So we’ve talked about raffling off American Girl Dolls and a host of other things, but what about raffling off a horse?

YES, a horse!!

A couple months ago I got a Facebook message from a high school friend. He and his wife had begun to talk about adopting a boy from the Democratic Republic of Congo and, like a lot of wives, she plunged in by ordering a bunch of books. The first book he picked up was “Adopt Without Debt” and he said “Hmmm, I know a Julie Gumm” 🙂 Small world, huh? Love how God works.

He connected me with his wife and we emailed a couple things back and forth. As she was reading the book she had a brilliant idea! They have a rope horse named Buck, that they’ve been ready to sell that is valued at a little over $12,000.

Their adoption costs are going to be about $30,000.

So instead of just selling the horse they are hoping to sell 600 raffle tickets for the horse at $50 each.

With one fundraiser they could have their costs totally covered.

I always say that the book is really just a catalyst. I want the fundraising ideas to stir your creativity and help you look at your situation, your friends and your community and come up with ideas that will work for you!

Check out the website the Broek family put together for the horse raffle. (And buy a ticket if you’re a “horse person”.)

  

The Dinsmore family is featured in the book with one of their fundraising ideas, but they just had success with another one.

It was actually spearheaded by two of Lara’s friends. The Dinsmore’s needed to fund the last $5,000 of travel expenses so they can go to Uganda to pick up their son.

So Shelly & Colleen hijacked her blog to conduct an online Adoption Baby Shower with the goal of raising $5,000 in 7 days.

And as baby shower prizes go, their’s was amazing. They gave away a Canon EOS Rebel T3i Digital Camera (w/ zoom lens) as the grand prize with a few smaller prizes as well.

Want to know how it went?

One of the ideas in Adopt Without Debt is doing blog giveaways/raffles. Specifically one idea mentioned was an American Girl Doll giveaway that helped the Buoiconti family raise nearly $2,400.

Well Peter and Tanya took the idea and ran with it on their blog as well. On August 8th they drew a winner and celebrated $2,500 raised to bring home their little girl from China.

I LOVE hearing reader stories and am always looking for more ideas to share. If you have one, fill out the idea form here.