Hall Raises $9,000 with Jail or Bail Fundraiser

The Hall division participated in a company-wide fundraiser to raise money for ACS by placing their directors in jail. The fundraiser was called “Jail or Bail”. The combination of originality, fun, and excitement for this project (and everyone’s desire to see their directors in a miserable environment) raised $9,000 towards Hall’s goal.

What was it? The leadership team at Hall was placed under house arrest! Tossed in a jail cell (AKA a conference room) by a real cop, they were then dressed in bright orange shirts with no electronic devices. Each "inmate" served their time based on the donations they received. A $1 donation housed an inmate of their choosing in the slammer for 1 minute; a $5 donation led to a 10 minute incarceration, and $10 forced the inmate to be jailed for 15 minutes.

The twist was that the directors of every department (AKA the criminals) could counter the donations with their own fundraising efforts considered as “bail money”. Directors sent out online requests asking friends and family to help get them out of jail by donating to the cause.

David Pickett, Service Director, would have had to spend 16 hours in jail, but raised over $1,000 in bail money to get himself out in a more timely manner. Chris Lewis, Special Finance Director, raised $3,000 towards his bail, but still had to serve hard time with a second warrant for making the other directors look bad.

The coordinated effort spearheaded by Krista VanDyke was a huge hit. A camera was set up so that employees at the dealerships could see the prisoners eating their lunch consisting of bread and water and in the assembly line putting together gifts for the rebrand launch event.

 “The planning and creativity that went into making this fundraiser speaks to the passion and dedication our team has in regards to our ACS fundraising efforts,” said Division President Bill Baker. “Although it was stressful not having any form of communication in the middle of the day – I was incarcerated for a half hour – it was a lot of fun seeing just who was placed in jail for the longest period of time.”

You can see the slideshow of the event here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3PdQYjZgbRYaVdTWXNiamVuSm8/view?usp=sharing