By James Feichtner
With the holidays closing in, the Carmel Fraternal Order of Police is gearing up for its annual holiday fundraiser. The FOP Holiday Food Basket drive will be returning for its 33rd consecutive year for 2014. The drive will raise money to pay for food “baskets” (actually large boxes) to help feed families in need over the holidays. The group is already collecting donations to prepare for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday.
In the past the FOP has used third party companies to help bring in donations via calling campaigns due to the size scape of potential donors.
“We used a company and the company would come in to Carmel and they would stay here for about three months,” FOP President Shane VanNatter said. “They bring in five guys and they would live here in hotel rooms. They stayed here five days a week and they made calls. We rented office space, we bought phone lines, we set them up and they would make calls for us because this is a huge project.”
This year the FOP has decided in going with a different strategy, explained VanNatter. The use of a third party in the past had brought questions and concerns from donors.
“People started asking questions about how much this company made and how much was going toward the food bank,” he said. “The amount of overhead to have a company come in, set up and make phone calls was embarrassing.”
But it wasn’t just the overhead that made the FOP decide to drop the third party. The company’s high-pressure sales tactics made some past donors uncomfortable.
“We got a lot of complaints about the tactics they used,” VanNatter said. “We got a lot of complaints about the fundraising people pretending to be cops. It was embarrassing, honestly.”
With the calling company out of the picture, the FOP is now taking full responsibility of bringing in donations.
“Hundred percent of the donations go to the food baskets,” VanNatter said. “There’s no middleman, no solicitors, and no third party. We have no overhead. We do everything out of our cars or out of the police department. We’ve cut down to the bare minimum of costs.”
Also new for this year is the FOP website where donors can go online and make donations using a credit card. Aside from online, the FOP will use a mailing system to reach donors. The donations are tax deductible and VanNatter stresses “anything you can spare” helps.
For more information on the FOP or to make a donation visit www.carmelfop.com.
