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Many organizations have at least an occasional need to raise funds to support worthwhile causes. What follows are brief descriptions of two fund raisers with which we have been involved. If you would like to discuss how either of these approaches would fit your organization, or your own ideas about a fund raiser, we’d be happy to hear from you. Living Christmas Trees – Good for your organization and good for the earth! ◊ Fund Raisers For Country Clubs◊ Fund Raisers for churches, service clubs and other organizations
A Fund Raiser/Landscape Program for Country Clubs
He explained that theirs was a new, rapidly growing community and areas that a few short years ago had been cow pasture now had streets, homes and schools. He also said the area did not lack for trees and foliage but that their club’s golf course could use some screening and additional trees in the right places to complete the landscaping. Reg’s idea was that his club would purchase at wholesale our Living Christmas Trees, which are six to seven foot shaped Leyland cypresses, then resell them at slightly less than retail to members for use in their homes as Christmas trees. (When the height of the container is added to that of the tree, this is about all that will fit under an eight foot ceiling.) The rest of the notion was that after Christmas the members would donate the trees back to the club for use in the golf course landscape. Further, each tree would be identified so that members playing golf could see how their tree was doing. When I heard the idea I knew it was a good one. This scenario is a win/win in its truest sense. The members win because they can buy a beautiful Christmas tree for less than the going retail rate. The club wins by obtaining landscape material at no cost and the difference between the wholesale price and what it sells them to the members for can even create funds. And everyone gets to enjoy the trees in the landscape from now on. If you’d like to talk about a similar program for your club, call me any evening between 7:00 and 9:00 pm and we’ll discuss it. Back to Top
for Churches, Service Clubs and other organizations
Some years ago we worked with an inner city Boy Scout troop in Houston on a fund raiser based on selling Christmas trees. This troop had a problem. The scouts were avid campers but by the time the Scoutmasters had all the bed rolls, tents, food and cooking utensils in their Suburbans there was hardly any room left for the scouts. They wanted to buy a large, covered trailer that could be used to carry their gear which could also be used as a kitchen when they arrived at their camping destinations. We designed a tree selling model that worked for them very well and resulted in the largest fund raiser they’d ever had. This model is a “low risk, high potential yield” approach to selling Christmas trees and, I believe, Living Christmas Trees fit it very well. For years service clubs and similar organizations have operated retail Christmas tree lots as fund raising activities. These can be profitable, but many who try it once don’t do it again. Trees must be bought and, usually, paid for in cash, and it is often difficult to find a reliable source. Most retail lots must be kept open seven days, and evenings, a week throughout the season to have a chance to succeed. Further, a good retail location has to be leased or borrowed and whatever is needed to attract customers (lights, lot decorations, advertising, etc.) has to be arranged and paid for. If other items like tree stands or Christmas tree lights
are to be sold they have to be purchased – and paid for, also. Then the trees
themselves have to be sorted by size and type and handled repeatedly during the
season to be displayed properly. And what if you don’t sell them all? After Christmas you must find a way to dispose of all the trees you didn't sell and that’s not particularly fun. Finally, if you’ve done this kind of thing before, you know that everyone is excited at the outset but, over the long haul, people lose their enthusiasm or get involved in other activities and begin to drop out and not show up when they’re supposed to, and it then becomes a mini career for those few who’ve said they’d be responsible. On the other hand, our scout troop consisted of fifty boys whose families lived in neighborhoods and whose parents worked in offices and other establishments with other people. Our model was built around “preselling” trees using pictures and the boys and their parents were all involved in the process. The approach was, “Here’s a picture of the Christmas trees our Boy Scout troop is selling this year. We are selling these trees for the same price you would pay if you went to the farm and picked it up yourself. If you wish to buy one, we’ll go to the farm and get it for you, clean it, bale it and bring it back to the parking lot at St James Episcopal Church on Saturday afternoon, December the whatever and you can pick it up between 2:00 pm and 6:00 pm. It will have your name on it and be ready to go.” (Customers did not sort through trees at the parking lot; they took the one with their name on it.) The boys offered sale terms of one half down and the other half when the tree was picked up but nearly all customers paid the whole amount in advance. And it worked really well! One of the Scoutmasters asked me early on how many trees I thought they would sell. I had no idea, but guessed the boys would average probably two trees each for a total of around a hundred. As it turns out the boys and their parents sold 188 trees, cleared something over $2,100.00 and, aside from the door to door selling, worked less than two days. To bring this into better perspective, you need to know their previous high fund raiser had produced less than $300.00. Also, they actually had two Saturday afternoon pick up dates, one the Saturday after Thanksgiving and one later because some people like their tree early in the season and some like to wait awhile. Another thing that’s important to know is that this was done with cut Christmas trees which we no longer have available for fund raisers, but our Living Christmas Trees would work equally well. And they are available. Still another thing I need to tell you is that the Boy Scouts did this a second year, largely at the urging of their first year customers, but didn’t do it after that. They had bought their trailer about three years sooner than they thought they could and were too busy going camping to sell Christmas trees. Amen. And good for them! If you’d like to talk about how this fund raiser model would work for your organization, call me any evening between 7:00 and 9:00 pm and I’ll answer any question I can. Skip Glasgow 936-767-4541 Back to Top
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One
day in the spring I received a phone call from a gentleman named Reg Overman,
III. Reg said he was a member of a country club in north central Texas with a
membership of about 1,500. 