Case Study 1: Faux Run = Real Money
When the Rotary Club of Anderson, Ind. needed to organize a fund-raiser to fulfill its $15,000 pledge to Rotary International's Polio Plus campaign, Tom Bannon volunteered to chair an event committee.
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The challenge turned out to be a bit more daunting than the committee originally anticipated. Ideas ranged from an event geared towards roses—which was one of T. Franklin's passions—to a masquerade ball. However, nothing seemed to resonate with the group.
"We had a few meetings and still hadn't come up with anything we really liked," said Bannon. "The idea to do something with roses was considered for a while, but ultimately we weren't sure it could raise the needed funds. We kept falling back on the idea of a golf outing, but there are already so many of those and none of us were really excited about adding another. Plus, it didn't really pertain to T. Franklin."
Finally, during the third or fourth committee meeting, Tom came up with an idea. "I started to think about other common fund-raisers, in addition to golf outings," said Bannon. "One of the things that came to mind was the charity 3K or 5K walk/run event. However, I knew many members of our club would not or could not participate in something like that. But what if we didn't actually run? What if we just faked it? Everyone could do that."
Thus, the Anderson Rotary Club T. Franklin Miller Faux Run came into existence. Club members have the option of not running a 3K, 5K, mini-marathon, or marathon, depending on the size of their donation. Like "real" run events, all of the participants get t-shirts when they arrive with the event logo on front and event sponsors on back. But, that is where the similarities end.
"We get our shirts and then sit around and have dinner and a party," says Bannon. "We have additional fund-raisers throughout the night like silent auctions and such, but the main revenues come from club members and t-shirt sponsors. It is everything we were looking to do. It raises money, it is sustainable, it is definitely unique, everyone in the club can participate, and it honors T. Franklin's wry sense of humor. He'd get a kick out of knowing we held a run in his honor where no one actually ran!"
The event just concluded its third year and nearly $30,000 has been raised to support Rotary International and local club projects.
How do you make replacing a leaking roof an appealing fund-raiser? You don't make it about the roof.
What do you do when you have a wall that needs to be about seven feet high on one side, but only about five feet high on the other? That was the problem facing Tom Bannon when he worked at Hoosier Park, a pari-mutuel horse racing facility in Anderson, Ind.
Working in a team environment is something Tom Bannon enjoys immensely. In 2004, he got an opportunity to work on a team project for Churchill Downs Incorporated (CDI) that was very challenging and rewarding.