You are driving home from work tonight and on the radio you hear >>
“Attention Pastors: Help us raise $1000 for computer schools in Africa and we’ll work with you to add $5000 or more to your mission’s budget. See you at the Pastor Appreciation Breakfast. The Chimorel Group offers many dynamic programs to support you, your congregation and others throughout the world. Visit our website at chimorel.com. That’s c h i m o r e l.com.”
You heard it right, one of Chimorel’s programs is to assist a nonprofit organization to raise $5000 or more for their programs, when that organization enables Chimorel to raise $1000 for a Special Project. For two years Chimorel sponsored a booth at WRFD’s Pastor Appreciation Breakfast. The radio ad above was part of this sponsorship.
An easy way for your nonprofit group to raise $1000 for a Chimorel Special Project is to ask ten people to give $100. Once you have ten people committed to support you, you have a base to undertake a more significant fund raising program. You may want to raise $5000, $50,000, $1,000,000 or more for Missions … or a Building Fund … or your Operating Budget … or perhaps for your own Special Project like a major hospital bill for a constituent. Ten committed people become a very valuable resource for your organization, because with their inspiration Chimorel can bring a variety of resources to raise funds for specifically targeted programs.
Chimorel undertakes Special Projects to solve problems here at home and around the world. We describe just a few Special Projects at this link. Perhaps you have a Special Project you would like to work on together. At this link you will learn about Computer Schools in Africa, Israeli / Palestinian Peace, Pfar Texas, a Presidential Candidate, Feeding the Hungry, Transitional Housing on North Fourth, as well as, current Special Project.
How Can We Support You to Raise $5000 or More?
The key word is support. In the activities that follow, there are several relatively passive ways to raise funds for your organization and a number of alternatives where you and your constituents will be actively involved in the process. The more active your involvement, the more funds you are likely to raise and the more people you will be able to support. Our support is to teach you how, not do it for you. You will note a few times when we do most of the work, but then we get most of the pay.
Use Your Facilities (passive)
As Chimorel’s programs continue to develop, we will be looking for places to hold a variety of activities and events: Change Your Life Meetings, Goal Setting Sessions, Cooperative Effort Meetings, Computer Training Classes, Potlucks and Introductory Meetings, seminars, auctions, rummage sales and more. Some of these activities are supported by fees, sponsors and other sources. A portion of the fees, etc. is allocated as a donation to the organization hosting the program.
For example, we charge $75-$250 + for an individual/couple to do Goal Setting. Typically $5-$12 can be allocated to the host organization for use of the facility, child care and light refreshments. For the higher fee a participant can come to up to five sessions designed to set a goal, test the goal against reality and develop an action plan to achieve the goal. There is also a limited amount of follow up to support the participant to actually achieve the goal. We anticipate 7-20 participants at these goal setting sessions. If your church provided space, child care and light refreshments, we might donate $70-$240 per session series. At ten per year, we might donate approximately $2000. At one per week, the donation could potentially be over $5000.
Please keep in mind that Goal Setting is just one of many activities we could hold at your church or facility. Your involvement could be relatively passive for many of these activities or you could actively promote certain activities you believe might be beneficial for your congregation. If a member of your congregation or organization was the Resource Developer/Planner leading the activity and volunteered his/her time, the amount donated could be substantially more. Instead of $2000 to $5000, the amount could be $25,000 to $50,000+.
Your Special Project (active)
There are a variety of special needs that you might want to support. A constituent might be faced with a large hospital bill or be overwhelmed with debt. A missionary may seek support for his family working in a foreign country. You may need a building for housing the homeless. Obviously, there are many, many other possibilities.
For example, a constituent faces a $14,000 medical bill remaining after a $180,000 operation. After she recovers, she asks you for your support and you contact Chimorel. We suggest she work with you to establish a series of fund raising events – car washes, pancake breakfasts, spaghetti dinners, fish fries, book sales, etc. Through our Client Assistance Committee, we also establish a Special Project on our website, which enables her to apply 90% of commissions generated from merchants in our Buy Stuff/Scrip area to her bill. We negotiate with the hospital to reduce the outstanding debt from $14,000 to $8000 because she establishes a program to repay the debt through Chimorel Services Inc (a nonprofit that helps people resolve debt problems). Together, we get 200 people to each buy $500 of stuff they would normally buy (sometimes at a discount) and apply the average 4.5% commission to $4500 of the bill. Seven special events, each raising $500, complete solving the problem.
Special Projects typically involve active participation by many people and could very well bring your organization to the attention of many potential new members.
Introductory Meetings & Potlucks (active)
To tell the Chimorel story, to bring people to the attention of your organization, to explain specific mission programs and/or to develop Special Projects we might decide to initiate an ongoing series of joint Introductory Meetings and Potlucks.
On a relatively small scale, these meetings might involve 25 to 100+ people. We might attract a few sponsors and advertisers in a brochure designed to explain Chimorel and tell stories you want to tell. You might sponsor food booths. Chimorel might sell books, etc. The intention is to have a number of fun, informative activities that get people involved, tell stories that need to be told (like the Chimorel Sanctuary or your missions project) and generate support for specific causes.
Each Introductory Meeting or Potluck will have a different theme, different activities and be able to attract people to return and bring their friends. As we begin to attract 200-500 or 1000+ people, depending on the capacity of your facilities and the active involvement of your congregation/organization substantially more funds can be raised for your church programs and budget. We submitted a proposal showing how one church could generate in excess of $50,000 per year.
Under Goal Setting is an Action Plan outlining a way to develop relatively large scale Introductory Meetings. Contact Us to explore Introductory Meetings and Pot Lucks or go to Change Your Life.
Directory for Your Organization (relatively passive)
A relatively passive activity which could potentially raise $1000+ might be a church/organizational directory. This could be a directory of business supporters, of members, a photo directory, favorite recipes, or a combination of several elements. We suggest a combination.
For example, let’s say you have 250 members who pay $35 to be listed and get some pictures. There are 50 business supporters which each pay $150 for a ¼ page ad, 25 which pay $225 for a 1/2 page ad and 5 which pay $500 for a full page ad. You generate $24,375 It might cost $12,375 to produce the directory and pictures. If well planned, it could cost significantly less. If we sold most of the ads and put most of the project together, you might receive $1000-2000 and we would receive $8000-9000+. If you sold most of the ads, etc.; but we put the project together, we would receive $3000 and you would receive $7000+. If you managed the entire project (no longer passive), you would generate $10,000+.
A church/organization with 1000 to 2000 members could generate substantially more. If you combined your Directory with Introductory Meetings or other activities, you could generate a substantial amount for your church or organization.
Large Scale Meetings of 25,000+ (active)
In the future, we intend to initiate Large Scale Introductory Meetings in Columbus and elsewhere designed to attract 25,000+ people to a 2+ day event, four times per year. A substantial base needs to be developed, before we are ready to implement large scale meetings.
Your organization can help us begin to develop this base by holding periodic Introductory Meetings and Potlucks. Projections suggest that one of these large scale meetings will generate in excess of $5 million. Your organization would share, depending on its degree of involvement.
Your organization can participate in these events and thus support your programs and budget. Through ticket sales, sponsorships, resource developers from your organization and more, there will be many ways to establish support, directly and indirectly.
Resource Developers (relatively passive on your part / very active on volunteers part)
At Chimorel, Resource Developers pull together the resources to make things happen. Resource Developers can be volunteers or can be paid. Volunteers from your organization, who become Resource Developers, can generate substantial funds for your programs and budget. There are currently ten “earning tracks” at Chimorel. Each of these tracks contains a variety of ways to enable Resource Developers within your organization to generate revenue.
For example, $50 of the $250 Active Planner membership is paid to a Managing Resource Developer for marketing the program. $7-15 is paid for Follow Up. If volunteer Resource Developers wanted to allocate these funds to your organization, you could develop a substantial source of additional funding. If you enrolled 20 Action Planners, you could generate $1000/session. Five sessions/yr would generate over $5000. Ten sessions/yr = $10,000+. As a Manager or Planner these funds increase for these activities.
Please keep in mind that there are ten distinct “earning tracks” which volunteer Resource Developers/Managers/Planners can pursue. Each track requires a certain amount of training and preparation. Each track is designed to develop resources to solve specific problems and achieve specific goals. To learn more about becoming a Resource Developer, click the Resource Developers link. To learn more about earning tracks click the appropriate link.
Chimorel Members & Affiliates (will vary)
Several members of Chimorel’s Cooperative Effort Program have suggested ways to generate revenue for your church/organization. These possibilities change from time to time, but the concept remains the same. A mortgage company, for example, would donate $100 or more each time a parishioner took a mortgage through them. Another member puts on a clothing demonstration and donates part of the proceeds. Another member had a program designed to provide support to a family in need.
By exploring the resources of our members and by talking to members of your organization, you might uncover many alternatives to find volunteers and to fund projects. Chimorel will be establishing auctions, garage sales and many other special activities which can jointly raise money for each of our programs. If this is an area of interest, you should consider becoming an affiliate.
Recycling (will vary)
Chimorel continues to develop its recycling program, designed to create jobs from resources that are now thrown away. Did you know that it takes over $1 million to prepare one acre of landfill for Franklin County to receive trash? What if we recycled most of those valuable materials?
First, we wouldn’t need to spend another $1 million/acre or as much of the approximate 10% of the city of Columbus budget needed to dispose of trash. More money for schools, fire, police and other needed services.
Second, we can create hundreds of jobs right here in Franklin County to collect and process those materials into products that we all can use.
Chimorel has established a computer recycling program to recycle computers and other electronic equipment. Sometimes the equipment donated to Chimorel is sent to places like computer schools in Africa. Sometimes the equipment is sold on a wholesale or retail basis. Sometimes the ewaste is taken apart and the materials are recycled. The funds generated are used to solve problems and achieve goals.
If your church participates in helping us obtain donations and in managing the services required, it would receive 10-50+% of the funds generated. 10% for the referral. 50+% for the referral and helping in the pickup, recording serial numbers, wiping hard drives, etc. We have completed a project which provided more than $2000 in cash and 500+ computers to the missionary group which coordinated the effort to send computers to Africa.
So let’s recycle 1000 computers at a retail price of $100. If your church referred us to the original source, we might donate $10,000 to your building fund. If members of your nonprofit, helped us pickup and process the computers, as well as, made the referral, we might donate $50,000+ to your operating budget. We can give you a minimum of $1/working cellphone or laptop. Every computer generates $5+ for the materials it contains. Recycling is a lot of work, but supports many multi-million for profit businesses in Columbus. It can support many nonprofit activities as well.
Chimorel offers a program to recycle white paper and aluminum cans and other items to businesses and other organizations. You could recycle toner cartridges, cell phones and many other items. You can establish these programs at your organization and share in the proceeds. Your share would depend on how much of the process you actively handled.
A very simple way to raise funds for your program is to regularly publish a link to our website and information about Chimorel’s pickup program for computers and other items of value in your church bulletin or organizational newsletter. Once again you would receive 10-50% of the funds generated depending on your involvement.
Shopping Mall & Scrip Program (very active initially, after organization relatively passive)
On almost every page our website is a Buy Stuff link. Approximately 70% of the proceeds from this area is dedicated to projects to support people. Once you are a Chimorel member/affiliate, your organization can be one of these projects. Commissions from our merchants and affiliates range from 1% to 30%.
As a Client you can allocate $210 to solve a major problem when you send people to our website who spend $1000 at Magazine line. That’s 21%. 200 people buying $100 worth of magazines will generate $4200 for your organization’s project.
On average you might generate 4.5% from the various merchants on our site. If 500 people bought $55 from our merchants once each month, your organization would generate $10,395 each year.
In addition to our shopping mall, Chimorel has established a Scrip program. By buying scrip through Chimorel to shop at many of the merchants you shop at every day, you can generate funds for a Special Project. Merchants include Limited (9%), Kohls (4%), Starbucks (7%), Wendy’s (4%), Eddie Bauer (9%), Brooks Brothers (16%), Talbots (11%), Sears (4%), Bob Evans (10%), Boston Market (12%), Cracker Barrel (9%), Arby’s (8%), Schottenstein’s (9%), Home Depot (3%), Lowes (4%), Office Max (5%), Loews Cineplex (7%), and hundreds of others nationwide. If you have several hundred people in your organization who take the Scrip program seriously, you can generate $5-10,000 annually quite easily.
At our Chimorel4U eBay Store and website shopping mall donated items can generate 100% of the sales price or up to 70% for your project. Your Special Project could attract the 250 members of your church to Buy Stuff from Chimorel at an average of $25/mo and generate over $50,000/yr for your building fund.
Because of time constraints, we have neglected significant parts of this opportunity. Are you willing to step in to make this one happen.
Affiliate Auction Expedited Emails (active)
We’ve Only Just Begun! On our way to supporting thousands of individuals and hundreds of organizations as they solve major problems and achieve significant goals, we’ve only just begun to explain the many ways we can work together. We are very open to the challenges and opportunities you might bring. Our resources are, of course, limited. We won’t be able to solve every problem without your involvement. But with your active involvement and our creative approach to getting others involved, we will be able to do much more than either of us could do alone.
If you would like to work together to develop auctions, recycle, and many other possible fund raising events, we want to develop an affiliate relationship which focuses on a specific need, keeps egos out of the way and cooperatively taps into all the resources we can bring to bear on a project to help our constituents.
Benefits
Many small churches and other nonprofits do not have adequate benefits. For those who are willing to work actively to help develop Chimorel programs, we can provide a variety of benefits to meet this need. When certain expectations are met, participants can choose among benefits like: short-term disability, cancer, accident, dental, child/dependent care, a medical savings account, prepaid legal, identity theft, tuition/scholarships, major medical, long-term care, life insurance, prescription drugs, a 401(k), other retirement programs, tax preparation and other programs.
There are many details to this program, which are beyond the limits of this discussion; however, some key elements are: the program must operate on a stable funding basis, people must have actual earned income, we must follow the “rules”. To ensure stability the benefit program must be fully paid for a specific time period and there must be a minimum of five participants in the program. The federal government and each participating financial institution has specific “rules” that must be followed.
Although this program does not provide actual funding for your organization, it does provide a resource which might be desperately needed when funds are limited. If developing a benefit program for your staff and or members of your congregation is something you would like to explore, please let us know.
