Vet School Fund Raising Ideas

[VAgirl]

I'm hoping this thread will get some traffic even though it's on the less visited vet student side of the house.

I'm looking for ideas of fundraisers that have worked well for others in the past. Specifically any fundraisers that have worked well in the context of vet school and vet students, but suggestions from all are welcome.

Here's the back story. Our school has a multitude of fund raising events each year. While some are for various causes, most are put on by a particular class to raise money for said class. This money is supposed to go towards our board reviews and a big graduation party at the end of our four years. There are set events that we have, and each class puts on one big one a year. For example the first year class will do one in association with Thanksgiving. There also tend to be T-shirts sold (to vet students) to raise money, etc.

My problem with these fundraisers is that, by and large, they're raising money from students in the vet school, whether it's from the class putting on the event or from other classes. It seems like a poor scheme to me since we're basically lining our class coffers with money from our own pockets. Which seems silly because we're all living off of loans and the stated goals these fund raising efforts are theoretically to make our board reviews and senior party cheaper. It seems to me that right now we're just spreading the cost over multiple years.

Ok, but I've been negative enough. Now I need some alternate solutions. So as I said, I'm looking for fund raising ideas. But I'm specifically looking for ways to raise funds from people who are NOT vet students. I know it's possible. One event that our school did was a dog wash for people in the community. A vet donated use of his practice for a weekend day and we advertised to the community. The bonus here was that we got donations even on top of the amount we were charging to wash dogs because people love vet students and wanted to help us out. So I know the good will is out there.

So let's hear it...some great fund raising ideas!!

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[twelvetigers]

We have a school rodeo, but I'm not sure if that would draw enough non-vet people... or if it would work at a school like U.C. Davis. WE have a few more 'cowboys' here, by default. 🙄 Something involving pets is the most obvious thing... like clients at the teaching hospital? What could you do to draw them in? Everyone does 'Walk for Rabies' or something like that, I'm not sure how well that would work.

Good luck!

 

[Trilt]

Maybe?

 

[starlene45]

Maybe?

Totally.

PS: What's with the Brits and getting naked to raise money? aren't there at least 2 films with almost this exact theme? Full Monty and Calendar Girls?

Anyway I think it's a brilliant idea and would totally participate

Something I have done for fundraising in the past is to hold a fundraising dinner at a local restaurant where a % of the proceeds from all attendees goes to the charity/school/team. We did this on Parent's Weekend for my equestrian team in high school and the UCD IHSA team has used it as well, they have an agreement with Steve's Pizza in downtown. I think they get about 20% of the take, and everyone has to bring a flyer or say that they're with the Eq. Team. In high school we used a slightly fancier restaurant. Rented out the whole place, lunches were $20 a head before drinks and 50% went to the team. We always made good money because it was prety much every team member and then 1 or 2 parents. One year we got really lucky because Mr. Tyson of Tyson Chicken was a team member's stepdad, and he paid the whole restaurant bill so we got to keep 100%. But that's really the exception rather than the rule 😎.

Again you can run into the problems of lining the coffers with the student's own money, but if you work it right and involve alumni and/or parents it can be quite successful. Maybe something on picnic day?? We used to toss around the idea of doing a kind of banquet under tents out at the Equestrian Center on Picnic Day-- there is a nice lawn out by the vet school that could probably be used although this particular project would probably require a little more planning it could be quite spectactular.

Plus you could always do a silent auction. That's classic. Esp when combined with food.

Okay good luck!!!! Let us know what you decide to do!

 

[sumstorm]

Hmmm...just random off the top of my head:

Haunted Hospital..... haunted houses with a twist tend to do well, and you might be able to get some volunteers from frats and sororities or pre-vet club, etc.

Wines in the 'Wild'....animal themed wine tasting night with a jazz group (again, try to tag undergrads) and a silent auction of animal art (consider animal painted art vs images of animals, or a mixture of both. non toxic paint, a large canvas laid flat, and animal's that are relatively calm but will move on the canvas work well for this.)

Behind the Scenes tours....above and beyond the admissions tours. Small groups only, reserved ahead (might beproblems to getting schools to agree to this.)

If you have a few dog trainers in the group, host a dog training class, or puppy socializaiton class.

Bark in the Park with dog 'games' that tickets are used to participate in (charge for tickets) or just collect donations.

Fur & Feathers Store....if the school has woolies like alpacas and parrots, those byproducts can be sold. Even slut wool can be sold for stuffing pet beds and such.

Pet products..... if you have crafty people, sew dog beds, sell at pet shops.

Teddy Bear Fair.... work with people who sew to offer minor repairs of stuffed animals for kids one day. Have other 'plush' related activities/games for the kids. Charge an entry fee or ask for donations.

Compost sales

If you have gardners in the area, you might be able to arrange a 'wildlife feeding' plant sale.

T-shirts aimed at family/friends/etc. I have a friend with an old shirt that says 'We spent $X at [school] so our child can play with poop!'.... I think, in that case, it was an elephant sanctuary that also sold elephant compost and had a cartoon of a keeper behind the elephant shoveling.... but cute/humerous stuff aimed at others works. Also, shirts aimed at alumni's kids.

I don't know if any of those will work. I have used them at various educational institutes and non profits.

I have others, but not sure how they could be adapted to vet school

 

[VAgirl]

Awesome, guys, thanks for the ideas! Keep 'em coming! Ideally we can brainstorm a bunch here and then maybe identify some of the best/revise others as needed and have big arsenal of ideas. I suspect the issue I'm seeing here isn't only at this school.

Yay creative SDNers. 🙂

 

[No Imagination]

The best way to truly generate money via fund raising is to get someone to DONATE something. If you hold a benefit, or a car wash, or whatever, all you are doing in trading your time for their money. Probably be more efficient to just hold a vet student donation day or something, because that is what you are doing.

However, if you can get someone to donate something (non-tangible), then you can truely make some money. Take the Brits idea - they are trading something that doesn't cost anything (ok, perhaps a bit of dignity by our prudish views of sexuality) but generates some cold hard cash 😉

Vet schools (students) are in a pretty unique position. Everyone loves animals and many would love to support you.

How about you buy a Fender Strat (or Gibson), and write a few letters to your favorite guitarist about your need to raise money... FOR THE ANIMALS. Tell them how you would LOVE to be able to auction off an autographed guitar by your's truly. Would you be interested in helping out, for the sake of the animals?! (Make sure you get the right guitar to the right person... (then again, if you get Clapton to sign a Gibson, ill buy it off your myself)).

Reason I said this, is I had a bit of success raising money for an animal welfare organization by doing this. Not quite autographed guitars (but my other tab is open to a wiki page of Brian May, so my mind is elsewhere).

I think it is easier getting people to give money (or their cloths) for animals then starving kids. I don't know why, but I've seen more women strip for PETA then starving Ethiopians, i'll never really understand the link, but you should consider exploiting it (not literally, per say)

 

[VAgirl]

Good ideas, NI. My concern in some of this, though, is that we're not fund raising for the animals directly. Indirectly, sure. But directly we're fund raising for our board reviews and a big party. The board exams seems like an easier sell, it's a step in our education which is more directly related to helping people and their animals. The big party we'll throw at graduation, well...the only real connection that I can find is that if we pay less for it, we won't take on quite as much debt and theoretically may not have to charge as much down the road (theoretically).

But that is one challenge I'm facing in thinking about this is it's not a charity we're talking about...

Does that change the way anyone else thinks about this? I still think there are some fabulous ideas that have been thrown out that I'd still be comfortable organizing.

Another one that occurred to me is a vet student auction where the talents of vet students are auctioned off to the public. We've done these, but aimed at vet students. It'd be cool if we could do it with the Davis community. We'd have to be careful to make it clear that the vet students couldn't really do anything medical for people. But maybe minor fun stuff? Unsure. And then of course people have their non-vet med skills...baking, cooking, fixing stuff, whatever.

 

[No Imagination]

Good ideas, NI. My concern in some of this, though, is that we're not fund raising for the animals directly.

That tidbit doesn't keep Sally Struthers awake at night, I wouldn't worry about it. But I see what you are saying, and it is probably a thin line you would be walking. But in reality, the line "For the children" gets thrown around all the time, I don't see why raising money for vet students should be so difficult, but this is getting out of my area of expertise (admittedly, such morally gray areas never really concerned me much)

Another one that occurred to me is a vet student auction where the talents of vet students are auctioned off to the public. ...
But maybe minor fun stuff? Unsure. And then of course people have their non-vet med skills...baking, cooking, fixing stuff, whatever.

Considering that vet students are like, +70% female... I dunno. Personally i think people are too PC crazy, but you might get more flak then you would prefer with that one -

"Do I hear $100 dollars guys? Come on? She's a professional, holds a degree in Molecular Biology and Veterinary Medicine, with interests in Paratology and Molecular Immunology, and for $100 she will cook you brownies and bring you beer for a day..."

 

[GeeQued]

Not sure how great my suggestions are but its stuff I've done for some clubs I've been president of and can be pretty profitable.

The first is (providing theres animals to use) but setting up a petting zoo at local fairs ( I know woodland has one in summer) our livestock show team does this at our pumpkin festival and sells a cup of food for like 50 cents and it actually makes like 200$

Another, still with animals is cow pie bingo, another thing best done at a fair and needs at least 2 cows and we sell tickets for each square, we sold about $400 worth and 100 of that went in to prizes while the rest of the prizes were donated. We also did Kiss the Cow where students nominated professors to have to kiss the cow, sheep, goat, or pig and then sold tickets for it, the top 4 had to kiss one and the only way out was to put money down on another professor, kinda lame but it was good for our school cause Pomona is in kinda a non-farm industrial area with lots of students from LA so we had all the animals in our quad and we prolly had over 100 student who came up just to pet the cow because they had never been that close to one before.

Those both could be something done at picnic day or some other events.

Non-animal needed events one club I was president of sold Scripts (giftcards) I use to buy them all the time cause they can be for useful stuff like gas/groceries so I'd go buy a $50 gift card which would cost the school 47 to purchase from the scripts (this is what grocery stores do with all those gift cards)

Other things that worked but Im not such a fan of is entertainment books, tupperware, magazine sales. I know the feeling you have cause I went through the same thing where it was pretty much the club members/parents that ended up buying most the stuff and it got old.

Maybe even something fun like a class tournment (we did this with my horse show competitions) between each class and whoever wins gets the jackpot (maybe from a fundraiser that all 4 classes participated in)

 

[GeeQued]

That tidbit doesn't keep Sally Struthers awake at night, I wouldn't worry about it. But I see what you are saying, and it is probably a thin line you would be walking. But in reality, the line "For the children" gets thrown around all the time, I don't see why raising money for vet students should be so difficult, but this is getting out of my area of expertise (admittedly, such morally gray areas never really concerned me much)



Considering that vet students are like, +70% female... I dunno. Personally i think people are too PC crazy, but you might get more flak then you would prefer with that one -

"Do I hear $100 dollars guys? Come on? She's a professional, holds a degree in Molecular Biology and Veterinary Medicine, with interests in Paratology and Molecular Immunology, and for $100 she will cook you brownies and bring you beer for a day..."

Our school just did something where they auctioned off student gov't or guys from the atheletics dept on dates, I believe the dinners were donated. Probably in the veterinary world it would be better to auction the guys off.

 

[twelvetigers]

...and for $100 she will cook you brownies and bring you beer for a day..."

I'll make brownies and fetch beer for $100 anyday! Heck, I can do better than brownies... how about German chocolate cake or something?

 

[pressmom]

Our feline club does a fundraiser cat show. We've been doing it just for students and staff, but there's no reason you can't do it for the community. So many people have DSHs and LDHs that they love that aren't eligible for pure bred cat shows. Each owner makes a diorama and dresses their cat up (if the cat will let them!) and prizes are given for fun categories. You could charge an entry fee and get gift certificates donated from local businesses for prizes.

Also, our SCAMVA does a 5k run/dog jog around Halloween that is open for the public. There is an entry fee and participants get a t-shirt. There are prizes for the fastest male and female to finish.

 

[InfiniVet]

What our school does is hold annual BBQ's - and I mean BIG BBQ's with live music, dancing, raffle prizes (sponsored by drug companies & local businesses but it's usually ipod/wii/restaurant gift certificates stuff) etc. All the students and professors and some members of the community show up. It makes a lot of money!!

Another thing we do is Open House: http://www.cvm.tamu.edu/openhouse/

That makes a serious ton of money for all the classes and it comes strictly and directly from non-vet students.

 

[Airborne Vet]

In undergrad we raised money with a drag show. You'd be amazed how many people turn out to see their favorite professor wearing a dress.

 

[twelvetigers]

In undergrad we raised money with a drag show. You'd be amazed how many people turn out to see their favorite professor wearing a dress.

I'd hate to be the one pitching that idea to them for the first time...

 

[starlene45]

I'd hate to be the one pitching that idea to them for the first time...

would you rather pitch profs in drag or the naked students on the calendar? 😀 i mean, this is northern california we're talking about here... drag's not exactly a foreign concept to us....... although i guess it's more foreign to davis than to good old SF.😎

I think there are a lot of great suggestions on here and can't wait to find out what VAGirl ends up doing. And I fully intend on stealing some of these ideas when it's 2013's time to raise money!

 

[VAgirl]

And I fully intend on stealing some of these ideas when it's 2013's time to raise money!

Which will be from day one practically. Honestly, what I'm trying to do will hopefully benefit you guys as well (or maybe most of all), because you arrive here and our class will give you guys a quick rundown on class officer positions, fund raising, you elect officers, and then your class has their fundraiser in the first quarter, so you start almost immediately. That's my problem with it--you're (we're) basically given no time to think about whether we're doing it right, we just hit the ground running.

We'll see what I'm able to convince everyone is reasonable regarding our fund raising strategy. I'll keep you posted. 🙂

 

[bunnity]

"Do I hear $100 dollars guys? Come on? She's a professional, holds a degree in Molecular Biology and Veterinary Medicine, with interests in Paratology and Molecular Immunology, and for $100 she will cook you brownies and bring you beer for a day..."

Haha my (male) cousin did a charity auction where he was auctioned off for a "date" that night. I think he only brought in $40 though - that was before he had his degree.

 

[GeeQued]

So how bout all of the Davis 2013's on sdn start brainstorming now LOL.

 

[LVT2DVM]

Future Veterinarians Carnival for Kids. Hospital tour, Teddy bear surgery, Big inflatable jumpers, Hot dogs, Popcorn and Cotton candy. Pony rides and petting zoo possibly? Parents are always looking for something fun to do with the kids on the weekends. You can easily make fun carnival games like throwing a ring on the 2 liter soda bottle (get cheap bottles of pop to give as prizes), duck pond, bean bag toss, ect... You can sell wrist bands for all activites or seperate tickets for each game/activity.

 

[guppy73]

Future Veterinarians Carnival for Kids. Hospital tour, Teddy bear surgery, Big inflatable jumpers, Hot dogs, Popcorn and Cotton candy. Pony rides and petting zoo possibly? Parents are always looking for something fun to do with the kids on the weekends. You can easily make fun carnival games like throwing a ring on the 2 liter soda bottle (get cheap bottles of pop to give as prizes), duck pond, bean bag toss, ect... You can sell wrist bands for all activites or seperate tickets for each game/activity.

Cute idea! Throw in police dog, agility, and/or freestyle demos, cool things to look at under microscopes, and some pet safety/bite prevention info for parents and you've got yourself a full day of fun! I can think of many big "kids" (my husband, for one) who'd love this. 🙂

 

[bunnity]

Car + dog wash?

 

[veterinarygirl]

These are some good fundraising ideas. Another one I would like to add is making dog treats and selling them at local veterinary clinics, events, etc.

I see this thread is a a few years old. Does anyone have any additional fundraising ideas that have worked in the past, especially any that are geared more towards exotic and companion animals?