Afternoon all,

My eldest son is a keen scout (he's done Beavers, Cubs, now Scouts and plans to move onto Explorers next year).

His scout group have organised for some guide dogs to be brought in to their scout meeting tomorrow night. The idea is to help familiarise the scouts with the concept of visual impairment and guide dogs.

The scout leaders have also asked the scouts to put forward suggestions for ways the scouts might help to raise money for guide dogs.

My initial idea is for my son to do some paid dog walking for our neighbours to raise some money.

Do any of you have any other suggestions that might help please?

Thanks,
Nick

Don't wish to burst your bubble but guide dogs for the blind are one of the most corrupt charities, have a look at what the 6 figure salaries the directors pay themselves from the proceeds from the mugs who stand in the cold and rain shaking donation tins.

That's as maybe, I doubt any of the big charities are any different.
Our car club did an event with proceeds going to Guide Dogs. And the people who choose which charity we support are fussy about how efficient a charity is. I believe guide dogs is a bit ahead of some of the other big charities, with about 60% or so going on "useful" stuff.
Anyway, we raised enough to train 1.9 guide dogs. Not bad ......

So well done to the scouts...
Now, as always, food and drink are good, as witnessed by the Macmillan coffee mornings. The missus raised £200 or so in a few hours. And I got plenty of cake to "clear up|" over the following few days. But the demographic is not ideal unless you get parents to do something.

Dog walking is a nice idea. Close links to the charity etc. ANd people seem to pay a fortune on that stuff.

2016 salaries taken from gtftb website, nice work if you can get it, I doubt they stand outside primarm in the rain shaking tins..

:

Richard Leaman, Group Chief Executive until 31.10.2016 - £124,492

Steve Vaid, Director of Mobility Services to 31.10.2016; Acting Chief Executive from
1.11.2016 - £112,288

Jayne George, Director of Fundraising and Marketing - £125,970

Tim Lowth, Director of Finance, Planning and Performance - £95,202

Mike Holt, Director of People and Business Services - £99,029

Oh I do have an axe to grind when it comes to charities and payment to the execs, so just ignore me.

[Edited on 9/10/18 by 02GF74]

As corporations go those CEO salaries are pretty low, any director level role can expect to get ~90K salary. These guys have to be able to attract people that can do the job and that means offering competitive salaries.

Corporates pay their employees so not sure that is a fair comparison.
Well that's the thing with charities , at the top end it's a well paid businesses but the guys at the bottom collecting the money effectively works for free.

Don't get me wrong , it's a good cause....

How about car washing?

Thanks for the extra ideas, always good to have some more!

In addition to my dog walking idea my son put forward his own ideas of a cake sale and car washing. Both feasible and most people eat cake and drive cars so there's a target market to go after. I'm helping at the scout meeting tonight and hopefully there'll be some more ideas put forward as well.

what about baking biscuits for peoples dogs?
https://www.cesarsway.com/dog-care/nutrition/recipes-for-quick-and-healthy-dog-treats

quote:

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Originally posted by swanny
what about baking biscuits for peoples dogs?
https://www.cesarsway.com/dog-care/nutrition/recipes-for-quick-and-healthy-dog-treats

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Home made fudge, then optinally cover with milk, dark or white chocolate or variants, a drop of brandy or whisky to appeal to adults.

I am sorry to say Nick, but im also in the camp of Charities are just money laundering for making the principles richer at the expense of the lovely folk who turn up rain or shine to volunteer for free there time

Ive said before, that the area manager for Oxfam in Sussex is taking, not earning 150k a year, fiiiiinnnggg disgrace!!

I will not give to any charity, not that im tight, and im not, but not a penny really goes to the needy

Now, rant over, and as an ex cub, and scout (4th Crawley) get the money back into the scouts, is a very worthy cause

steve

There is only so much charitable cash out there and loads of charities, so it becomes competitive for all the right reasons (you think your cause is really worth the money) so you need marketers and campaigns and branding you need Governance and financial specialists, safeguarding, retail specialists, it staff, it hardware and it just goes on.

For those that comment on the downside to charities, I'm not going to get drawn into that discussion.

Making and selling dog biscuits seems another reasonable idea to me. It mixes the elements of dogs and money. We also have quite family and neighbours with dogs who I'm sure would participate. Thank you!

I should also add that I didn't stay at the scout meeting last night as 60 odd people and 4 dogs packed into a fairly small building seemed too much.

My son seemed relayed to me that one of the guide dogs had been brought in by a blind lady keeper. The lady explained to those present how having the dog had provided her with elements of freedom in her life she'd not had before. The ability to move around outside guided safely by the dog when it came to pavements and crossing roads etc.