How do I go about it

[Summer84]

I have recently offered up my help as a volunteer at my DSS Sea Cadet Unit.

As you can imagine, they receive barely any funding and I would like to offer up my help where possible, as what they do for the children young Cadets is absolutely out of this world, my DSS competed in a district rowing competition yesterday and they came first, it was a great day (even if it did mostly rain).

But it is a great place for the Cadets to be, to interact, gain confidence and also for them to grow up in a continued disciplined environment. (I don't think I need to go on, on that part)

A few of the things I have offered are:

Setting up events for the cadets to participate in, to raise funds
An event for adults to attend, that may require a small fee from the adults and try and get subsidised event costs
Speaking / working with local companies to try and get money raised to "spruce up" the unit, as they have recently moved to a new building (that they openly state themselves
Cadet referral scheme
Handle new Social Media platforms, as well as push advertising through these channels.
Blogging on events and general day to day

Now, I have done this and whilst I am hoping to go to their AGM in a couple of weeks, I was hoping to be able to have a few things secured, ie, sponsorship, fundraisers (in the bag)
How do I even get this started on the right foot? At the time, I thought being able to gain the interest of people - companies to help out the unit would be easy, but after lots of reading, it isn't always straight forward.

**I often offer to help, without actually thinking (bad I know) but I really would like to help, and to make a difference.

I mean, even the small things, that would help:

How nice would it have been to have had umbrellas with the Unit name on as opposed to the cadets that were not on the water at the time hiding under a text and not getting in on the supportive action. Small touches make all the difference in my eyes.

Can anybody help point me in some direction of where to take this kind of thing?

TIA.

x

When I was in Cadets we bag packed at the supermarket, our tuck shop was very successful, adults had a clairvoyant evening. We had an informal evening in the summer of silly games where old cadets were invited back, we had a BBQ and cake stalls etc which made some money.

By all means, go in with ideas but these organisations can be very insular and you'll end up stepping on toes, see how the land lies first and go to the AGM to see how best to approach it.

Many thanks for this @Singleandproud , I have seen other Cadets bag packing, so I was going to steer clear of that one, but all your other ones sound good, Thanks!

I have noticed that with this unit, the way I see it, they are seemingly struggling with a lot of things at the moment inparticular, the money raising aspect of it and keeping parents informed, so Thought I would offer to assist.

Obviously I am not going to make my observations known to them, but if they choose not to accept my offer of help following the AGM - I guess that is up to them, but if I was able to prove myself during that meeting, that would stand me in good steed (at least, I would like to hope so).

Be aware that they may have an informal (or in fact official!) policy about approaching people for sponsorship etc (who to ask and not ask, a designated rank to do it) and it would be wise to find out about that before turning up proudly but potentially having put your foot in it.

Fair comment @BestZebbie, did not think of it that way.

Perhaps, if I could generate ideas with backing in that case, ie: I figure out how I could actually achieve what I am implying that I hope to do...