Charitable Giving

Charitable Giving

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Each year Hoodoo receives hundreds of requests for donations for every type of charity imaginable. Those requesting believe that this is easy because they believe a donation in kind isn't really costing Hoodoo anything. It is true that sometimes those purchasing the voucher or lift tickets are sometimes not Hoodoo skiers in which case the gift from us is not hurting us at all and might even help us. However, normally the person who purchases the gift in auction is someone who is familiar with Hoodoo and intends to come out during the year anyway and the auction purchase gives him a chance to get a cheaper price. Even though we receive no money for the tickets that we give to charities to use, we still have to pay the Forest Service a percentage of the value of that gift. Last year we had to pay the FS about $1,200 for the right to give away "free tickets".

In addition it has been a long time since Hoodoo Ski Area has had a year that ended in the black which means that we make less than a nonprofit company. However, in spite of all of this we continue to respond to a great amount of requests, but the purpose of this page is to explain why we do not respond to all of them. In the past we have had some requesters that were angry that we did not explain our denial to their letters or emails. Please understand that we get a lot of requests and if we had to send everyone a response, we would have to hire someone to do that only. If you email I try to respond, but in the future if we are not able to help, or need more information, I may send you to this page.

First in general, we do not donate to charities with auctions from March through September. People are not thinking about skiing during this time and the charities will get very little in return for our gift, but it will be purchased by someone who is looking for a great deal and they will get one. Recently Hoodoo was the major sponsor of an auction for a charity of which I (Chuck) am a strong supporter. The auction was held in May. Even though Hoodoo's banner was on the wall, the lift tickets went for about 3% of their value. That meant they were more work than they were worth for the charity, and Hoodoo will have to pay more money to the USFS than the charity received. Lift tickets or similar items do especially well in late September through December and OK from January through early March.

Established charities will receive a better response from us during these months especially if the letter is sent from a group that comes up to Hoodoo (such as a school outing) or the letter is from a known frequent skier or season pass holder. If your charity has someone like that or is a group that has a trip planned for Hoodoo, please have them either send the letter or add a short note. We do not respond to groups that are trying to raise money to ski in Europe (yes, we do get those requests). We are likely to respond when the charity benefits our broad skier base such as for children, public schools, churches and similar groups, and we do consider our role in the community to be an important one. As a nonexistent profit company our ability to give money is limited, but we are willing to help others who are trying to help their communities especially when it is a win-win situation like a group that has a ski trip to Hoodoo.

Also since we are also in the campground business, we do have a limited ability to give campground passes or passes to Cougar Hot Springs, but these passes normally have a value of less from $10 to $50 and are less than what a charity is trying to get. If this is what your charity is asking for please be specific and you will have a better chance. Bottom line is that the more specific about why something from Hoodoo is important to you, (and possibly beneficial to us), the more successful you will be. For charitable requests click on this form or you may email brynne@hoodoo.com for more information, or anyone else that you might know or have dealt with at Hoodoo including me or go directly to 541-822-3799 ext 6957 with your request.