Creativity Corner:

Looking for a quick Children's Miracle Network fund raising idea for your credit union? Are you planning on doing your first campaign for your Children's Miracle Network hospital? Either way, listed below are some fun and quick fund raising ideas for your credit union and its members.

• CMN Balloons: Selling Miracle Balloons doesn’t involve a lot of planning or implementation. The paper card balloons are free to your credit union. Simply call your Children's Miracle Network hospital to receive your balloons or contact your state credit union league’s CMN Coordinator. Once you have established a goal for your credit union, sell them for a designated time period to your members for $1 each. Feel proud in telling them that every dollar will go to their local Children's Miracle Network hospital.
  
  
• Casual Days: This fund raiser is internal within your credit union staff. Have staff pay for the privilege of wearing jeans on Fridays. Some credit unions even encourage staff to wear their CMN T-shirts. A Children's Miracle Network lapel sticker is a nice addition for participating employees. It reminds your members that your credit union cares for the welfare of its members children!
  
  
• Lobby Décor: Decorate your lobby in any way you wish. Add decorations that match the season or center around a particular holiday. Use this time to inform members about their own Children's Miracle Network hospital and place change collection canisters and donation forms around the credit union lobby.
  
  
• Skip-A-Payment: Give members the opportunity to skip a payment on a credit union loan during a designated period of time. This works well both during and after the holidays when cash is tight! Members are charged a fee- usually $5 to $10 to, which goes directly to your Children's Miracle Network hospital. Your credit union benefits as well from increased interest charges.
  

You and your staff’s imagination is the only limit to fundraising ideas. Campaigns that actively involve staff and educate members are the most successful. It’s a “win” for all involved; your staff and members have fun and all money raised is used by your own Children's Miracle Network hospital to treat the kids in your community.

Credit Unions and Children’s Hospital San Diego:
A Winning Combination

Five years ago, a small number of credit unions were raising a few thousand dollars for Children’s Hospital and Health Center in San Diego, Calif. Today, that number has grown to more than 20 credit unions raising more than $140,000 for their Children's Miracle Network hospital. Nearly all of that money is raised during San Diego’s credit union Miracle Month of May through an organized Miracle Balloon campaign. Other successful campaigns in San Diego include Holiday Cards sold in credit union branches, selling Christmas stocking icons and CO-OP Network ATM contributions.

Lisa Reddy, Corporate Development and Children's Miracle Network Coordinator for Children’s Hospital and Health Center in San Diego, explains, “The success of our credit union program is due to the leadership of the credit union representatives who serve on the steering committee.” Best practices in San Diego indicate that key elements of credit union involvement entail frequent tours of the hospital and Lisa taking an active role in the union’s Children's Miracle Network steering committee for San Diego. The steering committee meets monthly and plans fund campaigns every year. Lisa regularly attends these meetings and assists with the preparation and execution of the campaigns.

She explains how enthusiasm is generated, “The committee members encourage each other by sharing ideas, past successes and future plans. This process creates a lot of innovative ideas and excitement, which they pass on to their associates who look forward to having fun while raising money during the balloon campaign.”

Reddy notes that promotion is an integral part of a successful campaign, “Some of the credit unions promote the campaign on their websites with the opportunity to donate online, some promote on their telephone ‘hold’ messages encouraging member participation in the campaign and others include campaign information in their regular email and postal correspondence to their members through statement stuffers.”

San Diego credit unions understand the importance of advertising their goodwill to the community to not only increase donations, but also to show that credit unions are an integral part of the local community. San Diego’s success rests on the principles of promotion, organization, communication and wide-scale involvement. These principles are lessons for us all because they hold true no matter the size of your credit union and hospital or size of your fund raising campaign.

Let us know what you are doing at your credit union or state league! Email us at creditunions@childrensmiraclenetwork.org!