A way to get more donations?

[Lard Almighty]

After reading some of the threads in this forum, it seems that the general consensus is that not enough people are getting involved in the organizations that are fighting for fishermen's rights. In order to give these organizations a better shot at receiving financial support from anglers who may not be aware of their efforts, or may just be apathetic about taking action, I was thinking that maybe some charter boat captains and tackle shop owners could set up donation boxes in their boats and shops. This way the opportunity to donate is ever present in places where anglers gather anyway, and may encourage people who wouldn't act on their own to donate, by removing the need for effort.

This obviously wouldn't substitute for taking the more aggressive actions that are being discussed here; I simply thought this might be a good way to supplement those efforts. I know that if I saw a donation box to support an organization that is fighting for me, I wouldn't hesitate to drop a few dollars in it.

Has anyone already instituted something like this? If so, has it worked?

[dales529]

LA,
Thanks for the idea, that has been discussed along with many other ideas but not yet instituted as we discuss all the options etc.
With all of the "fundraiser" ideas there are some logistics that have to be worked out such as:
1) As each "bucket" gets filled, who will be responsible for Managing the money and distributing it to the proper organization etc etc. You would NOT believe the amount of questions, mis-trust etc that comes along with trying to run ANY type of fundraising.
2) Even simple donation boxes come with some regulations per the "charitable" organization and varies if its handled via the private sector (EG: You or me) vs the Tackle Shop / Boat Etc. Even the municpalities have different regs. including in some cases permits are required if holding a raffle/ drawing etc.

The easiest way to accomplish the goal and its been said MANY times is send a small donation directly to the organization of choice. I guess its human nature that some feel its embarrassing to send a dollar or 5 dollars to the RFA or whomever but IMAGINE if everone here did just THAT. There would be much less of a need for larger type fundraisers.

Rest assured this is being discussed and again thanks for the post and idea.


http://www.njfishing.com/forums/showthread.php?t=16391

[The Sinker Man]

LA
.You are right about not enough people are doing nothing to help themselfs..There are also a large amount of fishermen that don't even know that there are people fighting for them and that money seems to be the key...There are some VERY good people on this site that is keeping US informed, but that is on this site..There are thousands of people on this site alone, but it seems that it is the same few that break their balls to get the message out to us...
Fundraisers COULD work, but again it would be the same people doing all the work...Just ask Dave, after months of trying to put together a fundraiser for the SSFFF, only a handfull actually showed up...There should have been many boats being chartered for that...Plus there is all the other stuff that he brought up in his last post..
But still the word about these organizations have to get out there..When's the last time you entered a tackle shop or anyplace fo that matter and saw anything about what's going on or how to send donations to them?
My suggestion would be to have someone with knowledge of who is on our side to type out a simple explantion of the organization on a cover sheet and perhaps a donation sheet to that org. One copy could be sent to anyone that requested it so that THEY could print up some copies to be put on their head boats or on their tables at the fleas markets that they have tables at.