Page 358 - One Thousand Ways to Make $1000

waste of money, and that the merchants in order to cover their cost of doing
business, must add the money thus spent to their prices. Since the big chain
stores have a very definite rule that they will not do this kind of advertising,
the “tax” falls upon the independent merchants and tends to make their
difficulty of competing with the chain store even more acute. Thus,
unwittingly, these well-intentioned people, in their effort to raise money for a
worthy charitable undertaking, help to drive the independent merchants out of
their communities.

For this reason it is wise in planning a money-raising activity to be careful
that it is tuned to a sound community policy, and that it does not “rob Peter to
pay Paul.” Fortunately, there are any number of ways for raising money that
are not competitive to local business enterprises as the examples which
follow demonstrate.

Baby Shows Go Over Big

E

VERYBODY loves a baby, and there is probably nothing which has so much
interest to the mothers in a community as a baby show and contest. Since the
very nature of such a show is to stimulate interest in better babies, it not only
serves as a means of raising money, but it indirectly promotes the sale of
many things sold in the local stores, which babies need. In fact, it is easy to
get local merchants to tie in with such a contest, and give good display to
posters and advertising.

There are a dozen different plans for holding baby shows. The most popular
plan is to have the mothers of the babies bring them in to be shown and
judged. Arrange with local merchants to have displays of baby goods in the
church hall or wherever the contest is held, and charge them a percentage of
their total sales for the concession. If the community is large enough, the
contest can last several days, a different age group being judged each day. A
committee of local doctors will gladly serve as judges, and if
accommodations permit lectures can be held every hour on some phase of
baby care. Admission is charged, and door prizes awarded. While the amount