Fund Raising For Rifle Range

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Fund Raising For Rifle Range

Post by Gwion » 07 May 2018, 12:05 pm

Our club/range is the oldest in Tas... and it shows.

Our facilities are somewhat rundown and although we want to uograde and modernise, our coffers aren't exactly bursting at the seams.
Our range is also one of only 3 across the nth of the state that offers shooting passed 200m, so we are keen to promote and encourage it's use so that the resource isn't lost to local shooters who want to develop and maintain skills at mid-long range.

I'm just throwing this out there for ideas as to how to raise funds for projects to improve and maintain the range.

Hit me with it...
Last edited by Gwion on 07 May 2018, 12:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Fund Raising For Rifle Range

Post by brett1868 » 07 May 2018, 12:20 pm

What's the size of the local population like? Possibly raffling some meat trays off at the local pub on a regular basis could help. I'm a member of a hunting club up here and much of the fund raising is done by running meat raffles at the local pub. I believe the butcher is a club member and we get the meat at the right price and the raffles are well supported. The butcher is happy cause it's advertising for his business, the punters are happy cause they have a chance of scoring a meat tray, the pubs happy cause the punters hang around longer and drink more plus the hunting club makes a few bucks.
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Re: Fund Raising For Rifle Range

Post by Gwion » 07 May 2018, 12:35 pm

So, to give an idea of what sort of projects and what scope of funding we need, here is a list of somethings that have been identified along with approximate costs:

- Redress and level mounds: lets say we have 4 mounds to redo in total. A machine & driver for the day would be about $1000 and we would probably need up to 20mcube of 20- to dress them all, once they are re-leveled allowing $50/cubic that's another $1k = $2

- Level, install culverts and lay road base on the butts access track to allow year round access without damage to the farmer's paddocks: If we just focused on problem areas and not an entire hardened track we could probably do this for $2k with machine & materials.

** We are looking at approaching local quarries and machine operators to contribute something in time or materials as sponsorship, so we MAY be able to nudge these costs down quite a bit.

- Electronic targets: our butts and target area are functional but very old and we would be more able to cater to an increased membership base and offer more variety in shooting if we had some electronic targets. From my basic research we could install 2 targets for general "shoot'n'see" type shooters for about $800-1200 each, while target system capable of taking multiple shooters for F-class & Target Rifle comps are between $5-12k. We would only need one of those as we can hire similar systems from TRA for big "open" shoots. >$15k

- Improved club house: vermin and snakes love our club house/shed. I really we would want to upgrade this facility. Wouldn't have to be fancy but would have to be secure to store gear. We have plenty of skilled people for labour but materials would be a minimum of $5k.


We can apply for grants and such towards all these project but these grant systems generally work on a dollar for dollar basis, so we would have to raise at least 1/2 the cost of each stage of improvements.

Yes, maybe I'm being a bit grandiose in planning but I really think a club and range with such a long history deserves to be brought up to date and hopefully keep going for another 50 or 100 years. The land owners has expressed that they are keen for the club/range to remain on site as it is part of their family history to host the club/range.

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Re: Fund Raising For Rifle Range

Post by Gwion » 07 May 2018, 12:39 pm

brett1868 wrote:What's the size of the local population like? Possibly raffling some meat trays off at the local pub on a regular basis could help. I'm a member of a hunting club up here and much of the fund raising is done by running meat raffles at the local pub. I believe the butcher is a club member and we get the meat at the right price and the raffles are well supported. The butcher is happy cause it's advertising for his business, the punters are happy cause they have a chance of scoring a meat tray, the pubs happy cause the punters hang around longer and drink more plus the hunting club makes a few bucks.


Not a bad idea but the local population isn't huge. I mean, Tassy as a whole only has >500k.
Not sure about the pub closest to the range but I know my local pub already has about 18million meat tray raffles of a Friday night. They are well supported but not huge earners.

Was contemplating approaching LGS for support of shooting gear raffle...
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Re: Fund Raising For Rifle Range

Post by brett1868 » 07 May 2018, 2:20 pm

Another idea, "Naming Rights"...put a $ value on certain deliverables with the donor having the right to name it. The "Brett X" 500m mound or the "Brother Bentaz" Bench, "OldBloke" drive....Being that this is Tasmania I'm hoping to see the Left & Right head bench rest benches :)
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Re: Fund Raising For Rifle Range

Post by Rod_outbak » 07 May 2018, 3:12 pm

Gwion,

A few thoughts:

- Jupiters casino regularly have grants for non-profit organisations. Local gold clubs and I think our local clay-target club have sourced grants from Jupiters, in the past. Note they tend to prefer funding projects that are mult-purpose, so they have often funded community buses for small town club use etc.
- Charity auction, with proceedings going to local gun club revamp. When selling this to the local community, emphasize the history of your club.
Get club members to participate by donating items for sale, seek donations from local businesses, and circulate a detailed list of what will be auctioned. This works best if you can work in with a local event or field day. Last charity auction we held in Ilfracombe, we donated old power-line gear, which included large galvanised eye-bolts, gal pole steps, and other similar gear, and it was snapped up. Old motorbikes, unused small farm equipment, pumps etc etc, all sell well, if you advertise it well enough.
- Get a handle on what professional skills your members have, and what they would be prepared to supply as part of a raffle. [NOTE: This might also be handy to find out what upgrades you could do to your club 'in-house'] Our local football club has an inordinate number of builders on the team, and so one fund-raiser was to offer a building team for a weekend, to the winner.
- If any club members have earthmoving equipment, raffling off a few hours wet hire might be something appealing to local farmers?
- Another successful fund-raiser was to raffle off a team of blokes to work on your garden for a day or a weekend. Half a dozen willing workers for a day or two can make a huge difference to a homestead garden.
- Further to previous, garden ornaments seem to always attract incredible amounts of money, and you'll find someone with decent blacksmithing/fabrication skills, can punch out a few works of garden art for auction. Garden ornamentation and plant holders seem to always sell well.
- One of our neighbours has made some sort of contraption for rolling old barbed wire into various-sized balls, which he makes into garden ornaments. Someone told me the 3ft dia ones sell for over $300!!!
FOR OLD BARBED WIRE!!!
- Local football team has also raised money by shearing cancered/black sheep for local graziers, where they get half the proceeds for the sale of the wool, and supply their efforts for free. Shearers refuse to shear cancered sheep(Usually skin cancers on ears and bums) as there seems to be a fear they might catch cancer from a sheep!
(I wish I was making that up, but I'm pretty sure it's illegal to insist...)
Anyway, there are always a few cancerous sheep that have decent wool on them around, and the grazier usually just wants to get the wool off them to cull them. People have raised money by doing this task around here in years past(I know I did in my teens). It might be worth looking into.
- If you have access to rock like sandstone, you can carve pretty impressive bird-baths with just an angle grinder and diamonds blades. I made a dozen bird-baths like this about 12 years ago, and they dont need to be very large to sell well. Little bowls that can be placed under shrubs in a garden, seem to be popular.
- One final thought is running a coffee van at local events(a lot longer time-frame for raising funds, but potentially good money in it). Expensive to set up and time-consuming, but when I crunch the numbers on what it costs to produce a quality espresso coffee (~$1.20 per 400ml cup), versus what pretty damn mediocre coffee retails for (~$4.50), it's amazing the markup that is considered acceptable!

Again; knowing what skills and resources your members can bring to the table, is where I'd start.

Anyway; a few of my thoughts. Given where you are (Northern Tas), I would think your options for fund-raising would be ten times better than outback QLD.
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Re: Fund Raising For Rifle Range

Post by Bent Arrow » 07 May 2018, 7:09 pm

Have you contemplated one or more of the shooting organisations? What about the RSL especially if you want to foster the ANZAC shoots? The lions and rotary both tip $ and grunt into local projects that build community activities.......
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Re: Fund Raising For Rifle Range

Post by Wombat » 07 May 2018, 8:28 pm

Bunnings sausages?
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Re: Fund Raising For Rifle Range

Post by Gwion » 08 May 2018, 4:08 am

Thanks for all the ideas, guys. :thumbsup:
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Re: Fund Raising For Rifle Range

Post by Bills Shed » 08 May 2018, 8:08 am

PM sent...... Bit of a novel

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Re: Fund Raising For Rifle Range

Post by Bills Shed » 08 May 2018, 8:08 am

PM sent...... Bit of a novel

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Re: Fund Raising For Rifle Range

Post by Gwion » 08 May 2018, 8:57 am

Thanks Bill :thumbsup:
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Re: Fund Raising For Rifle Range

Post by southwest shooter » 08 May 2018, 12:43 pm

Chook or slab of piss raffle .
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Re: Fund Raising For Rifle Range

Post by RoginaJack » 08 May 2018, 4:13 pm

Hi Gwion, At the last state elections, wasn't the noe elected Gov. promining support to shooters/ Might be worth a look into and does the SSAA (or other associations/clubs) offer support?
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Re: Fund Raising For Rifle Range

Post by Gwion » 08 May 2018, 6:11 pm

RoginaJack wrote:Hi Gwion, At the last state elections, wasn't the noe elected Gov. promining support to shooters/ Might be worth a look into and does the SSAA (or other associations/clubs) offer support?


Hey RJ. Hopefully there maybe more grant rounds available that are accessible to regional clubs/ranges but my understanding of the commitment was to develop a single/central multi-discipline range. In all likelihood, this will be Hobart/-centric and will probably be a move to centralise activities and push smaller club/ranges into the background. That's just my cynical take on it.

Will definitely be pushing as many funding/grant applications as possible but in reality it does come down to firm planning and having well costed projects and a minimum of half the cost in cash or 'in kind' contribution. Doable but generating a cash buffer is critical to grant/funding success.

As for other over-seeing bodies, they are more interested in gaining funding for their own centralised "major facilities" than they are in supporting smaller, regional clubs/ranges sustain a healthy future. They seem to miss the ball in that if regional opportunities are lost, then grass roots recruitment into various sporting disciplines will fade and there will be fewer and fewer people motivated enough to travel the 3 or more hours required to attend the "big" ranges for "big" shoots.
Again, maybe my cynical view but that certainly seems to be the trend...
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Re: Fund Raising For Rifle Range

Post by Gwion » 08 May 2018, 6:11 pm

RoginaJack wrote:Hi Gwion, At the last state elections, wasn't the noe elected Gov. promining support to shooters/ Might be worth a look into and does the SSAA (or other associations/clubs) offer support?


Hey RJ. Hopefully there may be more grant rounds available that are accessible to regional clubs/ranges but my understanding of the commitment was to develop a single/central multi-discipline range. In all likelihood, this will be Hobart-centric and will probably be a move to centralise activities and push smaller club/ranges into the background. That's just my cynical take on it. Great for high level comps but not so much for grass roots skill development and retention in regional areas.

Will definitely be pushing as many funding/grant applications as possible but in reality it does come down to firm planning and having well costed projects and a minimum of half the cost in cash or 'in kind' contribution. Doable but generating a cash buffer is critical to grant/funding success.

As for other over-seeing bodies, they are more interested in gaining funding for their own centralised "major facilities" than they are in supporting smaller, regional clubs/ranges sustain a healthy future. They seem to miss the ball in that if regional opportunities are lost, then grass roots recruitment into various sporting disciplines will fade and there will be fewer and fewer people motivated enough to travel the 3 or more hours required to attend the "big" ranges for "big" shoots.
Again, maybe my cynical view but that certainly seems to be the trend...
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Re: Fund Raising For Rifle Range

Post by Gwion » 08 May 2018, 6:22 pm

bentaz wrote:What about a "go fund me" campaign? You could incorporate a competition / raffle prize into it for the donators, hopefully with some donated prizes.
With a good Facebook campaign that could put you in connection to 1000's or even 10,000's of people.


I like this. mate. Could work very well with Brett's "naming rights" suggestion, which has been discussed at the club before for sponsorship. I also like Brett's idea of the two headed shooting bench but I'm not sure how the locals would think of it! :lol: Maybe a double binocular stand fitted out side the club house! :lol:

oh.... I'm gonna be in trouble.... :clap: :unknown: :thumbsup:
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Re: Fund Raising For Rifle Range

Post by Sumo » 08 May 2018, 6:47 pm

Qwion, not sure how far from civilisation you are, but I think the best opportunity for shooting clubs to make money is not from members, but from holding corporate shoots. These are not just come and try days, but are targeted at businesses. Put on a feed at the end and open the bar (or esky) and earn some coin. I have shot at a few corporate days (pistol, clays and rifle) where there are 20 blokes being charged $80 + food + bevvies. Some clubs in the big cities run these nearly daily.

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Re: Fund Raising For Rifle Range

Post by Gwion » 08 May 2018, 6:55 pm

Sumo wrote:Qwion, not sure how far from civilisation you are, but I think the best opportunity for shooting clubs to make money is not from members, but from holding corporate shoots. These are not just come and try days, but are targeted at businesses. Put on a feed at the end and open the bar (or esky) and earn some coin. I have shot at a few corporate days (pistol, clays and rifle) where there are 20 blokes being charged $80 + food + bevvies. Some clubs in the big cities run these nearly daily.

Cheers.


Great idea, Sumo. Worth looking into, for sure. Great for the sport's PR and recruitment, as well.
And totally agree, fund raising efforts outside of club circles is the only way to go, really.
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Re: Fund Raising For Rifle Range

Post by pete1 » 08 May 2018, 8:07 pm

I've seen raffling for a gun. but make it Australia wide so more people will contribute. If you can get a sponsor like Nioa to donate a gun for free.would be even better. Would be a bit of legal work around that one though, but they did if for pistol club that burnt down in VIC.
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Re: Fund Raising For Rifle Range

Post by Bent Arrow » 08 May 2018, 8:27 pm

Gwion wrote:
bentaz wrote:What about a "go fund me" campaign? You could incorporate a competition / raffle prize into it for the donators, hopefully with some donated prizes.
With a good Facebook campaign that could put you in connection to 1000's or even 10,000's of people.


I like this. mate. Could work very well with Brett's "naming rights" suggestion, which has been discussed at the club before for sponsorship. I also like Brett's idea of the two headed shooting bench but I'm not sure how the locals would think of it! :lol: Maybe a double binocular stand fitted out side the club house! :lol:

oh.... I'm gonna be in trouble.... :clap: :unknown: :thumbsup:



It's come to my attention that the US organisation running go fund me take 7.5% of the total raised, plus 30 cents per donation............ Taking good local money and sending it overseas doesn't sit well with me
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Re: Fund Raising For Rifle Range

Post by Gwion » 08 May 2018, 9:51 pm

Bent Arrow wrote:
Gwion wrote:
bentaz wrote:What about a "go fund me" campaign? You could incorporate a competition / raffle prize into it for the donators, hopefully with some donated prizes.
With a good Facebook campaign that could put you in connection to 1000's or even 10,000's of people.


I like this. mate. Could work very well with Brett's "naming rights" suggestion, which has been discussed at the club before for sponsorship. I also like Brett's idea of the two headed shooting bench but I'm not sure how the locals would think of it! :lol: Maybe a double binocular stand fitted out side the club house! :lol:

oh.... I'm gonna be in trouble.... :clap: :unknown: :thumbsup:



It's come to my attention that the US organisation running go fund me take 7.5% of the total raised, plus 30 cents per donation............ Taking good local money and sending it overseas doesn't sit well with me


There are plenty of other crowd funding platforms, though...
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Re: Fund Raising For Rifle Range

Post by Bent Arrow » 08 May 2018, 10:24 pm

Probably, it's not something I'm overly familiar with
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Re: Fund Raising For Rifle Range

Post by Oldbloke » 10 May 2018, 9:10 pm

brett1868 wrote:.Being that this is Tasmania I'm hoping to see the Left & Right head bench rest benches :)


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