With warm weather inevitably comes yard sale season – that time of year when everyone is looking for treasure in their neighbours’ driveways.

Grab a few friends and throw your own yard sale. Send an email to friends and acquaintances for donations of “gently loved” items. This is also a good way to involve those people who want to help contribute to your Women Build fundraising, but are currently unable to support in a financial way.

Ask some friends or family members to help you sell on the day of your yard sale too – you will need the extra hands.

A few keys to a successful yard sale:

1)      Signage! Make sure to create clear and legible signs that stand out from their surroundings. Use bright pink Bristol board for instance, and be sure to use arrows to direct potential buyers to your sale. Put your signs at every major access point if you are located on a side street, and be sure to sign every turn as well. Remember signs for AT your yard sale too (ie signs describing the charity, signs indicating product categories, etc)

2)      Location – If you have friends or relatives who are willing to offer their yard for the sale, try to pick a place that is near a major road that will create visibility. Also, the larger the yard, the more room you have to spread out your goodies.

3)      Set-up/Organization – The biggest key to a successful yard sale is organizing your items into categorized areas. For instance, have one table that is entirely dishware, one that is kitchen appliances, one that is full of games or toys, and one that is dedicated to electronics. Remember if you are selling electronics that you want an extension cord for people to test the equipment before buying. Also, if you are thinking of selling clothes, consider hanging some clothesline to display the clothes, rather than laying them on the ground.

4)      Cleanliness – Keep this one in mind, although it will seem like common sense. Nobody wants to buy something that is dirty. Rinse all of your dishes, wipe down toys, and run a load of laundry for the clothing. Make sure that your items all look like they are in the best condition possible.

5)      Pricing – Prices are important at yard sales, especially because, if someone gets out of their car and sees prices they think are too high, they won’t bother looking. Research on websites like kijiji and eBay how much similar items to yours are being sold for. Don’t price so low that you aren’t making much for your effort, but be reasonable.

6)      Extras – At one of my charity yard sales we also offered baked goods, coffee, and dog biscuits for a donation. You have the audience at something like this, so use it. Consider selling plants, or offering to paint childrens’ faces. There is plenty to do to up your earnings.

Now, if you have a sign up, saying that the yard sale is for charity, you might possibly have some customers asking if they can get a tax receipt. The reality is that tax receipts are only available to people who don’t get something in return for their donation. So, if they bought something at your yard sale, or grabbed one of your cups of coffee, and expect a tax receipt, it’s not possible.

However, should they offer a donation separately, then yes, they can get a tax receipt for any donation over $10. Print off one of the pledge forms on this website to carry at the yard sale and have them fill in their information.

Along these lines, you may also want to consider decorating an empty coffee tin. Place a sign over it that explains that you will happily accept donations from anyone not finding what they are looking for. You may be surprised, since people often create a budget for their yard sale-ing excursion, that they will drop what they intended to spend in your jar.

So, the yard sale is over and you’ve thanked all of your helpers, maybe shared some barbecued burgers and dogs as thanks, and boxed up all of the leftovers. Oh gosh – all the leftovers! Yes, it’s true, you will not sell every last thing. So, what do you do with the leftovers? If there are lots, consider storing them somewhere and running another yard sale in a month. Otherwise, large pieces like furniture and electronics can be brought to the ReStore (I love it when things come full circle like that). Of course, there are organizations around town who will also accept the smaller items that ReStore cannot – but I’ll leave it to you to figure out who they are.

What better way than a friendly neighbourhood car wash? I can almost hear Rose Royce tuning up and brushing off their disco shoes in anticipation.

Car washes are an easy, minimal work, fundraising project to put together so let’s get to the nitty gritty steps involved:

1)  Choose a date and time to run your car wash. A generally good time is early Saturday mornings as many people are heading out for shopping, garage sale hunting, and many other purposes. Aim, for instance, between 9am and 1pm.

2)  Visit local gas stations that are always happy to provide a corner of their parking lot for a good cause. You will probably have to go in to the station to sign a form and reserve a date. If you can’t find a gas station on a busy corner, try to find a parking lot whether it be a school parking lot, grocery store parking lot, or perhaps a parking lot by an apartment building. Remember to talk to the relevant people about the lot before setting up. While reserving the space, check out where the space is that you’ll be set up, and find the water hook up to be prepared on the day of.

3)  Once you’ve reserved the space, you’ll want to get your supplies together. Here are some ideas:

1. Volunteers! Ask your friends, family, etc to come out and help you for the day. It’s going to be difficult to wash many cars alone, so you will need their help. Offer to take them out for dinner afterwards as thanks, or grill some burgers on your porch.
2. Buckets, soap, sponges, towels, squeegees, hose, paper towels. These are your basics for washing the cars and most of it you can find at a relatively inexpensive cost. Towels are a must to dry the cars so they aren’t streaky, and you may want to consider some nice shammies to do this (did I hear someone say Sham Wow?). A squeegee helps to wipe down the windows, and a hose is usually necessary as most gas stations won’t provide one for you.
3. Not so necessary items, but things that will add value to the car wash include tire polish, and car wax, among many other things. If you have enough help, consider adding something like this to the wash where cars can pull out of the regular wash area and get the added touches for an extra cost.
4. Coffee and snacks these are always a nice touch and you can offer them to your customers while they wait for their car to be washed, as well as sharing them with your helpers.
5. Information! Another key make up some postcards explaining what the car wash is for and where customers can go for more information. Hand these out to everyone getting their car washed to generate interest and help with donations.
6. Signs you can’t get customers if people don’t know what is going on. Make sure to create some signs that your helpers can wave on the street. The vital information is that it is a car wash and how much it costs. If you have space, of course, add that it’s for Habitat for Humanity Wellington County, but people will find that out once they come in.

4)  On the day of, assign your helpers some duties (ie sign holders, washers, soapers, dryers, money takers). Rotate jobs every hour or so to prevent boredom.

5)  When setting your price, think about what you are offering. Another good marketing tactic is to pick a number like $3 and when people ask how much, you say we’re recommending a $3 donation. This is usually responded to with here’s a $5, keep the change. Don’t price so high that people won’t come in, but don’t price so low that you are working hard for pennies. You can also consider offering other things for a further donation, such as a bake sale.

6)  For anyone who has never done a car wash before, here are your steps per car:

1. Take payment
2. Ensure customer shuts all windows completely and turns off their car (usually they will get out of the car at this time)
3. Hose down the car.
4. Soap the entire car including the tires and rims. Scrub hard to remove bugs and other dirt.
5. Hose the car again to rinse the soap.
6. Using cloths, towels, and shammies, hand dry the car to a nice shine. Use a squeegee to dry the windows (consider using a window cleaner for a nicer finish).

7)  The more effort you are putting in, the more people will be willing to donate.

At the end of the day, be sure to clean everything up including using your hose to rinse the soapy water down the nearest drain.

A Fun Spin

Last summer, I held several car washes for a charity that I was fundraising for. One was a standard car wash and went well, but the other two were much better received and seemed to put a smile on everyone’s face. Here’s the secret.

We held a “Top-less”ť Car Wash.

Seriously.

Now, before you all run off and hide your children from the Volunteer Coordinator let me say that it is, in fact, a gimic. I do not have any friends who model for Sports Illustrated, or would be comfortable with such a thing, including myself. So, let me explain a Top-less Car wash. Firstly, ensure that your signs have those quotation marks so that fewer people get offended, and men aren’t upset when they don’t get what they were hoping for.

A top-less car wash, as we interpreted it, involved washing everything but the top half of the car for $3; to add the top was an additional $4. Usually, people happily gave us between $7 and $10 simply for our creativity.

Like I said, it made for a good laugh and was a little different than the standard seen throughout the summer.

The biggest trick of fundraising is creativity let me know what you come up with!

All Canadians-at-Heart know that the start of summer is marked by the May Long Weekend. All Canadians-at-Heart also know that said Long Weekend is not very far away.

As the official kick-off to summer, we often find ourselves planning something, well, summer-y, to do. Many people zip away to their cottages, head away for a weekend of camping, or gather friends and relatives on the back porch to watch fireworks.

If you are one of the latter (or would like to be) take advantage of what is already there and put a Women Build spin on your Long Weekend Barbecue. Heck, if you’re up for it, I promise there are pink barbecue tools out there that you could use on the grill yourself!

How-to

First, invite whomever you choose (friends, family, neighbours, strangers on the street) and ask everyone who comes to pitch in a $5 (or your choice of donation) pledge to you.

In the invite, state the date, place and time of your barbecue. Also explain that you are hosting this barbecue for Habitat for Humanity Wellington County Women Build, and consider explaining why you are participating. There are many avenues to send your invites – go old school and deliver invites by hand (be creative and write your invites on a Frisbee, or plaid napkin). Otherwise, you can always email your invites, or even create a Facebook event page. Just make sure to call and follow-up, as well as to have your guests RSVP for the barbecue.

Next comes the really fun part – the details of your event, including food, music, games, draws, and anything else you can think of. An event is only ever as extraordinary as you dream it to be.

Food – if most of your guests will be men, you probably want to go with the staple: burgers and dogs. However, food is an area where you can have a lot of fun. Since it’s for Women Build, why not have a barbecue with some feminine flair? Perhaps a nice grilled chicken, a fruit salsa dip, and raspberry sorbet for dessert. Throw in some wine, spritzers, or sundowners (cranberry juice and Fresca) to round it all out. If you’re feeling really fancy, bake some cookies, and cut them out with house-shaped cookie cutters.

Music – Again, since it’s for Women Build, why not blast some of your favourite divas or soul sisters – Whitney Houston, Diana Ross, Madonna, Cindi Lauper…

Games – Consider doing something a little fun and Women Build-ish, or even planning a game that can earn you some more donations.

For instance, hold a ‘Break a Nail’ contest. Give your ‘contestants’ a board of wood and 3 nails. Whoever hammers their 3 nails through the wood fastest is the winner. If you think this will be too easy, give them something more complex to build with all that hammering.

Have those watching ‘bet’ on the winner beforehand. This is easy to set up, and a great way to earn a few more dollars for the cause. Buy some raffle tickets and sell them for $1 each or 3 tickets for $2. Those watching then put half their ticket into the jar corresponding to the contestant they think will win. They can bet on as many contestants as they want, as many times as they want, as long as they have enough tickets! When the competition is over, take the jar of the winning contestant and pick a ticket. The owner of the winning ticket then gets half of the ‘cash pot’, like with a 50/50 draw.

You could also take the name ‘Break a Nail’ very literally. Although it is quite difficult (I’m not going to say impossible because I don’t believe in that word – however, I am sure it is close to that) to hammer a nail hard enough that it breaks, some of your guests may not realize this. Challenge a few people to do it.

In the meantime, have the audience ‘bet’ on who they think will try the longest before giving up. Follow the same practice as above. If someone actually does break a nail, however, they should get half the ‘cash pot’, rather than anyone in the audience.

Have a game of BINGO. Sell the cards for $5 and split the pot with the winner. To put a Women Build spin on it, change the heading on the top of the cards to ‘BUILD’. You could even have the squares represented by different objects related to Women Build such as a hammer, a family, and the Habitat for Humanity logo.

If you have young kids coming to the barbecue, consider having several games that they might also enjoy such as a ball toss or a floating duck pond. If you choose, you could charge 25 cents, or some other small fee to play the games. Jelly bean counts are also an easy game that both children and adults can play for a small charge.

Remember to have some standards like volleyball, Frisbee or horseshoes.

Draws – Buy some barbecue tools, or a gardening set, or something else summer-y and raffle it off for a couple dollars per ticket. If you’re really resourceful, you could even contact local businesses and see if someone will donate an item for your draw.

Bake multiple desserts rather than serving one (or have guests each bring a dessert). Then auction these desserts off to the highest bidders.

There are so many other ways that you can turn a simple long weekend barbecue into a great fundraiser for Women Build. Just open your brain and let your imagination go wild!

Just ASK! The worst thing people will say is no, and that’s okay. But it’s proven that if you don’t ask, nobody will give you the money. So, get out on Twitter, Facebook, email, phone calls, or better yet – face to face, and ask everyone you know to support you and Habitat for Humanity Wellington County. Tell them about the organization, and why you support us, and then just ask.
Who should you ask? Remember FRANK!

Friends
Relatives
Acquaintances
Neighbours
Kolleagues (yeah, I know, it should be a ‘C’…if you are desperate for a ‘K’, try Kids’ Connections instead)

Day 1- Make a personal donation of $50 to Habitat for Humanity. This sets a great example for those you are going to ask, as well as shows how much you believe in the work of Habitat for Humanity and Women Build.

Day 2- Ask 2 members of your immediate family (spouse, parents, children, brother or sister) to donate $50 to your campaign. (Net $150)

Day 3- Ask 5 friends to donate $20. (Net $250)

Day 4- Ask 5 of your friendly neighbors to donate $15 to your campaign. (Net $325)

Day 5- Ask 5 of your co-workers (who always ask you to buy stuff from their kids) to donate $20. (Net $425)

Day 6- Ask your boss for a company contribution matching your $50 donation. (Net $475)

Day 7- Ask 10 people from your social networks to give $10 each. This could be people from your book club, your yoga class, your church group and your bowling league. (Net $575)

Day 8- Ask 5 members of your extended family (Aunts, Uncles, Cousins and Grandparents/Grandchildren) to donate $20. If your birthday or retirement is coming up, consider asking relatives to donate to Habitat for Humanity instead of bringing a present. (Net $675)

Day 9- Ask 4 local businesses to donate $25. Consider your local grocery store or favourite restaurant. Often businesses are willing to return ‘the favour’ of your business. (Net $875)
Day 10- Ask 2 professionals with whom you’ve done frequent business (such as your doctor, dentist or hairstylist) to give just $75 to the campaign (Net $1,025).

A few other tips
1) Mention your $250 fundraising goal early in your pitch so the person you are talking to is aware of how they are helping you reach your goal.
2) Keep your pledge sheet with you at ALL times because you never know when someone may donate. Equally, whenever a conversation allows, mention that you are participating in Guelph’s first ever Women Build this year and see where the conversation takes you.
3) If you are attending Women Build with some friends, challenge them to raise more money than you. Agree on a prize for the winner, such as dinner at your favourite restaurant and everyone pays for the winner’s wine.
4) Or, make it a challenge for yourself. If you reach your goal in a certain timeframe, you’ll ______ (dye your hair pink for the build site, kiss a pig, shave your head). Use this as a marketing pitch when asking for donations.
5) If someone is unable to donate the amount you hoped, don’t be afraid to take a smaller amount. Equally, consider asking those unable to support you financially to support you in other ways – such as helping you run a bake sale or spreading the word about Women Build in their network.
6) Always remember to thank those who are supporting you. Send everyone a personal note with a photo of you at Women Build, as well as a reminder as to how their money has contributed to the goals of Habitat for Humanity Wellington County.