Fundraisers for a quilt guild
 

I'm considering co-chairing the Fundraising position for my quilt guild and could use some good ideas. What has worked well for your guild? What have you done to boost membership in your guild? Thanks for your ideas/suggestions.

Jane

Hi Jane! I am originally from Anaheim! Now in Dothan, AL and member of a pretty active guild. We host a show every year, and have two tables that we donate to. One is a silent auction, a group of ladies take this on every year and work hard to make beautiful presentations. They use baskets, wrap all sorts of wonderful things up in clear cellophane and there is a sign up sheet for bids. Also have had sewing machines, even a couple of featherweights donated. It does very well for raising funds for charity. The other table is hand made items for sale, everything from quilts to crafts. Machine embroidered earrings, tissue covers, pencil toppers, potholders. We sell bundles of magazines tied together, quilting and sewing accessories and tools. Etc. We also "sell" table space for $100 each table, to vendors or guild members that want to sell their items for themselves. This year we are doing a "dive for scraps" kiddie blow-up pool filled with scraps (smaller than a fat quarter). Fill a zip lock bag for $1.00 sandwich size, $5 for gallon. Everyone just gathers their scraps and brings them to me before the show. It should be fun! We always make an opportunity quilt (can't have a raffle in Alabama) and sell opportunity tickets. That brings in $300- $500 each year. We did a Civil War fabric and used squares appropriate to the underground railway, Then a Tea with a Friend (all tea pots and cups) and this year a tribute to Breast Cancer Awareness. Everyone is given some pink and white fabric, so there is a common thread to the squares, and can add any other fabrics they like. It is quilted and bound by guild members. Good Luck! Linda

We have a quilters auction once a year. People bring in items and buy tickets. Tickets are ten for a dollar. One ticket is pulled out of a bag by each pile to see who wins it. This is our only fundraiser

Both quilt guilds I have belonged to would raffle a quilt to raise funds. Making the quilt was a group effort, then tickets were distributed to members to sell (you really need a color photo to help with this) and tickets were also sold at the annual or semi-annual quilt guild show. Tickets were always $1 each or 6 for $5.

One quilt guild also created baskets of related donations (e.g., DVD and popcorn with napkins in a basket encased in cellophane tied with a ribbon), sold books of tickets for them (can't remember the price, but I think 50 cents per ticket), and buyers would place a ticket in the bowl in front of each basket they were interested in winning.

Regarding boosting membership, especially for a small guild, I think establishing a mentoring program for new members would yield the best results. At my last guild I saw numerous new members drop out because there was no welcoming committee to introduce them to other members, invite them to participate in different activities to see what might interest them, etc. The problem wasn't getting new people to come to meetings; the problem was keeping them once they came.

When I start to consider the cost of my "donation" as compared to just turning over $20 - or more - I would usually be WAAAAY ahead just donating the $20-$30.

My guild does several of the things mentioned, quilt to raffle off and auctions of donations from members. We used to also have "Country Store". It was each meeting a table with donated items for resale but it got to be a little junky so we no longer do it.

How about a garage sale where quilters bring there"why did I by this fabric" and other quilting notions in and have the proceeds go to the guild?? What is the old saying, one person's trash is another person's treasure??

The big guilds south of me have the annual raffle (or opportunity) quilt, and they have a booth everywhere, fairs, expositions etc, and the quilt is always on show behind them. I think they usually print about 5000 tickets and usually run out before show time.

We just had a guild quilt show in June that made our guild a nice bit of money. Our tea/lunch room was a big money maker (over $1000 for a two day show) and so was our raffle prize table. Tickets were $2 and the prizes were donated by members and businesses in the community. Make sure the prizes are not all quilt related as many people who attend the show are not quilters but will buy tickets if the table includes other things (dinner for two at a local restaurant, a couple of rounds of golf etc). Our carefully stitched lovely quilted "things" sold very poorly. Our fabric was current, the quality excellent, prices were reasonable and still no one seemed to want table runners, aprons, burp pads, bibs etc. Next time we are not stitching anything for a boutique! Good luck with your fundraising as it isn't an easy thing for a guild.

I have never done fundraising for a guild, but I was on the board of the North Branford Cheerleaders, and we were very focused to fundraising, since cheerleading is EXPENSIVE. Here are some ideas that you might try:
1. Clothing drive - there are companies that pay by the pound for used clothing, blankets, sheets, pillows, soft toys, shoes and pocketbooks. We used Fashion Republic out of New Jersey. They don't shred the clothes but instead place them in 3rd world countries for people to buy. We made anywhere from $250-$600, depending on how well we got the word out. You might also want to use some of the clothing or bluejeans to make a couple of Project Linus quilts for donations.
2. Bottle and can drive - have everyone save their recyclables for 1-2 months and bring to a meeting. Take to a recycling center for redemption. We made an easy $100 off this and used the money to buy shampoo and toothpaste for our local food bank.
3. Pancake breakfast - if you can find a facility, like a church or firehouse, charge $6.00 a head and make a placemat for each attendee to take home.
4. Contact the sports coaches for cheer and dance. I can tell you that cheer bows are expensive - and they need squad bows, merit bows, pink bows for October and competition bows. Bows can be made for about $2.00 each and can be sold for $7.00 to $8.00. We did pink cheer bows and sold to the youth squads. We made about $400 and were also able to donate a $100 check to our local charity.
5. Sports clubs sometimes do raffles - offer to make a T-shirt quilt. They donate the T-shirts, you supply additional materials and labor, and you get your cost back plus a percent of the proceeds.
6. Do a sewing clinic! Many schools don't teach kids how to sew anymore, and many seniors either gave up or never learned how to hem, mend or sew a button. You can run a 2-3 hour class for $10-$20/person with no cost except time.

These are a bit out of the box, but they did work for us.