Historical Society Fundraising

Historic Ballfield Ornament The Treasured Scenes limited edition collectibles create amazing & effective fundraisers, promotional kick-offs, or simply unique collectors items for your historical society’s patrons to enjoy.

The beautiful, artistic value of these limited edition ornaments, plates, trivets, afghans, and many other goods cause folks who are only curious about history to become active supporters of your region’s historical preservation efforts by purchasing Treasured Scenes collectibles that feature your region’s historical subject images. They become financial supporters of the sponsoring historical society by collecting each edition that is produced.

The more editions available, the more funds are raised as the public collect them all. Often time historical societies find a highly successful fundraising system by producing an entire series of limited edition collectibles, each with an edition number for proof of the collection’s size.

Historical Photo ornament The Treasured Scenes ornaments make a perfect fundraiser series because they offer high quality, limited edition collectibles at a reasonable price that patrons can afford to purchase annually. They also make unique thank you gifts for volunteers & patrons alike. All of the Treasured Scenes collectibles are a hybrid of history & art, and enjoyable to display anywhere. Starting an effective fundraiser for your historical society is easy with our formula for success.

To request more information, get a quote, or to purchase online, please view our Fundraising Products here.

Why Fundraising?

Many historical societies & museums must wait for grants from government sources or corporate partnerships before adding even the smallest rehabilitation projects to their budgets. Unfortunately, they may be at the mercy of government grants even to pay operational costs, let alone capital improvements. These custom limited edition collectibles can help raise money through corporate sponsorships of each edition, encouraging donations from patrons, or raising profits by retailing them in gift shops or at patron events.

bag of money Treasured Scenes has already raised millions of dollars to close budget gaps for many different preservation projects and to allow historical societies to sponsor events that raise awareness of history in their communities. Planning a fundraiser with the Treasured Scenes program provides you and your historical society’s committee or board with honest fundraising expectations based on regional population and event attendance where the collectibles will be sold.

Keystone Specialties is committed to the long-term financial health of its Treasured Scenes fundraising customers, not just your first business transaction to raise funds with these unique collectibles. Also, your Keystone client service specialist will listen to your fundraising needs (and any relevant situations) before recommending one of the Treasured Scenes fundraising programs. Our formula for success is built on thousands of high profit fundraising programs with thousands of non-profit organizations.

Your fundraiser must be another success story, so request your Treasured Scenes starter packet here.

How to Fundraise through Treasured Scenes Collectibles:

Selecting a Historical Subject to Feature:

The best way to start building a Treasured Scenes fundraiser is to select a subject to feature. A successful subject for a historical society or museum should relate to a unique subject in local history, or international history if it pertains specifically to your society's purpose.

A&W Drive in ornament Local historical subjects are preferred for smaller communities as a way to form strong local identity marketable to both tourists and residents. The chosen subject to feature may be one of many similar subjects, such as historical buildings, within the area. It can also depict an important historical event. The opportunity to create a very popular collectible series should multiply the profits times the number of years the editions are created.

Instead of reaping profits from just one edition, plan on multiplying the profits realized in your first edition by 10 or 20 editions in a series. The health of your Treasured Scenes fundraiser should always be evaluated after each year. Adjustments for factors such as population changes, other competing fundraisers, or the availability of new subjects to feature on future editions should be considered and communicated to your client services representative each year. Your representative will have unique & ambitious ideas to jump-start your first edition, but also to improve the results annually.

A Series of Bridge Ornaments

Historical Pictures

Selecting a Treasured Scenes Collectible for Fundraising:

Finding the right collectible for your feature image to be displayed on is just as important as featuring the right subject to feature. While our tapestry afghans allow multiple subject images to be featured, the l Custom Afghan ikelihood of your historical society selling annual editions of afghans may not be as likely as using a smaller, more affordable collectible such as an ornament. Also, lack of space to display multiple afghans would cause most supporters to purchase one afghan edition instead of multiple editions.

However, afghans are very successful fundraisers for special anniversaries celebrations and still may be sold annually in a larger size market successfully. In smaller markets though, ornaments and other small collectibles are affordable for all income levels, which brings much higher sales volume. It is important to compare the profitability between a collectible such as the glass ornament, and an afghan as they are very different. One afghan sale will equal approximately $25 in profit, versus around $8 per ornament. In this case, it is always preferable to discuss your fundraising goals with your Keystone Specialties client specialist if you are undecided on which fundraising collectible to use from Treasured Scenes.

After consulting with Keystone Specialties client services rep about your new Treasured Scenes fundraising interest, choose the limited edition collectible that meets will allow you to meet your goals. Whatever the item you choose, our client services reps will help you merge your chosen subject image with your favorite collectible in the most attractive way possible. Our art department will transform your image into a beautiful collectible for amazing visual appeal.

The Lighthouse Series

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Marketing Support:

Support Material Your marketing efforts for your Treasured Scenes fundraiser will be enhanced through a digital marketing package that Keystone Specialties will provide for FREE as a convenience. This marketing package will include a sample media release, a digital flier to upload to your website, post on other websites, or print to post in locations around town, & finally a schedule to help you manage your fundraiser from beginning to end. The road to fundraising success is clearly marked with the Treasured Scenes program. Request your Treasured Scenes starter packet here.

How to Set a Fundraising Goal:

Setting a goal is quite easy when you start with real numbers. First of all, ask yourself it the fundraiser be held at an event, throughout the community for an extended period, or both? Once you know where & when you want to make your Treasured Scenes collectibles available, find real numbers for attendance at the last event, or start with your city and/or county population. (Use the population for the area where the collectible will be made available). Now that you have real population or attendance figures to work with, use the following respective formulas for a close estimate of how many people will purchase the collectibles. Don’t worry – We have developed these formulas from thousands of organization’s fundraising results over 28 years of experience, so we’re confident they will work for you as well.

Event-based Fundraising formula:

Attendance at last similar event (or number of tickets sold if first event)
Attendance divided by 4 = approximate buyers

Population-based Fundraising formula:

City or County Population (Choose according to your historical society’s identity)
Population divided by 4 = approximate number of households
Households divided by 4 = approximate buyers

Don’t short-change your fundraiser! Purchase according to the formula and follow our FREE fundraising guide to realize maximum profits from your Treasured Scenes program.

Download your own free copy of fundraising Made Easy

Selecting a Treasured Scenes Collectible for Gift Shop Retail.

After selecting a subject image to feature, consider your current product mix in the retail environment where you wish to introduce a new Treasured Scenes collectible. By adding a new product not currently offered in your product mix, you can increase overall sales volume by attracting new customers to the retail establishment. For example, if your retail store already sells an etched metal custom shaped ornament, then it would be advisable to choose a different collectible rather than cannibalize the sales of existing product.

At the same time, if an existing product has slow sales due to product age or poor image imprint, then replacing it with a high quality custom collectible from the Treasured Scenes collection should refresh sales quite rapidly. Using this purchasing philosophy creates strong sales growth for any retailer, and draws new foot traffic in a store because of a fresh and diverse product mix.

Request your Treasured Scenes starter packet here.