Fundraising In The News

Look in any newspaper, local or national, and you’re guaranteed to find at least one story about someone who is kindly volunteering their time and effort to raising funds for those in need. We’ve scoured the news pages to bring you some of the most notable fundraising stories from the month of July.

Fundraising in bed: Students sell mattresses to raise funds

Students in the school band at Keller Central High School, Fort Worth, TX, looked to their inner sales assistant during their July sale of mattresses, which raised an $8000 profit.

The one-day fundraiser, set in a makeshift store in the school’s cafeteria, enabled shoppers  with the opportunity to browse a selection of mattress styles and brand name mattresses, all of which were available at discounted prices.

Mitzi Gray, owner of Purple Frog Custom fundraising who frequently work with schools to put on mattress sales said: “Instead of hounding family and friends to purchase something they don’t need at a marked up price, people can buy a quality mattress at a deeply discounted rate, with brand name mattresses sold at 30 to 60 per cent off the retail price.

“We have schools making as much as $16,000 in a single day.

She concluded: “It’s something that people are going to buy anyway, it’s not like a guilt purchase. “

 

Teenage head-shave trio’s fundraising efforts branded ‘pathetic’

A trio of teenage schoolgirls who shaved their heads and emblazoned them with the breast cancer ribbon were expelled from school last month, whilst being branded ‘pathetic’ by a member of staff.

Kiera Thomas, Gemma Wright and Macey Daden, students at St Leonards Academy in Sussex, shunned some of their hair in aid of Cancer Research UK after two of them lost relatives to the disease.

Despite asking the school for permission to carry out the appearance change, they quickly found themselves isolated from their classmates until their new ‘dos were covered up. To add more insult to injury, their head of year also told them that their head shave was “a pathetic way to raise money”, despite raising £800 for Cancer Research UK.

Kiera’s mother Susan said: “To make them feel so bad about doing something so worthwhile is pathetic and ridiculous. The way the school has handled this has been atrocious.”

Principal of the school Jenny Jones responded by saying: “While we applaud these girls for their efforts in raising money for charity, we have rules and regulations regarding dress and appearance which apply to all our students.”

 

Lady Gaga gets her kit off for the Marina Abromovic Institute

Lady Gaga, aka Stefani Germanotta has always been known for her outlandish appearance, but now she’s gone a step further – and stepped out in her birthday suit.

The video acts as a promotional tool for the Kickstarter campaign set up in support of the Marina Abramovic Institute, which looks to serve as the 66-year-old Serbian performance artist’s legacy. It will focus on the “study, preservation, and presentation of long durational performance including dance, theatre, film, video, performance art and music.”

Gaga can be seen practicing the ‘Abramovic Method’, by stripping down to her skin and walking blindly through a field.

Currently, the now viral video has raised more than $220,000 for the campaign.

It just goes to show that you can do anything to raise money for a good cause, so why not get creative and do something unusual for those in need?

Published August 14th, 2013