We Want Your Stories of Great Fundraisers!

We are looking for stories from committees about successful fund raising events and anti-mining solidarity events. We will feature these stories in our next e-bulletin and in a packet for organizing around the anti-mining fight. We want to share stories of creative, successful events and activities that will inspire others in the Sister Cities network. Please include in your description not only who is involved and the results, i.e. how much has been raised or who has been educated by the event, but also some instructions so other committees can follow in your footsteps.

Here are a few great examples of successful events that have already been sent in:

For the second year, the Philadelphia Committee held a Sunday afternoon 3 hour bowling party. We rent the entire 8 lane alley and are able to bring in our own food and drink. Participants make a donation and in return get unlimited bowling, shoe rental, and food and drink as part of the package. Last year, we raised over $3,000 at our bowling party toward our building delegation to our sister city of Las Anonas. This year, we raised more than $2,800 for scholarships and our sistering partnership in the San Vicente region. Plus, we had a lot of fun.  –Frank Hollick, Philadelphia Committee

Bangor‘s sister city committee took a page out of our of Madison committee playbook from a couple of years ago and initiated a “solidarity gold and silver campaign” in our area.   The idea is to ask folks with precious metal items — old school rings, ear-rings, gifts from their “ex”,  silver platters,  etc — with which for a good cause they’d be willing to part —  to consider donating those items to support the struggle against gold mining in El Salvador.  In the process we have the opportunity to educate about the struggle.  We also get to appeal to people’s sense of poetic justice, knowing that their precious metal donations can go to support resistance to the havoc a mining company is wreaking on a vulnerable population. Half the funds raised go to the Roundtable Against Mining (the Mesa),and half to National U.S.-El Salvador Sister Cities which has been instrumental in helping coordinate international efforts to support the Mesa’s work.

Outreach has been through a one page flyer which we talk about and hand out at events, use with word-of-mouth efforts, and have disseminated electronically, as well. We plan to get more exposure through community radio and a newspaper article,  since the idea is relatively bite size and easy to pitch to a wider audience.

What’s great about this fundraising technique is  that despite not being at all full tilt  to push this campaign, and only having received donations from twelve people thus far, we have nevertheless acquired about $4,000 worth of material.  One of these was a large collection of silverware, which serves as a reminder that while all that glitters may not gold, it still make a for a very valuable donation.

For information about how to convert precious metal donations to cash or to get a copy of our flyer so you can make your own, give us a call or email at jesakade@gwi.net (207 945 5827). Bangor is thankful to Madison for the original idea and happy to help pass it forward.

–Dennis Chinoy, Bangor Committee

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