WorldStrides Updates

Fundraising (Part 2)

If you read the first part of this blog, Fun-d-raising (Part 1), then you know I view fundraising as more than raising funds. The key points I covered were:

• raising funds (obviously!)
• personal growth in responsibility, organization, entrepreneurship, and self-respect
• communication to the community about your undertaking and its value

While each of the points above are awesome on their own, think how much better they could be together, harnessed within one amazing fundraising idea! Well, these following suggestions are just that, so get excited.

Stock Options

Students sell shares of stock in the trip. The idea came from art teacher Cindy van Lieu, and has already spawned some innovative offspring. Students are given stock shares to sell, literal paper shares that include an invitation to a great “sharing” event post trip. The sharing is a dinner, and while it’s a pot luck, Cindy provides a huge starter central portion of the meal. Folks come to hear about how the trip went (their investment) and many come to ponder joining the following year’s travel adventure.

The approach works really well with annual trips, and could clearly be adapted (and already has) for trips that go every other or every third year. But what do you do if there has not yet been a trip to share, or you want to sell shares well after the sharing event?

Get Creative

Art + Travel = a great idea. How can you “sell” a donation? Mix the aforementioned art with what might be seen and experienced on the upcoming trip, and then turn it into a decorative share of stock one can buy. Buying a share of a trip is one way to turn a donation into a purchase of sorts, the chance to own stock in the life-enhancing educational experience to be had by the students. …Imagine pen and ink drawings done in cooperation or competition by the traveling students, then promoted for sale.

What else might decorate the drawn border of the stock shares? Perhaps the many animals one might see in Costa Rica, or on the Galapagos Islands. Or the structures of Gaudi for a trip to Barcelona and Spain. If a tour is going to four cities, perhaps each corner or side of a share is devoted to each city. Likewise if four countries. Asking for a donation for nothing in return is difficult. In comparison, giving something creative and worth keeping changes the dynamic.

Each of the ideas in our fundraising ideas collection booklet can be altered or stretched or reinvented. Dive in and see what I mean.

Also, I think our FLAG Foundation aid and the Gift of Education approach are likely the two most consistently lucrative for the funds part, so don’t forget to check those out as well.

And, don’t forget to share any of your great ideas below!