Holiday Fundraisers for PTO's, Sports Boosters, & the Arts

 The School Year is Here!

     School bells are starting to ring, the PTO budgets are being discussed, and sports boosters are kicking off fundraisers over the next few weeks at the start of another school year.  Fundraising programs happen to be the central theme of any school group supporting the arts, athletics, or enhanced academics.  Getting a new fundraising idea to sell to any one of these groups, however, takes a bit of novelty combined with a lot of planning and teamwork to reach an agreement.  Especially in light of school budgets being squeezed along with students' and parents' schedules being squeezed tightly as well, it's make-it or break-it with trying new fundraising programs.  One shining fundraising program stands out from the pack though for its beauty, nostalgia, and class.  

How Treasured Scenes Collectibles Become Effective School Fundraisers

Beauty in the Eye of the Beholder

      No one can deny the apparent attraction they feel towards the Treasured Scenes fundraising ornaments at first glance.  Free display packaging keeps each ornament on view of your buyers while protecting the collectible from bumps or breakage.

     Surpassing the packaging, the hand-drawn details in each collectible's artwork make each Treasured Scenes fundraiser magical, as collectors who purchase them from your school organization see the feature subject image on the collectible in a whole new perspective.  Perhaps a historic building in your city is revealed in its original form shortly after it was built, or a person famous is featured for his or her contributions to your region, or a piece of art created by a student is used.  There are hundreds of ways the subject image you choose can make an ornament fundraiser, collectors plate fundraiser, afghan fundraiser, pillow fundraiser, collectors mug fundraiser, tote bag fundraiser, trivet fundraiser, or collectors coin fundraiser popular beyond your imagination. 

Marketing Support

     Keystone Specialties, the company behind Treasured Scenes, provides marketing support materials for each Treasured Scenes fundraiser.  After the artwork is designed and approved for your collectible fundraiser, a template email will be sent to your school group's contact person with several fundraiser marketing materials.  These materials include:

Media Release Template (For online/print newspapers and broadcast)

Promotional Flier Template (For printing and posting in permitted locations)

Inventory Control Sheet (For tracking inventory of collectibles sent to locations for retail) 

Pre-Order Sheet (To take orders before collectibles are delivered (Upon request))

Digital Image of Your Collectible (For inserting into your own email templates and print material)

Social Media Guide (For promoting your fundraiser on Facebook, Twitter, blogs, etc.)

Free Fundraiser Support Examples

Fundraising for a Main Street Program (the National Trust for Historic Preservation Program)

There are literally millions of ways to fundraise for a Main Street Program, the program sponsored by the National Trust for Historic Preservation to preserve historical districts in cities across the United States.  How many of those fundraisers actually promote historical events, buildings, and people alone is an important question to ask when considering the fundraising options available. 

When a fundraiser promotes historical awareness on its own, not only should it raise funds effectively to preserve history, but it should also promote an appreciation of history.  What good is a fundraiser that only raises funds but leaves a historical group's purpose out of the equation? 

"How can a fundraiser promote history even if its not connected to a historical cause?", you may be asking.  It can do so by using historical subjects as its feature image on a collectible product.  Woven tapestries, afghans, collectors plates, mugs, and custom ornaments are just a few of the collectibles that preserve history.  For example, Norman Rockwell's art stayed relevant long after his death simply because collectibles featuring his art are still available today!  We may not own original sketches he created, but thousands of families own collectible plates with his colorful artwork on them.

In creating an unusual fundraising collectible for a main street program or historical group, it's a task to select an image that will sell well when its printed on the collectible.  In this case, having a graphic artist to help choose the image for the collectible can help, as can product consultants at Keystone Specialties, who create new collectibles for many main street programs to use as fundraisers each year.

Here's an link to see how an image your main street program or historical society sends us is transformed into a work of art for your fundraiser collectible:
http://www.keystonespecialties.com/treasuredscenes/art-process.html

As you can see from the progression shown, the end product's image represents the original photo well, but still provides a romantic view of the photo that may even seem more desirable than the original photograph.  That's the magic of product design.  If it's going to sell well, it has to look fantastic at first glance, and there's no better way to accomplish this than through Keystone Specialties' graphic design department. 

Read more about Main Street Fundraising Programs

Become familiar with Historical Society Fundriasing Ideas

Request a Treasured Scenes Catalog

Can Collectibles Preserve Our History?

     In their basic form, collectibles preserve only images of history, not the subject itself.  They may not be able to keep time standing still or prevent permanent the loss of culture, but they do provide a glimpse of earlier days each time we steal a glance at the beautiful scenes imprinted on them. 

     It is this unique benefit of a collectible that can preserve history by preserving our awareness of it.  While time marches on, bringing changes we want and some we may not want, a timeless collectible lets us glimpse back with fondness at a place and time we once loved. 

     Celebrating these historical icons, whether people, places, or events, is easier with something tangible that keeps the memory in front of us. 

     Whether a custom ceramic trivet, a custom printed stein, an custom Christmas ornament, or a framed picture, we look at the beauty of a collectible not for its function (it helps), but the rich story it holds in our hearts.

     Choosing a subject image to feature on a new collectible is the beginning of preserving history.  Many published books contain historical photographs of people, places, and events that left a legacy for a community, a region, or the entire world, and those images can be reproduced in a format that can be featured on any collectible you choose.  Once an image is chosen, a specific type of collectible can be elected to feature that image.  Some collectibles, such as custom glass ornaments, ceramic ornaments, and collectors mugs, allow full color images to be replicated with detail, while etched metal ornaments require some simplification of the design.  An image can also be replicated with detail on custom trivets and photographic imprinted metal ornaments. 

     The options for preserving history in collectibles really are quite broad, and its only our imagination that may need inspired.  With all the product options to help us preserve memories of people, places, and events that made the world we know today, it's easy to keep history close to our hearts. 

Learn how to fundraise for historical preservation!  

Overview of Treasured Scenes

When Keystone Specialties President, John McWilliams, first designed and created the Treasured Scenes Collectibles in 1982, he did so with the purpose of creating the best fund-raising programs available for schools, churches, historical societies, and museums.  What began as a program solely devoted to custom Christmas ornaments has grown to over 25 fund-raising categories, such as afghans, Christmas ornaments of all types, collectors coins, glassware, mugs, plates, school spirit items, and many other items.

As a result, we have provided custom collectibles for over 600 chambers of commerce, thousands of religious organizations, hundreds of schools, numerous historic sites such as The Alamo, Bok Tower Gardens, The National Maritime Museum, and San Juan Capistrano, as well as ten major soap operas.  Besides many non-profit fund-raising programs, we have also produced corporate promotions for small and large companies through Treasured Scenes.  With artistic development by Keystone Specialties artists, any collectible in the Treasured Scenes program will become a cherished keepsake.  With Keystone Specialties guidance, fund-raising with Treasured Scenes brings better support to any group, and expands the profile of the organization in its community and beyond.