Planning a Fundraiser
There are several creative ways to help fundraise for Operation Hug-A-Hero®. Help us put the “Fun” in Fundraising by participating in your area to help raise funds for our cause!
■ DONATE AT THE REGISTER is a great way to involve your customers in your charity work. The GAP Store in Jacksonville, NC sponsored a “donate at the register” campaign for one month and raised over $1,500 for OPERATION Hug-A-Hero that was matched by GAP headquarters. We will send you everything you need in a convenient package!
■ PROCEEDS FOR LITTLE HEROES is another way that businesses can participate in charitable giving for OPERATION Hug-A-Hero. We are honored by businesses that choose a particular day or event to donate a portion of their proceeds or profits to our cause. A number of businesses, from photographers to crafters to restaurants, have already donated in this way and we are moved by your generosity. Don’t forget that anything you donate to Operation Hug-A-Hero is 100 percent tax-deductible.
■ PENNIES FOR HEROES is a great way to introduce your children to charitable giving. Put a penny jar in your house or in your child’s classroom or school. You can collect for a few weeks or all year. The kids love to see the jar fill up! Of course, nickels, dimes and quarters work too!
■ DRESS-DOWN DAY for OPERATION HUG-A-HERO. Approach your school’s principal to see if he/she will support a Dress-Down Day for OHAH! This is a common fundraising practice at most schools with uniforms. $1 for OHAH and a dress-down day for your child. Do it once, do it once a semester! This works for businesses with employees too—similar to Casual Friday.
■ FACEBOOK BIRTHDAY WISHES. We are thrilled to see our Facebook supporters use the “donate your birthday” option through the Facebook Cause’s page. Friends and family donate to Operation Hug-A-Hero in lieu of sending birthday gifts. What a great idea! Don’t forget you can always share our cause (or any of our bulletins) on your Facebook Wall and encourage your Facebook friends to donate to Operation Hug-A-Hero at any time of the year, not just when it’s your birthday!
■ EVENTS. Events can be a tremendous amount of work but they are often the most productive in raising funds. If you have an existing event and are looking for a worthy cause to distribute a portion of your proceeds, OHAH would be most appreciative. We have local communities and organizations around the country that sponsor events such as a 5K family fun run or walk-a-thon exclusively to benefit Operation Hug-A-Hero. Car washes (when the weather is nice) are a great way to run an easy to organize event that can really bring in a lot of funds—particularly if you sell food at the same time!
At Operation Hug-A-Hero we truly believe that fundraising can, and should be, a “Fun” event for everyone. We also know that there are many creative individuals with other fundraising ideas and we encourage you to share them with us! We do organize our own fundraising events across the country, so we welcome any suggestions for how we can bring awareness about Operation Hug-A-Hero to your area, so more families in need can benefit from our program.
If you or your organization would like to host a fundraiser, please contact us and let us know your ideas! Or, if you want to contribute but don’t have an idea of your own, that’s okay too; we have plenty of ideas to share with you. Together we can help you take action on your desire to do something for our cause AND bring a huge smile to one of our Little Heroes who is missing their Mom or Dad who is (or is about to be) deployed.
Stay tuned as we will have Fundraising Tool Kits available soon which you will be able to download from our website!
OPERATION Hug-A-Hero – Fundraising Events
- Inflate World Sponsors National Charity- OHAH for November 2011
- Vote Operation Hug-A-Hero into CauseWorld – February 9th – 28th, 2010
- Operation Hug-A-Hero Holiday Hugs Fundraising Drive – November-December, 2009
- Operation Hug-A-Hero Shop at iGive.com for the Holiday’s and support our cause – November -December, 2009
- Operation Hug-A-Hero Veterans Day Flag Tribute – SPECIAL EBay Auction -November 2-11, 2009
- Operation Hug-A-Hero GAP Gives Back – Dollar for Dollar Match – Jacksonville, NC -October 1 -31, 2009
- Operation Hug-A-Hero 5K Race & Family Fun Walk: City of Walled Lake, Michigan – October 10, 2009
- Operation Hug-A-Hero Harley Ride & Kids Bicycle Rodeo: Jacksonville, NC – October 24, 2009


