Judith Reppucci of Cape Cod, Massachusetts writes:
“I do pro bono work helping a very small nonprofit organization, Wings for Falmouth Families, here on Cape Cod. The organization helps families which have children experiencing a medical crisis, and it’s trying to raise money through a “Ladies of Wickford”-style calendar featuring “saucy but discreet” photos of prominent local men. It’s being sold at local bookstores and on the group’s website for $20.
“Printing problems delayed promotion, and although my news releases have managed to place column notices and articles in the local papers, we are far from our projected sales goals. My primary work as a freelance copywriter involves writing fundraising letters, and I want to use the Chamber of Commerce to send an email blast to businesses, but the organization doesn’t seem to see the value. Do your wonderful Hounds have any other advice for a last-ditch sales effort?”
Get your calendar “stars” to promote the calendars at local clubs and organizations like Rotary, Kiwaniis, book clubs, writer’s groups, etc. Don’t forget physician staff meetings (surely they would understand the purpose), hospital auxiliaries, and red cross and cancer societies. Contact local stores to feature them… Because it’s already January you may have to give a small discount. Advertise your web site on other sites… like cancer society, red cross, etc. Each of your members and each of your models has contacts… use them! It’s too late to look for something easy, it’s time to get out and “pound the pavement” so to speak! Forgive me for being “cheeky” but Cape Cod has a huge gay community… market these where they can see them! Tourists sites are good as well.
Good luck for a good cause.
Linda Williams, Training Focus
Check out PRWeb and do a news release. No reason your calendar to benefit the children has to stay local. If you’re not familiar with PRWeb, sign up for the free webinar that takes you through what they offer, the pricing levels, etc. Something as small as the $80 package will link you to lots of media (there are smaller and larger packages). PRWeb also sets it up so that you can track your hits, how many of those hits are media, how many times it’s forwarded (and you can forward it yourself to newspapers around the state or beyond from that site), and how many times someone printed it. Another idea is to find Global Talk Radio online. They charge $35 to host a radio interview and maintain it for a period of time. You can then forward the link to others. They also do a PRWeb release about the interview…which you can do as well. Best wishes and tremendous success!
I’d recommend having a calendar-signing event with guys from the calendar on hand to sign and sell copies anyplace where the calendars are being sold (local bookstore?). I would contact your local TV news producers as this would be a good visual to film, especially if the guys are big names in town. It would be a fun, feel-good feature for the news. And hold your calendar-signing on a Saturday or Sunday when news stations are desperate for good material. Our PRSA chapter recently hosted a panel of local newscasters and they told us they start stressing about what to run on the weekends (when viewership is at its highest) as early as Wednesday since news stories dwindle on weekends, and to submit information to them THREE ways (fax, email and then call). Good luck!
See if your models will sell them at their businesses. I’m sure they will stick out in their customer’s memories as someone willing to “bear all” for a good cause.
Also see if local beauty salons/spas that cater to women will sell them as well.
This is a little out there, but if you could convince one of the men — say Mr. February — to stand outside selling calenders in the Cape Cod cold wearing a suitably saucy-skimpy outfit, you might be able to get some good media coverage of his LACK of coverage. A picture is worth a thousand icecicles hanging from his body, after all.
First, I would ask each Board member to help sell a pre-determined amount in their circles of friends, co-workers, clubs and the like. Then I would try to get the calendars placed in high traffic stores and/or restaurants, such as coffee shops, bookstores, card shops, etc. And I would definitely try to place some in the hospital gift shop. The calendars need to be easily available as an impulse buy.
Many restaurants will also donate a portion of a night’s sales to charity. Perhaps instead of a donation, you could ask the restaurants to tell their patrons about the calendar on one or two designated nights (ideally a Friday and Saturday) to help push your inventory.
1) Put the calendars on ebay, arrange for a large bid to be made for one of them, and alert the media.
2) Set up a photo-shoot with the businessmen’s dignity covered only by the calendars – and use the caption “Buy now – imagine if there were less than 12 copies remaining”.
3) Arrange an event at the weekend where the calendar subjects will be strolling around the town, fully clothed. The first out-of-towner to spot them all wins a prize – of course, all entrants need to buy a calendar.
I don’t mean to be a wet mop, but are you sure a saucy calendar is an appropriate way to raise money for kids with serious illnesses? How about something like a kids art calendar, or poems, or letters. Remember, whether it’s saucy or serious, it’s going to be a charity purchase. Which is more likely to end up on someone’s refrigerator? Good luck either way.