Making fundraising F-U-N

Are you looking for a way to put FUN back into your fundraising? Consider what Quincy High School just did.

Quincy High School (QHS) Counselor and Haas Educator Ambassador Program (HEAP) member Rod Luce and graduating senior Christian Medina raised over $4,300 with a simple idea of taking a jug around at soccer games, community meetings, etc. that grew into a community wide fundraiser which was made successful by the involvement and support of 13 other faculty members, QHS students, Quincy residents and many area businesses.

The method was simple. Each time students raised money up to a certain level another faculty member got to paint their hair the school colors “green and gold”.  The starting price was $1000.

Luce and Medina recognized there was a need within their school to raise additional funds to disburse through QHS’s Haas account after he allocated $2500 to students during the 2006-2007 school year, with only $800 coming from a Haas Foundation August grant. A chain of events put Luce on his way to holding a very successful fundraiser.

Luce quit shaving for his involvement in the plays Man of La Mancha and Jesus Christ Superstar. Once the normally clean shaven and military buzzed Luce started looking more like the Innkeeper and one of the Priests, a random suggestion of a fundraiser to color his hair the QHS colors was put into action. The Senior culminating project began by passing a jug around at soccer games in hopes of raising donations from the attendees.

This fundraiser quickly escalated to the placement of six, three pound coffee cans at various businesses in downtown Quincy and one in the neighboring city of George. Each can was labeled with the fundraising purpose and a mock-up picture of the colored hair that Luce would be wearing.

After a QHS faculty member wrote an article for the local newspaper about the fundraiser checks just started showing up. As the fundraiser grew it became less about the Haas Foundation and more about the green and gold hair and how to get the next faculty members have their hair painted. Luce found himself having to recruit more staff to join in!  As excitement rose other faculty members were asked to put prices on their hair. In the end 14 faculty members were committed to revealing their new do’s at a Q.H.S. assembly.

The day of the assembly the 14 faculty members including Luce had their hair colored in the QHS colors and marched into the gym in numeric order of fundraising levels with brown paper bags on their heads. At the assembly the bags were taken off to reveal the green and gold hair of the 14 faculty members who generously put price tags on their hair. (see photos below)  Community contributors were honored at the assembly for their support of the Haas fund.

The fundraiser could not have been nearly as successful without the support of the Quincy community. Donations were made by students and their parents, teachers, the school board, a district administrator, a local realty, tree nursery, grocery store and pharmacy, as well as by other community members.

For any school interested in raising money, which can be used for matching funds through the Haas Foundation, Luce suggests anything silly that gets interest up. He says just spread the word and gain support. He advises schools to aim high with their goals.

“I can’t believe how high we hit,” reflected Luce on QHS’s very successful fundraiser.

Rod Luce after his green and gold transformation.

This chart was used to track the fundraising progress.

Participating faculty members wore paper bags on their heads to keep their new do's a secret until the big reveal.

These faculty members revealed their new do's at an assembly

This fundraisor would have been nothing without the support of community members and local businesse.