After sending off a few hundred dollars to various causes and people who are in dire need, I started to wonder if there was a better way to raise more money with less. I am not sure what the average age of a kossack is, but I have ideas that range from high school to retirement that could really help out our friends in need.
Starting in a psdo-chronological order, High School. When ever any of my clubs do fundraising they always bring in some professional group that gives us those entertainment books or some other gitchy-goomy thing to sell people. Its almost like a small industry... scary. I started to raise money through the old fashion bake sale and found that it was more efficient and effective than any of those other ones. For my Junior State of America chapter, we were able to raise $1,000 for conventions just through bake sales.
When Katrina hit last year, I went into full fundraising mode for raising money for the Red Cross. I raised by myself about $500 in two days. And that was with just brownies. I kept it going for as long as I had brownie mix in the basement and in total raised $1,000.
For any reader that is in high school, middle school, private school, college, university, any school this method could be applied to raise money for our various causes. Stories of people skipping lunches, driving less, selling assets to aid in making the nation a better place are heart wrenching to me. They go the extra mile to help make change for the better. I know this sounds really weird almost but imagine if say there were a few thousand kossacks that were in school and could raise $50 each just by selling two or three batches of brownies? My math isn't the best but that could be around $10,000 for a cause!
How to implement this plan, well, that is where I lack the experience and ideas. Maybe by stressing it in a few posts here or there, talking to friends, or something along those lines we could get the idea out there. It could be phrased as "Student + baked goods = democratic majority!". Now, I know that was horrible, but I am sure there are many of you who would do a much better job at it.
My ideas about if you are no longer in the educational system are a tad different. While selling brownies at work could still work, I guess it could be a little awkward or something along those lines. Getting back on track, I am a rabid fan of Halo and the one thing that the Halo community has done is auctioning off Halo paraphernalia to the community to raise money for various charities. Imagine if you might, we put 100 signed photos of Howard Dean up for auction or just sale. The overhead would be maybe $15 and could raise anywhere from $10 to $100. Of course, in the off chance, this could all fail and be a waste of time and effort, but I know I would put down $50 to get a signed photo of Howard Dean and know that the proceeds went to putting another DNC staffer in a state that needs the help. Maybe we could convince John from AMERICAblog to sell some of his prized lilies (clippings, bulbs, seeds would probably be a tad better) or maybe sell recipes, the possibilities are only limited by the variety of people who visit DailyKos.
After reading entry after entry of a progressive candidate that needs the funds to get up and roaring, soldiers that need help paying for the basic necessities that our government criminally passes off onto them, I am fed up. Protesting might help, but by me going into school Monday, raising $50 and writing a check to any of our causes I think can do some much good. I apologize for the general shanty quality of this diary, this is only my fourth. We need to consider more ways that we can make a little of our time and money mean bigger and better things in the future.