Three Great Fundraising Moments in Movies Not About Fundraising

It’s a Wonderful Life, Troop Beverly Hills, and Rocky III Teach Us How to Raise Money

Over at Brains of the Operation, waffle-eater Kaitlyn writes funny, insightful posts about epilepsy, healthcare, and humor. Two weeks ago, she explained different types of epileptic seizures by way of horror movies. Inspired! And definitely worth a read.

A Horror Movie Lover’s Guide to Seizures

Let’s take a cue from Kaitlyn and call out three cool fundraising moments in movies that have absolutely nothing to do with fundraising. Places everyone!

It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)

I’m not the only one who thinks It’s a Wonderful Life is actually two movies sausaged into one, am I? Very Good Boy George Bailey (Jimmy Stewart) dreams of a more adventurous life than Bedford Falls can muster. But then the movie becomes a buddy comedy (tragedy?) with an angel hungry for a job promotion. I love every moment of this movie and can’t wait to watch it again in a few weeks.

This movie is 80 years old, you guys

While you and I watch Jimmy Stewart do his best Jimmy Stewart impression for two hours, Donna Reed is quietly doing everything else in this movie. She kicks their relationship into gear, she gives the money to save the Savings & Loan during a bank run, she roasts a chicken in a fireplace, and I’m pretty sure she renovated that old house all by herself.

In the final scene, we learn that she’s also spent Christmas Eve raising money to keep George out of prison after dum-dum Uncle Billy lost an envelope of cash. We don’t see her fundraising, but the entire cast shows up to her house, empties their pockets into a big bowl, Christmas bells ring, and angels get their promotions.

Troop Beverly Hills (1989)

My sister spent all of 1990 and a good chunk of 1991 wearing out a VHS tape copy of Troop Beverly Hills. For those who didn’t grow up with my sister, it’s about a do-nothing socialite (Shelley Long) who volunteers to lead her daughter’s troop of Wilderness Girls so she can prove a point to the guy from Coach. Her unorthodox den-mothering, Beverly Hills pampering, and megawatt smile ruffles feathers back at Wilderness Girl HQ. But her heart’s in the right place and her troop winds up winning a bizarre survival course and she…saves her marriage in the process? (Is that right? I don’t think I’m remembering that correctly).

1980s Shelley Long is a national treasure and America deserves a TBH remake

The Wilderness Girls sell cookies as a fundraiser and sing a song called “Cookie Time.” It’s delightful. Click the link to watch the girls sing, dance, and sell cookies at Spago and outside Jane Fonda’s gym.

Rocky III (1983)

A head-scratcher of a selection, I know. But let me make my case, you guys! By the third movie, Rocky is a bona fide champion and nearing retirement. A hungry upstart named Clubber Lang (performed brilliantly by thespian Mr. T) calls him a chicken, baits Rocky back into the ring, and then knock his block off. Rocky experiences a crisis of confidence that he overcomes after winning a beachside foot-race against Carl Weathers (RIP). Rocky then clobbers Clubber Lang in a rematch.

This is the busiest, most confusing clip-art movie poster I’ve ever been super impressed by

Earlier in the movie, Rocky participates in a charity boxing exhibition for the “City Youth League” against Hulk Hogan. Whose name is—are you ready, Substack?—Thunderlips. And throughout the scene he calls Rocky “Meatball” which is an A+ nickname. There’s no actual fundraising that happens but watch for yourself and stay with me through the end of this post so I can make sense of it.

So what does this troika of cherry-picked scenes from a Christmas classic, my sister’s go-to childhood movie, and the silliest of all Rocky movies teach us about raising money for charity?

1. It’s a Wonderful Life reminds us that people give to people.

   Bedford Falls heard George Bailey was in trouble and nobody hesitated to come out in a snowstorm to support him. It didn’t matter why he needed it, the people at the center of it (both George and Mary) are all that mattered.
   

2. Troop Beverly Hills teaches us to let the right people do the asking.

   Watch that clip again and you’ll see Shelley Long doesn’t do all that much other than sing backup to bubbly pre-teens. The kids are center stage belting out the song, dancing, selling, laughing, shouting, taking money, etc. Shelley Long gets out of the way and lets the kids do the fundraising for themselves because cookie-buyers at Spago want to buy cookies (and cigars and cigarettes, apparently?) from kids.
   

3. Meatball III asks us to get uncomfortable embracing new approaches for charity.

   Rocky is a boxer. Thunderlips is a wrestler. Mayhem ensues when they each try to do the same thing for charity two radically different ways. Rocky only wins when he takes off his gloves and starts wrestling. He’s not raising money but there’s still a worthwhile fundraising lesson here: sometimes you must become Thunderlips in order to defeat Thunderlips. Remember I said that when “Cookie Time” is rattling around your head all week and you’re wishing Donna Reed was still alive to make great movies.

Could we learn these lessons without the help of the above movies? Barf. I suppose if you made me. But where’s the fun in that?

Call out a fundraising scene from a movie that has nothing to do with fundraising and drop it in the chat. If we get a decent turnout, I’ll collect them together for another post and we can all go to the movies together. And maybe pick up a thing or two about raising money while we’re at it.