Fundraising Ideas For Volunteer Fire Departments

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Permalink Reply by Lori on November 3, 2009 at 12:36pm

Our department has a ice cream social in the summer and a bean dinner in the fall. Alot of departments in our area also do fish frys which seem to do well

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Permalink Reply by Michael Golembieski on November 3, 2009 at 3:58pm

Thanks alot to everyone who is contributing ideas. I hope this is also helping other fire departments come up with ideas to raise money for themselves. Please keep the great ideas coming! Stay safe

-Mike

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Permalink Reply by Jack/dt on November 3, 2009 at 4:21pm

You are working to serve your community, therefore they should be working to support you. Not you working to support yourselves. The only reason to be out there fund raising is to raise unnecessary funds, e.g. incentives, rewards, etc.

Funding for apparatus, SCBA, PPE, maintenance, firehouses, etc. should come directly from your community. If they can't afford it in taxes then how can they afford it by supporting your fund raisers? It's ridiculous to think that, while your department exists to serve everyone in your area, that only a certain few actually "pay" for that service in the way of supporting your fund raisers. Technically, all others are just mooches.

I personally believe that the reason many (most) VFD's are not fully funded is because VFD's are intent on remaining "self-sufficient". If they raise all/most of their monies then they are "beholden" to nobody and can run their "Corporation" as they see fit. You know, without 'gov'mint' interference (like NFPA, OSHA, rules, safety, etc) But then, I'm sure that at least some of the community will turn out for your LODD's.

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Permalink Reply by Michael Golembieski on November 3, 2009 at 4:41pm

I would love to fight the municipality to give the proper funding needed, but I am not in a position to do so in my company. In my opinion i feel all funding for fire and ems should be given out by the municipality by law. This being for replacing whatever equipment, trucks, or repairs necessary. As volunteers we already risk our lives, take time away from our families and friends to help the community. It would only seem proper that the town should give all funds needed, rather then us having to take away more time from our families to raise money to continue what we are doing safely and up to date with NFPA.

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Permalink Reply by Derek R. on November 3, 2009 at 7:14pm

Every year, around the end of summer, we hold an auction.
Extent of success depends on population and size of area covered. Send a newsletter around the areas letting them know that THEIR fire dept will be making rounds to collect donations of unwanted goods, food or money during a certain week.
Also canvass local and distand businesses too. In the newsletter, state that THEIR fire dept is holding an auction with the good collected and they can attend. This also lets the community see THEIR fire dept. and also socialize with other communtiy members. You would be surprised what some people will buy. " One person's junk is another person's treasure".
WE hold our auction over the weekend, and for an example, our dept raised between 20,000 qand 25,000. Again, success depends on size of community.
Also, maybe set up a canteen booth at your local fair. We've raise LOTS of cash doing this. Gets us our new equipment...scba, pagers radios and bunker gear. Also sends our guys to training sessions.
Just a couple ideas. Good luck

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Permalink Reply by chris r brannon on November 3, 2009 at 8:28pm

hey mike this is chris from tn area. we have two fish fries(one in the spring&one in the fall also we have picture drives) we use olan mills, in not sure if have heard of them but they are really good. i'm not how much we raise i'd guess around 5to 10 thousand. there is u a couple of more ideas

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Permalink Reply by John L.Duguay Sr on November 4, 2009 at 6:00am

Try a turkey raffle around thanksgiving, little bit of preparation and participation but profitable

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Permalink Reply by Eric Johnson on November 4, 2009 at 7:50am

We have an event that we put on for 3 days. Friday night Sat. and sunday until 6. We have a bar all three days, a silent auction on sat. lots of money. Then a dance on sat night with meat raffle drawings. We also have a water fight on sat. Sunday is open bar and let the public look at the equipment.

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Permalink Reply by Jim Wells on November 4, 2009 at 11:07am

Hey, you've gotta a lot of good ideas already, but I want to run 1 past everyone, I didn't see. A neighboring parish (read county) has established a non-profit status for a program that provides funds to their people not only when injured, but also if laid-off from their job. As most of their personnel are volunteers, with the economy being what it is, it seems to be a very worthwhile endeavor, and has good management controls built in to avoid misuse. To raise their initial capital of $50,000, (yes 50 thousand), they did a gun raffle, but not like any raffle I've seen before. $50.00 a raffle ticket, limited to 1000, with 52 chances to win! That's right, 52 guns or a gun a week. The number picked each week is the State Lotto Pick 3 number drawn on that Saturday. You can even potentially win more than once as this is a random drawing. After the guns are paid for, they will clear over $20,000 to seed the fund. A great effort to help out our brothers and sisters serving and it still boils down to less than a dollar a chance.

One last note: It is best to get your operating funds through grants, both governmental and private, but fund raiser's do provide an opportunity to interact with the public you may not get otherwise. This is also a way to help out our communities as well, not just ourselves. Fundraisers for community baseball teams, school support, and organizations such as MDA or local charities show we care about more than just our house!

Stay safe and Make Every Day a Training Day. Jim

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Permalink Reply by TIM GORDY on November 4, 2009 at 12:44pm

Hey try doing boiled and rosted peanuts.

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