Thoughts on Donors for KY Lake shindig

[M R Dux]

I know this is the 3rd year I've personally been involved in getting door prizes together for the shindig. With this economy and lots of small businesses having a rough time making ends meet, donations are hard to come by. I know how many requests for donations business people get because there is rarely a week that goes by that I'm not asked to donate to some group or cause.

I spoke to one donor who has helped us out the last couple of years and lets face it, donors expect to see a benefit from their donations. They need to see an increase in sales from a geographic area to make it worthwhile to continue donating. In a perfect world, all of us small business folks would be doing so great that we needed to show some donations on our tax return to offset the huge amounts of income we made each year. Sadly, that is not the case right now and for some of these donors to give to our event, it takes a benefit to justify giving.

How do we help out those who donate? We use the items they donate then we put our gratitude for them having donated the item to the event both here and any other fishing or outdoor related place we can. If you like the lure pack you won, tell the world about it. If the rod you won has some good and bad points that the donor might want to know about, let them know. We are all adults here and sometimes criticism is the best way to make a product better. Either way, we should be going out of our way to help out those who are gracious enough to donate to our event.

[dkb23]

Totally agree! Good post Doug.

[cajun fryer]

I agree,
I get hit up all the time for this and that. Unfortunally the places I give to don't need machine work. Or if they do it's something that we don't want to do. But i do give to a few things around my area. I CANNOT give to them all I wish i could.
Until you are self employed, you will have no idea how many people are out there asking for a donation for there cause.

I usually don't ask for donations because I don't want them comming back to me. I know that sounds bad.

So this year i was ordering the fish breading mix that I am going to fry the fish in. I was going to buy 6 smaller bags to give away.
So when I called in my order I told the guy what we are doing and that I wanted 6 smaller bags to give away and he gave me the 6 to give away. I thought that was very nice of him because he is in Bartonville Illinois and I don't think he will get much back for his donation. I will keep getting from him.

Once or twice before we have gotten stuff from Grizzley jig Company.
So now i order stuff from them. Somtimes it's not much some times it is. But I make sure I tell whom ever I am talking to on the phone that I am part of the CDC north end Kentucky Lake shin dig and that I appreciate there donation.
I did buy 6 Sam Heatons from them.

I think we should make a list of everything we get and send a thank you note to each one,post pictures with a thankyou again this year.
If you win somthing make sure you use it. Post it on here and maybe send the company an e-mail thanking them and tell them how well it worked for you.
It's allway easy to post about somthing you don't like so post the good stuff. I would much rather read that.

I sent an E-mail the first year we had this about how well my Cajun Fryer worked against the other one.
I sent a picture and the guy about fell out his chair laughing at my story. They called me and ask my permission to use may e-mail as a product testimony. they wanted to make me a dealer for there product and give a turkey frying basket to use.
just my thought can't wait to get there!!

Ps I hope I win the free full body elephant mount from 5 rivers !!!!!!!!

[Slab]

We can put up a sticky on the KY forum of all the businesses that supported the Shindig, and keep it up there till next camp. Turn it over every year. List the business contact information and include what they contributed. I know there's kinda a thread about it already, but make the first post comprehensive, and maybe close it, or maybe not. Might want to let people post to it and mention something good about the company if they have something to contribute.

[ifish]

Great Idea Slab. They give a lot for a little return I think. We have had a few sponsors the past 2 years that have given a lot of stuff and in todays economy that speaks volumes to me. Watching people receive the door prizes is one of the highlights of the whole shindig for me. If I can help in anyway please let me know! Thanks Ed for all you do also. This would not be possible without your support. Thanks to everyone for helping make this a great time for all of us !!!!

[Wiskers]

We can put up a sticky on the KY forum of all the businesses that supported the Shindig, and keep it up there till next camp. Turn it over every year. List the business contact information and include what they contributed. I know there's kinda a thread about it already, but make the first post comprehensive, and maybe close it, or maybe not. Might want to let people post to it and mention something good about the company if they have something to contribute.

Leave it to a "Marketing Genius!" GREAT idea Slab!

That way folks that come year round will have access to the info on the most outstanding vendors in the area and info on Tackle Companies that support those who support them. Again... Great idea!

[M R Dux]

That will be a great addition, Slab. I'm sure the other forums would like to do that also. Thanks!

[Slab]

I stole the idea from the FL forum! Not my idea. Might have been Crappiegirl1, or flycaster down there that thought about it. See, we got great people everywhere.

[cajun fryer]

Great Idea, that will work well!

[CrappiePappy]

Went through this very same deal with the 2000-2005 Spring Fling/Fall Brawl C.c tourney series. Solicited many prizes, from many different companies, local businesses, and site members. Generally had enough stuff to put together a prize package for every team member, and occasionally even some leftovers for an open draw or two. We always asked those in attendance to send a email, letter, or phone call to the supporting contributors ... thanking them for their donations (& to do business with those donors). Few, if any (other than the tourney officials) sent any kind of personal response to our donors. We did have banners, and a big white board with all the donors listed, and took pictures that included those ... and we posted them on the site, for the donors & everyone else to see.
I felt bad enough, about the poor response to our plea to thank the donors ... that I wrote up a form "letter", addressed from "all the competitors & folks participating in the tourneys and fish fry" and sent it by email to all the donors.

Now, I can't say that those folks "never" gave the donors their business (or repeat business) ... just that there was little to no response from our asking that the donors be contacted & thanked. That's why I took it upon myself to write up the thank you note. At least it was "something" that showed that we appreciated them & their support.

Something to consider, if you're finding your donor list shrinking from lack of return support & thanks from your Shindig attendees !!

... cp