Pooks
MERCHANT OF CHAOS
NEW ORG BUILDING
FUNDRAISING EVENTS
HAT WRITE-UP
by
DENNIS NEGLEY
EVENT FUNDRAISER
SAN FRANCISCO
DATE OF WRITE-UP: 16 FEBRUARY 2003
This is my hat write-up for holding building fundraising events and a write-up especially of the hat for Event Fundraiser --- the person that gets up in front of the crowd and directs the fundraising of the event. It is being written as advice, per HCO PL 22 September 1970 HATS Item C. of HAT CONTENT.
I am not trying to write-up how to raise funds for a new building. That is very well covered in issues by International Management and anyone involved with building fundraising should get a copy of INT RESERVES ED 725 ORG BUILDING FUNDRAISING PROGRAM and INT RESERVES ED 726 HOW TO SUCCESSFULLY PURCHASE AND RENOVATE YOUR ORG. Our successful actions in San Francisco to raise funds to purchase a new org building were based on these EDs and on LRH references.
A brief word on our San Francisco fundraising statistics: We started our fundraising activities in May of 2001. As of 15 February 2003 we have raised $1,200,000 strictly from donations. Of this $1.2 million, we raised over half of it in the last 5 months. Once we hooked up with the Sea Organization New Civilization Builders International in the fall of 2002, our donation numbers really took off into a whole new range. With the experience, drive, and organizational abilities of the New Civilization Builders directly on our lines we went into Affluence. There is a fundraiser hat-pack that has been assembled and is available from your Continental Fundraiser Chief and I strongly suggest you get it, read it, and apply it.
Before getting into the actual nuts & bolts of putting on a building fundraiser event I want to compare the two different types of fundraisers that we have done, which type I consider more successful and why.
The two types of fundraisers we have done break down fundamentally into:
A) Auctions
B) Inspirational (what I call “IAS style”) dinner/fundraisers
We found the second category, the “IAS style” fundraisers, much more successful. There are a number of reasons. First, auctions involve MEST and MEST is a problem. It has to be donated, it has to be collected, it has to be auctioned off, and the persons getting auctioned items have to take them home. Our first big fundraiser was an auction. It took two months to prepare, with massive collections & transportation logistics. It was a lot of fun and we raised $25,000, which to us was a lot in the early days, but it also took two months to collect the money. By comparison, inspirational “IAS style” fundraisers surpass auction fundraising in money raised, with a fraction of the effort in preparations.
(1)
Page 2
We did do a total of three auctions, but the second and third we auctioned LRH special fiction and non-fiction properties. These auctions were much easier to put on and we did raise a total of $44,000 from a donated collection, but we still had to transport the items, display them, auction them, and distribute them. I’m not saying that auctions don’t raise money… they do, but what I am saying is that for the amount of money you get back for the amount of time and effort put in, it’s not really worth it. Another reason, and the main one, that inspirational straight-ahead fundraising events are better is that they focus on purpose and a point B… a new or renovated building… and don’t put people’s attention on MEST. Even though the “donation” for MEST at an auction may be furthering the purpose, still an auction puts the crowd’s attention on the MEST items being presented. (A NOTE ABOUT “CASINO NIGHTS”: We never did a Casino Night because none of us were hatted on these. They may or may not be good vehicles for a large fundraising activity. I do not have adequate data on these)
To focus on the plus-points about inspirational “IAS-style” fundraisers --- these fundraisers really play upon a thetan’s sense of purpose. The more you can get a person excited about and acting directly on the building fund purpose line the more donations you will get. This is where the tone level and expertise of the Event Fundraiser comes heavily into play, which I will go over later on in this write-up. A vital datum on this comes from the HCO PL 14 January 1969 Issue I OT ORGS regarding rekindling failed purposes. By rekindling failed purposes in individuals in the crowd you add free theta to the group and the fundraising, raising the tone level and the ability of the crowd to envision success (i.e. hitting the evening’s target). Raising the individuals, and thus the group, on the various scales (see Scientology 0-8 THE BOOK OF BASICS) is essential to a successful fundraiser and a target met. I will cover more on this later.
We found the elements of a successful fundraiser were:
A) An upstat location --- either an upstat public home or an event room in an upscale hotel.
B) Good food --- either catered if in someone’s home, or provided by the hotel.
C) Sell tickets, even if it’s at someone’s home. You still have to pay for the catering. Having someone exchange and “qualify” by buying a ticket does work. Don’t try to make money selling tickets, but price them so that you pay for the cost of putting on the activity. This makes your donations raised pure profit.
D) Lots of advance notice and lots of promotion. Send out flyers and postcards well in advance of your event. Select a name for your event and punch it up on the mailers… don’t just say “COME TO THE BUILDING FUNDRAISER!” Decide on a catchy, descriptive title for the evening and use that. Make the mailers upstat, don’t send out cheap looking promotion. It’s got to be professional looking. IMPORTANT: Don’t avoid the fact that your event is going to be a fundraiser. Don’t try to go around the fact that you will be asking attendees for donations. Promote it as a dinner/fundraiser in verbal and written promotion. Also tell people you’ll have important updates for them on the progress of the project. You want to develop good PR for your fundraising project so tell people the truth. You actually can popularize fundraising with your public if you make it fun enough and they have wins by hitting event donation targets.
Page 3
E) CALL-IN CALL-IN CALL-IN TICKET SALES TICKET SALES This cannot be stressed enough. You need CALL-IN and TICKET SALES happening in high volume, starting early on. Once you’ve gotten a number of tickets sold you can use that to close people to confirm & pay --- “We’ve got 100 people confirmed, with tickets, and we’re adding more every minute. You’ve got to get in on this! It’s going to be an evening you don’t want to miss!” Get confirms, sell the person a ticket at the time they confirm. Make it one cycle of action. If you don’t sell them a ticket when you confirm them you have to get a hold of them again (sometimes quite a feat!) to sell them the ticket. (NOTE: We never really printed/distributed tickets --- that’s an unnecessary expense and cycle. Just sell admission and collect the money). I’m not going to try to write a Call-In Hat here because that’s not my expertise, but you MUST get someone in charge of this activity who knows how to do this and can assemble and product-officer a Call-In/Ticket Sales campaign. It is essential. Make sure a confirm board goes up in your org and update it regularly.
F) Write an agenda and script out your events. Drill it all, each part, from start to finish. Give yourself enough time to do this the day of the event. If you have material for audio/visual presentations you’ll want to thoroughly drill that as part of your rehearsal. Your event must be tight, crisp, professional and must flow from segment to segment, building to the excitement of the fundraising. A poorly formatted, unscripted, or unrehearsed event can greatly detract from the magic you want to create for the evening and this can effect donations. You want to take your audience up and out of the ordinary, get them so uptone they don’t have a chance to dramatize being human beings (i.e. “stop, stop, stop”). This is done by a well planned, aesthetic, and professionally executed agenda. Poor quality equipment or audio/visual failures; poor timing on audio/visual presentations; uninspiring or poorly delivered speeches; awkward gaps between program segments and other goofs can make a big difference. Do it all first-rate and you’ll have a magical evening with lots of dollars when it’s all over.
G) Start on time. Advertise a starting time for the doors opening and for dinner and keep to that. Allow at least an hour after doors open for people to arrive, socialize and have dinner before starting the program. This is just my advice… if it works better to speed this up, then do it.
H) Make your event segments, speeches, and presentations short and exciting. Don’t let any one segment or speaker drag on. Don’t let people get into impromptu speeches… script it and stick to the script. It all leads up to the reason you’ve gathered the people together: to hit the donation target and have a big group win. Don’t overrun them before you start fundraising. The earlier you can start the fundraising the better.
Page 4
I) Set a donation target. That’s such an essential part of the evening. Really stress target attainment, per the PL OT ORGS. Also use HCOB/PL THE SUPREME TEST regarding going to point B. Make it a realistic target that could and should be met for the evening. Present it at the beginning of the fundraising, all as part of the smooth transition from event speakers & presentations to the fundraising. Mark the target in large numbers on your large dono board (more on this board later) right at the top, in the middle, and draw a box around it to highlight it. Get the crowd’s agreement that is the target…really get the agreement. TR-3 it when you present it if you have to to get a Tone 40 agreement. Then get the crowd’s agreement that it will be met. This is equally important.
J) HAVE DONORS PRE-CLOSED TO DONATE AT KEY POINTS EARLY ON IN THE FUNDRAISING. This is important because when your crowd sees things kick off well they sense they can be part of a winning evening and they participate more readily. Depending on how many pre-closed donors you have, utilize these so that you get the maximum effect of each (at different times) jumping up and saying “I’ll do $______!!!” People go crazy when they see this. Use all of your pre-closed donors within the first half-hour. Use them as “nitrous oxide” to inject super energy into the early part of your event, get games going, to keep the ball rolling, and get some substantial numbers on the board in the first half-hour.
K) Run the fundraising until the target is met. As Fundraiser, you are acting as the auditor of the group. You’re running the process called “Donate”. The target met is the EP. Would you, as an auditor, end a session before the preclear EP’d the process? Of course not. A fundraising target hit is a BIG win for the group and people go into exhilaration. YOU WANT PEOPLE TO REMEMBER THE EP OF A FUNDRAISER = TARGET MET.
Even if you went longer than planned and things got tedious at times during the fundraising,
if you hit the target people will remember the event as a win, not a grind. YOU WANT
THEM BACK FOR THE NEXT FUNDRAISER SO MAKE THE EVENING A WIN.
When you call them on the phone or talk to them in person to close them on coming to your
next fundraiser you’ll find it much easier doing it over a win. I’ve never run a fundraiser
past midnight and never had to.
Those are the successful elements. Now here is the logistical set-up and flow of the evening for a successful fundraiser:
ITEMS YOU’LL NEED:
A) Lots of LRH quotes on 8 ½ x 11paper. Don’t try to lug OEC volumes or Tech vols up on stage. Have your quotes on sheets of paper that you can easily handle. You’ll want to be able to whip one out when things slow at times and you don’t want to be fumbling with a heavy book.
B) If it’s in a hotel you’ll want stage risers, a podium, and a microphone. It really helps to be above the crowd, especially a large crowd. If it’s in someone’s home you won’t need this but set up the fundraising to where you have a commanding view and straight comm line to the entire group. This is important in maintaining the group comm cycle so essential to your keeping control of the evening.
Page 5
C) A dry-marker, erasable white board. If you’re on stage at a hotel event, use a BIG one. We use a 4 X 5 foot board at hotel events and that is perfect. Make sure it is upstat looking and not ratty. Decorate it up along the edges so it looks festive. Clean the white board thoroughly so it’s not dirty looking. Have a very sturdy, but presentable easel that you can set it upon. If you’re doing an event in someone’s home you can’t use a board this big. Use a smaller board that fits in the space you’re using but is big enough to write donations on and to be seen by those in attendance. Have plenty of new regular point dry markers on hand. Have black, green, red, blue. You can just use black if you want but it can make it more interesting to vary your colors. Mark your evening target in a bright color. Don’t use sharp-point markers as these can’t be seen by people far away from the stage. Have a couple good dry-marker erasers on hand.
D) A large picture of LRH. Get with your org’s LC on all pictures or presentations of LRH. These must meet LRH standards per LC post policy.
E) THE FOLLOWING IS A MUST. WITHOUT THIS YOU WILL BE LOST IN HOW MUCH DONATIONS YOU REALLY GOT AND WHO DID WHAT: You must have “accountants” posted at a table to the side, out of direct view but positioned so they can see the stage and the board. One accountant has a good quality, paper print calculator, and he keeps a continuous running total during the event. This is so valuable, because you have to know at any given time during the fundraising where you are on your way to the target. The other person has 8 ½ X 11 sheets of paper or binder and keeps track of each individual’s donation, adding individuals’ additional dono’s during the evening. Multiple donations from one person during the evening are a sign of a good fundraiser and should be very common. Together these two “accountants” keep a running record of the donations. These are the event “worksheets” which are vital to documenting money donated.
F) Donation forms. These have the name, address, and as many phone contact numbers as
possible, plus email addresses. These also have multiple lines for multiple donations.
When someone has donated they are routed to the table to fill out their donation form. They
write the amount donated and their credit card number, or write a check. When they donate
again for the evening they come back to the table, are handed their form, and fill in their next donation on the next line. This also gives a running record of their successive donations during the evening. Don’t total their multiple donations until the end of the evening. It can get confusing when someone donates a number of successive times, especially if they have to use different cards or other sources to fund the full donation. However tedious it may get, it is well worth it.
Page 6
THE FUNDRAISER: A few words here about the Fundraiser himself. He must be an Opinion Leader from the org’s field… someone the audience knows, respects, and listens to. Whether or not this person has a cert that says “OT” they must be someone who, by their actions in the field has demonstrated being OT by getting things done in a big way. Your audience is going to have to be willing to be controlled by this person for a number of hours continuously during a fundraiser so this person must be someone who has personally demonstrated environmental control in their life. The Fundraiser MUST be very uptone and be able to operate at Tone 40, Enthusiasm, Exhilaration, Games, and Postulates at will during the evening, as well as being able to take the audience there. The Fundraiser must have very good stage presence, with excellent TRs and an excellent comm cycle. If you have someone auditing on OT VII Expanded or complete and through OT VIII Expanded, this will be excellent, as long as they meet the guidelines above.
As the Fundraiser you must be thoroughly conversant with various scales in Scientology 0-8 THE BOOK OF BASICS. Study the expanded Tone Scale; the Havingness Scale; The Scale of Confront; the Scale of Determinism; the Awareness Characteristics; the CDEI Scale and others you find. Know your Science of Survival regarding the Tone Scale, especially the Chart of Human Evaluation.
Know that if you don’t keep your audience above 3.5 on the tone scale, preferably much higher, then you are a dead duck as a Fundraiser. You literally need to get people to step outside of “themselves”… those valences they’ve mocked up and think is them… and do some very courageous donating. From my experiences the best tone scale points to get to and operate from during the fundraising are ACTION and GAMES. During the course of the evening the tone level will drop but you must never let it drop below 3.5 (Cheerfulness) and always push it back up to ENTHUSIASM, EXHILARATION and higher. What kicks the tone level up is
DONATIONS, DONATIONS, DONATIONS in large chunks. That’s the tone-arm moving down during a fundraiser. As a Fundraiser, don’t demand donations. That’s like the auditor telling the pc… “cognite, darn you!” You just persistently push the purpose of the fundraising, read LRH quotes, get games going amongst donors in the audience, be uptone and be amusing if a light moment is needed, go over again what a new building or a reno’d building will mean to their org --- whatever is needed to keep communication happening and the audience participating.
THE FLOW OF THE FUNDRAISING
Here’s the actual fundraising procedure that I’ve found works best:
Dinner is fully done and people have had their after-dinner coffee. They have been attentively engaged by the speaking/presentation portion of the event. They are tremendously excited about their new building or their renovated building. It is very real to them. They are uptone.
They are about to be asked for money --- lots of money. If left to their own devices and allowed to donate what they felt was appropriate for them, they would give you a fraction of what you need from them and then they would go home feeling they’d done their part.
Page 7
From my experiences as an audience participant and as the Fundraiser, the audience really looks forward to all parts of the event except for being asked for money. There’s a sort of tension that is tangible when you shift into the money phase of the event. It’s just peoples’ non-confront and Q&A about money, about help, or whatever other button is getting pushed (and about to be pushed harder) that is getting keyed in. They sense they’re about to be challenged to do more than they think they can or want to do. They’re willing to hang in there with you to the degree you can make them make it a game, make it interesting, make them feel they can win this game (the target) and that their own create in hitting the target is vital. The truth of the matter is, and this is backed up by many LRH references, that the biggest wins from the event will come from getting the audience to confront and get through their own barriers to donating big --- which gives the big win. It is BIG THINK that gets the target done and that is what has to be brought about in the crowd.
After you are introduced you’ll need to spend a few minutes giving your initial presentation to the audience. There’s two main reasons why you do a short presentation yourself before going into the actual fundraising: 1) It establishes a comm cycle between you and the audience. It puts you at Cause because you’re addressing them. 2) It gives a chance for the board to be set up as you speak. You don’t want the board set up during the speakers/presentations. It distracts the audience & puts them into the future (fundraising) part of the event. Setting up the board must be drilled thoroughly by fellows who can handle it rapidly and smoothly. Setting up a big board at a hotel takes only a minute or so if done right. Your initial speech should be only two minutes… no more.
You need to kick off the fundraising segment in a big way, with a good flow of donations right off the bat. You don’t necessarily need the big hitters to jump up right away, but you do need people originating donations right away. You want a flow established very rapidly. If no one jumps up then tell the audience to get a game going. The important thing is a flow starts right away. When someone calls out a donation you have them walk up onto the stage and write their name and donation amount on the board. (If you are in someone’s home and it’s cramped you may just want to have your Board Assistant write the name/dono. You always have a young, attractive and smartly dressed young lady as a Board Assistant who hands the donor the dry-marker pen and who is in charge of the dono board. When we use the large board at a hotel event we use two young ladies because the board is so large. They stand at opposite sides of the board. When your donors really get cooking you should have a parade of people proudly walking up, one after another, to write their names and donations on the board. We have come to call it “The Parade of Heroes”.
If I know the person’s name I call it out to the crowd as they approach the stage. They write their name and dono on the board and I call it out to the crowd enthusiastically: “Joe Smith --- $1,000!!!” and the audience applauds. If it’s a really big dono, like $5,000 or more I call the name/dono out then have the person remain on stage for a moment to receive the applause. People who want to start games can come up write their dono on the board, then turn around and R-factor the crowd on their game. The Board Assistants then draw blank lines below the person’s name/dono for the number of players required to complete the game. For example: Joe Smith comes up and writes $5,000 on the board, turns and says “I’ll do $5,000 if 5 other people do $5,000!!!”. The Assistant then draws five blank lines below Joe’s name/dono.
Page 8
This becomes known as the “Joe Smith $5,000 game.” You can have 3-4 of these going on the board at once during a hot stretch of the evening. This gives you, as the Fundraiser, something to put the crowd’s attention on rather than just cajoling them for another donation. Put their attention on the undone games on the board and stress that these games need to be completed. You can look at the board and say “Well, we’ve got some really great games going on here. We’ve got the Joe Smith $5,000 game which only needs 3 more players to complete. We’ve got the Susie Jones $1,000 game which needs 6 more players to complete. Then we’ve got the BIG game here… the Bob Brown $10,000 game that needs on more player to be a done. So let’s go, let’s get these complete… who’s next?” As the Fundraiser you work out your own style, your own patter. However, all successful Fundraiser styles are based on LRH tech… granting Beingness; TRs 0-IV; cycles of action; ARC, etc. You won’t need a script to do the actual fundraising… it’s impromptu, which makes it all that much more fun… but you will need to operate with these standard LRH stable datums to hand.
You make sure you update the crowd on the running total as significant gains are made. You can even write it in the upper left corner of the dono board and update that periodically.
From my experience here’s how a typical, successful fundraising evening goes:
When you toss out the Tone 40 phrase “OK, so who’s first for ______ org’s new building!?!” you should get immediate donations and the flow started. If that doesn’t happen, have it pre-arranged for a pre-closed donor (but not your biggest) to jump up and get it rolling. The flow should build as people activate their own donor postulates they made prior to coming or during the presentations. THEIR INITIAL DONATION POSTULATES WILL NOT BE ENOUGH TO HIT YOUR TARGET. YOU MUST CHANGE THE AUDIENCE’S IDEA OF WHAT IS SUFFICIENT TO DONATE. THE ONLY AMOUNT SUFFICIENT IS THAT WHICH HITS OR EXCEEDS THE TARGET. THAT IS YOUR VIEWPOINT AS THE FUNDRAISER. YOU VALIDATE EVERY PENNY DONATED BUT KEEP THE VIEWPOINT THAT BIG IS GOOD, REALLY BIG IS BETTER, AND HUGE IS BEST. One of the things that changes an audience member’s mind on how much to donate is seeing others donate and seeing the board move up significantly towards the target. Thetans love to win. We hate to lose. We’ll back a winning horse if we think it’s got a good chance and we’ll climb right on its back as it heads to the finish line in first place. Getting out the starting gate and around the first turn of the track is what is key in getting a winning evening going. If you’ve got a strong horse galloping in big strides you’ll find lots of jockeys in the crowd willing to ride.
You’ll find there are high tides and ebbs during the evening. Ride them all towards the target.
Push the high tides for all they’re worth and don’t let an ebb stick. Get it moving again as fast as possible. LRH quotes are good for these points. People get to take a little breather and listen to Source. It’s an exercise in Reach and Withdraw and if you’re in a withdraw phase, don’t resist it, just push it back to a reach. Your LRH quotes should be short… no full PLs or HCOBs… no more than a few short paragraphs at a time. You’ll lose people if you (or someone else) talks at them too much during a lull. Get them active, get them into action, to toss out a game, any game. Get the dono’s rolling again.
Page 9
During the course of the evening you will see people wrap up and leave. I never bring attention to anyone who is leaving. I keep the audience’s attention on what is happening up here at the board, now. I can’t keep someone from leaving so why make a point of it? I consider it the kiss of death for fundraising if you try to adopt a “locked door” approach. In my viewpoint, if you do this, you have immediately violated Prelogic #1 (Q1:“Self determinism is the common denominator of all life impulses” LRH) and have guaranteed yourself non-cooperation from there on out. I have found from fundraisers I have attended and those I’ve given, that the crowd will naturally dwindle during the evening. THAT IS WHY YOU MUST GET YOUR HORSE GALLOPING EARLY ON, IN BIG STRIDES, AND GET AT OR CLOSE TO THAT FINISH LINE WITHIN 90 MINUTES TO TWO HOURS. Our big, big fundraisers ($326,000 and $218,000) lasted three hours each… 9:00 PM to midnight of actual fundraising. By the end there was only 1/4 of the initial crowd still there but we did what we had to do in three hours. Our smaller, shorter fundraisers lasted two hours and we hit our targets ($40,000) with most everyone still there. Get the majority of the target made before people start leaving. Make sure your hitters, who can put the target in the bag, even at the last moment, stick around for the duration. Get their agreement ahead of time to stick it out until the target’s met.
A TOTALLY TRUE STABLE DATUM YOU MUST NEVER FORGET IN THESE FUNDRAISERS: YOU’VE GOT TO HAVE SUFFICIENT NUMBERS OF PEOPLE IF YOU WANT TO RAISE A SIGNIFICANT AMOUNT OF MONEY. THE MORE PEOPLE, AND THE MORE QUALIFIED BIG HITTERS YOU HAVE IN ATTENDANCE, THE MORE SUCCESS YOU’LL HAVE IN HITTING YOUR TARGET. HAVING SUFFICIENT NUMBERS OF BIG DONORS IS MUCH MORE IMPORTANT THAN HAVING A WHOLE BUNCH OF PEOPLE WHO CAN ONLY DO $500 EACH.
It’s always been the people who can do $5,000 - $20,000 (or more) during the evening that really move the board and slam-dunk the target at the end. You must get these people confirmed and sold tickets… your target depends on it. Know your crowd and the capability of those in attendance who classify as big players. Go over the confirm list before the event with the rest of the reg team and set your own targets for these guys. Don’t tell them, just have it as your executive postulate. Most of them love to play these games during the fundraising… they know they can afford it and it’s fun for them, even if it is a big stretch for them too. See the LRH reference about “Pirates and Bums” in PDC lecture #1. If they can’t afford it they’ll just create the money. That’s why they can play such big games. Their Havingness is out the roof and they are your biggest asset. Don’t discount, however, your average Scientologist who wants to help and stretches his own reality/finances beyond what he earlier considered impossible. There’s many, many of them and their help is very important. Their presence and participation could very well make the difference in your evening.
Another very workable action is to have org staff go one-on-one during the fundraising with qualified attendees. This is part of the THINK BIG approach. The staff member would be someone who has a special comm line with the public person… maybe their auditor, maybe their supervisor, registrar, or whatever. This person gets regged right there (quietly) at their seat
Page 10
as the fundraising is going on. They may need to be asked to come into an adjoining room where the noise level is lower. There may be a team who talks to this individual. This is done with persons who can put BIG numbers on the board, but who may not do it just in the normal
course of the event. This is a good way to set up big games amongst “hitters” who can put up big numbers and jump your board forward at big leaps and bounds. They can challenge the other “hitters” to a game. These guys usually know each other and know their resources.
They may even be in business together or in the same profession. We had one event where we had a lot of fun and made a lot more money by setting up a game amongst “the dueling dentists”. It has a lot to do with creating and maintaining a Spirit of Play throughout the entire evening. As the Fundraiser you set the tone and push it up the entire evening. R-factor the crowd at the beginning that this is going to be a whole lot of fun, then make it fun. Have the excerpt from the LRH lecture from PDC on Spirit of Play and read selected parts of it.(PDC lecture #26 9 Dec 1952) Keep that Spirit of Play alive and thriving and you’ll make more money than even you thought you could. When you get the crowd really uptone and really into a strong theta purpose you will be amazed at what they are willing to donate. If you have a crowd at Boredom or Monotony, waiting for someone else to donate until they can slip out, you’ll be amazed at how tough it can be and how stopped the flows can get.
THE HOME STRETCH: Your ideal event will head toward this phase as you near your target.
You’ll want to keep the crowd informed of your progress toward the target with running total updates during the evening and especially when you’re within striking distance of the target.
You can revive the whole crowd towards the end of a long event by getting them to understand “the end is in sight”. Get the crowd excited about putting that target in the bag. You don’t ever entertain the idea that the target won’t be hit. Your job is to be the driving force to target attainment. Your audience may silently entertain, at times during the evening, that the target won’t be hit. You can’t afford, for an instant, to move off of a Tone 40 viewpoint. Study the definition of Tone 40 in the Tech Dictionary and study the references in the definitions. You must understand this Tone level… how to adopt a Tone 40 viewpoint, create it in your audience and maintain it all the way to EP. I would suggest drilling TR-8 as this is an excellent Tone 40 drill. The Home Stretch is where your big hitters who have stuck around will help you tremendously. At one of our fundraisers we had $40,000 left to hit the target at 11:30 PM.
One of the hitters in the crowd, who had already done close to $10,000, got all of the other big donors together down in front and just parceled out the $40,000 amongst the 10 people who knew they had the resources to do it. It took a about 15 minutes of intense 2WC for them to work out amongst themselves how they were going to split up that remaining $40,000. As they did that the fundraising continued and by the time they figured it out we had raised another $4,000 from the crowd. The organizer came on stage with a piece of paper and very ceremoniously read the amounts each donor was taking on, which then totaled the amount needed to hit the target and that was it. Everyone went crazy at 10 minutes to midnight and any tiredness just blew completely away from everyone. As the Fundraiser you can arrange this in the Home Stretch. Get one of the big donors whom you know has very good intention and can 8-C others and get him/her to gather the others together and do this final figure-out. You may not need to or want to do it this way every event but when needed it certainly can take you to the finish line with a big, energetic rush.
Page 11
That is the hat, from my experiences. You should study this hat, study the LRH references, drill your events, and learn from your fundraiser experiences. The special notes I’ve included below wrap up this hat write-up.
SPECIAL NOTES: There are a few special items that need to be mentioned here. From my experiences I’ve learned to avoid or cut off certain occurrences during a fundraiser. Remember, the microphone or floor is yours as the Fundraiser. This is your cycle to control. Don’t let someone else grab the floor (or microphone) and start addressing the group UNLESS it’s a big donor, you know they’re sane, and it’s done with your consent. You wouldn’t let someone come into your auditing room and start talking to your pc while you’re running a process, so don’t let someone grab your floor during a fundraiser. This doesn’t mean you don’t let people originate or let important, well-known Opinion Leader Big Donors have a shot at the mike (they usually do very well at this and are actually a big help). It just means you run TR-3 and TR-4 on the group. You do want to encourage people to start dono games so the more they do that, the better. People can feel free to stand up and say “I’ll do $5,000 if 5 other people do $5,000!!!” or “I’ll do $500 if 10 other people do $500!!!” The audience loves this. You can get 3 or 4 different dono games going simultaneously, as long as you keep track of them on the board. Controlled audience interaction at a high tone, with dono’s flowing is really what you’re working for anyway.
CHILDREN’S DONATIONS These are so theta and are an energizing part of every event. Encourage attendees to bring their children 8 years and above, as long as the kids are in-ethics, can sit through the event, and aren’t disruptive. Some of the most theta moments in an evening’s fundraising can come when a child walks up on stage and writes his/her name and a donation on the board (any amount). The child’s family is proud and the audience flows tremendous admiration to the child. It’s a group key-out.
Another item to mention is that the Fundraiser can use pre-arranged tag-team terminals to help if things seem to be slowing down and need a boost. It helps the Fundraiser to know he/she has some back-up tried-and-true help that can jump in if a fresh horse is needed. The Fundraiser doesn’t give the evening over to the tag-team terminal, but can take a 5-minute restroom break/breather while a new face (Opinion Leader, expert speaker) takes the reins for a few minutes.
THE FUNDRAISER AS DONOR --- It always ends up that I too get caught up in the inspiration as the evening moves forward. I have usually gone into an event I’m doing with a set idea of what I’m willing to donate for the evening and how I will use it at a strategic point to play a game to raise the most money from it. These plans usually get blown away during the event and I always know we’ve had a successful evening when I go way beyond my own initial considerations. It also really gets the crowd excited when you, as the Fundraiser, pick up one of the $1,000, $2,000 or bigger spots in a game. You can also be one of the players in a final group strategy to the finish line. The point is that you really have two hats up there… the most important one is the Fundraiser. But don’t forget that you’re attending the event too and as an attendee you too have a responsibility to answer the call.
Page 12
Dennis Negley OT Ambassador
Org Officer/Event Fundraiser
San Francisco New Building Project
If you want to contact me about this hat you can reach me by phone: (415) 472-4610
by email: [email protected]
A VERY RELEVANT LRH QUOTE
FOR THIS HAT
“The big thing now is to do our personal best, each of us, to lay aside our personal penchants and petty animosities, and as beings, as Scientologists and as organizations get very effective, fast. There’s an awful lot depending on us.
Therefore I ask you to accept your tasks, the necessary policies and command lines as appointed and do your best.
We can’t expect perfection until all of us are perfect. We’re making do with what we have and we’re progressing famously despite the many faults we would all like to correct. The thing is, we are winning, we have enough time if we’re quick to use what we have and any future this race has is riding on our backs. It’s very humanlike to vilify and misunderstand. We can take that, too. And it doesn’t excuse us one bit from not doing our jobs.
Scientology is the only game where everybody wins. And we are winning.”
L. Ron Hubbard
HCO PL 20 February 1965 APPOINTMENTS AND PROGRAMS (OEC Vol 7 page
FUNDRAISING EVENTS
HAT WRITE-UP
by
DENNIS NEGLEY
EVENT FUNDRAISER
SAN FRANCISCO
DATE OF WRITE-UP: 16 FEBRUARY 2003
This is my hat write-up for holding building fundraising events and a write-up especially of the hat for Event Fundraiser --- the person that gets up in front of the crowd and directs the fundraising of the event. It is being written as advice, per HCO PL 22 September 1970 HATS Item C. of HAT CONTENT.
I am not trying to write-up how to raise funds for a new building. That is very well covered in issues by International Management and anyone involved with building fundraising should get a copy of INT RESERVES ED 725 ORG BUILDING FUNDRAISING PROGRAM and INT RESERVES ED 726 HOW TO SUCCESSFULLY PURCHASE AND RENOVATE YOUR ORG. Our successful actions in San Francisco to raise funds to purchase a new org building were based on these EDs and on LRH references.
A brief word on our San Francisco fundraising statistics: We started our fundraising activities in May of 2001. As of 15 February 2003 we have raised $1,200,000 strictly from donations. Of this $1.2 million, we raised over half of it in the last 5 months. Once we hooked up with the Sea Organization New Civilization Builders International in the fall of 2002, our donation numbers really took off into a whole new range. With the experience, drive, and organizational abilities of the New Civilization Builders directly on our lines we went into Affluence. There is a fundraiser hat-pack that has been assembled and is available from your Continental Fundraiser Chief and I strongly suggest you get it, read it, and apply it.
Before getting into the actual nuts & bolts of putting on a building fundraiser event I want to compare the two different types of fundraisers that we have done, which type I consider more successful and why.
The two types of fundraisers we have done break down fundamentally into:
A) Auctions
B) Inspirational (what I call “IAS style”) dinner/fundraisers
We found the second category, the “IAS style” fundraisers, much more successful. There are a number of reasons. First, auctions involve MEST and MEST is a problem. It has to be donated, it has to be collected, it has to be auctioned off, and the persons getting auctioned items have to take them home. Our first big fundraiser was an auction. It took two months to prepare, with massive collections & transportation logistics. It was a lot of fun and we raised $25,000, which to us was a lot in the early days, but it also took two months to collect the money. By comparison, inspirational “IAS style” fundraisers surpass auction fundraising in money raised, with a fraction of the effort in preparations.
(1)
Page 2
We did do a total of three auctions, but the second and third we auctioned LRH special fiction and non-fiction properties. These auctions were much easier to put on and we did raise a total of $44,000 from a donated collection, but we still had to transport the items, display them, auction them, and distribute them. I’m not saying that auctions don’t raise money… they do, but what I am saying is that for the amount of money you get back for the amount of time and effort put in, it’s not really worth it. Another reason, and the main one, that inspirational straight-ahead fundraising events are better is that they focus on purpose and a point B… a new or renovated building… and don’t put people’s attention on MEST. Even though the “donation” for MEST at an auction may be furthering the purpose, still an auction puts the crowd’s attention on the MEST items being presented. (A NOTE ABOUT “CASINO NIGHTS”: We never did a Casino Night because none of us were hatted on these. They may or may not be good vehicles for a large fundraising activity. I do not have adequate data on these)
To focus on the plus-points about inspirational “IAS-style” fundraisers --- these fundraisers really play upon a thetan’s sense of purpose. The more you can get a person excited about and acting directly on the building fund purpose line the more donations you will get. This is where the tone level and expertise of the Event Fundraiser comes heavily into play, which I will go over later on in this write-up. A vital datum on this comes from the HCO PL 14 January 1969 Issue I OT ORGS regarding rekindling failed purposes. By rekindling failed purposes in individuals in the crowd you add free theta to the group and the fundraising, raising the tone level and the ability of the crowd to envision success (i.e. hitting the evening’s target). Raising the individuals, and thus the group, on the various scales (see Scientology 0-8 THE BOOK OF BASICS) is essential to a successful fundraiser and a target met. I will cover more on this later.
We found the elements of a successful fundraiser were:
A) An upstat location --- either an upstat public home or an event room in an upscale hotel.
B) Good food --- either catered if in someone’s home, or provided by the hotel.
C) Sell tickets, even if it’s at someone’s home. You still have to pay for the catering. Having someone exchange and “qualify” by buying a ticket does work. Don’t try to make money selling tickets, but price them so that you pay for the cost of putting on the activity. This makes your donations raised pure profit.
D) Lots of advance notice and lots of promotion. Send out flyers and postcards well in advance of your event. Select a name for your event and punch it up on the mailers… don’t just say “COME TO THE BUILDING FUNDRAISER!” Decide on a catchy, descriptive title for the evening and use that. Make the mailers upstat, don’t send out cheap looking promotion. It’s got to be professional looking. IMPORTANT: Don’t avoid the fact that your event is going to be a fundraiser. Don’t try to go around the fact that you will be asking attendees for donations. Promote it as a dinner/fundraiser in verbal and written promotion. Also tell people you’ll have important updates for them on the progress of the project. You want to develop good PR for your fundraising project so tell people the truth. You actually can popularize fundraising with your public if you make it fun enough and they have wins by hitting event donation targets.
Page 3
E) CALL-IN CALL-IN CALL-IN TICKET SALES TICKET SALES This cannot be stressed enough. You need CALL-IN and TICKET SALES happening in high volume, starting early on. Once you’ve gotten a number of tickets sold you can use that to close people to confirm & pay --- “We’ve got 100 people confirmed, with tickets, and we’re adding more every minute. You’ve got to get in on this! It’s going to be an evening you don’t want to miss!” Get confirms, sell the person a ticket at the time they confirm. Make it one cycle of action. If you don’t sell them a ticket when you confirm them you have to get a hold of them again (sometimes quite a feat!) to sell them the ticket. (NOTE: We never really printed/distributed tickets --- that’s an unnecessary expense and cycle. Just sell admission and collect the money). I’m not going to try to write a Call-In Hat here because that’s not my expertise, but you MUST get someone in charge of this activity who knows how to do this and can assemble and product-officer a Call-In/Ticket Sales campaign. It is essential. Make sure a confirm board goes up in your org and update it regularly.
F) Write an agenda and script out your events. Drill it all, each part, from start to finish. Give yourself enough time to do this the day of the event. If you have material for audio/visual presentations you’ll want to thoroughly drill that as part of your rehearsal. Your event must be tight, crisp, professional and must flow from segment to segment, building to the excitement of the fundraising. A poorly formatted, unscripted, or unrehearsed event can greatly detract from the magic you want to create for the evening and this can effect donations. You want to take your audience up and out of the ordinary, get them so uptone they don’t have a chance to dramatize being human beings (i.e. “stop, stop, stop”). This is done by a well planned, aesthetic, and professionally executed agenda. Poor quality equipment or audio/visual failures; poor timing on audio/visual presentations; uninspiring or poorly delivered speeches; awkward gaps between program segments and other goofs can make a big difference. Do it all first-rate and you’ll have a magical evening with lots of dollars when it’s all over.
G) Start on time. Advertise a starting time for the doors opening and for dinner and keep to that. Allow at least an hour after doors open for people to arrive, socialize and have dinner before starting the program. This is just my advice… if it works better to speed this up, then do it.
H) Make your event segments, speeches, and presentations short and exciting. Don’t let any one segment or speaker drag on. Don’t let people get into impromptu speeches… script it and stick to the script. It all leads up to the reason you’ve gathered the people together: to hit the donation target and have a big group win. Don’t overrun them before you start fundraising. The earlier you can start the fundraising the better.
Page 4
I) Set a donation target. That’s such an essential part of the evening. Really stress target attainment, per the PL OT ORGS. Also use HCOB/PL THE SUPREME TEST regarding going to point B. Make it a realistic target that could and should be met for the evening. Present it at the beginning of the fundraising, all as part of the smooth transition from event speakers & presentations to the fundraising. Mark the target in large numbers on your large dono board (more on this board later) right at the top, in the middle, and draw a box around it to highlight it. Get the crowd’s agreement that is the target…really get the agreement. TR-3 it when you present it if you have to to get a Tone 40 agreement. Then get the crowd’s agreement that it will be met. This is equally important.
J) HAVE DONORS PRE-CLOSED TO DONATE AT KEY POINTS EARLY ON IN THE FUNDRAISING. This is important because when your crowd sees things kick off well they sense they can be part of a winning evening and they participate more readily. Depending on how many pre-closed donors you have, utilize these so that you get the maximum effect of each (at different times) jumping up and saying “I’ll do $______!!!” People go crazy when they see this. Use all of your pre-closed donors within the first half-hour. Use them as “nitrous oxide” to inject super energy into the early part of your event, get games going, to keep the ball rolling, and get some substantial numbers on the board in the first half-hour.
K) Run the fundraising until the target is met. As Fundraiser, you are acting as the auditor of the group. You’re running the process called “Donate”. The target met is the EP. Would you, as an auditor, end a session before the preclear EP’d the process? Of course not. A fundraising target hit is a BIG win for the group and people go into exhilaration. YOU WANT PEOPLE TO REMEMBER THE EP OF A FUNDRAISER = TARGET MET.
Even if you went longer than planned and things got tedious at times during the fundraising,
if you hit the target people will remember the event as a win, not a grind. YOU WANT
THEM BACK FOR THE NEXT FUNDRAISER SO MAKE THE EVENING A WIN.
When you call them on the phone or talk to them in person to close them on coming to your
next fundraiser you’ll find it much easier doing it over a win. I’ve never run a fundraiser
past midnight and never had to.
Those are the successful elements. Now here is the logistical set-up and flow of the evening for a successful fundraiser:
ITEMS YOU’LL NEED:
A) Lots of LRH quotes on 8 ½ x 11paper. Don’t try to lug OEC volumes or Tech vols up on stage. Have your quotes on sheets of paper that you can easily handle. You’ll want to be able to whip one out when things slow at times and you don’t want to be fumbling with a heavy book.
B) If it’s in a hotel you’ll want stage risers, a podium, and a microphone. It really helps to be above the crowd, especially a large crowd. If it’s in someone’s home you won’t need this but set up the fundraising to where you have a commanding view and straight comm line to the entire group. This is important in maintaining the group comm cycle so essential to your keeping control of the evening.
Page 5
C) A dry-marker, erasable white board. If you’re on stage at a hotel event, use a BIG one. We use a 4 X 5 foot board at hotel events and that is perfect. Make sure it is upstat looking and not ratty. Decorate it up along the edges so it looks festive. Clean the white board thoroughly so it’s not dirty looking. Have a very sturdy, but presentable easel that you can set it upon. If you’re doing an event in someone’s home you can’t use a board this big. Use a smaller board that fits in the space you’re using but is big enough to write donations on and to be seen by those in attendance. Have plenty of new regular point dry markers on hand. Have black, green, red, blue. You can just use black if you want but it can make it more interesting to vary your colors. Mark your evening target in a bright color. Don’t use sharp-point markers as these can’t be seen by people far away from the stage. Have a couple good dry-marker erasers on hand.
D) A large picture of LRH. Get with your org’s LC on all pictures or presentations of LRH. These must meet LRH standards per LC post policy.
E) THE FOLLOWING IS A MUST. WITHOUT THIS YOU WILL BE LOST IN HOW MUCH DONATIONS YOU REALLY GOT AND WHO DID WHAT: You must have “accountants” posted at a table to the side, out of direct view but positioned so they can see the stage and the board. One accountant has a good quality, paper print calculator, and he keeps a continuous running total during the event. This is so valuable, because you have to know at any given time during the fundraising where you are on your way to the target. The other person has 8 ½ X 11 sheets of paper or binder and keeps track of each individual’s donation, adding individuals’ additional dono’s during the evening. Multiple donations from one person during the evening are a sign of a good fundraiser and should be very common. Together these two “accountants” keep a running record of the donations. These are the event “worksheets” which are vital to documenting money donated.
F) Donation forms. These have the name, address, and as many phone contact numbers as
possible, plus email addresses. These also have multiple lines for multiple donations.
When someone has donated they are routed to the table to fill out their donation form. They
write the amount donated and their credit card number, or write a check. When they donate
again for the evening they come back to the table, are handed their form, and fill in their next donation on the next line. This also gives a running record of their successive donations during the evening. Don’t total their multiple donations until the end of the evening. It can get confusing when someone donates a number of successive times, especially if they have to use different cards or other sources to fund the full donation. However tedious it may get, it is well worth it.
Page 6
THE FUNDRAISER: A few words here about the Fundraiser himself. He must be an Opinion Leader from the org’s field… someone the audience knows, respects, and listens to. Whether or not this person has a cert that says “OT” they must be someone who, by their actions in the field has demonstrated being OT by getting things done in a big way. Your audience is going to have to be willing to be controlled by this person for a number of hours continuously during a fundraiser so this person must be someone who has personally demonstrated environmental control in their life. The Fundraiser MUST be very uptone and be able to operate at Tone 40, Enthusiasm, Exhilaration, Games, and Postulates at will during the evening, as well as being able to take the audience there. The Fundraiser must have very good stage presence, with excellent TRs and an excellent comm cycle. If you have someone auditing on OT VII Expanded or complete and through OT VIII Expanded, this will be excellent, as long as they meet the guidelines above.
As the Fundraiser you must be thoroughly conversant with various scales in Scientology 0-8 THE BOOK OF BASICS. Study the expanded Tone Scale; the Havingness Scale; The Scale of Confront; the Scale of Determinism; the Awareness Characteristics; the CDEI Scale and others you find. Know your Science of Survival regarding the Tone Scale, especially the Chart of Human Evaluation.
Know that if you don’t keep your audience above 3.5 on the tone scale, preferably much higher, then you are a dead duck as a Fundraiser. You literally need to get people to step outside of “themselves”… those valences they’ve mocked up and think is them… and do some very courageous donating. From my experiences the best tone scale points to get to and operate from during the fundraising are ACTION and GAMES. During the course of the evening the tone level will drop but you must never let it drop below 3.5 (Cheerfulness) and always push it back up to ENTHUSIASM, EXHILARATION and higher. What kicks the tone level up is
DONATIONS, DONATIONS, DONATIONS in large chunks. That’s the tone-arm moving down during a fundraiser. As a Fundraiser, don’t demand donations. That’s like the auditor telling the pc… “cognite, darn you!” You just persistently push the purpose of the fundraising, read LRH quotes, get games going amongst donors in the audience, be uptone and be amusing if a light moment is needed, go over again what a new building or a reno’d building will mean to their org --- whatever is needed to keep communication happening and the audience participating.
THE FLOW OF THE FUNDRAISING
Here’s the actual fundraising procedure that I’ve found works best:
Dinner is fully done and people have had their after-dinner coffee. They have been attentively engaged by the speaking/presentation portion of the event. They are tremendously excited about their new building or their renovated building. It is very real to them. They are uptone.
They are about to be asked for money --- lots of money. If left to their own devices and allowed to donate what they felt was appropriate for them, they would give you a fraction of what you need from them and then they would go home feeling they’d done their part.
Page 7
From my experiences as an audience participant and as the Fundraiser, the audience really looks forward to all parts of the event except for being asked for money. There’s a sort of tension that is tangible when you shift into the money phase of the event. It’s just peoples’ non-confront and Q&A about money, about help, or whatever other button is getting pushed (and about to be pushed harder) that is getting keyed in. They sense they’re about to be challenged to do more than they think they can or want to do. They’re willing to hang in there with you to the degree you can make them make it a game, make it interesting, make them feel they can win this game (the target) and that their own create in hitting the target is vital. The truth of the matter is, and this is backed up by many LRH references, that the biggest wins from the event will come from getting the audience to confront and get through their own barriers to donating big --- which gives the big win. It is BIG THINK that gets the target done and that is what has to be brought about in the crowd.
After you are introduced you’ll need to spend a few minutes giving your initial presentation to the audience. There’s two main reasons why you do a short presentation yourself before going into the actual fundraising: 1) It establishes a comm cycle between you and the audience. It puts you at Cause because you’re addressing them. 2) It gives a chance for the board to be set up as you speak. You don’t want the board set up during the speakers/presentations. It distracts the audience & puts them into the future (fundraising) part of the event. Setting up the board must be drilled thoroughly by fellows who can handle it rapidly and smoothly. Setting up a big board at a hotel takes only a minute or so if done right. Your initial speech should be only two minutes… no more.
You need to kick off the fundraising segment in a big way, with a good flow of donations right off the bat. You don’t necessarily need the big hitters to jump up right away, but you do need people originating donations right away. You want a flow established very rapidly. If no one jumps up then tell the audience to get a game going. The important thing is a flow starts right away. When someone calls out a donation you have them walk up onto the stage and write their name and donation amount on the board. (If you are in someone’s home and it’s cramped you may just want to have your Board Assistant write the name/dono. You always have a young, attractive and smartly dressed young lady as a Board Assistant who hands the donor the dry-marker pen and who is in charge of the dono board. When we use the large board at a hotel event we use two young ladies because the board is so large. They stand at opposite sides of the board. When your donors really get cooking you should have a parade of people proudly walking up, one after another, to write their names and donations on the board. We have come to call it “The Parade of Heroes”.
If I know the person’s name I call it out to the crowd as they approach the stage. They write their name and dono on the board and I call it out to the crowd enthusiastically: “Joe Smith --- $1,000!!!” and the audience applauds. If it’s a really big dono, like $5,000 or more I call the name/dono out then have the person remain on stage for a moment to receive the applause. People who want to start games can come up write their dono on the board, then turn around and R-factor the crowd on their game. The Board Assistants then draw blank lines below the person’s name/dono for the number of players required to complete the game. For example: Joe Smith comes up and writes $5,000 on the board, turns and says “I’ll do $5,000 if 5 other people do $5,000!!!”. The Assistant then draws five blank lines below Joe’s name/dono.
Page 8
This becomes known as the “Joe Smith $5,000 game.” You can have 3-4 of these going on the board at once during a hot stretch of the evening. This gives you, as the Fundraiser, something to put the crowd’s attention on rather than just cajoling them for another donation. Put their attention on the undone games on the board and stress that these games need to be completed. You can look at the board and say “Well, we’ve got some really great games going on here. We’ve got the Joe Smith $5,000 game which only needs 3 more players to complete. We’ve got the Susie Jones $1,000 game which needs 6 more players to complete. Then we’ve got the BIG game here… the Bob Brown $10,000 game that needs on more player to be a done. So let’s go, let’s get these complete… who’s next?” As the Fundraiser you work out your own style, your own patter. However, all successful Fundraiser styles are based on LRH tech… granting Beingness; TRs 0-IV; cycles of action; ARC, etc. You won’t need a script to do the actual fundraising… it’s impromptu, which makes it all that much more fun… but you will need to operate with these standard LRH stable datums to hand.
You make sure you update the crowd on the running total as significant gains are made. You can even write it in the upper left corner of the dono board and update that periodically.
From my experience here’s how a typical, successful fundraising evening goes:
When you toss out the Tone 40 phrase “OK, so who’s first for ______ org’s new building!?!” you should get immediate donations and the flow started. If that doesn’t happen, have it pre-arranged for a pre-closed donor (but not your biggest) to jump up and get it rolling. The flow should build as people activate their own donor postulates they made prior to coming or during the presentations. THEIR INITIAL DONATION POSTULATES WILL NOT BE ENOUGH TO HIT YOUR TARGET. YOU MUST CHANGE THE AUDIENCE’S IDEA OF WHAT IS SUFFICIENT TO DONATE. THE ONLY AMOUNT SUFFICIENT IS THAT WHICH HITS OR EXCEEDS THE TARGET. THAT IS YOUR VIEWPOINT AS THE FUNDRAISER. YOU VALIDATE EVERY PENNY DONATED BUT KEEP THE VIEWPOINT THAT BIG IS GOOD, REALLY BIG IS BETTER, AND HUGE IS BEST. One of the things that changes an audience member’s mind on how much to donate is seeing others donate and seeing the board move up significantly towards the target. Thetans love to win. We hate to lose. We’ll back a winning horse if we think it’s got a good chance and we’ll climb right on its back as it heads to the finish line in first place. Getting out the starting gate and around the first turn of the track is what is key in getting a winning evening going. If you’ve got a strong horse galloping in big strides you’ll find lots of jockeys in the crowd willing to ride.
You’ll find there are high tides and ebbs during the evening. Ride them all towards the target.
Push the high tides for all they’re worth and don’t let an ebb stick. Get it moving again as fast as possible. LRH quotes are good for these points. People get to take a little breather and listen to Source. It’s an exercise in Reach and Withdraw and if you’re in a withdraw phase, don’t resist it, just push it back to a reach. Your LRH quotes should be short… no full PLs or HCOBs… no more than a few short paragraphs at a time. You’ll lose people if you (or someone else) talks at them too much during a lull. Get them active, get them into action, to toss out a game, any game. Get the dono’s rolling again.
Page 9
During the course of the evening you will see people wrap up and leave. I never bring attention to anyone who is leaving. I keep the audience’s attention on what is happening up here at the board, now. I can’t keep someone from leaving so why make a point of it? I consider it the kiss of death for fundraising if you try to adopt a “locked door” approach. In my viewpoint, if you do this, you have immediately violated Prelogic #1 (Q1:“Self determinism is the common denominator of all life impulses” LRH) and have guaranteed yourself non-cooperation from there on out. I have found from fundraisers I have attended and those I’ve given, that the crowd will naturally dwindle during the evening. THAT IS WHY YOU MUST GET YOUR HORSE GALLOPING EARLY ON, IN BIG STRIDES, AND GET AT OR CLOSE TO THAT FINISH LINE WITHIN 90 MINUTES TO TWO HOURS. Our big, big fundraisers ($326,000 and $218,000) lasted three hours each… 9:00 PM to midnight of actual fundraising. By the end there was only 1/4 of the initial crowd still there but we did what we had to do in three hours. Our smaller, shorter fundraisers lasted two hours and we hit our targets ($40,000) with most everyone still there. Get the majority of the target made before people start leaving. Make sure your hitters, who can put the target in the bag, even at the last moment, stick around for the duration. Get their agreement ahead of time to stick it out until the target’s met.
A TOTALLY TRUE STABLE DATUM YOU MUST NEVER FORGET IN THESE FUNDRAISERS: YOU’VE GOT TO HAVE SUFFICIENT NUMBERS OF PEOPLE IF YOU WANT TO RAISE A SIGNIFICANT AMOUNT OF MONEY. THE MORE PEOPLE, AND THE MORE QUALIFIED BIG HITTERS YOU HAVE IN ATTENDANCE, THE MORE SUCCESS YOU’LL HAVE IN HITTING YOUR TARGET. HAVING SUFFICIENT NUMBERS OF BIG DONORS IS MUCH MORE IMPORTANT THAN HAVING A WHOLE BUNCH OF PEOPLE WHO CAN ONLY DO $500 EACH.
It’s always been the people who can do $5,000 - $20,000 (or more) during the evening that really move the board and slam-dunk the target at the end. You must get these people confirmed and sold tickets… your target depends on it. Know your crowd and the capability of those in attendance who classify as big players. Go over the confirm list before the event with the rest of the reg team and set your own targets for these guys. Don’t tell them, just have it as your executive postulate. Most of them love to play these games during the fundraising… they know they can afford it and it’s fun for them, even if it is a big stretch for them too. See the LRH reference about “Pirates and Bums” in PDC lecture #1. If they can’t afford it they’ll just create the money. That’s why they can play such big games. Their Havingness is out the roof and they are your biggest asset. Don’t discount, however, your average Scientologist who wants to help and stretches his own reality/finances beyond what he earlier considered impossible. There’s many, many of them and their help is very important. Their presence and participation could very well make the difference in your evening.
Another very workable action is to have org staff go one-on-one during the fundraising with qualified attendees. This is part of the THINK BIG approach. The staff member would be someone who has a special comm line with the public person… maybe their auditor, maybe their supervisor, registrar, or whatever. This person gets regged right there (quietly) at their seat
Page 10
as the fundraising is going on. They may need to be asked to come into an adjoining room where the noise level is lower. There may be a team who talks to this individual. This is done with persons who can put BIG numbers on the board, but who may not do it just in the normal
course of the event. This is a good way to set up big games amongst “hitters” who can put up big numbers and jump your board forward at big leaps and bounds. They can challenge the other “hitters” to a game. These guys usually know each other and know their resources.
They may even be in business together or in the same profession. We had one event where we had a lot of fun and made a lot more money by setting up a game amongst “the dueling dentists”. It has a lot to do with creating and maintaining a Spirit of Play throughout the entire evening. As the Fundraiser you set the tone and push it up the entire evening. R-factor the crowd at the beginning that this is going to be a whole lot of fun, then make it fun. Have the excerpt from the LRH lecture from PDC on Spirit of Play and read selected parts of it.(PDC lecture #26 9 Dec 1952) Keep that Spirit of Play alive and thriving and you’ll make more money than even you thought you could. When you get the crowd really uptone and really into a strong theta purpose you will be amazed at what they are willing to donate. If you have a crowd at Boredom or Monotony, waiting for someone else to donate until they can slip out, you’ll be amazed at how tough it can be and how stopped the flows can get.
THE HOME STRETCH: Your ideal event will head toward this phase as you near your target.
You’ll want to keep the crowd informed of your progress toward the target with running total updates during the evening and especially when you’re within striking distance of the target.
You can revive the whole crowd towards the end of a long event by getting them to understand “the end is in sight”. Get the crowd excited about putting that target in the bag. You don’t ever entertain the idea that the target won’t be hit. Your job is to be the driving force to target attainment. Your audience may silently entertain, at times during the evening, that the target won’t be hit. You can’t afford, for an instant, to move off of a Tone 40 viewpoint. Study the definition of Tone 40 in the Tech Dictionary and study the references in the definitions. You must understand this Tone level… how to adopt a Tone 40 viewpoint, create it in your audience and maintain it all the way to EP. I would suggest drilling TR-8 as this is an excellent Tone 40 drill. The Home Stretch is where your big hitters who have stuck around will help you tremendously. At one of our fundraisers we had $40,000 left to hit the target at 11:30 PM.
One of the hitters in the crowd, who had already done close to $10,000, got all of the other big donors together down in front and just parceled out the $40,000 amongst the 10 people who knew they had the resources to do it. It took a about 15 minutes of intense 2WC for them to work out amongst themselves how they were going to split up that remaining $40,000. As they did that the fundraising continued and by the time they figured it out we had raised another $4,000 from the crowd. The organizer came on stage with a piece of paper and very ceremoniously read the amounts each donor was taking on, which then totaled the amount needed to hit the target and that was it. Everyone went crazy at 10 minutes to midnight and any tiredness just blew completely away from everyone. As the Fundraiser you can arrange this in the Home Stretch. Get one of the big donors whom you know has very good intention and can 8-C others and get him/her to gather the others together and do this final figure-out. You may not need to or want to do it this way every event but when needed it certainly can take you to the finish line with a big, energetic rush.
Page 11
That is the hat, from my experiences. You should study this hat, study the LRH references, drill your events, and learn from your fundraiser experiences. The special notes I’ve included below wrap up this hat write-up.
SPECIAL NOTES: There are a few special items that need to be mentioned here. From my experiences I’ve learned to avoid or cut off certain occurrences during a fundraiser. Remember, the microphone or floor is yours as the Fundraiser. This is your cycle to control. Don’t let someone else grab the floor (or microphone) and start addressing the group UNLESS it’s a big donor, you know they’re sane, and it’s done with your consent. You wouldn’t let someone come into your auditing room and start talking to your pc while you’re running a process, so don’t let someone grab your floor during a fundraiser. This doesn’t mean you don’t let people originate or let important, well-known Opinion Leader Big Donors have a shot at the mike (they usually do very well at this and are actually a big help). It just means you run TR-3 and TR-4 on the group. You do want to encourage people to start dono games so the more they do that, the better. People can feel free to stand up and say “I’ll do $5,000 if 5 other people do $5,000!!!” or “I’ll do $500 if 10 other people do $500!!!” The audience loves this. You can get 3 or 4 different dono games going simultaneously, as long as you keep track of them on the board. Controlled audience interaction at a high tone, with dono’s flowing is really what you’re working for anyway.
CHILDREN’S DONATIONS These are so theta and are an energizing part of every event. Encourage attendees to bring their children 8 years and above, as long as the kids are in-ethics, can sit through the event, and aren’t disruptive. Some of the most theta moments in an evening’s fundraising can come when a child walks up on stage and writes his/her name and a donation on the board (any amount). The child’s family is proud and the audience flows tremendous admiration to the child. It’s a group key-out.
Another item to mention is that the Fundraiser can use pre-arranged tag-team terminals to help if things seem to be slowing down and need a boost. It helps the Fundraiser to know he/she has some back-up tried-and-true help that can jump in if a fresh horse is needed. The Fundraiser doesn’t give the evening over to the tag-team terminal, but can take a 5-minute restroom break/breather while a new face (Opinion Leader, expert speaker) takes the reins for a few minutes.
THE FUNDRAISER AS DONOR --- It always ends up that I too get caught up in the inspiration as the evening moves forward. I have usually gone into an event I’m doing with a set idea of what I’m willing to donate for the evening and how I will use it at a strategic point to play a game to raise the most money from it. These plans usually get blown away during the event and I always know we’ve had a successful evening when I go way beyond my own initial considerations. It also really gets the crowd excited when you, as the Fundraiser, pick up one of the $1,000, $2,000 or bigger spots in a game. You can also be one of the players in a final group strategy to the finish line. The point is that you really have two hats up there… the most important one is the Fundraiser. But don’t forget that you’re attending the event too and as an attendee you too have a responsibility to answer the call.
Page 12
Dennis Negley OT Ambassador
Org Officer/Event Fundraiser
San Francisco New Building Project
If you want to contact me about this hat you can reach me by phone: (415) 472-4610
by email: [email protected]
A VERY RELEVANT LRH QUOTE
FOR THIS HAT
“The big thing now is to do our personal best, each of us, to lay aside our personal penchants and petty animosities, and as beings, as Scientologists and as organizations get very effective, fast. There’s an awful lot depending on us.
Therefore I ask you to accept your tasks, the necessary policies and command lines as appointed and do your best.
We can’t expect perfection until all of us are perfect. We’re making do with what we have and we’re progressing famously despite the many faults we would all like to correct. The thing is, we are winning, we have enough time if we’re quick to use what we have and any future this race has is riding on our backs. It’s very humanlike to vilify and misunderstand. We can take that, too. And it doesn’t excuse us one bit from not doing our jobs.
Scientology is the only game where everybody wins. And we are winning.”
L. Ron Hubbard
HCO PL 20 February 1965 APPOINTMENTS AND PROGRAMS (OEC Vol 7 page
is all I have to say after reading this.
Isn't telling the truth out tech? So the fundraisers are squirrelling! I better write up a KR on this shit! 
