Three Rotary Clubs Successfully Collaborate on a Combined Fundraiser
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Clubs are always looking for ways to increase the success of their fundraisers, by trying something new or trying to improve and build on past performance. Last year Past RI President Ray Klinginsmith challenged us to be “Bigger, better and bolder” and that is exactly what three clubs did on Sat Sept 24th 2011. |
RI has great annual themes and one that regularly comes to mind is the one from 2007-2008 when I was a club president. The theme that year was “Rotary Shares”. Rotarians share time, talent and treasures in an effort to make the world a better place. Rotarians also share ideas and best practices. Mequon-Theinsville Sunrise’s signature fundraiser for the last 13 years has been their “Lobsterfest”, but they wanted to take it up to a higher level. Two neighboring clubs, Theinsville-Mequon Noon and Milwaukee North Shore offered to collaborate and share their talent pool to do just that. These three clubs all meet within less than 10 miles of each other and were able to find a common meeting place for their regular meetings. With the planning progressing so were many new friendships too. Volunteering side by side on a service project brings members closer together and can bring clubs closer together too. Members from the three clubs regularly communicated and often visited each other’s club meetings. This type of social networking is one of the many benefits of being actively engaged in Rotary.
During the set up of the event you could not tell which club the individual members belonged to - they even helped each other with their individual club displays. Rotary PR was evident everywhere. During dinner our MC, MT Rotarian Connie Pukaite explained the 4-Way Test and then had all Rotarians stand and recite it. She shared past contributions the clubs have made over the years and then played an "End Polio" video. Our guests now made aware of RI’s goal of a Polio free world, responded positively and that portion of the live auction raised $4,600 in just a few minutes. Milwaukee North Shore President Tom Plantenberg , orchestrated a 50-50 cash raffle. With around $2,500 to share, he was almost speechless when one by one the winners all donated their share back to Rotary.
Our collaborative efforts resulted in more money and Rotary awareness being raised that night than any individual club had been able to do previously on their own. Sure it was hard to pull it off, but all agree that it was worth it. Yes there are still ways to make it “bigger, better and bolder” and like-minded Rotarians will always look for a way to do just that. You may have missed our “Lobsterfest Fundraiser” this year, but you can still see a multi-club event. The Washington County Clubs made up of the West Bend Sunrise, West Bend Noon, Hartford and the Slinger-Allenton will be doing their 3rd annual “Enchantment in the Park” holiday light extravaganza. For info about their partnership project, please visit http://enchantmentpark.org and remember “Rotary Shares”.