Fundraisers!

Castle Pines Library needed $90,000 raised for the next three years of operations. This was no small challenge, in fact, it was pretty massive. The community had come together in 2009 and raised $50,000 but how were we to raise twice that much in the same community only a few years later?

Enter the Castle Pines Library Campaign Committee. These dedicated volunteers spearheaded multiple types of fundraisers and organized not only the events themselves, but also the marketing and popularity of the events.

Here are some of the things that worked for us! Maybe they will work for you too?

Restaurant Nights:

Vicky Kellen went door to door to the restaurants around the Castle Pines Library with a great partnership idea. If the restaurant would sponsor a "Dine out for the Library" night and donate a portion of their proceeds to the Library, we would promote the heck out of it and they would get a huge turn out on a night that normally isn't very busy for them. We did two rounds of these events and they were very successful for the campaign!

Tips for pulling this off:

• Select one figure either 15% or 20%, we did a mixture and it was confusing!
• A series ever week (like you see in the advertisement) actually worked better than spreading it out over months and months.
• 4-6 restaurants are ideal
• To promote: ads in the paper, flat screen ad inside the library, Chamber of Commerce eblast to members, small fliers stuffed in the holds and available at self check, fliers on windshields, posters at all the businesses in the area, word of mouth! Getting people talking about it is the best way!
• Ask the restaurant to keep a record of what they brought in, don't forget to include drinks as well as food!
• Follow up right away to get the check or provide a pre-addressed stamped envelope to make it easy on the business owners.

School Change Drive:

Linda Day was contacted by Candy Palazzo from Timber Trail Elementary about having the four Elementary Schools in Castle Pines sponsor a change drive for the Library. She coordinated with Linda, but essentially Candy organized all four school drives with the help of parents and kids at each school. Representatives from the schools came for a check signing after all was said and done, they raised an impressive amount- over $3,900!

Kings Soopers Gift Cards:

Within the first week of discussing fundraising again, Linda Day suggested utilizing a program offered by our local Kings Soopers (a Kroger Company). They have a program that allowed us to purchase gift cards loaded with a 'starter amount' then handed out to community members. Individuals would reload money onto the gift card and use it to purchase groceries or gas, and the Library received 5% of everything that was reloaded onto the cards! This fundraiser was very easy to set up, brought in money steadily every month, and continues to be successful for the library!

Letter Writing Campaign & Mail in Donations:

Most of our donations came from local and neighboring businesses. The largest donations came from corporations nearby or that do business in Castle Pines. Warren Lynge and Sarah Tweed began a letter writing campaign sending a direct letter to each and every business that was a member of the Chamber of Commerce. This resulted in quite a few donations!

Once we had seen success from this, Warren decided we should do a direct mail to the citizens in Castle Pines and a neighborhood right near by. He purchased a list of addresses and mailed them not only a letter, but a pre-addressed envelope that they used to mail back their donations. This generated more giving than we expected! In addition, Warren made up an envelope that we kept by the Self Check and that we also took to community events that folks could take with them, fill out and then drop in the mail. People sent checks, credit card info, and sometimes cash. This was a great way to make it easy for folks to donate!