Saving Rich Hill

[Dave Taylor]

I was also trying to think of possible ideas for fundraising when the project is, hopefully, green lit. My mind goes directly to Kickstarter, which is a popular fundraising site for people who need financial assistance to complete their creative projects. Each project sets a period of time between 1 - 60 days in which they have to reach their set fundraising goal, or else the project is not funded at all. While the 1.5 million price tag isn't a reasonable goal for Kickstarter, the Charles County Historical Society could set a more reasonable goal that could be tied to one particular part of the rehabilitation plan. Kickstarter requires their projects to have a finite goal and so the Historical Society could assess the cost of say, redoing the roof on Rich Hill, and then make a Kickstarter project to seek funds for that. Any funding they might receive beyond their set fundraising goal could be allocated for other needed improvements. The main draw of Kickstarter, and what makes it such a popular engine for funding, is the aspect of how donors receive rewards for their help in funding the project. People are far more likely to give when they are given something in return. Regardless if whether or not Kickstarter is an option, I think any fundraising on the part of the Charles County Historical Society would be improved by a similar idea of "rewards'. I would assume they would do the traditional "the more you give, the higher your name will be on our eventual plaque of donors" which is nice, but I feel like they could get more donations with other, more tangible rewards. Perhaps, through an agreement with the Surratt Society, the CCHS could do a project where anyone who donates more than $______ to the Rich Hill fund will receive a free one year subscription to the Surratt Courier. Though the Surratt Society would have to absorb the cost of the added mailings for a year, I would expect that many people who would receive the subscription would purchase their own membership the following year, therefore giving the Surratt Society a boost as well. Perhaps the Mudd Society at the Dr. Mudd house could follow suit and an annual subscription to their society could be included at another tier of giving.

Some of the other ideas I came up with would involve rewarding donors with physical pieces of Rich Hill as they are removed during rehabing. It would be similar to how the Mudd house sells nails from the house glued to pieces of wooden lathes, how Tudor Hall is selling bricks from the old chimney, and how the Parkers give out nails and old shingles off of Cleydael to the BERT participants.

For elite level donors, perhaps the Surratt Society could donate a few tickets for their Booth escape route bus tours.

For smaller sized donations, I'm sure someone at the Historical Society could come up with a logo or emblem containing Rich Hill that could be put on cards, stickers, magnets, shirts, whatever. As long as the cost of production and distribution is taken into account and the donation amount to receive each item is set so that they are still profiting, then the little trinkets can help motivate donors to give what they can.

Of course financially speaking, the best reward for those doing the fundraising, is something that costs nothing or next to nothing. This is why "Lists of Donors" are so common. Perhaps the Charles County Historical Society has other items or resources available to them that they could use to motivate donations.

Regardless, I really pray that somewhere in Charles County right now, a representative of the CCHS is signing the paperwork to acquire Rich Hill.