Eagle project - fundraising HELP!

[savage1]

My 15yr DS has planned his Eagle Project. We are proud - BUT - the $2500 price tag is daunting. How do you raise funds for such a thing.
His project is big - he has designed a butterfly garden for our local group home for the mentally and physically challenged. It includes a path and patio area, and the landscaping involved.
So, any ideas out there on how to raise funds?

 

[golfgal]

Talk to local tradesmen/contractors/building supply places and see if they will donate supplies.

 

[Geoff_M]

Our son's project had a smaller price tag, but here's what he did:
- Had a fundraiser day at Applebee's restaurant. Ten percent of the patron's bills that brought in his flier went to his project.
- He had a fundraiser at a local bowling alley/go-kart/miniature golf place. For $25 each person got 4 hours of unlimited bowling, go-karting, and golf. My son got $7.50 per person.
- He auctioned the rights to shave his head to the highest bidder.

 

[shirleyb]

It sounds like it's probably too late if he already has his project approved, but I would encourage him to choose a project that the group he is doing it for will fund. My oldest did a project for the church, that they funded and my middle son did some renovations at the borough park that they were happy to fund the materials for.

 

[Ceila]

I second the idea of talking with local businesses. They are often very willing to help Boy Scouts with their projects, donating materials or money.

Be careful of any kind of raffle, though, since that often falls under gambling rules. You may need to apply for a gambling license. It sounds wierd to have to do that, but it's not hard and they're usually not very expensive!

Some other fundraising ideas might be:
- a chili cook-off. Get a local restaurant to host.
- our town will make a donation to groups that help clean up a park
- make class-b t-shirts for the project and sell sponsorships. Print the names of the sponsors on the back of the shirts.

Good luck to your son! I think his idea is a great one. I used to work for an organization that ran group homes, sheltered workshops, and other programs for people with developmental disabilities, and I know this would have been a wonderful addition to any of the homes!

 

[wmjivey]

To get donations from Home Depot, they run on a quarterly schedule with their donations, if you don't hit them on the first week, the money is gone.
Lowes' only have some money per store. If you look for building supplies on Craigslist you can hit a goldmine. Fun raisers buy candy bars from Sams' or Costco sell them for profit for the project

The man

 

[MichelleinMaine]

Is there anyway to downsize the project? Or see if another group could tackle part of it (eg he does the garden and say 2 benches as his project, maybe the Lions Club or whatever could do the patio part? Or something like that.)

Does he have an Eagle mentor to ask what boys have done in the past? (Or some one on the troop committee?) There is, of course, BSA paperwork that needs to be filled out for approval before he does a fundraiser.

In-kind donations are definately a help. Have him approach smaller, independant garden/landscape stores. IFWIW, in my experience, Lowes/Home Depot will only give a flat 10% for scout endeavors. The smaller places are usually more willing to work with volunteer groups. (Have him think of a way to recognize them- a scout in our troop recently did a garden area and made a plaque of all sponsors. If the group home has some sort of newsletter or annual report, perhaps they could be included in an article there? Etc..)

The best fundraisers our troop has are bottledrives, we can easily clear $800 in a day. Disclaimer though that our state has a bottle deposit law, so a heftier profit than states without that.

DO NOT let him do any sort of raffle as a fundraiser. BSA regs specify that fundraisers must provide a tangible and fair product for money taken in. (I forget how it's worded.) In other words, you can not take money for the potential of a reward- eg gambling. We had a boy who raffled off some pies he had made. He got chewed out at his final board of review with council. I felt bad someone had not told him that wasn't ok.

Good luck to him!

 

[littleteapot]

DO NOT let him do any sort of raffle as a fundraiser. BSA regs specify that fundraisers must provide a tangible and fair product for money taken in. (I forget how it's worded.) In other words, you can not take money for the potential of a reward- eg gambling. We had a boy who raffled off some pies he had made. He got chewed out at his final board of review with council. I felt bad someone had not told him that wasn't ok.

Good luck to him!

BSA requires that any non-council fundraisers be pre-approved by council. His Eagle counselor and his District advancement chair let him down by not catching this.

 

[MichelleinMaine]

BSA requires that any non-council fundraisers be pre-approved by council. His Eagle counselor and his District advancement chair let him down by not catching this.

Needless to say, the paper work was not filled out (that's why I'd mentioned it earlier in my post, too.) Long story, but his project was supposed to be funded by the benefitting church, but he got the shaft. He was trying to be proactive and came up with the raffle... his mentor didn't know about it til after it happened. He did still make Eagle, but got a stern talk at the final board.

Definately not the best way to handle things. Just wanted the OP's son to not be thinking in that direction from the start.