Fundraising

How We Fund the Supported Things That We Do

Fundraising is an essential part of any service club. It is how we are able to advance any chairitable activity that requires more than just elbow grease. There are a lot of groups out there that depend on donations or funding from our council as well as other sources. Very often the work we do comes with a financial cost. If we want to do maintenance on the priests residence, or donate to a school sports team, it boils down to money. Do we have it? Do we have the right kind of money for the right kind of expense?

Fundraising for our council currently includes profits from a local hockey camp, contract workers for Big Valley Jamboree, and bingos. They all take vollunteer workers, vollunteer committee members and some form of administration to maintain. We are very fortunate in Leduc to have these sources of income. Not every council is so fortunate. But we remain vigilant for new sources of revenue that we might be able to capitalize on.

It is important to mention that not all forms of available fundraising are easy to adopt into a Cathoic mens service club. Some can be over taxing of vollunteers, some can be a concern to our Catholic guidlines and teachers. So when we do find one that works we try to hang on to that as best we can. They dont last forever. Bingos are a good example of that. They once were very lucrative, but changes to regulation over time and challenges by church leadership as to the moral efficacy of participating in gambling as a form of fundraising, has over time eroded that revenue source down dramatically. We have a stakeholder interest in the equity of the Leduc Rapid Bingo, so we remain in place until that eventually finally liquidates. Its unlikely we would look for other gaming sources as revenue going forward though. The point being here that sources of revenue for service clubs come and go over time. We can’t get too comfortable in any assumption that something will be around forever. It just isnt a reality. So finding alternative revenue streams will remain important indefinately.

Doing the vollunteer work of a fundraiser can often be rewarding to the members as a form of fraternailsm while we work. We try to make it worth your time if we can.

Some may think that we make profits at the pancake breakfasts, but we don’t. The intention for breakfasts was to remain a break even donation to the parish community. It could be turned into a fundraiser as some other councils use it for. But we decided not to go down that path. We just try to break even as best we can with those. So there are sometimes reasons we would not capitalize on an opportunity like that.

The work of raising dollars is an ongoing demand for the council, as it is for all service clubs and not-for-profits. Help providing hands on deck for the ones we have in place is the simplest part of the equasion, but can sometimes be the hardest to maintain. So if you are asked to help out, please give it an honest thought and try to pitch in when you are able.