As a lot of people know I am in the military. Something we military folks have thrust ed upon us every year is a little something called CFC or for you civilian folks Combined Federal Campaign. This a a national fund raiser where military members have a choice of either making a one time donation or they can even set up an allotment out of their paycheck to go directly to their chosen charity. We are given a book that lists hundreds of different char ties dealing with every from animal rescues, children, disaster relief, art foundations and I have even seen alternative life styles organizations listed but never anything for ferrets. Normally I would give to places like Defenders of Wild life, Ducks Unlimited and children organizations. Currently I am trying to locate a resource that will have information regarding how a charity or Non Profit Organization can be included on CFC. It may be that as individual shelters may be to small. In this case Everyone may have to pool together as Ferret Rescues of America. As soon as I find out more information I'll post it. On a smaller scale of fund raisers, auctioning off naming rights on e-bay has proved to be a wonderful. The first baby that was placed up for a name brought in $50.00 after that the normal was around $30.00. But you have to be careful. You have to offer something physical along with the auction or e-bay will pull it. At Dook-n-Dance the winning bidder receives a nice parchment certificate stating the new name and the person who gave the name. The materials are fairly cheap. $8 - $10 for a ream of parchment paper. Most people already have a digital camera or a scanner and a color printer. I did see a couple of other auctions where the shelter offered pictures and a pin. I'm not sure how well they did but I know that the person who for his own reasons placed his personal ferret up for naming didn't receive any bids. Just make sure that if you do the auctions that you don't gouge people on their postage and make sure it's states clearly that the buyer is responsible for postage and that people from out of the US need to contact you before sending payment. Also try to set it up where you will only accept checks or money orders. This way you will only have to pay for placing the auction and not additional pay-pal fees. The last advice I have is Place the ferrets life story on the auction. I hate to say this but sob stories sell. Another women had a name this kitten auction up on e-bay. The kitten was in the engine of a neighbors car and ended up getting mangled and lost a leg. The women stated how she was trying to raise money for the kittens vet bill and that anything left over she was going to donate to a shelter. The bids on that went over $165.00 in less than a week. EBay will allow you one free picture, You can add more pictures by cut and paste into the description and it won't cost you extra. Also, if someone at the shelter has time, Create a "ME" page on E-bay. It doesn't cost anything and it's good publicity because you can add other links to it. [Posted in FML issue 4967]