AWARD-WINNING | ideas
Transforming Fundraising in a Contactless World For Chapter M in Chattanooga, Tennessee, adapting its two fundraising events meant thinking outside the box. It all started in the summer of 2020 when the usual fundraiser, a wine tasting and auction, could not be held. If attendees could not come to the event, the event would come to them. Working with a local wine seller, all of the chapter’s resources went into action to create invitations, package the wine along with homemade snacks and deliver daisy bags. The Wine-thru event sold over 200 of those bags in 2020 and more than 300 in 2021. The second fundraiser was the annual Holiday Bazaar. Faced with creating a contactless event, the chapter called upon all members to contribute items such as homemade snacks, baked goods, handmade crafts and jewelry. All donations were promoted using an online catalog created by a sister. Each order was hand-packaged and made available for pick up or delivery. This approach yielded between two and three times past auction results and enabled Chapter M to make higher contributions to the P.E.O. International projects.
Paso Robles Chapter Shares New STAR CARD Fundraiser
Chapter HL, Paso Robles, California, raised $18,000 for scholarships to support the P.E.O. philanthropies with a new fundraiser. Chapter HL sisters sold $50 STAR CARDS, totaling over $9,000, that entitled card holders to 20 percent discounts on select purchases provided by 41 local retail partners for a limited time. With new awareness of Chapter HL’s philanthropic
Chapter-wide enthusiasm for the fundraiser and sister engagement ensured STAR CARD’s 2021 success, as well as current plans to see the fundraiser repeated in 2022 and beyond. It also provided the opportunity for sisters to stretch and develop new wide-ranging business skills: a strategic marketing campaign design and implementation; website creation and updates; design of STAR CARD brand imaging including post cards, brochures, posters and merchant props; and a public relations plan and implementation, including the writing and dissemination of press releases, radio interviews, Facebook and Instagram posts, and Rotary Club presentations. Sisters also learned to reach outside their comfort zone to sell STAR CARDS and identify, interact with and follow-up with retail partners and sponsors, cementing a heightened awareness and appreciation of P.E.O. within the community. What started out as a scramble to conceptualize a new way to raise funds for Chapter HL’s philanthropic efforts under COVID lockdown has served as a modernizing, rejuvenating recommitment to P.E.O.’s founding principle of supporting women to pursue their educational goals. Chapter HL’s sisters were open to trying something brand new and were enthusiastic to share P.E.O. and its mission with a broader audience.
P.E.O. STAR CARD
20% OFF purchases from participating local merchants
OCTOBER 15-24, 2021
SHOP
SAVE
SUPPORT
With a $50 donation help women reach for the stars and receive a 20% discount on purchases from participating merchants. Star Card details / purchase at PEOpaso.org
P hilanthropic E ducational O rganization
HELPING WOMEN REACH FOR THE STARS
Scholarships
efforts, STAR CARD sponsors additionally contributed $9,000 to the chapter. This fundraising effort was an unqualified success and generated the need for an important opportunity to create a new chapter website and Facebook and Instagram accounts. The chapter also created press releases, garnering print and radio publicity, and Rotary and business outreach—all efforts offering an opportunity for new membership outreach and an increased awareness of P.E.O. International, the local Chapter HL and our P.E.O. Sisterhood.
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THE P.E.O. RECORD | July–August 2022
Women helping women reach for the stars
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