Ryan Sowala is organizing a car show fundraiser to help a woman diagnosed with cancer who lost her house paying for medical treatments. With guidance from his project facilitator, who owns a private fundraising business, Ryan plans to effectively advertise the event, encourage donations, and ensure volunteers have meaningful roles to make the fundraiser a success. If successful, the car show will help the woman afford housing as she battles cancer.

1. Ryan Sowala
Senior Paper
Corbett
Senior Paper
My senior project is essentially a beneficial car show. All the proceeds of this car show
are going towards a woman at Freehome Elementary. She has been diagnosed with cancer, and
recently she has lost her house due to the money she has been spending on radio-therapy.
Through this car show, I will not only be reaching out to her, but I will also be advancing my
knowledge of running a fundraiser. This, in and of itself, is valuable knowledge that most people
do not have the chance to come by. My project facilitator is currently a manager of his own
private fundraising business that benefits brain cancer and cerebral tumors. He is extremely
knowledgeable in this area and with his help I will put on a car show to the best of my abilities.
Through his guidance and also through what I have researched, I have learned many valuable
fundraising tips that I can confidently say will make my car show a hit.
One of the first things I learned about fundraising is how to effectively orchestrate an
event. I learned to always keep your purpose at the front of your campaign. From my personal
experience, I have seen that it is easy to get so caught up in planning events that you lose sight of
the reason behind them. Luckily, thanks to my project facilitator, I have been set back on the
right mindset. A good strategy I learned to keep fundraising interesting is that although you need
a certain dollar amount to achieve your goal, while measuring your success substitute milestones
for dollars to make fundraising fun. For instance, in raising money for diabetes, it’s more fun for
both donors and volunteers to see the plane or bus as it gets closer to the projected amount than it
is to see a thermometer rising with collected dollars. In a report, it is more beneficial for the

2. event planner if the contributors to have a physical representation of the goal as compared to a
momentary value. Also, one must be detailed in outlining financial goals. A good reminder from
my project facilitator was to remember to include fundraising expenses in along with the amount
you need to meet your purpose. For instance, even if you believe members will donate the
projected output you need, still estimate the cost of the event in a whole, and add it into your
goal amount. I also read to create a timeline that begins with planning time, then moves through
a fundraising kickoff, scheduled events, and then to the projected end date of the entirety of the
campaign. However, I was told to remember my fundraiser doesn’t end when I collect the last
dollar I need. I was reminded to include time to send out thank-yous to donors and volunteers
and to issue rewards and/or prizes associated with your fundraiser. At the car show, I plan to
hand out trophies, prizes, and possibly t-shirts for the top cars.
Another point that I have been doing is to research everything that goes into the event. I
was mentored to put possible ideas on paper and balance the estimated costs and complexity of
each with the likely outcome. This way, I can find out if there are any extraneous situations that
I will not be suited to handle. One of the most important things that I do is build a winning team
and find experienced volunteers from past fundraisers. I plan to employ the help of my friends
whom have also volunteered for car shows with me and then also a few who have never done
a beneficial event. I decided to go this route because it matches the talents and interests of both
new volunteers and veteran members with their assignments. The volunteers will be evenly split
between experienced and new workers. Also, to help the volunteers with their jobs, I designed
a fundraising packet that explains each of the volunteers’ specific role and their overall function
at the fundraising event. However, I assume some of them will ask the question of “What’s in
it for me?”. I already know the answer before they even ask the question. In a survey from an

3. anonymous organization, the biggest question asked by any volunteer is “What’s in it for me?”.
My response, in addition to the normal and moral answer of “the gratification of giving”, I will
add that they can help with awards and be in charge of the fun jobs of the event.
Of course, one is holding a fundraiser to earn money, but I must make sure to let
prospective donors know that their time and/or expertise is valuable as well. For instance, in
promoting a pasta dinner, as well as relaying the time, the menu, and the price, one could ask
for donations of foodstuffs or volunteers to serve food, wait tables, wash dishes, etc. In asking
for monetary donations, one can also include a “needs list”. In my case, I need volunteers, post
cards, fliers, t-shirts and awards. One thing that is crucial to do is to “sell up.” For example, “Do
you want fries with that burger?”, or at a Christmas craft sale, add gift-wrapping for an extra
dollar. I plan to collect money as registration for the car show, but I will also have donation cans
next to my main area. I also intend to encourage the contributors to donate more and promote the
cause as much as I possibly can.
I plan to get most of my funds through sponsors. Through my project facilitator, I
have been given the chance to obtain many sponsors. With their help I can advertise my cause. I
intend to pay for the post cards which will be sent many mailboxes. The post cards will have the
date of the event, the reason why I am hosting it, and the overall goal of my event. After the
postcards, I want to purchase fliers to put up around towns and ask certain stores if I may use
their facility to post my event. Also, I will put them up in my school to promote the people in my
generation to contribute. The younger population, I project, will end up contributing more due to
the exciting events I have planned for the car show. Furthermore, I need t-shirts and awards.
These are not cheap items. Luckily, I know someone who manufactures t-shirts and he has
volunteered to help my cause by donating them. For the awards, I am hoping a sponsor will help

4. donate the money required for me to purchase the trophies. Through this mass amount of
advertising directed to anyone and everyone, I intend to pull a mass crowd that will hopefully
raise money to help this struggling family, and more importantly the woman herself.
One thing that I also am going to employ as part of a strategy is always keeping a positive
attitude towards my volunteers. In a poll, the statistics showed that if the leader of an event is
positive and upbeat, that it will actually attract more revenue for your cause. I believe there is
truth in this as positive people generally have a natural tendency to attract more people to them.
In a fundraising scenario, this will gather more people at your event and due to the nature of
the event, make them want to donate towards my cause. Another way of getting the best results
is to personally introduce my volunteers to the person whom I am putting this car show on
for. Through this, I believe they will be more motivated for personal reasons to help her and
therefore being more productive in their tasks at the event. As a result of my volunteers being
more productive, it will encourage more people to come and ultimately more money will be
raised for my cause.
With all the combined help I will be receiving from my project facilitator,
sponsors and my volunteers, this can be a very profitable and successful event. Through the mass
amount of advertising I plan to do, this event will reach far and wide. Posting the event in places
such as Creekview High-school, Publix, Carmike Cinemas, the local newspaper, and
Creekview’s news letter should promote the event to its fullest potential. In return of all the
effort of advertising, the event will hopefully become popular and have a large amounts of
attendants. In lieu of the mass of people that will hopefully attend the event, they will contribute
to the cause and through the plans I have to encourage them to donate more, the attendants will
donate more money and the event will be even more profitable. In a combined effort of me and

5. all my help, this beneficial car show will go off without a hitch and provide the revue that this
family needs. The family I am helping really needs this money and through this car show, I plan
to help to the best of my abilities. Since they lost their house, my purpose is to help them get
back up on their feet and eventually see them through until Sandy, the woman with cancer, has
beaten this battle.
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