Giving Back
Posted by George Pasley on May 15, 2008
Like other financial institutions, we are also involved in community service. One charity that our employees participate in is the American Cancer Society’s “Relay For Life“. This is a special charity to me because my mother was a cancer survivor. I had the pleasure of serving as our team’s captain two years ago and co-captain last year. Unfortunately, I had to relinquish my captain duties this year but I am an active participant on the team.
Over the past few years, First Federal has been successful with raising the most team donations. It looks like we may have that honor again this year. Other teams have asked how we were so successful, especially since we do a majority of our fundraising in just four months. Along with the standard luminaria and track signs, we also have bake sales, hotdog sales, and a car wash. Our largest fundraising event is our silent auction.
For our auction, we call around to local businesses and get donations. Some things we have offered are lunch baskets (gift certificates from local restaurants), spa sessions, golf packages and other baskets that departments and branches put together. What really makes it exciting is we made it into an online auction, a la eBay.
The idea started a couple of years ago when someone suggested that we have a silent auction as a fundraiser. After we all agreed to have it, I suggested that instead of the normal silent auction, we run it through our intranet. I figured that if we “eBay” it, that would drive up the excitement and the bids. As it turns out, it was hilarious watching the bids go up and people trying to time that last bid at the final second before the auction closed.
This was the third year that we had our auction and we were able to raise just over $5000. So, if you happen to have a web developer or two on staff, an online auction could be useful. Also, this lets all of your staff participate. It’s very easy to sign-on to the intranet and bid instead of being limited to just the corporate staff.
If you’d like to contribute to our Relay For Life team, you can donate here, on my participant page. Thanks and good luck with your fundraising events.
Image provided by American Cancer Society
