These are just a few ideas that supportive folks have used to
help us raise funds for the CDCA in Nicaragua. You are only
limited by your imagination!
·
Contact your employer to see if the company where
you work has any kind of an Employee/Employer Matching Gift program. Many companies do, and if you give through
it, you gift is at least doubled. We
will be happy to fill in the application if you send it to us.
·
Set up a recurring gift to the CDCA online so you
don’t have to remember to write a check each month or quarter.
·
Give an Alternative Gift – a donation to the CDCA in
honor of someone you love for a wedding, graduation, or some other event you’d
like to celebrate. We will send out an
appropriate and beautiful Nicaraguan card to the recipient.
·
Ask your friends and family to give to the CDCA
instead of giving you a gift you really don’t need when you are celebrating your
own wedding or anniversary or graduation.
We will let you know when someone chooses to honor you in this way.
·
Give a Gift In Memory of someone you’d like to honor
and remember. We will send an
appropriate and beautiful Nicaraguan card to whomever you designate.
·
Give a gift of your talents!
o
Reverend Bob E.
Murdock has published a book of easy-to-use children's sermons, Come On
Down, and half the proceeds from its sale
come to the CDCA. Check it out and tell your friends.
o
Photographers
who have taken professional photos have either donated their photos or the
proceeds from their sale.
o Physicians and other professionals come to Nicaragua as CDCA volunteers working in their own areas of expertise.
o
Proceeds from Slightly
Twisted Spoons, a small woodworking workshop, are given to the CDCA.
·
Former
volunteers at Oberlin and Earlham
colleges have had students donate unused cafeteria meals to the CDCA, and the
meal service gave a certain amount per meal.
·
René Geneva of
Faernyn's Grove is working to get a 19KW solar system installed for the CDCA,
the Fair Trade Zone (where some of her organic designer clothes are made), and
the Spinning Plant. She first became
interested when seeking a fair trade shop to make some of her designer
clothing, and put her enthusiasm to work on this solar project when she
realized the urgent need for consistent electrical power in all areas of our
work.
·
Bená Burda of Maggie's Organics not only has consistently provided the Fair Trade Zone with
organic clothing orders, but also made sure that a video about her own products
and work with the FTZ was done in such as way as to also be a useful
educational and promotional tool for the women and the CDCA.
·
College students
studying ceramics made bowls, and then held a soup lunch fundraiser which
included a donated bowl with soup. At the lunch there was information
about how the funds raised were being used, and diners got to keep their own
bowl.
· Clean out your garage and hold a yard sale – all proceeds to the CDCA. Have an information table for people who stop by to find out about the organization and leave a donation as well.
·
Pledge the monthly equivalent of a luxury…
o
Dining For Women gives a “meal/evening out” once a
month, including helping women and children through the CDCA as one month’s
focus
o
Treat yourself to a spa, a cruise, a skiing weekend,
and give a matching amount away
o
Give the equivalent of a tank of gasoline used “for
fun”
o Give
the equivalent of a luxury service… TiVo, extra movie channels, etc.
o Give
the equivalent of a movie outing, a pizza delivery, etc.
·
Pledge the equivalent of your monthly “regular”
pharmaceuticals to help chronic patients at the CDCA clinic.
·
Donate what you don’t need when you upgrade…
computers, vehicles, etc… or give the cash equivalent of the trade-in you
receive.
·
Give your unused Frequent Flyer Miles to lower the
costs of our annual international travel (most airlines need you to give at
least 1,000 miles).
·
Work to get the CDCA listed as a recipient of
fundraising actions already taking place in your community:
o CROP
Walk proceeds
o Yard
Sales
o Auctions
o Church
budgets
o Local
charities and civic groups
·
Host a speaking engagement either when a CDCA
speaker is in your area, or do it yourself.
We can provide you with a Power Point Presentation and a script.
·
Find out what “samples” are delivered by salespeople
to your workplace and pass them along… medicines, tools, educational materials,
etc.
·
Talk your workplace or church into buying organic coffee for daily use.
·
Recycle, and donate the proceeds if you know a
company that buys paper, cans, or glass.
·
Encourage preschool, elementary, and older children
to participate in giving
o Coins
into a big 5 gallon water jug for children’s health supplies
o Lemonade
stands – car washes – babysitting – cutting the grass
o Collecting
scissors, markers, crayons, rulers (or their cash equivalents) for Nicaraguan
school children
And if you have other creative ideas, please let us know so we can pass them along!