# Fundrasing ideas?



## JMartinez (Dec 14, 2013)

Brethren, I am in my lodges fundraising committee and have hit a brick wall as far as ideas go. please brethren give me some tips and ideas.


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## Thulsa Doom (Dec 14, 2013)

What are you raising funds for? The lodge itself or a charity?


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## JMartinez (Dec 14, 2013)

It if for our Lamar Award, a scholarship that we give out to students of the community at the end of each Masonic year


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## JJones (Dec 14, 2013)

We are looking at holding a mud run to raise money for our Chapter and Council.


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## ErvAlmighty (Dec 14, 2013)

Get some funny brothers and host a comedy night. Lol


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## Browncoat (Dec 15, 2013)

JJones said:


> We are looking at holding a mud run to raise money for our Chapter and Council.



Great idea! Those are very popular.

Any kind of run/walk will draw some people. Those night runs with glow in the dark paint are fun too.

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## John Schnitz (Dec 15, 2013)

We had a car show earlier this year. Or you can have a skeet shooting contest.

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## Txmason (Dec 15, 2013)

Our lodge has a BBQ fundraiser in March. We cook brisket and serve it with potato salad, onions, pickles, beans and two pieces of bread for $8.00. We offer three levels of sponsorship and delivery on the day of event.


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## Plustax (Dec 15, 2013)

How about a Treasure hunt?  Get about $100 worth of Sackagewea(i can't spell) gold dollars from the bank. Put them in a box and bury it somewhere. Make a map with a hunch of clues (make it kinda hard) and have people walk around alot for following clues. Make it for a 2 person team & one must be a child (12 - under). When they get to spot BEFORE the end (Treasure box), they must dig up a small shovel... Which is used to dig up treasure box with money later. Fee for Tresure hunt is $20 per team. Each team starts at different times & is "timed" & time stops when they reach the shovel spot. Whoever has fastest time to reach the shovel spot (stops there), is the team that will then start there, dig up shovel & continue map to treasure box. This way everyone there can walk along & watch the final team dig up the Treasure box & find the real gold dollars(don't announce how much is in the box except that it is at least twice as much as entry fee & maybe more). Make a time frame to have ALL team entries submitted so you can determine whether to have $100 gold coins or perhaps more if you get many entries. If you push all this correctly, you can hit a big home run in making money. Encourage adults to let children do the clue searching or make it that teams must be a teenager and 1 child under 12yrs. A problem might be that some adults will want to do it all & just have child follow along.... Which I personally don't care for.  Maybe consider making 2 Treasure hunts.. 1 for adult teams and 1 for children teams  If you do this, let me know how it worked. I've always wanted to try this, but just never taken the time.


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## MarkR (Dec 17, 2013)

If your Grand Lodge allows (many don't) we've done very well with an annual wine and cheese tasting.


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## JJones (Dec 17, 2013)

I feel I should also mention that our lodge also sells BBQ.  We do it during a local event called Antique Alley as the chief money maker for our blue lodge.  It's quite profitable and we only have to do it twice a year but smoking BBQ is very expensive and time consuming, not to mention selling it.


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## Brother_Steve (Dec 17, 2013)

The best fundraisers are those fundraisers which do not cost the lodge any money (directly)

We have a business that is friendly with the lodge and donates some of the proceeds if the customer mentions our lodge when services are rendered. It doesn't take money out of the public's pocket because the amount of the bill does not go up and it helps the business because our lodge members put the word out to use the business.

I like the idea of a benefit walk so long as you are up front with why you are walking (don't say its for charity when it is really for the building fund so you can repair a wall or repaint the stair case.)


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## MasterBulldawg (Feb 2, 2014)

We do a golf tournament.


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## DJGurkins (Feb 2, 2014)

We just did a Tamale fund raiser in Nov. and Dec. They were 7.50 per doz. and the lodge made 3.00 a doz. We were raising money for scholarships. We wanted to raise 1000.00 and we raised over 1200.00. This was a prepay event so we just printed out flyers with order forms on the bottom and handed them out and mailed them to members. They showed on the given day to pick up order. They had already paid so that was it. We were also cheaper than most places around us and hey they were good to boot.


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## Companion Joe (Feb 2, 2014)

One thing I have been considering is a yard sale this summer. My proposal is to have brothers bring in anything they want to donate, and all money made goes to the Lodge. It serves two purposes. It allows members to clean out their closets and out buildings, and there is zero overhead such as with a supper. It's also doesn't require as much labor.

Our Lodge is situation right on a major road. I figure we can take the tables from the dining hall, set up shop in the parking lot one nice Saturday morning and make a few hundred bucks, mainly for our scholarship fund. We could also do in in conjunction with an open house, perhaps gaining a few perspective members along the way.


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## dfreybur (Feb 3, 2014)

Companion Joe said:


> One thing I have been considering is a yard sale this summer. My proposal is to have brothers bring in anything they want to donate, and all money made goes to the Lodge. It serves two purposes. It allows members to clean out their closets and out buildings, and there is zero overhead such as with a supper. It's also doesn't require as much labor.
> 
> Our Lodge is situation right on a major road. I figure we can take the tables from the dining hall, set up shop in the parking lot one nice Saturday morning and make a few hundred bucks, mainly for our scholarship fund. We could also do in in conjunction with an open house, perhaps gaining a few perspective members along the way.



A lodge in my district does this twice per year.  They split the cash lodge and seller.  Works great.


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## Browncoat (Feb 3, 2014)

We're having a Euchre tournament next month. $3 for single, $5 for couples. There's also a light dinner and snack items to purchase throughout the night. Should be a good turnout!

That might be geographical though. We're taught to play Euchre @ age 7 around here LOL.


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## Brother JC (Feb 3, 2014)

Browncoat said:


> That might be geographical though. We're taught to play Euchre @ age 7 around here LOL.


I'd never heard of it till I was in the Navy, an Ohio gal taught me to play.


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## Browncoat (Feb 3, 2014)

He he. Euchre is pretty big in these parts.

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## Tx4ever (Feb 3, 2014)

Haunted House around Halloween , Christmas Trees in December, If it all going to charity {Scholarship} a gun raffle always goes good.


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## Brother_Steve (Feb 4, 2014)

Cigar Night. (Outdoors)

50 dollars for smokers.
- Gets you several cigars and a lighter for the evening + Food.

35 dollars for non smokers.
- Gets you all the food you can reasonably eat.
--Burgers, Dogs, Sausage, Fries, etc.

The only money out is the cigars, food and lighters. It nets us 1200 per night. We try to get 3 in a year. We tried a winter one but it is just too cold and too dark to draw out everyone we get in the spring, summer and early fall.


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## japool (Feb 4, 2014)

About how many people attend cigar night?


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## dfreybur (Feb 4, 2014)

japool said:


> About how many people attend cigar night?



Lombard 1098 has been selling out 50 tickets for several years in a row now.  They do it as a catered event rather than outside.  The anti-smokers smile and wink at each other when it's discussed in stated meetings, but a number of non-smokers attend.

Holding an assortment of events is common to almost every successful lodge I've seen.  Cigar smokers are popular with some, not interesting to others.  They fit the assortment concept well.

Euchre - I grew up playing Pinochle.  With Cribbage and Gin they seem to have geographical popularity.


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## Brother_Steve (Feb 4, 2014)

We get about 30 ~ 40 people.

We are teaming up with the Commander at the local American Legion this spring to combine our fundraiser. I'm not sure if that is finalized yet but if it happens I will report the numbers as best I can.


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## John Schnitz (Feb 22, 2014)

Our lodge is having a car show in April.

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## Bloke (Nov 10, 2015)

Are donations tax deductible?  If not, you will not get anything big. Sponsorship can be a good way to go. Acknowledgement with summons and acknowledgement on lodge web site. Shoot for $3-$5k for that- a businesa can claim it as advertising expense in a way they may not be able as a donation to a non-incorpoated group (ie a lodge). If a sponsor sells a service or product, have them present the cheque at the Festive Board at Installation when your crowd is at the largest.


Forget about special efforts to hold events when you raise a few bucks unless the goal is social or unless its a side activity ( like a lodge raffle) at a social function.


The biggest gift i've been involved in was about $140k, but it was from a business i'm a dirctor of... in the last 10 years that business has given sponsorship and grants of $2.8 million dollars to community groups..


Fundraising has 2 goals, provide a focus for a lodge to come together on a project and to raise cash. While creating social events sounds good and is worthwhile,  keeping them affordable can compromise financial outcomes.... you need to decide if the social or amount of cash raised will be the primary goal of the project....


If it's cash -put your business hat on and ask the "what's in it for them" question... then chase some big dollars


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