Fundraising Ideas Revealed

I was playing around with the logo again last night. I had put it aside the past several days because I just needed a break from it.

I took all of your wonderful suggestions into account and tried out a couple of new things last night.

1) I tried a light, white brush stroke to make the logo pop off the page a bit more.

2) I removed the image from the background of Eric and I as I found it to be a bit distracting.

I’m not going to worry too much about the background image because eventually my BIL’s girlfriend Joanne is going to be helping me with the photography of this website. She is a food photographer and has offered to help me out.

If you recall, this was the original plain Jane logo:

I am pretty happy with what I have done to it so far.

So the background image will be changing, as will all of the photos I have taken. I would like the future header image to have my food it is somehow- with pictures of seeds, nuts, grains, etc. That probably won’t happen until the summer though.

For now, I want to concentrate on the logo itself and making sure I am happy with it. I like the colours, and if you see in the image below, if I have a white background it will pop even more.

I may also try inverting the colours (white heart, green wheat) on the heart. I still want to play around with it more. I want to try different colours for the words too. I like the idea of the wheat colour.

I never thought that a logo would end up taking so long to get perfect!

Thanks for all of your awesome comments in last’s nights ‘19 Days to run a 10k’ post. So many of you are running races this Spring and Summer! That is great! I noticed that many of you are also running on the same weekend as me (May 9th/10th). We can motivate and cheer each other on!

I just wanted to respond to a couple comments from last night that I thought were helpful:

1) Some of you pointed out that there really isn’t a need to taper before a 10k race if it is considered to be part of the overall training toward a half marathon. This makes sense to me and I have actually read something to that effect online. What I will likely end up doing is taking Thursday off and then running a couple easy miles on Friday.

Now I have a question about the time of the race:

The race is not until 6:30pm on Saturday. I am not crazy about this start time. I am wondering: Should I do a light run Saturday morning?

2) Regarding the June 14th Niagara half marathon, if I am not ready for the half, then I am going to sign up for the 10k option. I do not by any means plan on killing myself to be able to run the half. If there is one thing I have learned with my injury it was that there is no rush when training! There will always be another race to sign up for. If I can’t do a half in June, then I will try to do one at the end of the summer or early fall. No worries!

I have been giving the fundraising ideas lots of thought. I have basically been trying to figure out which ideas would be the most profitable for my charity. That is my main goal!

I was thinking a lot about designing a special tee or tank top specifically for the charity. I could do up a fun logo and have you guys vote on your favourite design.

However, I don’t think this would be most profitable way to raise money for the charity itself. With Spread shirt (where I currently have my clothing line set up), the clothing is set at a base price and then you increase the price based on how much profit you want to make. For example, if the t-shirt is $20, and I sell it for $25, that means I am only making $5 per sale that goes towards charity, while the sponsor’s other $20 is going straight into the pockets of Spreadshirt.

So ideally, I want a charity idea where the full funds donated will go to the charity.

This is why I loved Meghann’s Bake Sales that she had. It was a wonderful idea that involved others offering up their best baked goods for auction. Then people bid on these baked goods and the baker is responsible for baking it and shipping it to the winner.

In this past bake sale, I participated as a volunteer baker, and I auctioned off a Glo Bar Sampler Pack. It was a really fun experience!

So I am thinking of doing something along these lines. However, as a special twist to the auction, I was thinking about including another section to the auction where people could auction off other products that they have made or want to donate.

For example, do you make homemade jewelry? Do you like designing pottery or sewing? Do you design your own clothing? Offer a few items up for auction!

Red Head, Yellow Dog has a great suggestion:

It also might be fun to have people able to auction off nicer clothing items that are in very good condition but they no longer need/want. Or books. They may not be "big ticket" items but every little bit adds up!

I think this would be a fun way to include other people who may not want to bake but have other services they can offer for charity.

Do you have a special talent or hobby that you would like to action off? Let me know your thoughts below! I think it would be so much fun to have this other section in the auction! I know I would personally love to buy some homemade items myself!

Right now, I am thinking about the auction day being at the beginning of June.

Enjoy your day!

Best wishes to my sister Kerrie who is giving birth today!!! :)

Don’t forget to leave a comment to participate in my Maybelline Stiletto Lash Mascara Giveaway! Contest ends tomorrow!

Also check out Bobbi’s running skirt giveaway! Also check out her amazing and inspiring Boston Marathon RECAP!