Firefighter calendar and merchandise auctions

The firefighter calendar is close to a fundraising institution. It also carries consent, policy and image-rights questions that generic fundraising advice never addresses, because no other kind of organization has this format.

Settle these before the shoot

• Chief and, if municipal, commission or council approval — in writing, covering the concept as well as the images
• Written consent from every member who appears, specific about how images may be used, for how long, and what happens if they leave the department
• Uniform and apparatus policy — whether department property may appear, and in what state of dress
• Who owns the images — the department, the auxiliary, or the photographer. Settle it in writing before the shutter opens
• Tone — decide as a department where the line is, and write it down. This is the conversation departments skip and then have publicly afterwards

None of this is a reason not to do it. All of it is much easier to agree before a shoot than after a complaint.

How the calendar and the auction feed each other

Sell the calendar as a straightforward product, and use the auction for the things the calendar makes possible:

• The original prints from the shoot, signed by the members in them
• A slot in next year's calendar — a local business's dog, a community member
• The cover position
• A package of the calendar plus a station tour plus dinner with the crew
• The photographer's session itself, donated, as a family portrait item

The calendar builds an audience and a mailing list; the auction extracts the higher per-person amounts from it. Neither does both jobs alone.

Other merchandise that works

• Challenge coins, especially numbered or first-run
• Department t-shirts and job shirts, in a district that wears them
• Firehouse cookbooks and bottled sauces
• Patches, retired badge numbers and mounted decommissioned equipment, where policy allows

Anything involving department property needs the disposal question answered first: approvals and legal requirements.

Make it annual

The value of a calendar is that it recurs. Same month, same channels, a growing list, and an auction attached to it each year. Treating it as a one-off leaves the compounding behind.