Donations Ideas for a local archery group?

[huntsmanlance]

I know this is a little off topic and i am sorry if i shouldnt have posted it here, but i figured it is related and i would ask fellow Gangers for their advice.

I recently became a archery marshal in the medieval recreation group called the SCA. I saw a huge need for the archery tournaments held at events to become better than they were. Basically there are only a very limited amount of folks who are dedicated enough to do all of the work and almost any funds needed to put on a shoot comes out of their own pockets.

I have rounded up as many dedicated people as i could and we have been working very hard at improving all of this. We have been able to do allot of neat things that is getting attention and there fore more people who are interested in shooting. I have even been able to get allot of folks excited about doing medieval styled hunting!!! (so this isnt really so off topic!!! )

One of the things i really stressed that we had to do was start having things for any kids who were interested....because they are the ones who will carry this on when we get to old to pull a bow!


Basically there are 5 groups here in Oklahoma which are called Baronies. Each Barony has their own archery group and there are different events held where archery tournaments are held. What we have been able to do is make the tournaments more fun and exciting than just the standard paper targets and therefore have made people interested in coming down and seeing what it is all about.

Even though we have made allot of progress...we started little fund raisers, raffles where i donated a tooled leather item as the prize....we have hit a wall. There simply isnt enough funds to be able to buy the needed equipment to loan to new people.

I am not asking any of you for donations!!! I am asking how do you think we should progress? I have no idea how the whole Company Donations things work....but know that allot of Companies donate items to some of the big archery shoots as prizes.

Any suggestions would be appreciated....or ideas that i hasnt occured to me to do!!! Which companies do you think i should approach? and how should i do so?

Lance

[dano140]

ttt

[mjh]

Good questions. We run our club off of funds generated by participant fees.  All of our 3D's and Target archery events have a fee.  Yea want to play yea have to pay. Kids under 16 free for the 3D's  I'm not sure on the Target stuff.

If any fee is charged for your whole event but not individual happenings within the event try to get a small cut of the whole pie so you can generate a little moneies for your archery events.  Be straight forward if the archery events don't get some finacial help from the organization they are going to go away.

Sometimes you can get gear or targets or what not donated and make agreements to have sponsorship posted at the event or near the shooting line or near a target.

Some outdoor stores have given us some nice doorprize gear at HUGE discounts. We still pay some but no where near retail and many times below wholesale. Talk to a manager, make sure you will tell them your organization will send people their way.

See if people in your organization have employers who have matching donation programs within the company.

Write the letters to the archery manufactures. Include your community service work, include the number of kids your trying to get involved, include the number of participants. Let them know that they will get recongnition at the event, in newletters, on web postings.

Just some ideas Good Luck!!

[Pat B]

For the last few years I have donated bows to my archery club(CTA) to be raffled off at the Hickory, NC shoot, to Powder Creek,a local archery shoot and to the Tenn. Classic. I also sent A bow to Keith at MoJam to help cover costs due to a fire loss(Dano got that one). I would be happy to make and donate a bow to your organization. I don't know how soon I could do it because of prier situations. Send me a PM with info and I'll see what I can come up with.     Pat

[huntsmanlance]

Michael, i did just what you said and have contacted a few of the larger archery dealers...so we will see where it goes!

Pat i thank you for your generous offer and have sent you a pm.

I have checked around with each of the other 4 local groups and these people dont even have any loaner gear! I got together with my friends and we are making them up arm guards and tabs so at least they will have something for a new person to wear when they come out!

I really am hesitant to ask, but if there is any body out there who has an old self bow and they dont mind parting with it then let me know and i will make sure it gets to these groups who really need them.

If we can get some bows then me and my friends are going to all go in on some wood shafts and make up enough loaner arrows for them to use.

Thanks again for the help!
Lance