Creating an ‘Our Town’ or ‘Our Neighborhood’ calendar is an excellent fundraising idea that can get local businesses and dignitaries involved and create a way for everyone to be featured or sponsor someone else.
To create your own calendar, you need to sell advertising. Contact your local merchants and drum up supporters to become the calendar’s ad sponsors. You can recreate logos or print slogans from local businesses. The idea is to sell each business one or more ad spaces on the calendar pages, font, back or inside covers.
You may want to limit business ads to 3 or 4 per page to avoid a crowded looking effect. Ads can run anywhere from $20-$50 depending on the size of the ad and its location on the calendar – you ca charge more for a full page cover ad, or a photo of the business used as a picture.
You can also sell individual calendar squares to individuals and businesses. Offer to commemorate birthdays, anniversaries, special events or sales for $5 to $10 each. This will give you additional sales and let you push some of the local businesses to the front – a florist might want to have an ad on Mother’s Day, for example, or a tax service in the month of April.
Collect artwork to feature in the calendar. If desired, sell this space or have it sponsored as well. Photos of town landmarks or pictures from local events make excellent calendars, and you can inset a picture of a local business for a fee. Get a local printer to produce the calendars if possible – they will often donate their time and material for a good cause, and you can give them an ad!.
Not only do you make money from the advertising, you can charge a small price for the calendar and sell it at all sorts of functions. A good price for the calendars is $10-$15, and you can sell them at sporting events, school functions, and even online through a school or organization website. Sometimes local restaurants, hotels or even groceries or pharmacies will display and sell them for you.
You may even be able to convince local businesses to but in bulk as giveaways for their customers – especially if they are prominently featured in the ads. Car repair shops, cash loan stores, rent to own shops, small hotels and other businesses around town.
The amount of money you’ll raise depends entirely on how well organized you are. If you decide to make this a yearly event, start planning well ahead of time to allow time to canvass and collect pledges. Many community members will be happy to support a good cause! Selling ad space is the hardest part; once you get over that hurdle, actually selling the calendars is the easy part!
Be sure when selling the calendars to let people know what the proceeds will be spent for. Also consider holding a public thank you on the radio to thank all the sponsors for their help with the ‘Our Town’ calendar fundraiser!
