Local fundraising example:
Raffle of indigenous handicraft

Organisation	CIMI - Conselho Indigenista Missionário Amazônia Ocidental
Website	http://cimi.org.br/
Type	NGO
Suitability	Starting organisation
Country	Brazil
Funding needed for	Travel to Alto Rio Envira to collect information to produce a documentary on the Ashaninka and Madija indigenous people. Promotion of a good relationship between the two peoples living by the Alto Envira River.
Period of action	October 2013
In-kind donations raised	n.a.
Types of donations	Raffle tickets
Types of donors	General public

Summary

Back in the 90s the women of the Marubo indigenous tribe donated to CIMI a pot made with their own hands. Big enough for 200 liters of ayahuasca, a brew of various plant infusions used in rituals and as traditional medicine.
In order to finance a documentary to highlight the situation of different indigenous peoples in the Amazon CIMI decided to do a raffle, with this pot as the prize. Each ticket would be sold for R$ 30. CIMI expected to raise R$ 3.000.
The large pot - of great artistic and anthropological value - was taken to a public square in the city center for people to admire its beauty and buy raffle tickets. One of the passers-by was a professor and anthropologist, who was so interested in possessing what she considered to be a masterpiece of great cultural value that she bought all the remaining raffle tickets and ended up receiving the pot. All in all CIMI raised an amount of R$ 3.500 and was well pleased that this handicraft would be so well taken care of and exposed at the University museum.
The aim of the documentary was to inform civil society in general about the conflicts (territory, human rights violations, etc.) that these indigenous peoples are facing and support them. In addition, call upon the government to be more active in securing their territory, thus assuring their survival. CIMI therefore had the double goal of raising funds and raising awareness.

Tips and lessons learned

People tend to take part in raffles/bingo/auctions when the prizes are worth it. The more unique the prize is, the better.
Using local products that value the culture of its people is also important.
Raising funds from the general public allows organisations to be politically free to criticize the government and/or companies.

Review by Wilde Ganzen Foundation

This is a good example of a fundraising effort supported by Brazilian Change the Game Academy partner CESE. CIMI attended a fundraising workshop given by CESE and CESE moreover doubled their fundraising results. CIMI is now more confident that they are indeed capable of raising funds themselves and will organise a similar action to raise funds for the publication of a book with all the material they collected. If you have something really exquisite, like this pot, you could also think of an auction. People bidding against each other could lead to a better price. On the other hand, raffle tickets offer a more secure source of funds.

Details

Objectives

To raise funds for a documentary and promote good relations between two indigenous peoples.

Targeted donors

General public

Results

Description of preparatory work

Planning the raffle and selling the tickects.
Organising the exhibition of the pot.

Description of implementation

Exhibition of the pot in a public square and in the Federal University of Acre.

Plans to repeat the action

CIMI would like to publish a book with the material collected. For this, a similar action will be undertaken in the future.