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Topic: CJ06 Donation Organizations (Read 4493 times) previous topic - next topic

CJ06 Donation Organizations

As you all know, every year for Cat Jam we donate the proceeds of the event. At the meeting in 2005, we discussed having several different organizations to be the beneficiaries of our funds, instead of just one. Here's why.

Tod Children's Hospital has been our main recipient since day one. When I was involved with a local Mustang club, our shows always benefitted the hospital and they were very gracious toward us. In fact, we were told that the Mustang club consistently gives them the largest car-related donation every year.

Also, at the Saturday night Chili's cruise-in, all proceeds from the bucket go to Tod Children's Hospital also. The host club, Valley Cruzers, makes sure all the proceeds get there.

That leads me to a big dilemma, and believe me, this is something that has been weighing heavily on my thoughts for some time now.

It seems like the hospital is getting lots of donations, and not just from us, but from a majority of local car events. That's awesome. But, do we really need to donate all of our funds to them? From my perspective they are getting quite a bit already throughout the summer, and every week from the Chili's show.

We all work hard for our money. When you come to my town, you expect to pay for food, hotels, gas, and then maybe some CJ items. And I make sure that all of our collective donation funds are distributed in a proper fashion. It's an awesome responsibility but one to which I'm fully committed. I will not let you down.

My feelings are that we can benefit more than one organization from our collective money. Again, I brought this up at CJ05 and everyone present seemed to be in favor (at least, nobody objected). So here is my proposal for donations, starting with CJ 2006:

1) Tod Children's Hospital - we will not let them down. I still want to make a good donation to them. How much? 50%? Less? More? We need to decide.

2) Angels for Animals - this is a local animal charity that does wonderful work with animals. I really can't even begin to do them justice, so visit their website for more information. I'd like to donate at least 25% to them, but again, we need to decide.

3) Valley Cruzers - this is the host car club for the Chili's show. I'll get to them in a moment here.

A word about Angels for Animals. Back in early August 2004, right after CJ, I found a stray cat that someone dumped off in my front yard. That is common out in the country where I live. The cat seemed to be clean and well fed. But the fact that it happened just angers me in so many ways. Somebody just decided they didn't want it, and then dumped it off for someone else to deal with. It's a good thing that someone was me. I cared for the cat for a few days, then brought him to Angels. They have an Adopt-A-Stray program that is exceptional; I'd heard about it but never experienced it firsthand. The cat got his shots, dewormed, nails trimmed, all bloodwork, general checkup, and lots of attention from the staff. Oh, and he also got de-balled. ;) The price was excellent. And now I have one of the most wonderful, playful and well-behaved cats I've ever seen. Had it not been for Angels for Animals, it would have either cost me a lot more, or cost the kitty his life, and why did he deserve that?

Bottom line, Angels for Animals is making a difference with controlling the pet population in our area. It is a huge task, and one that requires volunteers and funding. Most of the funding comes from donations from ordinary citizens that care. Well, I do care. Animal welfare and care is a subject that is near and dear to my heart. I feel as a citizen and as a human being, I have a responsibility to the animals and this is one way that I--and all of us--can make a difference.

Now about Valley Cruzers...did you know that they pay $1100 for that spot every week? They donate most of the incoming funds to Tod Children's Hospital. That means that every week they are basically in the red. That $1100 comes out-of-pocket to the club members. And most of them are retired. Obviously we're dealing with a great bunch of guys that have a lot of heart and soul. Well, I don't think it's fair that they see little or no financial gain from such a great show. I would like to give them--and just them--a secondary check to show our gratitude. Let's not forget how they accommodated all of us the past two years. And even had a sign made for us in '05. They respected us from day one. I'd like to give a little something back to them.

Sorry for the long post. I just wanted to explain my thoughts about this. After all, it is your funds we're talking about. Please post any thoughts in this thread, and also give an idea on how we should split up the money (50/25/25, etc.). Or feel free to e-mail me (eric@coolcats.net) with your thoughts.

Thank you so much!

CJ06 Donation Organizations

Reply #1 –
I'm always for giving to animals. :D

I ran a station for my bike club's annual charity poker run and the charity I was raising funds for was an animal related one.

CJ06 Donation Organizations

Reply #2 –
Good idea Eric. I am all for the donation to the Valley Cruzers. Never have I seen such a happy group of people to have us present. These people have gone beyond my expectations in accomidating us. With out them forking over the cash for the show we would be hard pressed to find another that could accomidate us all. I say we give them 25% but not to exceed $200. My reason for that is this club is for recreation purposes and the others are for more worthy causes.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]

CJ06 Donation Organizations

Reply #3 –
OK, thanks for the preliminary input guys. I'm going to send out a more formal questionnaire to all CJ05 attendees after the holidays. There is some new information about Angels for Animals that I'd like to share. We have at least one good opportunity, possibly two, to work with them. I'll be making some phone calls and report back.

CJ06 Donation Organizations

Reply #5 –
Eric:

I'm new to this site and I am delighted to have found it.
Your three recipients all seem very worthy of donations.
You may want to consider one or two more worthy recipients - Possibly the local Salvation Army or American Red Cross. Both help those who are the most helpless among us. The childrens hospital should still (IMHO) get around 50%.

Best Regards,
Carmine Fazzari.

CJ06 Donation Organizations

Reply #7 –
Quote
Your three recipients all seem very worthy of donations.
You may want to consider one or two more worthy recipients - Possibly the local Salvation Army or American Red Cross. Both help those who are the most helpless among us. The childrens hospital should still (IMHO) get around 50%.

Hi Carmine, and welcome to the board! Hope you can find useful information here.

Those are two very deserving organizations, especially after this past year. Unfortunately we don't pull in enough money to cover everyone like that. For the past 2 years, our donation money was $600 each year. Giving half to the children's hospital, then splitting $300 3 or 4 ways, would really strain us. Even 2 ways, we'll be cutting it close this year. My thoughts on going from 1 to 3 organizations this year were that this would be a small step toward larger national organizations, maybe for 2007.

Well, if we go over and above the $600 total this year, I think we can give the excess to someone else, and those two organizations would have been my choices too. The Salvation Army here could use it more, to be honest. We have a local rescue mission that is in need too.

So many choices...it's a difficult decision, and you can see how it can get political if not chosen carefully. Since our show is sort of national but in a smaller town, I have been a proponent of donating locally first, because we can sure use some good things around here. If we can contribute in our own small way, it makes me proud. But I am never opposed to a donation to a national organization.

I will up the ante here. I planned on throwing in $100 of my own money. If we get to $800 then we can easily do a 5-way split in generous amounts. That should cover a lot of bases.

Anyone else have some thoughts?

CJ06 Donation Organizations

Reply #8 –
Not to put down the Red Cross or the Salvation Army, but I personally believe that they typically get more than enough. Those are probably the two biggest organizations that I believe get the most money, as people usually think of them first when some disaster happens, the holidays come around, or even just in the general scheme of things. Now that's not to say that they don't need the money, but I kinda believe, like Eric, that local charities should come first, since I believe they often times get looked over. I am personally all for the animal shelter and the childrens hospital. If we were looking to donate to a "national/international" organization, I would either suggest something like Habitat For Humanity, or possibly Big Brothers And Sisters or the Boys Club. All three of those organizations are around on a national level, but are traditionally supported on a local level. Kind of a two birds with one stone deal. Just my :2c: .
Temporarily Foxless? Ride the Bull...

CJ06 Donation Organizations

Reply #9 –
I sure hope all the Mopar guys who were making snide comments at last year's Chili's show weren't a part of the Valley Cruzers.

CJ06 Donation Organizations

Reply #10 –
How about an account for us to send it donations early. I dunno about you guys/girls, but I'm in college and it's really cleaning my bank out.  I manage to scrub up enough money to pay the bills, buy books, and put gas into my cars. I know CJ comes around I'll be very tight on money. Possibly if I could send in a donation before the event I may be able to contribute more as I will be short come that weekend. Just an idea...?

CJ06 Donation Organizations

Reply #11 –
Quote
I sure hope all the Mopar guys who were making snide comments at last year's Chili's show weren't a part of the Valley Cruzers.


I wasn't there in '05' but a little rivalry is always fun.  Gives you something to get fired up about.  Get the old ticker pumping. 

Eric, I like your idea of spreading the wealth but I personally think if you dip down around $100.00 it doesnt' seem as grand. If your talking less than $1000.00 I wouldn't split it more than 2 ways. Instead of percentages you could just earmark $500.00 to the Tod Childrens Hospital, then anything over that goes to one of the other charities up to $1000.00.  Then anything over that starts a new charity.  I am a little confused though, I thought there was a seperate collection for the hosting car club.  I remember donating $10.00 to them in '04'.  I can't remember how that worked though.

I deffinitely think you should keep the donations local.  If I was hosting a car show I would want to donate to a cause close to home as well, and that's the way it should be.

Jason.

CJ06 Donation Organizations

Reply #12 –
Quote from: jasontbird
I wasn't there in '05' but a little rivalry is always fun.  Gives you something to get fired up about.  Get the old ticker pumping. 


Since you missed the fun, I'll give you a short recap.  It was nothing to get upset about, but I'm a hothead, so I did anyway.  We were all pulling in and I was driving Eric's T-bird and some old kook in a lawn chair yells through my window "I can put you in touch with a good bodyman".  Obviously referencing the rusty state of erics former '88 T-bird.  I yelled back, "this isn't even my FVCKING car!"  Throughout the rest of the day there were many comments like "ugh, why are these cars taking up spaces when we could have the real cars in here"..."these cars aren't even classics, they aren't very nice at all."  But, I've now channeled my anger and it's become my drive to get my shiznitboat up and running so I can show up this coming show and I can fire some comments back, because this time, it will be personal.

CJ06 Donation Organizations

Reply #13 –
Steve: this year I have set up a new Paypal account specifically for Cat Jam. When you register you will be able to pay for everything up front: meal, donation, T-shirt, etc. to help everyone out. Technically if one registers that way, all one needs is cash for food and gas on the rest of the trip. This should help you out, and it will also guarantee that we'll be giving out checks instead of cash. I will have the registration form uploaded by the end of the month.

Jason: the host car club (Valley Cruzers) will probably get around $100-150 max. That should free up a little more cash for the rest of the donations. So say we take in $800: $400 to Tod's, $100 to Valley Cruzers, and that leaves $300 that we can split between 3 other places, for a donation of $100 each. In my eyes, that's not too shabby. I really don't see us getting more money than that, to be honest. It's not like everyone isn't generous--they are, by FAR--but after expenses that's what we'll have to work with, and I think we just have to play the hand we're dealt, and be responsible with the funds. $100 per organization is still $100 more than they had, right? ;)

CJ06 Donation Organizations

Reply #14 –
It's amazing that car people, aren't really car people.

One of the number one rules to follow at a show is to "KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT!"

If it's not positive then keep it to yourself. What to your eyes is a piece of junk, to their's means something to them. I'm finally getting this message to people in my town about being this type of person. All in all at CJ at the show I heard about 2 people personally in front of me mumble out loud. But screw 'em. Those are the ones that have the rusted Tempo thats parked as far away from the show as possible.  To myself all opinions that are negative I dont even worry about. I enjoy what Im doing, IT'S MY CAR, and that's the way it's going to be.