What does your volunteer agency do to raise money? How do you get everyone involved in carrying it out?
I have kind of a different take on this, having been involved in several non-profits, but none of them were Fire or EMS. There've already been some really good ideas posted, but here are some more "traditional" methods:
* Start a foundation, this allows people to leave you money in their estate - tax free. After that you contact people who might be interested, letters are good.
* Contact other non-profit foundations and organizations. There's money out there that people want to spend, and some foundations do nothing but give away money. Often these grants will be for some specific initiatives, like AEDs or whatever.
* Public awareness. If you can keep the public aware of you much good you are doing, it's a lot easier to ask for donations. I can't think of how you would apply this to Fire / EMS because of HIPAA, but clipping newspaper articles can work. A "We need new bunker gear" letter along with an article about saving lives could accomplish something.
* Work with other groups. There are groups out there with lots of volunteers and little guidance (PTA, sorry if that offends, comes to mind). The more groups you work with, the more opportunities present themselves. Like shared fundraisers - "$1 from every dozen cookies sold goes to the fire department".
* Barter / leverage your way to bigger funds. The local schoolkids can jump rope and grandma pays you five cents for every minute, a local business owner matches all those funds, and whoever does the most gets a certificate for a free catered meal that was donated. Or photo shoot.
* Ask community leaders to form a "ways and means" volunteer committee.
emtkelley has some brilliant ideas!
There are many good books on fundraising for non-profits out there. Hope any of this helps.
Regards,
Tom White,
K5EHX