Community Fundraising: How to Host a Fundraising Event:

For Businesses

Payroll Deduction Appeal

Greg, Hunter Davisson, Portland, OR

Each year, Hunter Davisson employees attend a breakfast meeting where different non-profits, such as Mercy Corps, talk about their programming and ways that employees can help meet immediate needs. Hunter Davisson offers to match any donations that employees make to the non-profit of their choice, which is a great incentive to spark philanthropic participation among the staff. Employees can choose to make a one-time gift or give through a payroll deduction. After last year’s event, 83% of employees made a charitable gift.

Company Party

Mercantile Commercial Capital, Altamonte Springs, FL

In 2007, Mercantile Commercial Capital held its fourth annual Mardi Gras celebration, which also serves as a fundraising event to help those recovering in New Orleans from Hurricane Katrina. Instead of charging a ticket price, party revelers were asked to give a suggested minimum donation of $20. Donations by credit card were accepted in advance of the event, while checks and cash were accepted at the door the night of the event. The event raised over $3,200. To continue to inspire charitable giving to Mercy Corps’ efforts to rebuild the Gulf Coast Region, Mercantile Commercial Capital committed to seek support from business peers at corporate networking events during the months following the Mardi Gras celebration.

Annual Golf Tournament

Caruso Produce, Tualatin, OR

On the first Tuesday of each August for the past 10 years, Caruso Produce has held a golf tournament that benefits Mercy Corps. Planning begins in May with at least one staff member devoting 2-3 hours daily each week to organizing the event. Caruso Produce invites customers and vendors to attend the golf tournament, which is followed by an awards ceremony and dinner. They raise funds for Mercy Corps by asking vendors to sponsor holes throughout the golf course. Vendors can sponsor at different levels - $500 or $1,000 or $2,500 - and are asked to send in their donation with their RSVP. In-kind donations of hats, golf balls and bags are secured for participants. At the dinner, the host gives a speech on what the charitable golf tournament is sponsoring and a Mercy Corps representative addresses the attendees. Last year’s tournament raised $10,000.

Be the Change: Dine for Mercy Corps

Young’s Columbia Wine Company, Portland, OR

On April 7, 2009, 46 bars, restaurants and coffee shops in both Oregon and Washington donated 25% of their sales to Mercy Cops. The goal of the event was to create awareness and support of Mercy Corps’ programs to alleviate suffering, poverty and oppression by helping people build secure, productive and just communities. Proceeds also supported Mercy Corps Northwest, which helps low-income individuals in Oregon and Washington to improve their lives through small business and self-employment.

Organized by the Portland-based company Young’s Columbia Wine Company, the fourth largest wine and spirits distributor in the United States, Be the Change: Dine for Mercy Corps is uniquely designed to promote and assist local restaurants while also making a difference for Mercy Corps. Young’s Columbia Marketing Specialist Jennifer Yilmaz, who coordinate the event, says, ”Be the Change is a win-win event for everyone involved. Restaurants receive an increase in traffic and at the same time they have the opportunity to help an amazing organization. Diners get to eat out and at no extra cost to them make a difference in the world. As a distributor, we get to facilitate awareness throughout the community not only for Mercy Corps but for our accounts as well. At the end of the day everybody feels good for doing good.”

Three months before the April event, Young’s Columbia contacted potential participating restaurants based on a list of accounts that the company holds. Jennifer also partnered with Mercy Corps Community Relations Officer Minda Seibert to identify which restaurants, bars and coffee shops had generously donated proceeds of an evening’s revenue to Mercy Corps before.

To market the event, Jennifer says that Young’s Columbia utilized every channel of communication possible from word of mouth to placing magazine ads. The starting point for the promotional campaign was creating a website: www.dineformercycorps.org. Subsequent print, Internet (including Facebook) and radio ads all pointed to the website, which updated daily the list of participating establishments.

The total marketing costs? $15 to cover the cost of the web host! To keep costs low, Young’s Columbia partnered with media sponsors throughout Portland, Bend, Eugene and Medford. In exchange for ad placements, Jennifer offered to place the sponsors’ logos on all of the printed materials and website. Young’s Columbia also listed the event on numerous online event calendars (a free option). Additionally, they partnered with a “wonderful” PR professional who worked pro-bono to create two press releases.

Once venues agreed to participate, their physical and web addresses were added to the www.dineformercycorps.org website. Each participating establishment received (2) 11”x17” posters, 25-50 table tents to promote the event weeks in advance. Each restaurant signed a Participation Agreement and was given an envelope in which to bundle all cash proceeds of the evening. While contributions are still being tallied, the total donation for the evening’s event is over $15,000.

Portland-based Cafe Nell proprietor Van Creely shares why he and his co- proprietor Darren Creely chose to participate in this year’s event: “The desires to nurture, to serve, and to be part of a community, are at the heart of building and operating a neighborhood restaurant like Cafe Nell. Mercy Corps provides an opportunity to nurture and serve a larger "neighborhood" community. "Be the change" is also a very poignant phrase. Darren and I chose to relocate our lives from New York City to Portland, because we fell in love with Portland, and wanted to build a life and a business in a community. Everyone should have the opportunity to create changes in their lives for the better; however, many face obstacles that are too great to overcome alone. Mercy Corps provides those persons a helping hand to create their own change.”

Jennifer offers the following advice to other organizers interested in holding a similar even in their city: “The best advice I can give anyone is to allow yourself enough time to plan the event. Timing is definitely everything. Suffice it to say, I’m already planning for 2010.”