How to Raise up to $100,000 a Year

Edible Forest Charitable
Fundraising

There is no better or simpler way to add value to your
property, your neighborhood, or your city than creating a bountiful treescape. Research
has shown that properties with an extensive treescape sell for between 6 and 8%
more than ones with fewer street trees[1].

A treescape provides—increased privacy, shade, wind
protection, establishes mammal and bird habitat, produces cleaner air (trees absorb
carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide), more O(2), inters CO(2),
reduces air conditioning requirements, allows for “forest bathing”, reduces
dust, eliminates grass (which needs to be cut and fertilized/weeded/watered),
produces lumber/firewood, conserves water and soil, muffles noise, produces medicines,
educates children, allows for erecting a hammock, increases natural beauty plus
produces food (edible fruit)… amongst other benefits.

Program

Here is a program to both benefit the community and the
charity/not-for-profit organization implementing it—

1. Volunteers, instead
of selling chocolate bars, gift baskets, cookies, sell fruit trees

2. This helps create a significant tree canopy over the years and helps the
city feed itself too

3. The goal is to make this an annual spring fundraiser

4. If the organization
has 100 volunteers and each of them are able to sell 2 saplings per household to
25 households, that means an average annual sales volume of 5,000 trees

5. That would mean maybe
as many as 50,000 fruit trees within 10 years

6. Trees would be
saplings available locally for less than $10 each, they would be sold for $20
each

7. Profit per tree is
approximately $10, so this fundraiser would net the organization $50,000 per
annum[2]

8. Preferred varieties are serviceberry, pear, grape, black walnut, cherry, gingko,
hazel and plum—they are well acclimatized to cold weather northern shelf cities
like Ottawa

9. Probably would not include apple trees because they require too much care
and attention

10. The other species
require ~ zero upkeep

11. All trees are self-pollinating (which means they can propagate their
species alone without outside help)

12. In the fall,
volunteers can sell leaf bags—branded with the name of the charity/NFP and its
sponsor—this will add more to the total amount that can be raised every year.

Hey, how cool is this? The
organization sells trees in the spring, and then, in the fall, a solution to a “problem”
they created—more falling leaves…

Bruce M Firestone, PhD

Century 21 Explorer
Realty Inc broker

Ottawa Senators founder

Real Estate Investment
and Business coach

613-762-8884

bruce.firestone@century21.ca

@profbruce

profbruce.tumblr.com

brucemfirestone.com

making impossible possible

postscript:
please also refer to—

How to Grow
a 100-Year Forest in 10 Years

https://profbruce.tumblr.com/post/154983059834/how-to-grow-a-100-year-forest-in-10-years

Animate Your
Property/Add Value: The Edible
Forest Program

https://profbruce.tumblr.com/post/144551275589/animate-your-propertyadd-value-the-edible-forest

[1] Source: Measuring the Value of Design and Creativity:
Value of a City’s Treescape

https://profbruce.tumblr.com/post/138796280199/please-sir-i-want-some-more-i-found-this-article-i

[2] Note: if the program is
sponsored, some or all of the cost of the saplings can be offset, which could
double the amount raised for the organization to $100,000. Additionally, the
volunteers can offer to plant the trees for the customers for an additional contribution
of say $10. A charity may also be able to offer a donation receipt for tax
purposes for some or all of the funds raised.