Virginia Master Gardener Association

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Fund Raising

The Fundraising Committee is tasked with seeking out funding sources, ideas and activities and pursuing these with the approval of the Board. Currently, all fund raising activities benefit VMGA’s State Coordinator Endowment. The activities are the selling of Master Gardener Gear, the Silent Auction held at Master Gardener College and the Coordinator Endowment team that promotes donations made directly to The Virginia Tech Foundation/VMGA State Coordinator Endowed Fund. Tina Chaleki, the current Fund Raising Committee Chair, coordinates these three activities.

Master Gardener Gear Team

VMGA began selling Master Gardener Gear several years ago. Year round, the team managing the merchandise sales offers t-shirts, sweatshirts, decals, license plate frames and window clings for sale online or at VMGA meetings and events. The proceeds from sales go to VMGA’s State Coordinator Endowment. Every purchase you make is a way to support the Endowment so place orders frequently! To see the items for sale, please visit MG Gear. To go directly to the Order Form, click here.

Silent Auction Team

The Silent Auction is an important activity for both raising funds for the State Coordinator Endowment and as a fun, exciting event at Master Gardener College. The team that solicits auction items beforehand and manages the paperwork, close out and purchases on site uses proven processes to make coordination easy. Volunteers for this team are typically sought each year in the months before MG College.

State Coordinator Endowment Team

This team is responsible for promoting donations to the State Coordinator Endowment. The team raises awareness of the importance of the Endowment, creates pins, certificates and other ways to acknowledge donors and serves as the link between CALS Development Office and VMGA through the Fund Raising Chair. The current leader of this team, Kathryn Debnar, is looking for volunteers to talk about the Endowment to local units, write newsletter articles and make presentations of donor acknowledgement tokens of appreciation. Email Kathryn if you are interested!

The Fundraising Committee would like to hear your ideas, and is always looking for volunteers to join any team of the committee. Contact the Fund Raising Chair!