# Anyone Ever Produce Calendars



## smoke665 (Sep 17, 2016)

Looking for ideas to raise money for local VFD. We're always on the hunt for revenue generating ideas, as the tax revenue only covers a portion of the operating costs for our rural department. Anyone produce a calendar promotion for charitable purposes? Did it work? What sort of price did you put on the finished product.


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## table1349 (Sep 17, 2016)

You mean something like this???


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## smoke665 (Sep 17, 2016)

Not quite, LOL Unless we brought in some body doubles for the "no shirt" shots! Maybe some guys in turnouts, equipment, etc. All of our volunteers are from our district, and have large families in the area.


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## table1349 (Sep 17, 2016)

You could do something like this.  Average guy.


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## smoke665 (Sep 17, 2016)

gryphonslair99 said:


> You could do something like this.  Average guy.



Well now you're closer to reality!! Though I'm not sure what 15 churches in the district would say, 80% of which are Southern Baptist! I'm also not sure what some of the wives might say either.


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## table1349 (Sep 17, 2016)

smoke665 said:


> gryphonslair99 said:
> 
> 
> > You could do something like this.  Average guy.
> ...


Considering your location I doubt they would say much.  

To whit:
Prosecution exhibit #1

Prosecution exhibit #2

Prosecution exhibit #3

Prosecution exhibit #4

Prosecution exhibit #5

Your Honor, the prosecution rests.


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## smoke665 (Sep 17, 2016)

I think you've confused us with AR, MS, & parts of TN, although the first one is vaguely reminiscent of Talladega. Having spent some time traveling through parts of KS it is as I remember not lacking in some of the last exhibits either


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## table1349 (Sep 17, 2016)

Everyone of those photos if from ALABAMA.  Heck the one dude has it Tattooed on his stomach.  #1 & #3 are both Talladega.


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## tirediron (Sep 18, 2016)

Unless you've got a large, dedicated fanbase, I'm not sure I would bother.  The animal rescue I shoot for every Christmas has given up printing calendars; the last couple of years they did, almost all the ones they sold were bought by members of the rescue itself.  People don't use paper calendars nearly as much as they used to, and they're expensive to produce, making the retail price off-puttingly high if you actually want to raise some money.  Now, if you can get someone to donate the printing costs, you're golden.


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## table1349 (Sep 18, 2016)

tirediron said:


> Unless you've got a large, dedicated fanbase, I'm not sure I would bother.  The animal rescue I shoot for every Christmas has given up printing calendars; the last couple of years they did, almost all the ones they sold were bought by members of the rescue itself.  People don't use paper calendars nearly as much as they used to, and they're expensive to produce, making the retail price off-puttingly high if you actually want to raise some money.  Now, if you can get someone to donate the printing costs, you're golden.


I keep telling you it comes down to proper posing and perspective.


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## smoke665 (Sep 18, 2016)

tirediron said:


> Unless you've got a large, dedicated fanbase, I'm not sure I would bother.  The animal rescue I shoot for every Christmas has given up printing calendars; the last couple of years they did, almost all the ones they sold were bought by members of the rescue itself.  People don't use paper calendars nearly as much as they used to, and they're expensive to produce, making the retail price off-puttingly high if you actually want to raise some money.  Now, if you can get someone to donate the printing costs, you're golden.



Tax revenue's only provide about 60% of our operation cost. That leaves us scrambling to cover the other 40% from donations and fund raising. We're fortunate that our residents are good about supporting us, part of that may be because we are all volunteers from the the district. We hold 2 major fund raising activities per year, plus some smaller activities, but are always looking for new ideas. Like the animal rescue you mentioned, unless you keep some fresh ideas coming, donations start to go down. Found some online printers that run small runs for around $2/calendar.


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## table1349 (Sep 18, 2016)

All joking aside, you might actually consider something like what I previously suggested.  Keep it clean and most importantly keep it humorous.  Remember it would have to be tongue in cheek.  It would be the novelty of the thing that would make it sell. 

Don't forget the inspiration for this trend these days.

*"Inspiration*
_The fundraising phenomenon of the Calendar Girls was inspired by the death of Angela Baker's husband John Richard Baker, an Assistant National Park Officer for the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority, who died from non-Hodgkin's lymphoma at the age of 54 in 1998. During his illness Angela's friends began to raise money, initially with the aim of purchasing a sofa for the visitors' lounge in the hospital where John was treated. Nothing could have prepared them for the way their original calendar took off. To date they have raised over £3 million for Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research, the UK's leading blood cancer charity. [10] The photos for the 2000 Alternative WI Calendar, as it was named, were taken by Terry Logan, a former professional photographer who was married to one of the models. It was released on 12 April 1999 and became a runaway success, selling out in the first week. 10,000 additional copies were printed, all of which were sold within three weeks. Nine months after its launch, the calendar had sold 88,000 copies.[11] It then was adapted for an American version covering June 2000 - December 2001. The ladies were invited to appear with Jay Leno and Rosie O'Donnell on their respective talk shows. That year the calendar sold 202,000 copies.

Proceeds from the 2000 calendar were used to fund lymphoma and leukaemia research in new laboratories at the University of Leeds. A plaque dedicated to John Baker reads, "The work in this laboratory is dedicated to the memory of John Baker in recognition of the exceptional fundraising achievements of the 'Calendar Girls' of the Rylstone & District Women's Institute."[11]

Since 2000, the Calendar Girls have produced calendars for 2004, 2005, 2007 and a recipe calendar for 2008 with their favourite Yorkshire recipes on the back of each month.

Ten years on, the Calendar Girls launched a 2010 calendar with a new set of full colour images and the aim of raising £2 million for Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research.

The Calendar Girls are still strong supporters of Leukaemia Research and have a range of merchandise in aid of the charity including calendars, greetings cards a range of three jams made by Brackenhill Fine Foods, York, and chocolates produced by Yorkshire chocolatier Whitaker's, twelve squares with the original calendar images on the wrappers. They are available online and in selected outlets.

Of the project, Angela Baker has said, "We are constantly amazed at the response we had, and still get, to our calendar. I cannot believe that we were able to raise so much money and I am delighted that it is being spent on such worthwhile research. I know that John would be tremendously honoured to know that we have achieved so much in his name."_

Calendar Girls - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


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## smoke665 (Sep 18, 2016)

gryphonslair99 said:


> Don't forget the inspiration for this trend.



Over the years we've pulled off some pretty decent fundraisers. Nothing as large as your example, but then again our needs are small. We hold bi-annual BBQ dinners, that bring in from $4-$5k  profit per dinner, but we've found that if we do more then we lose interest. Voluntary water bill donations, road blocks, other donations and grants bring in the balance.  Our largest "single" event was a haunted house that brought in almost $20k in profit, but it took a lot of time commitment on the part of the members to run it over the course of 2 weeks. The calendar sales might be a way of bringing in some revenue, without the huge time commitment. Considering we're being forced into a new radio system upgrade next year at a cost of $50k, we're really going to have to be creative.


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## vintagesnaps (Sep 18, 2016)

In my area I think there are still some volunteer firefighters that get called in but the departments are tax funded. But they still do some fundraising here which seems to be dinners - one has an annual fish fry, an annual donut sale... I've seen some having spaghetti dinners and whatnot. Any kind of dinner I guess and people will come! lol but of course it takes manpower to run. 

I get free calendars from the insurance company and the co-op/grain mill where I get heating oil. That one's all tractors!  So I don't know how well a calendar would sell unless it's something cool like vintage cars, or I don't know, local landmarks maybe? If it's just scenery or cats or flowers those seem to be everywhere.


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## smoke665 (Sep 18, 2016)

vintagesnaps said:


> In my area I think there are still some volunteer firefighters that get called in but the departments are tax funded. But they still do some fundraising here which seems to be dinners - one has an annual fish fry, an annual donut sale... I've seen some having spaghetti dinners and whatnot. Any kind of dinner I guess and people will come! lol but of course it takes manpower to run.
> 
> I get free calendars from the insurance company and the co-op/grain mill where I get heating oil. That one's all tractors!  So I don't know how well a calendar would sell unless it's something cool like vintage cars, or I don't know, local landmarks maybe? If it's just scenery or cats or flowers those seem to be everywhere.



Dinners only go so far, plus cutbacks in tax revenue, has hurt other rural departments as much as us, so the competition for dinner dollars is getting tougher. Hadn't thought about the donut sale, (Krispy Kreme has a program), which might be good for our annual Christmas Toys for kids. 

We're a rural area, but there's a lot of families that live here, and most of them either know someone in the department or know someone who's been helped by the department. So a "non-risque" calendar featuring members with equipment might go over.


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## tirediron (Sep 19, 2016)

vintagesnaps said:


> ...I get free calendars from the insurance company and the co-op/grain mill where I get heating oil. That one's all tractors!  ...


Ahem... you have my address?  My birthday is coming up soon!


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## tirediron (Sep 19, 2016)

One of the other keys with calendars is doing a large enough print run that you can really spread out the locations from which they're available.  If you can leave say 20 at 50 different businesses, you'll get a lot better response than leaving 200 at five different locations.


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