Anyone a Warbird sponsor or donor?

[Mark Allen M]

I'll make an attempt not to be too vague or nieve. I'm interested in information concerning individual sponsorship towards an individual warbird. Could be a privately owned airplane, museum owned airplane, towards a restoration, a recovery of an airplane, something on those lines.

Not to be confused with membership to an organization, museum or club, or volunteering. I'm more interested in imput from those who may financially support an individual warbird and what are your expectations or rewards in doing so.

No real agenda here, just curious. PM's are welcome if discretion is important.

Thx in advance

Mark

[seabee1526]

http://yankeeairmuseum.org/adopt.php

Is something like this close to what you are referring to?

[K5DH]

I'm not what you'd call a "sponsor", but every year I select one interesting vintage aircraft restoration or preservation effort and donate $100 to them. Usually it's a warbird, but not always. I also make smaller random donations from time to time. Money's tight, and I do what I can. I wish I had the money to actually be a big sponsor, but then it would be hard to decide on who would receive the donation. There are just so many worthy efforts going on out there...

[bombadier29]

http://commemorativeairforce.org/?page= ... _page=1263

The CAF has a sponsorship program.

[Mark Allen M]

I'm not what you'd call a "sponsor", but every year I select one interesting vintage aircraft restoration or preservation effort and donate $100 to them. Usually it's a warbird, but not always. I also make smaller random donations from time to time. Money's tight, and I do what I can. I wish I had the money to actually be a big sponsor, but then it would be hard to decide on who would receive the donation. There are just so many worthy efforts going on out there...

Dean that's outstanding on your part. Good for you. I do similar efforts and yes the larger sponsor efforts are tricky as there really are several great individual projects and groups in need. My reward is nothing more than the satisfaction of knowing I'm contributing to a worth while cause that I enjoy (and maybe a name of recognition way, way deep in a wheel well somewhere, actually not serious about that at all)

Seriously, I know that many folks have far more important financial obligations other than supporting old airplanes, but I truly respect the small efforts of the folks who have a similar approach as yours Dean. Personally I'm not interested in joining an organization or group as a member, but I like to do my part as an individual supporter behind the scenes.

BTW just a conversation here, nothing more. I like the feedback so far. Thx

[PinecastleAAF]

I donated to Taigh's project last year and hope to make one this year for Desert Rat. I like the idea of trying to help the guys here on WIX who are making it happen but having said that any project anywhere (that involves a real aircraft ) is just as good.

[Taigh Ramey]

Having been on the receiving end of donations from you kind folks I can say it has helped in so many ways. It is a real juggling act though deciding the best way to allocate the limited funds and to stretch them as far as possible. I like to say we have to take the little gold nuggets that we are given and hammer them out into a thin sheet that can cover as much of the Harpoon as possible.

It's especially difficult when something unexpected comes up that saps our recourses like the paint fiasco. Thankfully we have a generous donor here on WIX who, for the last two years, has given us a $10,000+ nugget. That donation, combined with the other kind donations, has given us the funds to make progress on some of the projects where we need to purchase parts and outside services.

We make do with what we have but of course we always seem to need more. More money means we can make things happen quicker.

I think I can speak for all of us who are volunteering on Warbird projects around the world by saying thank you all for your donations whether you are giving us another gold nugget to work with or simply the moral support. It all helps and we certainly appreciate it.

Taigh

[DH82EH]

Taigh, I've been through the Harpoon thread and I'd have to say that you seem like the person that can hammer the nugget with style, respect and panache. I'm amazed at what you and the folks in your project accomplish

I was involved with an organization, and the guy responsible for getting me interested got kinda "effed" over. He's a real capable, spark plug, of a go to guy.
Well my loyalty stuck with my friend, not the organization, and we,along with another friend, started our own "group". It's nothing official or anything. it's the three of us and we are really close to returning our DH82A to flight. She'll fly this season.
If somebody told me three years ago that I'd own my own Tiger Moth I'd wonder what they were smoking! We each have something complimentary to bring to the table, and it's working out great!

Andy Scott