FastTrack Fundraising Tips and Articles

This is the first of a series of six articles that explore the significance of fundraising committee management. In any organization, setting up a fundraising committee is the key to raising funds effectively. There is nothing more inspiring and rewarding than working with a group of like-minded people to achieve your goal.

For your committee to succeed in organizing a wide range of fundraising activities, leadership is of ultimate importance. Here are some tips on how to be an excellent committee leader:

• Be communicative. Print out the names, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses of your committee members, and distribute a copy to everybody. Keep your team informed with all progress. Ensure that you are always available for people’s inquiries and requests for help.
• Be open-minded. Avoid favoring some people over the others. Know the capacities of your committee members and strive to put their strengths and talents to good use. When conflicts arise, listen carefully to all sides before making a decision. Solve any problem as soon as possible.
• Be transparent. Make available all fundraising plans, results and previously learned lessons and encourage brainstorming among your committee members. Discuss with your team before setting priorities. Review your planning documents often and ensure that all inputs are well considered.
• Be part of your team. Put first the interests of your team. Work as hard as – if not harder than – your committee members. Be a role model by maintaining a good balance between work and life. Share with your team all successful and not-so-successful fundraising outcomes.

The secret of being a good leader is to listen and share, and to give the others what you would like them to give you. By operating your fundraising committee well, you are already halfway there to achieving successful fundraising results.

The foundation of successful fundraising events is frequent and direct communications among all members of your organization’s fundraising team. The better connected and informed you are, the better it is for your fundraising initiatives in the long term.

Traditionally we have used meetings in person and telephone calls to communicate with each other. While these remain effective ways to exchange news, launch discussions and debates and provide feedback, people in their busy lives now prefer receiving and digesting information in their own time. This is why certain networking technologies have become extremely popular.

SMS text messaging via mobile phones is perhaps the most popular and convenient way of staying in touch with your fundraising team members. Questions and comments are quickly typed out and sent, and replies are instantly given. As most people carry their mobile phones but only answer incoming calls at their earliest convenient time, it is a non-intrusive way to keep constant contact with your team members.

Email is another handy way in which not only messages but also relevant documents may be sent to your fundraising team members. All you need to do is to set up an email list so that one message can be instantly dispatched to many accounts via a click of the mouse.

Finally, many social networking websites are free for all to use. They allow you to create individual groups and invite other members to join. Within each group, participants can upload photos and post messages to share ideas and opinions.

In short, the key to operating a happy and motivated fundraising team is to keep all team members well informed. By utilizing networking technologies such as mobile phone, email and social networking website, everyone can remain updated with relevant fundraising information on their own terms and at their own paces.

It is essential to have volunteers working with you in fundraising events. Furthermore, it is absolutely critical that you acknowledge their efforts in public both during and after these events. Celebrating the collective success as a result of weeks, if not months, of teamwork makes your volunteers feel valued and appreciated. It is also a great incentive for them to come back again.

Throwing a big party, or simply a BBQ or morning tea, is a good way to start the celebration. As you thank your volunteers who have made everything happen, here are some ideas on how to make them feel even more special:

• However you decide to have a good time, make your volunteers the focus of the occasion. Deliver a thank-you speech that creates a sense of community among the volunteers. Privately, give each of them a phone call, a handwritten note of thanks or a card to show your appreciation.
• Conduct a prize giving ceremony. Reward your volunteers for their hard work. Do not be afraid to single out individual achievements, extra efforts and personal milestones. However, be careful not to act like you favor some over the others, as it is selfless collaboration that you want to promote.
• Connect the outcome to the cause. Report results of your organization’s fundraising events and what you are going to do with the resources raised. Be specific and transparent, using a spreadsheet if necessary. Let your volunteers know that without them you could not have succeeded.

You may be busy or totally exhausted after a fundraising event, but nothing is as important as rewarding your volunteers. When it is time to launch the next initiative, you will be surprised to know how many people are willing to support your organization again, simply because you have thanked them.

In the previous article, a suggestion is provided that your organization holds an induction briefing for local community members in order to encourage volunteers to participate in your fundraising events. This step is strategically important, as it not only attracts the attention of potential volunteers but also prepares them for the work after they have signed up.

To demonstrate that your organization supports its volunteers, you need to work together with them as a team, instead of simply telling them what to do. More importantly, you need to have patience and provide them with plenty of opportunities to ask questions.

Here are more helpful tips on working with your volunteers to achieve your organization’s fundraising goals:

• Match skills to tasks. Find out what hobbies, personal interests and professional and/or technical skills your volunteers possess. Assign each individual to a task that is suitable for his or her talent and/or expertise. The more passion people have for what they are doing, the more likely they will succeed.
• Review your progress. Revisit your organization’s fundraising targets and the specific tasks required to achieve these goals. If your targets have changed, then you may also need to modify the tasks involved. Remain responsive and allow your volunteers to be flexible as well.
• Solve your problems. As individuals from different walks of life and with different views and concerns work together, confrontations are unavoidable. Whenever there is a problem, be it technical or personal, deal with it as quickly as possible so that it does not become worse.

Remember, your volunteers are contributing valuable time and skills to help you achieve your goals, so it is important to always remain encouraging and supportive. Being diplomatic is the key, as these temporary colleagues are likely to become your long-term friends and allies.

Finding volunteers is arguably the most difficult task any fundraising committee must face. As our lives become increasingly stressful with work, relationships and mortgage (or rent) payments, it is rare that someone simply volunteers to do some good work and asking for no reward.

However, those good-hearted people are definitely out there. The question is just how to find them and get them onboard. Here are some useful tips:

• Clearly identify your needs. Make a list of jobs to be done and provide a brief description of the tasks involved. Other items on the list can include relevant responsibilities and obligations, useful qualifications and skills, and forthcoming benefits and rewards.
• Be active and informative. Promote your list of jobs through newsletters and word-of-mouth so that people can sign up. Contact people by email and telephone and ask for help. Answer in detail any question they may have about the kinds of skills and the amount of time needed.
• Provide an induction briefing for members of your community. Emphasize that the jobs to be done are short-term and easily achievable, and that any kind of assistance, manual or technical, can greatly benefit your organization and the community it serves.
• Show that you care. Demonstrate how your organization supports its volunteers. Explain the range of facilities and services you possess to help making their jobs easier. Offer examples of how your organization has been working with volunteers to achieve various fundraising goals.

In short, fundraising cannot be successful without the contribution of volunteers, and like a rare type of tree, you need to provide enough sunlight, water and nutrition to help it grow. Eventually the tree is going to be big enough and capable of shading you from wind and rain. Its abundant fruit will be amazingly tasty.

In the previous article are some suggestions on how to establish partnerships with local businesses. This is an important task, because these are great sources of support in terms of financial assistance, in-kind help, discounts and prizes. They can also play a significant role in helping your organization integrate into the community.

If you organization needs certain major contribution from a specific local business, then the best way to approach this is to write a proposal. Here are some tips on how to write a practical but attractive fundraising proposal:

1. Briefly introduce your organization and what it does to benefit the community. Focus on the nature and significance of your initiatives and achievements in recent years.
2. Clearly state what kind of contribution you are seeking from the local business. This can be a specific amount of financial assistance, a particular type of technology-oriented or knowledge-based help, discounts in purchasing goods and services from the local business, or donations of prizes to your forthcoming fundraising events (such as trivia nights).
3. Explain the benefits such contribution will produce for your organization. What will your orgnaization achieve in general with the valuable support from this local business? And what specific tasks do you intend to complete, using the money or other kinds of assistance received from the business?
4. Explain the benefits such contribution will produce for the local business. Start by mentioning how wonderful it is to be able to contribute to the community. Then specifically emphasize on the benefits your organization is able to offer this business in terms of profile.

In your proposal, you can include public relations materials such as pamphlets, newsletters and website links. Remember, being creative is crucial, as local businesses often receive lots of requests for assistance from all kinds of community organizations.

Whatever the nature of your organization is, it is important to establish partnerships with local businesses. These are a great source of support, capable of providing financial assistance, in-kind help and prizes. Here are some ideas for building partnerships with your local businesses:

• Introduce the key members of your organization to local businesses when you do NOT need anything from them. Simply say hello and brief them on the nature and significance of your organization. Ask for the direct contact details of those in charge, especially their names, for your future reference.
• Keep your local businesses informed with your organization’s activities, particularly if you are working to benefit the whole community. Send out a monthly newsletter or email alert about your initiatives and events, so that your local businesses can see for themselves if they can help out in any way.
• Give something back to your local businesses for their investment. While most businesses are happy to contribute directly or indirectly to the community, it delights them if their efforts are remembered. In your organization’s public relations material, produce profiles of those businesses involved in your activities.
• Always thank those local businesses that have helped you in any big or small way, as this helps ensure continued support. In your monthly newsletters or email alerts, let them know the outcomes of your initiatives and events. Tell them that you look forward to working with them again, and wish them all the best.

It is essential to establish partnerships with local businesses if your organization intends to fully integrate into the neighborhood. As both they and you work to benefit the whole community, friendly cooperative relationships can do great wonders. In the next article will be some tips on how to invite major contributions from local businesses.

You have found yourself in a scenario where you or your organization is holding a fundraiser to solicit donations so that your operations can be kept afloat or a special goal needs to be met. In this situation you will have to be creative and dedicated as to how you approach fundraising and that eventually translates into failure or success in the end. How about we use a sample such as soliciting monetary donations in your fundraiser. This asks potential donors to give either small or large sums of money to help you cause. Either way, the event has to be attractive and appear worthwhile to donors. Here are some tips to achieve an attractive and successful fundraiser.

-Be extremely organized as to what your fundraiser is aiming for and how you aim to achieve a specific goal. Share this information with potential donors as it familiarizes them better with your cause and how they can help, providing they agree that your cause is worthwhile.

-In the case of accepting money donations, figure out if you want to only accept set amounts or allow donors to choose what amount to give. Both scenarios have their advantages and disadvantages, some of which may be obvious.

-Consider hiring a professional fundraising service to run your event. Services can be had that are well organized by experts and possibly more successful than fundraisers held by those who are inexperienced in the field. You will need to decide whether or not you can factor in the cost of hiring a professional service will cut into your funds too much, or if even at a risk, it could result in a more successful fundraiser.

-Advertise as much as possible. Get the word out about your event to all of your contacts and ask them to pass along the word to theirs as well. Write up a press release designed to have reporters mention your event on the news and internet.

-Always be extremely courteous, understanding, and gratuitous with donors. Do not force them into them or make them uncomfortable in any way, and thank them for their time even if they decide against donating. Making a good impression is always going to work in your favor in the long run.

As you can see, there are several ways to approach fundraising. By following these tips you just may find that fundraising is fun, easy and the best bet in having your goals reached.

When you run a not for profit organization or other type of firm that needs funds raised by methods other than retail sales or other types of financial transactions, chances are you will be involved in the world of fundraising. A fundraiser is often time a fun event and one that is very important for you because it provides potential donors with a specific moment and cause for which to donate funds to you. Also, when it comes to money, you need to be highly organized and make sure that the event does not become too difficult for you to handle and that the funds being raised surpasses the cost of the event itself. For this, you need good book keeping and below are four tips to help you achieve in this area.

-Unless you are soliciting donations of which the amount is freely chosen by the donor, come up with a specific donation amount that people can give. In this scenario your book keeping can be largely uniform and easy to comprehend. Also, inviting the opportunity for donors to choose their own amount can cause time wasted if they are giving too little and your costs are not met. The only downside to discouraging these types of donations is you might not receive a very large and generous sum that a person might otherwise give to your cause.

-Make sure that all necessary personal information is recorded from the person giving you a donation. Should their donation be ill conceived, a check they write bounce or another problem arise, you need to know exactly who is giving you what and how to be able to keep track of them should a legal problem arise. Lack of information and documentation could spell disaster in some cases like this.

-Monitor your donations and costs being invested into the event very often, such as once a day or two times a week. Staying on top of the cash flow can alert you to any problems that arise such as costs not being met, funds being lost if you are renting a space or paying for professional fundraisers in a situation where you are not getting sufficient donations. These types of situations going unchecked can not only fail your fundraising efforts but also put you into financial ruin which should never be the outcome of a fundraising effort.

-Use good computer software to do the book keeping for you. While some information input will always be required from you or an employee, the computer software can do much of the mathematical work behind book keeping that we might sometimes make a mistake on or otherwise skew without realizing it. Also make sure book keeping information is backed up onto a remote hard drive in case your computer system goes down and the initial information is lost. You can also print out reports just to be safe.

So you see, good book keeping is key when having a fundraiser. Never risk your funds raised by an accident resulting from bad record keeping!

If you run a not for profit organization or a type of business or other firm that could use some funds raised, then you need to consider fundraising. This is a fun and sometimes highly successful way of raising funds while often time also offering something beneficial to those who donate to your cause. Here are ten tips for getting the word out on your fundraising event.

-Get the word out early. The more people you reach and earlier you do it, but not too early, the better chance you will have of getting a better amount of donations.

-Be specific in your publicity. Tell potential donors what it is you stand for, what it is you need and how they would benefit from donating to your cause.

-Consider writing up a news release. This is a formal letter explaining your event that reporters can cover on television, the radio, in print publications or on news websites.

-Word of mouth is very important. Tell as many people as you can verbally about your fundraising event and also ask that they tell as many of their friends and family members as possible. If your fundraising event seems worthy to them, chances are you can get a very promising turn out this way.

-Type up and print a flyer advertising your event. Bring a copy to your local photo copy center and have several hundred printed up. This is a largely inexpensive way for you to manually post and pass out these notices in your local community.

-Form a mailing campaign. Take your photo copy flyer idea and mail them to local home owners, businesses and other recipients who you feel would be interested in your event. Make sure you can afford to budget this in to your fundraising project.

-Start an email campaign. Instead of the costly method of sending flyers via snail mail, you can also email all of your internet contacts with a copy of the flyer. In this case also ask recipients to forward the email to their contacts and thousands of people can be reached this way.

-Appear in public. If you are running the event, check with local authorities first and then set up a table in public so you can inform local passers by about your event before it happens.

-Hire someone else to appear in public or another person who is helping out with the event.

-Create a funny or silly slogan advertising your cause. It will get people talking and possibly even lead them to information on your fundraising efforts.

Clearly there are many different ways in which you can inform potential donors about your fundraising event. If you approach it with a little creativity and lots of energy, you have the potential of reaching thousands of people and translating that into thousands of dollars of donated funds. If you need the funds, why not try all of the above methods to see which if not all work for you? There is not much to lose by trying.