KEEN Ways to Raise

KEEN is always in need of new sports and swim equipment. Our Amazon wishlist shows our most needed items, or consider purchasing an item from the list below:

• Basketballs
• Soccer balls
• Pop-up soccer goals
• Swim floats
• Foam balls
• Tennis balls
• Beach balls
• Snacks for volunteers

• Matching Gift Programs: Many companies will match donations made by their employees. Ask your company if they have a similar program. Then ask your co-workers to donate and fill out the appropriate forms. You can turn those $25 donations into $50 donations!
• Golf Clubs: Ask you local golf club to choose KEEN as their charity of choice for the year. You can leave leaflets about KEEN services. Pick up the check at the end of the year. (Tennis Club/Country Club).
• Garage Sale: Ask friends, family members, co-workers, and neighbors to donate unwanted items and host a Saturday morning garage sale to benefit your KEEN team. If you have enough items, try a local swap meet (they give away spaces to charities). Garage sales can raise anywhere from $100 to $2,000 in just hours!
• Poker Tournament: Invite everyone over for a backyard poker tournament. Ask local businesses to donate prizes and/or food. Add a silent auction, plenty of re-buys and add-ons. Poker tournaments are known to generate $500-$3,000.
• Parties: Everyone loves a good excuse to go to a party! Host a Partylite, Princess House, Cookie Lee Jewelry, Pampered Chef, or other home product party at your next get-together. Ask the sales representative to donate 20-50% of sales to KEEN.
• Paper Icons Sales: Ask a local business that your family supports to sell point of purchase paper icons. We can provide the paper icon (no cost to the business) for the business to sell at the register for $1, $5 or $xx. Such businesses might include restaurants, hair/nail salons, grocery stores, bakeries, dentist/doctor's offices, dry cleaners, banks, travel agencies, etc. Make sure to tell the KEEN staff, volunteers, and athlete families so they might stop in and buy one!
• Restaurant Fundraising: Contact your local restaurant and ask if you can do a "fundraiser night." Rules vary from restaurant to restaurant, but you will receive between 10-25% of the bill! See the back page for a partial list of popular restaurants that participate in fundraising events!
• Baseball Game: Like baseball? Buy a set of tickets at the group discount rate. Host a tailgate party and charge your friends, family members, co-workers, etc . twice the amount you paid for the tickets! Not a baseball fan? Do the same for football, horse races, hockey or basketball!
• Local Newspapers: Contact your local newspaper editor/writer/columnist and ask them to put a KEEN Athlete story in the next issue. Make sure they include your online fundraising webpage (click and pledge) and ask for donations! Or simply ask them to advertise your fundraising event!
• Firehouse Luncheon/Dinner: Firehouses are known for their great cuisine, so why not incorporate that into a fundraiser? Ask your local firehouse to donate a home cooked meal (either lunch or dinner) and charge an entry fee!
• Accessory Party: Ask friends and family to donate old accessories that they no longer use and host an accessory party! Charge an entry or ask for a donation per item purchased. This is a great way to gain some new accessories while helping a great cause.
• "Chair-ity" Raffle: Ask local furniture stores to donate fun chairs. Also ask local businesses around to donate gift cards and items to "fill the seat" . Then you can raffle off the chairs.
• Frisbee Golf: Host a fun competition in a wacky way. There are many Frisbee courses - or create your own! Ask for teams of two for $25 and "tee-off ' at 4:00, 5:00, and 6:00 pm. Offer donated prizes for the 1st - 3rd place teams . Include a silent auction, food, and other festivities to make it more fun.
• No Dirty Dishes Raffle: Ask local restaurants to donate gift cards for a family of four. Collect seven gift cards and raffle them off together to give the winner one week of free dinners!
• Host a "Bowl-a-thon" on a rainy day: Hit a fundraising strike with this fundraiser! Invite your friends, family, neighbors, and collages to create bowling teams and raise funds for KEEN. Most bowling alleys do charity events and can help you with the event details. Offer prizes for the 1st and 2nd place teams, host a raffle and have a ball!
• Have a "Lip-Synching Competition": Gather a few volunteers to compete by lip-synching. Have the audience "vote" for their favorite singer by donating to their KEEN account. You canalso "vote" by donating to make people sing (like your bosses).
• Have a March Madness Pool: March Madness is an exciting time for basketball fans and genera l event enthusiasts. March Madness takes place each year as the men's NCAA basketball tournament occurs. People enjoy this time as the excitement of the game is elevated as people make their own brackets and place friendly bets.
• Sell Flower Seeds and Potted Plants on Earth Day: Ask a local nursery to donate seeds and/or potted plants for an Earth Day Sale. See each donated item for a donation to KEEN.
• Host a Casino Turnaround Trip Fundraiser: Enjoy an adults-only day trip with a bus full of fun-loving party goers like yourself! Many bus companies sell bus fare for a small price. Invite your friends, family, and colleagues to join you on this party bus to a local casino. Sell treats, drinks, and raffle tickets along the way.
• Sell Pies for Mother's Day: Ask your local bakery to donate pies or ask friends to bake pies and donate them for Mother's Day sale.

• Dress Down Days: Ask your boss if you can host a Dress Down Friday or a Jeans Day. Employees pay to dress casually or wear jeans . You can monitor this fundraiser by giving participants a stamp on the hand, sticker or button.
• Company Bake Sale: Host a bake sale for your office, for your building, and/or for your building complex . Ask employees to donate items to sell and make sure to advertise, advertise, advertise! Great tip - don't price item?! Just ask for a donation and tell them it's going to KEEN (have photos of sessions). Some people might give you $20 for a cookie - we've seen it happen!
• Movie Lunch: Who doesn't love a long lunch? Show a favorite movie during key lunch hours and charge $5 or more. Just be sure to get your boss's okay and ask your local grocer to donate popcorn and snacks .
• Paper Icons: Sell KEEN paper icons for a minimum $1 donation. Hang them in a common place so your clients, coworkers, etc. can see them. Ask the KEEN staff to send you some paper balloon pads!
• Lunchtime Wii Tournament: Bring in your favorite Wii Game and host a tournament during the lunch break and ask a local business to donate a prize for the winner. Charge participants an entry fee and then ask co-workers to vote (by donating) for who they think will win.
• Spare Change Bucket: Create a spare change bucket and choose a time to go around the office and ask everyone to donate the spare change they have in their wallets. Do this weekly and watch the coins stack up! Or put in the kitchen.
• Parking Space Raffle: Does your CEO have a reserved parking space? Ask him or her to raffle it off for a week, a month, or for the year!
• Pounds of Hope: Create your own spin-off of the Biggest Loser Challenge! Charge participants $25 to enter a 8 week challenge of losing weight. Ask your HR representative to record weigh-ins so all numbers are kept confidential. Get a prize donated (such as a spa gift certificate) and the person who has the biggest percentage do weight loss wins!
• Ice Cream Sundaes: Similar to the bake sale idea, ask a local grocer to donate some ice cream and charge co-workers $3 or more to make their own sundae one afternoon. This also works great for Root Beer Floats!
• Vacation Days: Ask your boss if employees can "give back" one or more vacation days and the company will make a donation to KEEN. Or you can ask your boss to raffle a day off!
• CEO Jail: Put your boss in "jail" for a day! Co-workers, clients, etc. pay to put the boss in "jail" and he/she must raise funds (by requesting donations from staff, vendors, clients, etc.) to get bailed out! It's a fun way to be creative with your CEO's time!
• Brown Bag Days: Have employees bring a brown bag lunch to work and donate what they would have spent on lunch at a restaurant/cafeteria. Have it outdoors, add music, dessert and drinks, and you have a special lunchtime picnic!

• Party!: Throw a basic party, but add an entry fee, silent auction, etc. Here are some ideas: 

1. Wine & Cheese Party
2. Summertime BBQ
3. Fundraising Concert
4. Holiday in July Party
5. Themed Movie Night
6. Neighborhood Block Party
7. Dessert-a-than
8. Pub Crawl
9. Girls Spa Day
10. Closet Party (bring unwanted clothes to trade)Bridesmaid Ball (all guests need to wear an old bridesmaid gown)

• Get the Family Involved!: Host a dodge ball (or any other sport) tournament, laser tag event, Wii tournament and invite your neighborhood.
• Host a "Pink Flamingo Flocking" Night: Set a night aside and recruit some kids to help you . Send everyone an email or letter announcing your Pink Flamingo Flocking fundraiser and let them know that during the next few weeks, their yard might be "Flamingoed" . In your message, say they can place an order to have one or more of their friends "Flamingoed" for a $25 donation to KEEN. They can also purchase "Anti-Flocking Insurance" to insure that they will not get "Flamingoed" for a $25 donation. In addition, they can also purchase a "Removal Fee" for a $25 donation. Don't forget to dress in pink while decorating and take photos for everyone to see!
• Host a Family Car or Dog Wash: Ask your KEEN volunteers, sport teams, local school clubs, or church groups to donate their time to wash cars/dogs. Don't forget to advertise!
• Children Can Fundraise!: People have a hard time saying no to kids! Ask your children, niece, nephew or cousin to help you fundraise by hosting a lemonade stand! Have children draw a picture of KEEN and send it to family, friends, etc.asking for a donation . The average American household has a $100 worth of spare change lying around - send the kids on a spare change scavenger hunt!
• Birthdays: Have an upcoming birthday? Ask for donations instead of gifts!
• Get Crazy Over Bunco/Bingo!: Ask all your pals to come over for a friendly game of Bunco! Charge an entry fee and get prizes donated for the winners and let the good times roll!
• Get Crafty!: Make something to sell! Jewelry, scarves, etc. You could even make holiday decorations. Get Your Church (or Another Group) Involved: Ask your church to make an announcement during the service, you might be able to talk about KEEN at the service, and have a second collection for KEEN, or host the after service donut table for donations.
• Get Local Businesses Involved: Ask your local dry cleaners, or a business you frequently visit to put up a change box near the register for their customers to donate spare change.
• Go to the Movies: You can contact your local movie theater to see if they will show a special taping of a new movie! They can either give you the discount movie group rate (and you sell the tickets for more) or you can rent out the entire theater and invite all your friends to watch .
• Recycle: Collect cans, bottles and electronics, and take them to a recycle center. Donate the funds you made to KEEN!
• Borrow ideas!: Many other charities have amazing fundraising ideas! Here are some examples :

1. Kiss a Pig: One participant told everyone if she hit her fundraising goal she will kiss a pig! Shave Your Head (or Beard) for Big Bucks: People will donate to see you shave your head!
2. Sell Candy Grams: Don't be afraid to dress up and sing for donations
3. Make a cookbook highlighting your team's favorite recipes, quotes, etc.
4. Green Thumb: One participant grew veggies and flowers to sell to her co-workers and friends

Typically, the restaurant will provide you with a flier with the date, location(s) and details and will give you a percentage of every bill/purchase accompanied by a flier on the scheduled day.

A Couple of Tips: A great advertising tip - create a pdf version of the flier and email it to everyone you know and encourage them to email it to everyone they know as well. You can also go around to neighboring businesses and ask to put fliers in their break-room. Schedule multiple days/events so you may reach as many people as possible - everyone is so busy these days! For example, set the 1st Wednesday of each month as "Applebee's Night!" Ask the manager if you can also set up a KEEN information table so people can register to become a volunteer or refer an athlete.