If you are someone that loves books, chances are you have been to a used book sale. They are popular with the community, with some of the larger ones drawing people from fifty miles away – or from other states!

A used book sale can be a terrific fundraiser for a library, and an excellent way to recycle books that would otherwise be discarded at the library.

Facts About Library Used Book Sales

Tom Oram, Co-Owner of BookSaleFinder.com lists approximately 50,000 sales at their website each year. “We have probably 5,000 different used book sales from around the country from libraries, that’s from 3,000 libraries. That’s a ballpark figure, most used book sales are from libraries. 75% are from libraries.

Oram thinks many things make a library used book sale so popular as both a fundraiser, and a community event. “It’s a great opportunity for them (the community) to two things one is for the community to donate books to the friends of libraries and also for the people of the community to buy books at really great prices. That’s where the popularity lies. As a fund-raiser, everybody benefits: the people who donate, the people who buy and the people who hold the fund-raiser,” said Oram

The Success of an Ongoing Library Used Book Sale

The Greenwich Library in Greenwich, CT has an ongoing library used book sale at their Café. Called The Book Brigade, the book sale features hardcover books for fifty cents and paperback books for twenty five cents. Funds raised goes towards the Friends of Greenwich Library to present special programs such as films or concerts to the public.

Marsha Fosnot is a Friend of the Greenwich Library and is in charge of the The Book Brigade. “The café manager takes the money from the sale and collects it for us. We give him ten percent of what we make to ‘spur him on’ to collect for us. The sale makes approximately $2,000 a year,” said Fosnot. What is in the sale truly depends on what is in the shelves at the library. “The library is constantly weeding to make room for new acquisitions. We have children’s books, travel books, cookbooks and fiction books. When a new bestseller comes out, the library will buy 20 copies and then they will wind up discarding about 16 into the sale. So it depends on what the library is weeding out,” said Fosnot. Some of the books are damaged and are taken to a recycling place.

“Greenwich Library is sort of unusual, they are a rich library and there are always books available. We constantly get calls from people in the community who want to give us books and we say no because we have too many. The town dump is a place where people can take their books and people can take ten books for free,” said Fosnot.

Fosnot suggests if a library would like to create an ongoing used book sale, they need to have shelves available for the sale. “Someone has to collect the money or an honor system of putting money in a box. It (the sale) really would be library dependent if you could do a library book sale. It is so library specific, depending on the library situation. It is small money per book, dependent on volume and having a large amount of books,” said Fosnot.

Large Used Book Sales Equal Large Numbers

Two libraries that hold periodic sales are the University of Wisconsin-Madison Library sale which is held twice a year, and the Plano Texas Public Library sale which is held once a year.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison Library has a sale once in October and once in March. “The October book sale is held at the same time as a book festival held in Madison that brings a lot of authors to speak and read from their books,” said Tom Garver. Garver is a Liaison with the Friends of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Library Book Sale.  The sale in March of 2007 raised $25,178 to benefit the library.  Around 15,000 books are sold at each sale, 30,000 each year. The sale is primarily books but they also sell a small number of LPs and CDs as well.

The Friends of Plano Public Library holds their sale each year at the Plano Centre convention center.  The 26th Annual Book Sale held July 30 – August 1, 2009 raised over $44,000.  An additional $43,000 was raised in year-long Friends Lobby Sales held at each of the five Plano libraries. “Since 2000, our Friends Book Sales have raised over $440,000,” said Sandy Gillman, Library Staff Liaison to Friends of the Plano Public Library and the Davis Library Manager.

Funds raised from the sales benefit the five libraries in the Plano Public Library System. “This year Friends will make a $100,000 donation to assist in changing English as a second language video and tapes to CD and DVD, as well as children’s books on tape to CD. Additionally, the Friends fund our yearly family programming events, summer reading, and stipends for librarians to attend conferences,” said Gillman.

High Quality Books Make a Big Difference

“One thing that’s appreciated by our customers is the high quality of our books, some are discards from the University, and some are from professors who are cleaning their shelves or who may have died. We have acquired books from this source; it is a very high class, high quality sale. It is very interesting that the man who runs the sale that the man who runs the sale worked for years in the conservation department off the library,” said Garver.

The quality of the books is critical. “There is no question about it. I make an effort to be sure we have a high quality in our inventory, to get rid of the junky stuff,” said Garver. “I would say that I discard 40% of the stuff we get right away, from the box it comes in right into the recycling. The advantage is that we get more books than we need. So we can be pretty choosy,” said Garver.

Their book sale is a combination of discards from the library system and many donations. They have their donation system very well-organized. “The way it works is people contact us and say they have books to donate. If they are able to, they leave them at the loading dock. We have a large cage adjacent to the mail room they put them in there. The books are all sorted by subjects. So the books are well sorted – one of the principal sorters is a retired professor of comparative literature,” said Garver.

A Multi Day Fundraiser Reaches a Wide Audience

Both the University of Wisconsin and Plano Library sales are multi day events. The University of Wisconsin sale is held over four days, and it is popular on each of the four days. Garver recognizes that they have a bit of a different type of book buyer on each of the days. “It opens on a Wednesday evening from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.; you pay five dollars to get in. The prices of the books are twice as high for the books on this day when the selections are largest. This is when we get the most book dealers. These people are not gentile about buying books; they will snatch armloads of books and sort through them. They recognize that paying a premium is still a good deal for them, a premium at our sale is still very inexpensive. We have a lot of dealers who sell only on the internet. Many people just have a base of books that they sell on eBay or Amazon,” said Garver.

They have a wide variety of books at their sale, one of the reasons they are so very popular. “Well we get pretty much things across the board, but pretty much things of an academic nature. Scholarly books show up at our sale. We do get a few romance paperbacks, Danielle Steel is always there and we do get cookbooks as everyone likes to cook. The majority of the books come from the community, outside of the campus. A good number are also library discards,” said Jim Dast, the Book Sale Manager for the Friends of University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries.

At the Plano Library sale the opening night is called the “First Nighter Sale,” and there is an admission of $5 per individual or $10 per family. The second and third day of the sale offer free admission. Hardbacks are $1.50, paperbacks are seventy-five cents and audios, videos and CDs are $1.50. They also have a ‘Collector’s Corner’ with rare books and first editions for sale at their book sales. The sale does not charge sales tax.

Teams of Volunteers Needed for a Successful Sale

The set up for the large book sale takes teamwork and great organizational skills. “Set up on a Monday takes all of Monday to set up in a large room of the library first floor Memorial Library. Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday open the sale to the library bibliographers, they will look over the books that are there and they take away several hundred to run a check and see if they have them for the library,” said Garver.

They have 40 volunteers working on the sale with 2 different types of volunteers. There is a group of 4 to 5 volunteers that work year-round collecting books. Other volunteers work on a regular basis helping sort the books, determining where they will go, guarding the entrance door, taking the money, resorting the books and generally keeping an eye on things.

The Friends of Plano Public Library Book Sale is staffed by many dedicated volunteers, an estimated 400 plus volunteers help out each year.  A special group of about 24 volunteers work throughout the year sorting donated library materials into subject categories in preparation for the Book Sale. They start planning the next year’s book sale “immediately” following the book sale, making reservations for the next sale.

Whether ongoing or once-a-year, a library used book sale can be an excellent opportunity to raise much needed funds for your public or private library!

While looking for a new job in fund-raising, someone suggested that I look into The Foundation Center’s online courses. I am certainly glad that I did. They offer a variety of courses, some for a fee and others that are free.

The Foundation Center is well-known as a leading authority on philanthropy. It was first established in 1956 and there are now Center locations in several large cities across the United States. The headquarters is in New York City and Field Offices are in Atlanta, GA; Cleveland, OH; San Francisco, CA; and Washington, DC. The Foundation Center has an extensive library of information about foundations for organizations and individuals. They also offer on-site classes.

But what can you do if you live in a part of the country that does not have a Foundation Center located near you? For this reason they have also created online courses. The online courses are extensive and offer lots of information on their subject area.

In speaking with Dr. JuWon Choi, Vice President for Educational Services of The Foundation Center, I discovered that they actually offer three different types of online training opportunities.

Free Online Courses

“The first type is what we call “tools and resources” and they are online guides to help grantseekers to make the most of the Foundation Center’s web site and databases. Examples include Guide to the Foundation Center’s Web Site and The Foundation Directory Online Guided Tour. Anybody can access these from our web site free of charge,” said Dr. Choi.

The second type is what is called “Quick Tutorials”. “The “Quick Tutorials” introduce grantseekers to the world of foundations, proposal writing, and related topics. These resemble short e-books and examples include Proposal Writing Short Course (available in 6 languages), Guide to Funding Research, and Establishing a Nonprofit Organization. Again, anybody can access these from our web site free of charge,”said Dr. Choi

Pay As You Go Courses

“The third type is more intensive courses that reinforce lessons with interactivity, assignments, and self-tests. You have taken two of our courses—Grantseeking Basics for Individuals and Grantseeking Basics for Nonprofit Organizations. In addition, we have many others such as Getting Ready for Foundation Fundraising and Proposal Writing. Some of our courses are available free of charge and some are fee-based,” said Dr. Choi

As Dr. Choi mentions, I took the courses Grantseeking Basics for Nonprofit Organizations and also Grantseeking for Basics for Individuals. I enjoyed these classes. I did not have any previous grantwriting experience before. I found them to be very informative, and also extremely approachable. There is great detail in this class, it is not the type of class that someone would probably complete in a single evening. This is more a class that someone can go back to over several evenings.

Grantseeking Basics for Nonprofit Organization Course

The course Grantseeking Basics for Nonprofit Organization, for example, takes you step-by-step through the grantwriting process, explaining to you how it works as if you were going to write a grant. That in some ways was a bit challenging for me because I did not have a specific organization in mind. So I used the idea of writing a grant for an organization I was doing some volunteer work for – so that I had an organization to direct the assignments towards.

I thought the assignments were excellent, there were enough assignments to keep you thinking about the project without overwhelming you with too much work. It was clear that you could also take the assignments to a deeper level, and there were even book recommendations offered so you could further your study beyond the course, which was just great to see, because how many times have we been in a class and a professor has suggested we read an article or look at a specific book? So this was very much like being in a class.

One of the challenges with the course is that you cannot print it out. I would have liked the opportunity to review the lessons at a later date after doing the examples. The Foundation Center does make it clear that you do have access to the course for 180 days, which is certainly a very generous amount of time – and this gives you lots of time to go back and reflect. There is also the ability to take notes inside the course as you are taking it. But once I learned I could not print out my notes I chose to take my notes on a Word document so I could print them out and save them on my own computer.

The design of this course is also very attractive. I know that is not the only reason to consider taking this type of course, but when you are learning online, it is helpful to have something that is going to be “easy on your eyes” and make learning comfortable. This is a very attractive looking course with a variety of graphics offered (pie charts and some other graphics). Different colored text is also used, which makes reading easier. I was also very impressed that The Foundation Center could cover such a dense subject, but make the course’s text very condensed in a number of ways – there is no superfluous writing in this course.

New Courses from The Foundation Center

Dr. Choi confirms that there will be more online courses offered in the future. “Yes, we recently issued our 8th online training course, Getting Ready for Foundation Fundraising which we made available free of charge, and already many people are finding it helpful. We are getting close to introducing a comprehensive course on proposal writing. We have a few other courses in various stages of development at the moment.

Find out more about The Foundation Center Online Training Courses.

You can find additional links for grant databases and other resources on the grants page in the directory.

Many people are familiar with The Entertainment Book. It’s a coupon book that can get you both local and nationwide discounts on your favorite stores and retailers. Many people that use The Entertainment Book save hundreds of dollars each year by using both the coupons within the book and from the online coupons available when you register your card that comes with The Entertainment Book.

There are Entertainment Books for every region of the U.S.A.. Your local Entertainment Book will have coupons and discounts that are unique from your local retailers. It will also have coupons and discounts from national stores and retailers you have come to love.

Entertainment Book as a Fundraiser

This is an ideal fundraiser for many. In this economy, just about every family we know is looking for a way to stretch that family budget just a little farther. If your fundraiser offers a way to help out a local community organization or event — and also save that family money: this is a total win-win deal!

The average book costs about $25 (the price varies by market) but the fundraising groups get to sell the books at $5 off retail price.   The group keeps up to 50% profit on all the books they sell.  Plus fundraising groups have an added advantage in that they are the first to offer the books in their area. There are no upfront costs for organizations that decide to sell Entertainment Books. You simply contact the company and speak with a representative. They will walk you through the entire process step-by-step. The Entertainment Book also gives you complimentary promotional materials to help you with your fundraiser.

A challenge any fundraiser with the Entertainment book might face is that this book is very well promoted: many people that know and love this book might have already bought their copy by the time you decide to do your fundraiser. The Entertainment Book also sends out many e-mails after you buy a book, enticing you to buy books at a discount for the coming year. So it may be harder to sell your books to those customers that have already bought Entertainment Books on their own, as many pre-subscribe to get a nice discount on their book for the coming year.

A great “counter” offer is to suggest to this person that they buy an Entertainment Book as a gift for someone they know. Another great idea is to suggest that they think of buying the Entertainment Book for an area that their family takes a family vacation. This is a super way to save lots of money, and as most books are under $40 — they will easily save so much more than this on their vacation costs. Either of these ideas can help your organization get that Entertainment Book sale firmly in hand!

This book is so helpful to families, as you can save money on many of the things you want and need. Just using my Entertainment Book over the past month, here are some of the things that I have done:

• Gone to my local Dunkin Donuts for buy one, get one free iced coffees.
• Visited the aquarium with buy one, get one free admission.
• Used Subway coupons (many in this book!) to get $1.99 sandwich with the purchase of a drink and also a free sandwich with the purchase of one paid sandwich.
• Taken family to our local amusement park to play miniature golf and for a lake cruise, both with buy one, get one free admission tickets.
• Visited two local museums, the planetarium and a historical landmark home (all admit one, get one free tickets).
• My personal favorite has been a buy one get one free ticket on an ecology vessel that teaches people about the sound. This trip out into the ocean is relaxing and a unique experience.
• Shopped at the Avenue using a 40% off coupon for fall clothes.
• Send two dozen roses from ProFlowers for $19.99 plus shipping charges.

That was just in one month! There are so many more coupons that I haven’t even touched. Things that I can do with my family and coupons to save money at retail stores for the upcoming Christmas season. There are also many travel discounts on hotels, rental cars and even airfare.

It is easy to see how the Entertainment Book would appeal to families. I know that I have saved at least two hundred dollars within the past month, simply using the coupons in the book. My book has more than paid for itself. Many of the stores also offer multiple coupons where you can shop over and over again. The Entertainment Book online website also offers many money saving discounts that are simply phenomenal. I’d do more shopping — but my family won’t let me!

The only challenge in using the Entertainment Book as a consumer is twofold: you need to remember to carry your Entertainment Book card with you and to bring the related coupon. Some merchants want to see the Entertainment Book card and all of them will take the coupon from you. Some people find carrying coupons to be time consuming and frustrating. But if it means the difference between saving money and spending twenty to fifty percent more for your goods and services: it sounds like a very wise thing to carry a coupon!

To make your Entertainment book fundraiser a success: plan it early. Let families know that you will be holding this fundraiser. Try to get a hold of a copy of your local book so people can see the book for your area and get a sense of just how much money they can save. It is exciting once you start flipping through the book and folding down the corners, realizing that you can save money on shopping you are going to be doing already.

Your Entertainment Book fundraiser can be popular in your community. This book offers many great bargains and discounts that any family would appreciate. This is a fundraiser that families will enjoy participating in!

More Information About Entertainment Books

Order a Single Copy – Try out the NEW Entertainment book, filled with discounts on everything

Entertainment Fundraising programs – Get more information about how to raise funds for your group by selling Entertainment books

What is just one penny? Most of us don’t think it is all that much. We may even groan a little when we get pennies in our change. But many fund-raising organizations are turning those little copper coins into a terrific fund-raising project.

The Top Benefit of a Penny Drive: Everyone Has Pennies

One of the benefits to a penny drive is that literally everyone can participate. Everyone has a penny, or at least a handful of pennies. Children have lots of fun with this type of fund-raiser, obtaining pennies for special projects. Setting a penny as your fund-raising goal suddenly feels like one that “everyone” can reach easily, and this makes it fun.

Schools and Organizations Find Success With Penny Drives

One school even got so enthusiastic about their penny drive — that they raised a million of them! Halstead Elementary students enthusiastically collected more than a million pennies to buy playground equipment. The school held their penny drive this spring. The students raised the large number of pennies in just six weeks. The pennies were taken from the school in a trailer bed so the students could see their hard efforts up-close. The fund-raiser was inspired because next year the 5th graders will begin attending school at Halstead Elmentary and thus more playground equipment is needed for the additional children. The playground is anticipated to be completed by the fall.

Interfaith Ministries of Wichita, TX has been running a penny drive since 2003. They have seen a steady increase in the funds they have raised from their penny drive and they are quite pleased with the results.

Executive Director Jean Payne states that they had several reasons to start their penny drive. “We have a program that provides long-term prescription assistance to people in our community. It has always been a challenge to provide the funding for that program. Our board decided that we wanted to do several things that involved public relations: one was to improve our presence and our name recognition in the community, and another was to provide more consistent funding for this program. So we ‘married’ those two ideas and started an annual campaign to raise funds for this program and to publicize Interfaith Ministries.” The prescription program has been handled by the organization since 1986 and the Pennies for Prescription began in 2003.

Before Interfaith Ministries started the Pennies for Prescriptions campaign, the organization missed a whole segment of the population; they were not receiving contributions from the business and corporate community. “So part of our campaign involved soliciting local businesses to support the campaign which was very successful,” said Payne. Interfaith Ministries would send both a volunteer and a staff member with a packet of information about the program.

Payne is grateful for the support from corporate and business supporters. “One component of this campaign is to put collection containers in businesses. A few years before we did this program, a volunteer came up with the slogan ‘pennies for prescriptions’, so when we put collection containers in the community, that became the name of the campaign in the community.”

The Key to a Great Penny Drive is Organized Collection of Pennies

Sandra Sims coordinated a penny drive at her church that lasted for four Sundays. “Each week I would take up the coin collections and count them. Our business administrator did another count before deposits as she always does. After the four weeks we raised about $200 for our mission fund,” said Sims.

Jean Payne of Interfaith Ministries discovered that a challenge of running this program is that if you are counting the change yourself it can be time-intensive for volunteers, and the bank you select. “When we started emptying the containers every month, this volunteer wanted to keep track of how m much money every business collected so he could tell which business were raising money,” said Payne. The volunteer wanted to know if the collection containers should be moved to other businesses that could be more profitable for the organization. “He kept very detailed records and kept each businesses money separate. He also had to find a bank that would count the money separate. At one point we had 250 collection containers and few banks really want to take that type of project on.”

Interfaith Ministries managed their project for the past 4 years with only one volunteer. “At one point he was working fifteen hours a month. He would drive to each of the 250 locations to take the money out of the containers. So this means that he has also ‘donated’ gas and the wear and tear on his car to us,” said Payne.

Raise More Funds with Collection Cans in Many Locations

Sandra Sims states “Since it takes a lot of pennies to add up to a sizable donation, you need collection jars in multiple locations. Even if your drive is just within one company, school, congregation or other organization there needs to be jars in many locations thorough the building(s). So make it as convenient as possible for people to donate. It is also better if the change drive is time sensitive, just 4-6 weeks, for example. That way people will not start to just ignore the canisters. You can also really do a publicity drive during that time to keep people aware of the collection.”

Penny by Penny…They Make a Big Difference

Pennies can help any organization to meet their budget or to pay for a special program. A penny drive is a simple fund-raising project that can be well-organized with a small group of volunteers (depending on your fund-raising goal). Most importantly, finding donor will be easy – as everyone has some of those extra pennies around the house, in their pockets and just about everywhere!

The Canary Foundation has held a popular event during the San José Grand Prix for the past three years. The CXO and Celebrity Go-Kart Challenge event features celebrities and CEOs racing against each other in go-karts.

Only CEOs and top level executives are invited to participate in this special event. It is quite popular and this year the Canary Foundation raised $270,000 from this event alone. In the past three years it has raised a little under $700,000 to date.

A Unique and Different Event: Go-Karts!

Go-kart events can be fun, and different. The Canary Foundation does an entire week of events during the San José Grand Prix week, this year held during July 25th through July 29th. Their events helped the charity to raise 1.3 million this year from these special events alone.

“Canary Foundation’s fundraising plan focuses on major gifts, so part of our strategy is to reach individuals with a net worth capable of making a significant gift. We looked at the activities that they liked to participate in and there were several areas that were identified. One of them was car racing. Our founder, Don Listwin is the owner of the San José Grand Prix,” said McCowan.

Interested In Getting A Celebrity or CEO Involved in Your Event? Consider These Suggestions!

“I want to address something else before I head into this question. This event is one part of our overall fundraising plan. We have many events during race week. Each event is targeted to a different group of individuals. Our vision is to offer an engagement opportunity for everyone in the community by the end of race week. (July 25 – 29 this past year). This particular event looks to engage the CEO community. Understand that this event can be applied to a different demographic. San José happens to have a large CEO community. We chose this as an event for them,” said McCowan.

“So the first thing for us was to engage celebrities. We did that through our connections with Champ Car Racing. Once you have celebrities who have committed to the race, it is easier to get your CEOs. Celebrities for us include national celebrities that are in entertainment or car racing. Once we had secured two to three celebrities then we looked at our business community and made a decision that we only would enroll the top CEOs of companies. Then we identified and approached one or two key executives that we knew if they agreed to race it would be a draw to get everybody else onboard. Then we had a group of executives that were willing to talk it up with the peer executives in their network. The first year of course is the most challenging because you’ve got the highest expenses and you’re starting to build your CEOs. This means its key the first year to make sure the event is well run and the CEOs have a good time. CEOs can be very competitive. After the first year, there was a lot of trash talking between competitors which meant there were more people who wanted to participate the following year. We decided to limit participation to the top three executives of a company, thus the name CXO,” said McCowan.

When Planning A Go-Kart Event: Look At Your Expenses

When asked about expenses, McCowan explains that the first year is the biggest initial investment. “One of the key things if you want to do a go-kart event is to find your local go-kart racing organization and have a conversation with them regarding the venue and the go-karts. The San José Grand Prix creates a race track for the champ cars in downtown San José. We locate our race track within the grounds of their race. If you go to the San José Grand Prix website, you will see the words “We proudly support the Canary Foundation.” The initial investments for most will be safety gear and equipment to put the event on (go-carts, bales of straw or tires for the course, lease of venue for event and insurance). The other potential investment is safety equipment such as helmets and suits – everything to do this properly,” said McCowan.

There is also the concern of security for your celebrities, or high-level professionals. “Besides your food expenses and equipment rentals, the other big expense will probably be security for your celebrities. If you want to make sure your celebrities and CEOs return, make sure they were well taken care of and had no security concerns,” said McCowan.

The Canary Foundation has been fortunate to obtain sponsorship, especially through their strong relationship with the San José Grand Prix. “Because we are part of the events at the San José Grand Prix, we have to coordinate our efforts with them. We don’t want to be going in and asking a company for a sponsorship for our event at the same time the San José Grand Prix is asking for a sponsorship from them or from a competitor. They need to know who we plan to approach and what we are asking for,” said McCowan.

The Most Challenging Aspect of This Event is The Factor That Makes It Most Appealing

Running an event of this type does have its challenges. When asked what McCowan thought was the most challenging aspect of the event, she points to the factor that makes the event so very appealing: the celebrities. “Besides the intricacies of the race, I think it’s working with the celebrities; making sure they have a safe, good time: security, safety and schedule. There is a team that is assigned to security and another team assigned to hospitality in addition to those working on the execution of the race itself. Celebrities have to have their own place to get away from everyone else. We bring a motor coach onto the site for the one or two celebrities to use if they need to get away,” said McCowan.

Benefits of A Strong Sponsor Relationship

Having the San José Grand Prix as a sponsor certainly is a great benefit for this event in many ways. Two factors include audience attendance and publicity for the event.

The number of people are limited in the race area for security and safety reasons. The Canary Foundation does not charge attendance, but they are on the San José Grand Prix race grounds, so people that watch the event have already paid a fee to get into the area. “We make sure we are positioned so that people can watch and see what is going on, but they aren’t where the participants and celebrities are. I’m unsure of how many people gather around to watch our event, probably 200 or more,” said McCowan.

Funds Raised Through Driver Fees and Sponsorships

“The first year we charged $7,500 to participate. Now it is $10,000 per driver in the race. What they get – they get to drive the go-cart, a personalized racing helmet, a photo with a celebrity driver, a catered lunch for them and their guests (up to 4) and a table of ten at the Canary Foundation Cabana gala later that night. It is one day on their calendar and only one day for them to put aside – the go-cart race and then later that night the gala,” said McCowan.

Changes Made Over The Years Make The Event More Successful

The Canary Foundation has made some changes over the years to this event. “These guys are so competitive, and I do mean both the men and the women. We had to make sure they were clear what actions would result in black flagging. You get a black flag if you do something dangerous out on the course. We had to get a little more specific in our rules about what constitutes a black flag because they really want to beat the celebrities, especially the professional race car drivers,” said McCowan.

Interested in Running a Go-Kart Event? Consider These Suggestions!

If your charity or organization would like to do a go-kart event, McCowan has suggestions. “I would say look carefully at the demographics of where you want to hold this event as well as establishing your organizational goals for the event. Then use those as guideposts for designing the event,” said McCowan Logistics are also critical, especially when dealing with high-level people who typically work unusually long hours and won’t take kindly to your wasting their time. “I would say that if you want to do an event like this, that is looking to engage celebrities and CEOs, make sure your communication and execution plan ensure the participants won’t have to spend a lot of time figuring out when, where and what they are supposed to be doing at any given moment. In other words you want to make sure their assistant has every piece of information to get the celebrity or CEO there with what they need. If you’re not working with their assistant, but working with them directly, always copy the assistant or e-mail the assistant with information regarding logistics,” said McCowan.

A go-kart event can be lots of fun, and certainly something that will be very popular with competitive individuals. Having celebrities or high-level executives involved can be a tremendous benefit. Go-karts will appeal to many people and this type of event can be done every year with some organization and some planning. Off to the races!

Deb Baker, a North Lake, WI resident and mystery writer, donated a portion of the sales of her new book “Goodbye Dolly” at the launch party to the Town Hall Library. Baker worked at the library from 2000 – 2005. Her book “Goodbye Dolly” is the second in a series about doll collecting. The first book is called “Dolls to Die For.”

Some of the characters in Baker’s latest novel are inspired by actual people. Baker based a character in her first book on two people and she found that sales increased as a result of this. Jack Frederickson and George Strobel enjoyed being in her mystery novel.

“I think between them they bought 20 books, which gave me the idea to put everybody I know in my books,” she said.

The fundraising event featured a mock trail in which Baker was grilled by a prosecuting attorney, played by her husband Jim. She then finally admitted where some of the inspirations for her characters came from local residents.

Source: Lake Country Reporter

When working on any volunteer project, you certainly couldn’t do it without the dedicated help from your team of volunteers. Whether it is a school, church or organization project, your volunteers are critical to the project’s success. Volunteers handle every aspect of a project or an event. Volunteers have many different skills and talents to help your project. A volunteer skilled in graphic design can make your posters, flyers and invitations. A volunteer with connections to a grocery store might be able to get you a great discount on food and beverage for the event. A “social butterfly” volunteer that knows everyone in town can probably get even more volunteers to sign up.

Thanking volunteers is an important part of any volunteer project. It is best to thank volunteers as they begin a project, while they are working on the project and then give a big thank you at the end of a project. Thanking volunteers is just one step in building relationships with your volunteers. Volunteers that feel appreciated and needed will be more likely to come back to help you with other projects and events. There are a number of ways you can thank your volunteers that are not expensive, they will typically just cost you time and some thoughtfulness.

1. Handwritten Notes

A handwritten note is a wonderful thank you note. Do this even if you don’t think you have terrific penmanship: this is not an exercise in who has the best handwriting, what truly shows is that you took the time to say thank you in a very personal way. E-mail is a great invention but it is simply too casual sometimes, and in this case a handwritten note “trumps” e-mail big time. Don’t know what to say: it is simple, thank the volunteer for what they did and tell them what a big difference it will make to the project overall. Use plain and simple language. This will be much appreciated.

2. Telephone Call

Another great idea is to make a telephone call to thank your volunteers. It is an especially nice touch to have the person in charge of your organization make the call, whether this is the Principal of the school or the Executive Director of your organization. Give the person in charge a list of the people to call and some “crib notes” of what they have accomplished in case this person doesn’t know every single detail that has gone on. Many people are impressed with and appreciate a personal telephone call.

3. “Thank You” at Annual Event

Many organizations have an annual dinner or an annual event of some type, whether to fundraise or to just get together as a community. This is a prime time to say thank you to your dedicated volunteers who have worked on your special project. Have everyone stand up or come on stage. You can have everyone in the room give them a round of applause. It is a nice touch to give people something, like a small plant or a picture frame – it can be an inexpensive gift but something just to say thank you.

4. Hang a Plaque.

Have you re-done the playground at school? Or gotten new musical instruments for the school band? Or perhaps you have worked on some other special project. A nice idea to thank your volunteers is to create a plaque in the room or area of the project that lists the names of the volunteers. You can also have a little “unveiling” ceremony showing the plaque to your volunteers with coffee and cake.

5. Name Something

Another idea is to name something in honor of your volunteers. It can be to name a day in honor of your volunteers or perhaps a special award for other volunteers to be presented with for the future. This can be a very memorable honor for your volunteers to be awarded and they will appreciate your thoughtfulness.

The 12th Annual Used Book Sale for Mississauga Symphony held from Thursday, September 19th to Sunday, September 23rd 2007 in Mississauga, (Ontario, Canada) at the Sheridan Centre. The book sale is quite large, with 54,000 books. The books are divided into 48 categories from history, sci-fi, romance and other genres.

Last year’s book sale had 20,000 books and the symphony was quite pleased to raise $46,000. The book sale also features CDs, DVDs, records, games, puzzles and assorted epherma (postcards and calendars and other printed materials).

Books are sold for very reasonable prices, from fifty cents to $3.00 each. The book sale has thirty dedicated volunteers that work year-round to prepare for the sale, but during the book sale week there are more than 180 volunteers working on the sale. The book sale is the symphony’s largest fundraiser of the year.

Source: The Mississauga News

The Burlington High School Student Council is holding a raffle to support the Great River Hospice in Iowa, with a very unique prize that makes local football fans quite comfortable indeed. Winners have the opportunity to sit in a comfortable sofa during Burlington High School home varsity football games. They will also enjoy free snacks from the concession stand.

Raffles are sold for $2.00 each. Tickets are sold at the gates of the stadium and also in the stands. There is information about Great River Hospice available at a table next to the concession stand.

The student council hopes to raise $2,000 with their fundraiser. Upcoming games on October 5th and October 19th will help them reach this goal.

Source: thehawkeye.com

This grantwriting seminar shares proven techniques to turn grant proposal “ugly ducklings” into “beautiful swans”.  The Get Your Grant With A Proposal Makeover seminar is presented by Cheryl A. Clarke, JD and Susan Fox, CFRE, they are also the authors of the book, Grant Proposal Makeover: Transform Your Request from No to Yes

This seminar will share the 10 most common flaws in proposals according to funders. It will also give proven techniques to correct these flaws and transform your proposals to have the very best chance to secure funding. This seminar offers you the opportunity to learn how to write “stronger” and with more persuasion. You will also learn editing techniques to use for proposals written by others.

This seminar is well-suited for: Staff, Board Members and Volunteers. Anyone who writes grants or reviews grant proposals.

Cheryl A. Clarke, JD is a fundraising consultant, trainer and “recovering lawyer.” She is also the author of Storytelling for Grantseekers: The Guide to Creative Nonprofit Fundraising (Jossey Bass, 2001). Susan Fox, CFRE has worked as an independent fundraising consultant to nonprofit organizations since 1980. She has held the designation of Certified Fund Raising Executive since 1995.

Click here for more info or to order the audio recording. Includes PDF copies of all handouts, power point and MP3 of the audio seminar.