Articles of Interest

Raise Money with Brick Fundraising
Elaine Johnson
Brick fundraising is an easy way to raise money for schools, hospitals, religious institutions, non-profits, government buildings, or any worthwhile project. Engraved names on brick are great as a fundraiser or to appropriately honor donors. A donor wall or walkway will be meaningful for years to come – outliving the life of the donor. Larry Cannon - brick fundraising since 1988 (www.bricksculpture.com) suggests that before beginning a brick fundraising project, start with a few questions. Think it through and get good answers to give the brick fundraising project the direction it needs. First, think about how much money needs to be raised. Come into the project with an established goal. This is the first, and often overlooked part of the project. A brick fundraising project can generate funds for years (by just adding more bricks), but clear goals give a project structure. Let's assume that a school wishes to raise $100,000 for landscaping and sports equipment. Their 20,000 member database consists of students, alumni, parents, and community leaders. A rule of thumb is that 20% of a database should be willing to contribute. Given this formula, 4,000 (20% of 20,000) will donate to participate in a brick donor wall, walkway or structure. So the school will have a project with an estimated 4,000 bricks. The school has now determined the size of the project. Given this, the school needs to be thinking of the type of structure they wish. Which services will be needed to support a project of this size, and of those, which services might be donated? Does someone on the school fundraising committee know a brick mason who'll donate their time to lay the brick or build the wall? What about a landscape architect? What lighting, plants or shrubbery will accent the structure? What fundraising information will be sent – and how? Make a list of ALL the expected tasks, projected expenses and projected service donations. This list will enable the school to set a realistic budget. It's now time to thing about the amount of individual donations – or the price of each brick. After adding up the expected expenses, the school determines that the expected expenses will be around $100,000. Therefore, they must raise $200,000 in order to offset the expected expenses of $100,000 and end with their goal of $100,000. $200,000 / 4,000 (20% of the donors) bricks = $50 for each brick. Therefore each brick will be priced at $50.00. With a few simple questions, this project has determined the amount to raise, the amount to ask for each brick, and determined the size of their project. The school can now assess if these figures are reasonable. Do they want a project that size? Is that a reasonable amount to expect as a contribution from the people on their database? Whatever the answers, these fundamental questions need clear, specific answers to get the project off to a good start.