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Donation boxes


aesl1982

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How many people use donation boxes with their show. How is it recieved? Any negative feedback.

Edited by aesl1982
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Received by the general public, or the forum members here (and other forums as well) ??

 

I will say some members of the general public want to help and want to donate.

 

I'll also say there are some members of the forum (and I suspect around the world) that wouldn't take a dime from people for personal gain, even if it was re-invested in the show.

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From the public. I see a lot of people using them through out reading and watching. Didn't know if it was a common thing to see. I do a lot of charity stuff for the Shriners children hospital. Thought I could maybe incorporate it for them

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Donation boxs are fine if you donate the money to a worthy cause but not for yourself

I have one each year for 100% to charity, in no way would I have one for proceeds for my pocket.
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How many people use donation boxes with their show. How is it recieved? Any negative feedback. Seems like a good thing to help grow your show from year to year

I think your tail is wagging your dog here. The show doesn't grow from the donation box. The donation box grows from the show.

We've had a donation box from year one. It's very well received by viewers and by the community. 100% of all that's ever been donated goes directly to our local food shelf, and I presume that's well received by the people it helps feed.

IMO keeping donations for growing one's own display is a pretty classless act.

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I've just seen a bunch of different threads on other forums about them. I wouldn't use anything for my own gain. If I couldn't afford this hobby I wouldn't have gotten into it. Maybe initial post was wondered wrong.

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I've been against putting one out until last year displays feedback. Too many people asked for where it was. I got over $300.00 from people insisting they give me money for my electric bill. That was just on two nights we were in front yard handing out candy canes. I made sure they knew it wasn't going in pocket. We already do a toy drive and I just put the money towards that. It's a great thing if done for the right reason. Christmas is a time for giving and I've found many people love doing so. My 5&8 year old do a hot cider stand with cookies,mistletoe, etc. They pocketed $500.00 in three nights. Teach them to be hard working entrepreneurs that don't feed off the system....

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Like the others, 50%^ of our donations go to the local Animal Shelter and the other 50% goes to our local Food Bank. Nothing in our pocket whatsoever. Tons of people ask about the electric, but since we run all LED's now, the increase to run the shows is minimal, especially when compared to how much we spend on lights, controllers, extension cords, etc..

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Donations for charity only, definately not any for me although if a buddy or admirer of the show pops by with a dozen beer I wouldn't say no. Last year I collected $750 for the SPCA ( plus a bunch of items as well)  and the only benefit I got out of it was a tax receipt. The only reason I accepted the tax reciept was for proof in case anyone questioned where the $$$ went. Nobody questioned ....

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Like the others, 50%^ of our donations go to the local Animal Shelter and the other 50% goes to our local Food Bank. Nothing in our pocket whatsoever. Tons of people ask about the electric, but since we run all LED's now, the increase to run the shows is minimal, especially when compared to how much we spend on lights, controllers, extension cords, etc..
that's true about electric bill. When inwas telling family and friends about the show this year that's the first thing they mentioned was electric bill. Basically like I said before if the 100 bucks or whatever it does go up breaks us then we need to rethink the hobby lol
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Civilians just don't get it at first.  They think:  Holy cow - over 60,000 lights - must cost a fortune. 

 

What they don't realize, without it being pointed out, is that the overwhelming majority of the lights (at least in my display) spend the overwhelming majority of their time OFF.

 

Another excellent example of people only noticing what is lit at any given time and not seeing anything else.

Edited by George Simmons
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How many people use donation boxes with their show. How is it recieved? Any negative feedback. Seems like a good thing to help grow your show from year to year

 

We have since the beginning but this is the first year I'm going to step back and refocus why I do this.  This includes not collecting anything.  I think I started because everyone else was doing it and unfortunately it's not the reason I put up a display.  For me I feel like if I collect donations, I must perform and put on a show.  All this does for me is add stress and causes me to loose desire.

 

From my experience.  It's a great idea.  Just make sure you are doing it for the right reason.

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This is a hobby like any other hobby you do it for your own enjoyment and if other people also enjoy it that's great.

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This will be my first year with a box out from. Everything collected with go to the Local Volunteer Fire Department and they will be there to help setup and take down.. Several of them want to learn how this is done. So a win win for me.. LOL

 

Jeff

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i collect for the local food bank (only food).

Some people do put money in the box ( around $5 last year ).

I always donate an additional $50 - $100

 

In my opinion collecting for yourself is just wrong and can open yourself upto a bunch of unwanted events (copyrighted music for one).

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  • 2 weeks later...

We do have donation box and have all donations go to a local program for kids in hospital with cancer. Our neighbor lost their grand daughter a few years back and it was her wish for all the children at hospital to get toys. So we use the money and go buy a bunch of toys to donate to them. Our kids love going picking out presents for other kids. We live in Wisconsin so donating food or toys is really difficult because of the weather here. We are strongly against taking donations for personal use- like adding to show, or paying electric bill, or anything other then charity. If a person were to use donations for personal they shouldn't be in this obsession. do it for the fun.

  We never thought of taking donations til people kept coming to door and insisted we take something. So after awhile we decided if that's what they want then we will put a box out and help out our neighbors cause. The kids at hospital love all the presents they get each year.

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