HR as Fundraiser Central

Dianna · August 2002

OK, I have a different topic for everyone.

How many of you find yourselves (HR) as Fundraiser Central for your company? I am co-chairing our fundraising drive for our favorite charity this year, and I need some fundraising ideas.

Any thoughts?

Happy Friday!

jules2001 · August 2002

We work with the charity and they often have great ideas. Creating a competition setting always seems to motivate the employees...Which group can bring the most cans, food, donate the most time, etc.

Margaret Morford · August 2002

Why don't you suggest that it be a rotated assignment from business area to business area from year to year in order to insure a fresh campaign each year and keep the dollars raised up. One year HR does it, one year Sales does it, one year Finance does it, one year Operations does it and one year IT does it. The Chair and the Co-Chair come from that business area and head up the campaign. That way the burden gets spread around and your turn only comes up about every six to seven years.

Margaret Morford
theHRedge
615-371-8200
[email]mmorford@mleesmith.com[/email]
[url]http://www.thehredge.net[/url]

Nat · August 2002

For our United Way kick-off one year I had a carnival. This is a great outdoors event, however it can be done inside - we did. This included throwing darts at balloons ($1.00 = 3 darts), ring toss (3 rings for $1.00) guess how many pennies in the jar (each guess cost $1.00), cake walk (employees made the cakes and donated them, then they pay $1.00 to walk), putting green ($1.00 for three putts), hot dog stand. Dunking booths are a hit also (but be careful that your not the dunkee) You will need small prizes for employees when they bust the balloon or get a hole in one. We asked vendors to donate prizes that we could give away. We got employees, including myself, to dress up like clowns. It was a great event. You can charge whatever you like for the games. This is actually the part of HR I enjoy the most. Not only do events like these do the fundraising you need, it allows employees to socialize and get to know people other than just those in their department.

Nat

HS · August 2002

Each year our company worked with the local Salvation Army for 2 different charity events. One was a "Thanksgiving Food Drive" where employees donated non-perishable items to benefit local families so they would have a "traditional" Thanksgiving dinner. The other was a "Toys for Tots" kind of drive. The Salvation Army has "Angel" cards (boys and girls) that lists the sizes, age and a "wish list" of items for the local needy family's children to have gifts around the Holidays. As each of the gifts were brought to HR and logged in, we would place them around our Holiday tree for all the employees to see what was being donated. Everyone loved this one and we would get terrific responses from our employees!

Hope this helps.

HRPolice · August 2002

Depending on the size of your company, and whether all your employees are in the same building, I have a fun idea for you.

We organized the fundraiser where departments compete against each other by the amount of money raised, how much money over their department goal they raised, etc. Each dept. fund raises in different ways to win!

Some departments sold plate lunches (hot dogs, chips, potato salad and drink for $5 a plate), some sold carnations with a tag attached that the purchaser can write a personal note to a co-worker on, or a thanks for helping out, etc. The dept. selling them delivered them on a specific day throughout the building. Sometimes, you can get companies to donate hot dogs, buns etc. as a tax write off to the charity you're fundraising for...or get it at a discount price.

This way, everyone gets something (lunch, carnations, desserts etc.) and it makes raising money more fun. However, this usually works best in large companies. I tried it with a smaller company and you just can't get as much money raised this way. Good luck!!!

marcial · August 2002

Last year for our United Way drive we did several things during our week-long event. We had a bake sale with several people bringing in their specialties and we sold them piece by piece during the lunch hour. We also had a chili and soup competition. Management brings in their family favorite and the employees can buy a cup of soup or chili and then vote for their favorite. We also have a cook-out at the start of our UW drive to kick it off. Because our UW drive was the week after 9-11, we also sold t-shirts with our company logo and the American flag on it. We also give away prizes to teams that have 100% participation and to those employees that give $50 or more through a payroll deduction We had great success with getting a lot of people involved and raised a significant amount of money for the United Way!

Don Sorey · August 2002

have a "fun day raising"
get others involved and do it in one day

HR as Fundraiser Central

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