How I Fixed My Street! & fund-raised my community playground — Crowdfunding for Community Initiatives
Is your community in need of updated park and playground facilities? The process for planning, funding and designing safe, interactive playground equipment takes time. This development period is an excellent opportunity to foster community involvement and ownership of its new family-friendly facility, and a foundation for expanding upon future community projects.
Following are ideas that will help you make the most of your efforts to raise funds for your playground project, instilling a sense of community pride for years to come:
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Focus lesson raising currency, and more on developing relationships with local organizations and businesses Plan a fundraising strategy that will take advantage of the planning timeline for your playground, and appeal to sponsors who will commit to the campaign as a whole.
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Solicit help from family-friendly clubs, fraternal orders or civic groups that use the public space and will benefit from the new playground. Their networks, volunteers, and core supporters likely share the same goals as your playground committee: healthy, strong communities. Many clubs offer grants through their national networks and are excellent resources for assistance with fundraising events by providing equipment, resources, volunteers or time-tested advice.
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Appeal to local real estate firms, banks, insurance agencies and title companies to sponsor your project. Playgrounds are an asset to local home values, and agents love to mention them in their listings. Should you opt to publicize sponsors, real estate agents are eager to earn name recognition among young, growing families.
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Plan and publicize fundraising events, and stage them at the playground site, where your community can visualize the playground project. Ask your playground equipment manufacturer to supply graphics for posters and renderings to help with your visual aids, or for ideas and help with presentations to coincide with these events Invite local businesses to sponsor prizes, and be sure to offer them the courtesy of sponsorship signage or similar recognition in event flyers, press releases or advertisements.
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Popular community park fundraising events include scavenger hunts, with age-appropriate categories and prizes haunted houses, swap meets, field days, open-air theater or movie events, and auctions. Two or three events scheduled during the planning and fundraising process will maintain awareness of your playground project while providing valuable name recognition to your project sponsors.
Convey the theme of inclusion and ownership In your community’s playground project. Include community comment sessions or suggestion boxes at fundraising events early in the process, offering your planning committee the ability to inform the public and attending press of key issues in the project. Once you’ve met your fundraising goals and the project’s completion is on the horizon, follow through with an unveiling event.
