Fundraising A Necessary Evil Honor Flight Network Summit 2014 Fundraising A Necessary Evil Mary Pettinato CEO, Co-Founder, & Janitor Honor Flight Chicago

Honor Flight Chicago’s Goals in 2008-- in order of priority We needed money! $$$ We needed Volunteers! We needed WWII veterans

Honor Flight Chicago’s Current Goals in 2014—in order of priority We need to recruit more WWII Veterans We need Volunteers! We need money!

prioritized your goals? What are your goals? How have you prioritized your goals?

Although our fundraising goals may be similar from one Honor Flight hub to another, our methods of achieving these goals will vary according to location and target audience.

Donations In Kind or Cash In some cases, Donations in Kind can be as valuable as cold hard cash

3 of our Most Valuable Donations in Kind Free graphic design-- Our graphic designer is our best asset helping us to raise more money than any other person in our organization! Free Entertainment-- The “new” Andrews Sisters Trio--Not only entertains in the early AM hours before every flight but also helps recruit WWII Veterans when performing throughout the area Free Transportation-- Taxi and limo services to help transport our Veterans to and from the airport

Donations in Kind—A Win/Win Preserves cash resources to fly more Veterans An opportunity for a business to benefit from Cause Marketing—they look good while we look good while helping us to broaden our reach (Culver’s Beggars Pizza)

Who is helping you achieve your organization’s priorities?

What we used to do to make money… Honor Flight Chicago Board Members organized all fundraisers Steps: Found venue and entertainment Designed and printed flyers from home Printed and sold tickets Arranged transportation for Vets Attended all Honor Flight Chicago fundraisers

Fundraisers - What we do now to make money while raising awareness Accept formal applications from a volunteer team or organization who wants to host a fundraiser on our behalf Assign Board Member to work with each fundraiser team Prepare and print two sided flyers for fundraiser to maintain branding and consistency in message Provide fundraising guidelines regarding donations and organizations that we would like to partner with

Each “Successful” Fundraiser Should Tackle All 3 HFC Goals We should find more WWII Veterans to fly thanks to raising awareness We should find more Volunteers to help us accomplish our goals thanks to new audience We should raise more money—again thanks to new audience

Handouts of Five “Successful” Fundraisers and why… Herscher American Legion DuPage Veterans Foundation Hockey Match Flyer Beggars Pizza Campaign Culver’s Restaurants

Other Fundraising / Awareness Opportunities In memory of… In honor of… Photo books of each flight DVDs of each flight

Fundraising Final Notes Be choosy with your “partners” Be particular about your message and branding Stick to your goals Remember that raising awareness also raises money…