Fundraising Ideas

A fun race that everyone can finish! Run or walk one tenth of a kilometer or: 328 feet, 750 hot dogs end to end, 100 meters, 355 cute furry kittens nose to tail, about six laps around a pickup truck, 10,000 centimeters … you get the idea. Two posts in Illinois have been hosting an annual .1K Race event for quite a few years! VFW Post 805 in Illinois was the first to do this as a fundraiser. See how they did it here.

Learn how you can create your very own .1K Fun Run. 

“Penny War” Fundraiser – idea from Tracy McGlynn, 2018-19 Department of Indiana Auxiliary Buddy Poppy/National Home Chairman. This is how it works:

Ask the districts in your department to compete with one another to collect the most pennies for the VFW National Home for Children. Start collecting pennies in July, with the first leg of the contest being the Fall Conference in October. First place and last place each receive some kind of “prize” (maybe a crown for first place and a pacifier necklace for last.) These prizes are worn by the District Presidents who hold onto them until the Spring Conference in February. At the Spring Conference, these prizes are worn by the District Presidents that have collected the most and least pennies. The contest ends at Spring Conference; however, lots of districts and auxiliaries continue to turn money in after spring.​

All money collected is donated to the National Home at the Department State Convention.

“Nickels for Nursery” Fundraiser – idea from Karen Dotson, Past Department President – Dept. of New York (2016-2017). This is how it works: 

Give your District Presidents plastic baby bottles to bring with them on their official visits to their Auxiliaries and ask members to fill the bottles with coins of all types and silent money if they wish. Use the time frame from installation in June to the following April. 

Encourage Auxiliaries to get their own baby bottle to put on their Post’s bar and circulate it during meetings. Ask them to have it out at their Family Freedom Festival events, etc. Send all donations to the Department Treasurer, and then in May send the final check to the National Home, or better yet arrange a visit!

“Meat Raffle” Fundraiser – idea from Dave Ouellette, VFW Department of New Hampshire. This is how it works:

​Raise money for the National Home with a Meat Raffle Fundraiser! First get 10 decks of cards, shuffle, then take three cards and staple together so you can see the numbers and suits. Keep picking three and staple the same way, keep doing this until all 10 decks are stapled in groups of three (note, you may need more than 10 decks for larger playing groups).

Sell each pack of three for $1; a person can buy as many packs of three as they wish. Put all the stapled cards in an open box and let the player pick their own pack.

​With a complete deck the caller then shuffles and places the deck facedown and flips the top card and calls it out.

The players who bought the packs will then put a marker (penny, dime or whatever they have on hand) on the card the caller just called if they have a match.

This continues, caller picking next card from the deck and players marking the cards. 

When the player has his three cards marked, he yells “RAFFLE!”, and gets the prize; if more than one person yells raffle they all will cut a new deck with the highest card, ace is high, winning the prize and the others get $5. 

Then all the pack of 3 cards are returned to the box, shaken up and sold over again for round 2, this procedures continues for all 21 rounds.

​The caller reshuffles his deck before each round.

There are 18 meat prizes and two $25 prizes. The last game is a 50/50, with the half of the pot going to the winner and half going to the National Home. (Note that you should deduct the cost of the meat prizes from the pot before the 50/50 is paid out.)

​Examples of some prizes:

1. 3 dozen eggs, 3lbs bacon, 3lbs sausage
2. 6lbs pork loin
3. 6lbs chicken drumsticks/thighs
4. $25 cash
5. 3lbs. beef round roast
6. 4lbs ham steak
7. 4lbs pork chops
8. 3lbs strip steak
9. 5lbs sweet/hot Italian sausage