOU MAY HAVE. HAS YOUR CLUB EVER TRIED TO RAISE MONEY?
THANKS FOR YOUR INPUT

BingoFlyer

A Sailing club I belonged to borrowed from it's members. They had bonds in $1,000 increments payable at the going interest rate but the interest earned went toward the members annual dues. If he/she lent enough they had no dues. The club paid off the highest amounts first. We had a little over 100 members and raised $150,000 and had it all paye back in 5 years. We did have a dues increase until the loan was paid.

This may work for your flying club.

MinnFlyer

My Feedback: (4)

Have a fun fly day. Invite the public. Then, get a dura plane (or something like it) and charge people 50 cents a shot to shoot at it with paintballs. Everyone wants to try it! And you really need to pop off at least 5 or 6 rounds per fly-by.

Crashem

Two Suggestions

1. A lot of groups by us have a chicken BBQ (Brooks) this seems to work pretty well and I have heard of several thousand being raised in one evening.

2. Have a public Fun Fly and serve refreshments i.e (Soda, Coffee, Hot dogs, etc.) Also the private school I went to used to raffle off 10,000 every fall to offset tution costs. I remember one year the total from the raffle was 35,000 minus 13,500 for prizes 10,000 1st 2,500 2nd 1000 3rd net 21,500. We used to sell them at church's supermarkets anywhere the was a high volume of people

Gdolboy3

Getting the puublic involved would probably be your biggest help, not only in the short run, but the long run. Post some fliers around town, have members put out some fliers in their neighborhoods and have some kind of weekend event. What happens in the short run is the money you generate in the weekend. Now out of all the people that come to the Event, you may aquire some new members to the hobby and the club. More members means more dues coming. Might be kinda reaching there, but it's possible. Now my club field generates a little bit of money everynow and then with Fuel. What I mean is, the club fund will buy fuel in Bulk. And sell to the members pretty cheap and still make a profit. For example after the cost of 2 barrells and the shipping that goes along with it the club needed to sell it at $8 a gallon. Now we paid $10 per gallon, so the club made 2 bux a gallon. Two 54 gallon drums equals a $208 profit. Not alot but it keeps the grass cut for a few months, handles the nickel and dime expenses. Gotta get creative

glowplug

My Feedback: (1)

If your club does any type of shopping mall static displays check with the management to see if you can raffle off a complete trainer package. You could probably get one at cost or very close to it from a LHS and selling a couple thousand tickets in a busy shopping mall over a weekend wouldn't be that difficult.

mscic-RCU

My Feedback: (6)

Our club has a "hangar" sale. Everybody in the club donates their garage sale type items. Usually have a good turnout and make pretty good money.

Geistware

My Feedback: (16)

An air show where the public can purchase souvenirs is the best bet. Many of the above ideas work. To get the club into the public eye, you can also have a fund raiser where all fees are donated to charity and any items sold is for the club. You can also have club members participate in the local PBS TV station and you can talk about your events and show video of previous events and even student training.

Woodpile

BC,

I don't belong to a flying club, but this has working extremely well for an organization I do belong to...

It takes 100 people ( or fewer if people buy multiple tickets). What you do is print out 100 tickets and number them 01 through 00 with 00 representing 100. Sell you tickets for what ever you wish. What we do is run this drawing for 10 weeks and it is based on the Pick-3 Lottery drawing here in New Jersey. If the last two digits from the number on the drawing matches your number on your ticket, you win. The prize money is one half of the proceeds, divided by 10 for each drawing.

Sounds a little complicated in writing, but it is real simple. You have 100 tickets out, so there will be a winner each week. We sell our tickets at US $100 each so $1000 in proceeds. One half of that is $500 so each winner receives $50. All it takes is people to sell tickets and someone to administer the pool. You can raise the price of the ticket, and therefore the total take and prize money to fit your needs, but doing it with the numbers I posted, you have an easy $500 in your pocket.


Hope this helps...

Ed