Fund Raising
I set on the board of several non-profit groups. It seems like I always end up on the fund raising committee, usually chairing it. Many people have a hard time asking for money, I don’t. Years ago, I developed a mentality and motto that has worked well over the years. It’s challenging and it’s fun with a little frustration thrown in good measure.
I recently became a key partner in a new fund raising effort - there are only two of us, my six-year-old neighbor and myself. My little neighbor plant a pumpkin seed in a Dixie cup and it started to grow. He needed to plant it outside but there was no room in his yard. So, I did the neighborly thing and offered him a section of my garden. Soon we were out there planting and talking about what we were going to do with all those pumpkins. My little neighbor came up with a great idea. “We’ll sell them to the neighbors,” he said, “the big ones we’ll sell for a dollar, the medium ones for fifty cents and we’ll give the small ones away.”
That brought up the question what will we do with all that money. Without missing a beat he replied, “We’ll spend it.” We had a plan.
Two days later the pumpkin died. Not wanting this to be an unsuccessful fundraiser – I replanted it. Not, with ordinary pumpkin seeds but with ones called ‘Big Max’ and at twice the recommended seed rate, just to be sure something would grow. According to the package, these seeds will produce pumpkins between fifty and one hundred pounds.
I am now having second thoughts. Who in their right mind would want a 100-pound pumpkin? How will I get them out of the garden and up the hill? Should we raise the price of our pumpkins? I don’t know the answer to the first two questions, but my neighbor and I agreed on a dollar so a dollar it is.
If you need a hundred pound pumpkin for a dollar please let me know. A slight handling and delivery fee may be added.
I recently became a key partner in a new fund raising effort - there are only two of us, my six-year-old neighbor and myself. My little neighbor plant a pumpkin seed in a Dixie cup and it started to grow. He needed to plant it outside but there was no room in his yard. So, I did the neighborly thing and offered him a section of my garden. Soon we were out there planting and talking about what we were going to do with all those pumpkins. My little neighbor came up with a great idea. “We’ll sell them to the neighbors,” he said, “the big ones we’ll sell for a dollar, the medium ones for fifty cents and we’ll give the small ones away.”
That brought up the question what will we do with all that money. Without missing a beat he replied, “We’ll spend it.” We had a plan.
Two days later the pumpkin died. Not wanting this to be an unsuccessful fundraiser – I replanted it. Not, with ordinary pumpkin seeds but with ones called ‘Big Max’ and at twice the recommended seed rate, just to be sure something would grow. According to the package, these seeds will produce pumpkins between fifty and one hundred pounds.
I am now having second thoughts. Who in their right mind would want a 100-pound pumpkin? How will I get them out of the garden and up the hill? Should we raise the price of our pumpkins? I don’t know the answer to the first two questions, but my neighbor and I agreed on a dollar so a dollar it is.
If you need a hundred pound pumpkin for a dollar please let me know. A slight handling and delivery fee may be added.
posted by Ralph at 6:50 PM
6 Comments:
Ralph, I think the answer to your 100# pumpkin problem may lie in the following story.
There was once a man who tried to raise money by selling raffle tickets for a horse. He sold a few tickets and then someone asked him, "could I see the horse first?" He replied, "no, he's dead".
The man then asked "won't you have a lot of mad people when they find out they've purchased chances to win a dead horse?"
He said "No, the winner will be the only one mad, and I plan on giving his money back."
I just love this story. I can picture the two of you with your heads together, plotting. Best of luck to you!
Maybe you should play Tom Sawyer and have people pay a dollar to see how far they can carry the pumpkin up the hill, competitive people might take the bait, naturally you would give each of them a small pumpkin and charge everybody else just to look at the big one. Then make some great pies and sell those too.
LOL! I can just see the two of you!
Perhaps you could harvest them early before they get so big. Would they be green or yellow or orange? You could claim new varieties!
Ok, I can see you both carving out the inside of that 100 lb pumpkin and "play" arguing over who uses it as a costume ...or do I hear a pumpkin bread venture whispered loud and clear across the net?? ;)
I luvs punkins~
Put me down for at least one of those bad boys!
. . . . .I'll be picking mine up!
(figuratively speaking, of course)
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