The date for my 2008 charity garage sale has been set, and it’s less than a month away!
Last year, I did the whole thing on my own, at my house. This year, I’m teaming up with a friend and fellow walker to share the work. She’s got a garage full of stuff to price and sell from a recent move, so I’m hoping that our efforts allow her to really give her fundraising a boost.
The sale will be on Saturday, March 15th, so I’ve got only a short amount of time to draft the press releases and get the ad copy for the classifieds. Since all of our profits are donated to charity, getting this into the newspaper as news or a community event shouldn’t be a problem. I simply need to write up all of the details and email it to the appropriate people – doing it got us a ton of traffic last year!
If you’re in the Tampa area and would like to donate clean, workable items to our sale, let me know! We also happily accept cash – and you can donate online!
With the Christmas season came the need to do a bit of rearranging in our garage. Decorations needed to be pulled down, and we needed to make space for the presents we needed to hide as well. As we did all of this, the thought occurred to me that once again, we have a lot of junk to get rid of. I was in this position lat year and ended up having a yard sale to benefit my 3-day walk. I know that at least ONE of my team members is in the same position, having seen her garage with my own two eyes. I think I’m going to look into planning a garage sale, maybe in March, to once again kick start my walk fundraising.
Next month, I’m taking an active role in not one, but two charity events. As you all know, I’m walking 60 miles in the 3-Day for Breast Cancer. However, 2 weeks prior to that event, I’m walking in the Alzheimer’s Association Memory Walk. Now, I’m well aware that not everyone is physically able to get out and walk a few miles to support a great charity. Some would rather donate via their checkbook. I’m also aware that each month, my friends invite me to various “home parties” where I’m encouraged to buy things from a catalog. Just this weekend I spent $60 on jewelry at a home party at a friends house. How about having a fundraising party instead, to encourage your friends to donate to a worthy cause? World Alzheimer’s Day is on September 21st, so this is a great time to throw a Purple Party and invite your friends, family, and coworkers over to raise money for the Alzheimer’s Association.
Your very own Purple Party can take any shape or form, and you can combine it with another event. How about throwing yourself a Purple birthday party and asking for donations instead of presents? What about a Purple garage sale, with the profits being donated to the Alzheimer’s Association? Or just invite people over for a night of fun and fellowship at your house, and serve all purple foods! (Grapes, grape soda, grape Jello…)
If the idea of raising money for a good cause is still a bit daunting, you can get some free help in the form of a free World Alzheimer’s Day party kit, as long as you’re one of the first 500 people to register online to throw your Purple Party! The free party kit includes A DVD of Alzheimer’s celebrity champions, speaking points donation forms, cocktail napkins, and even thank you cards. The site will assist you in setting up a page for your party, emailing, and reminding guests, and it will even allow guests to donate online if they can’t attend your party.
One more HUGE reason to participate is that all donations in September will be matched dollar for dollar by The Harrah’s Foundation. Even if you just raise $150, those funds will be doubled when the donation is made!
My sister and I both met our $2200 goal this month, and her cousin, who she is walking with, is almost there too! Special thanks to the following people:
Alli
Carolyn
Mike from Sinus Infection
Robyn
Matthew from Blog About Your Blog
Funny Junk
Cybercelt from the Advertising for Success blog
Karen from My Road
and Sian Lun Lau
A few more donations rolled in this week for my sister. I think she’s only $250 away from her goal now! You can get in on this too – before it’s too late! Just read how to donate here, and you’ll be getting the link love too!
Thanks to:
Kitty
Kelly at That’s What She Said.
Vedis
Barnett Associates (Marysville WA homes)
My sister got a few more donations this week, so there are more people to thank!
Thanks to donations from Greg Watson, Thinking Outloud, and Surviving NJ, my sister is only about $450 away from her goal! Thanks guys!
If you’re wondering what YOU can do to help, click here and read more about the special offer I’m making people who donate.
Big props to Charles over at C.Whyte’s blog for donating to my sister. If you didn’t read my post here, I’ve met my $2200 goal, and I’m helping my sister now. If you donate $50, you get 10 links in return, on 10 different sites. 9 of those links are permanent! It’s a great deal for you, so click the linky above and read more!
I’m amazed that I still have 4 months to go until the walk, and I’m only $69 away from my goal. What a huge, huge relief to almost be done with my fundraising. Definitely a big difference from last year when I was still trying to scrape the money together, 4 weeks after the walk. Knowing I’m almost done makes going into the walk that much more stress free too. Have you donated yet? For each $20 donation you get your name over there —>
Only $100 left to go for my fundraising efforts! As Jim says, “that’s not a bad check to write”, should we have to fund it myself. I don’t think we will be doing that though, considering I still have donations coming in. It’s been a pretty steady stream over the last few days! Our team has raised over $9,000 so far!
I got another donation this week, bringing me to a new grand total of $1,856.00 raised, and only another $344 left to raise before the walk in October. I’m in much better shape than I was last year, and it’s a huge relief to know the fundraising portion will soon be behind me. Remember, if you donate $20 to me, you get your name over there —> with a link to your site!
