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My daughter, Annie, attended JrNYLC in the summer of 2004. In April, she started a baking service. She took orders a week in advance, collected payments, and delivered the goods to her customers. Most of her customers were teachers, friends of the family or business acquaintances. She had one very large order (90 dozen blueberry muffins!) which was ordered by a lobbyist group in Tallahassee, FL and delivered to Florida Legislators! We took special care with that order-- putting the muffins in colorful bags with bows, and attached a tag to explain how the lobbyist group had helped Annie raise money.
Other funds were raised when Annie spoke to a meeting of my husband's Knights of Columbus group, and a board meeting of a physician's group.
Personal donations came from family members, friends and business acquaintances. All of these donations helped Annie pay us back for the tuition, and pay for some of her travel expenses to Washington, D.C.!
The list of ideas on the JrNYLC web site was very helpful, but it also helped to "brainstorm" and think of all the possible people/groups out there that might be able to help. The total amount of personal donations really ended up providing most of the funds, but Annie's baking service contributed a significant amount as well.
What we learned about the fundraising process was that you have to be creative, open-minded, organized, and believe in your goal enough that you won't mind asking people to help you out. And... kids need help from their parents or another adult in their life to help them with this. They need the encouragement that they CAN do this!
WRITE THANK-YOU NOTES! This is important. People who have helped you deserve a thank-you. We made a postcard out of a photo of Annie taken while at JrNYLC to send to donors after the conference to let them know that she really did go, and that she learned so much! That was greatly appreciated by our donors.
What a great experience it was for Annie to be invited to JrNYLC, be able to pay her own way by working hard to earn the money, and to have the great time she had learning and meeting new friends!
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