High School Fundraising: Promoting Your Fundraiser So People Actually Know to Give You Money

A tree falls in the woods, but nobody knows about it.

Does that tree sell enough cookie dough for Sticky Pinecone High to build a new log cabin gymnasium?  Probably not.

Does this metaphor even make sense? Tough call, but if nobody knows about something, then not a lot can get done.

There are tons of great high school fundraising ideas – candy, bake sales, barbecues (people are hungry), online donation pages, Facebook groups, and the list goes on. But the extra special ingredient in any high school fundraising campaign is…wait for it…no, not love. It’s PROMOTION! You can’t raise any funds if you don’t raise awareness. If people don’t know about you, how are they supposed to give you their money? (The other special ingredient in any fundraising campaign.)

Luckily promoting your school fundraiser is as easy as the pies you might possibly be selling. Local and online promotions can help spread the word fast so your school can finally get that gold-plated David Beckham monument for your soccer field.

A Parent Letter: First, send out a letter to parents outlining the goals, logistics and anything else regarding your high school’s fundraiser. Make it snazzy or make it bland, just fill them in! Families are essential in spreading the message across your community. You know how your parents seem to know every other adult there is until it dawns on you that they might be part of some secret cult in cell phone clips and pocketless jeans? Tap into that resource.

A Kick Off Rally: If your school’s fundraiser is running for multiple days, hold a ‘kick-off rally’ on the first day to gather volunteers and pump them up. They’re your troops! So rally them together by getting them excited and enthusiastic about the cause.

Daily Announcements: Hijack the morning announcements and pimp your cause to the whole school. Kids have short attention spans these days, what with their cellular telephones and MTV (get off my lawn!) – a daily reminder can’t hurt. After all, a high school fundraising campaign has a lot better chance with the whole school behind it.

Newsletters: Newsletters are great because they give you access to the secret world of promotional DOMINATION: online! With newsletters come email lists and a whole slew of potential donors that are connected to your cause. Be it your own school’s newsletter or the charity they’re affiliating with, get a story featured about your fundraiser and reach out to the people it connects you with.

And now that you’re online, stay there: Unless you’d rather NOT get the maximum amount of return for the smallest amount of effort. In which case, carry on baking cookies and going door-to-door.

Local offline fundraising efforts are great as part of an overall campaign and experiencing the blood, sweat and tears of raising money for a good cause (try not to get any of that on the cookies). But in order to reach the most people and create the biggest impact, online is where the money is. In terms of awareness alone, Facebook and Twitter allow to you to reach tons of people with just one click – not to mention their friends, and friends of friends, that they can share with. And considering every teenager (and their mom) on the planet has at least one social media account, it’s a booming resource for any high school fundraiser to take advantage of.

So while selling magazines or holding a bake sale as part of your high school fundraising campaign is all well and good, launching an online element where people can directly donate to your cause is a no-brainer. Because whether you’re trying to raise money for a Starbucks in your cafeteria or something a tad more meaningful, the operative word in fundraising is funds, and the easiest and most effective way to get them is through an online campaign. It offers high volume promotion and easy fundraising in one – which is a well-deserved reward for all that energy spent on poster hanging and kick off rallies.

 

Twitter Fundraising is Changing the Way Fundraisers Connect with Donors

Fundraisers are beginning to tap into the potential Twitter has to offer by connecting with people and developing relationships that matter.  Fundraisers can converse with potential donors, exchange ideas, listen to feedback and change the way they approach fundraising.  Twitter is a real-time people driven information network that connects you to the latest information about what you find relevant and interesting: a tool vital to fundraisers that want to raise money fast and effectively.

Before Twitter fundraising and social media, connecting with a global donor base was next to impossible, unless you had unlimited access to capital, or you were Michael Jackson.  Now, Twitter can bring your cause to a global audience all for free.  

Twitter creates an environment similar to your local neighborhood.  Next-door neighbors chat about the weather, politics; issues that matter to them.  The same conversations form naturally on Twitter.  It acts as a forum of ideas and promotes intimacy amongst people who would never have met.  A follower can respond to a tweet by a favorite musician and develop a dialogue with someone he’s admired for years.

Before social media a picture of Twitter on the street might look something like this: Type 140 characters, in large font, on a sandwich board and place it over your shoulders.  Pick a busy area like Times Square in New York – which doesn’t even come close to the numbers of people on Twitter today – and walk around with the hope that someone will read your message and choose to engage the guy walking around Times Square with the sandwich board on his chest.

Now that the sandwich board is virtual, the possibilities are considerable: ask questions, connect with interesting people, promote causes and websites, share links, swap news stories, raise donor awareness and recruit volunteers.  Twitter fundraisers give non-profit, political and community fundraisers instant access to all of these tools in the few minutes it takes to sign up.

You can use tools like TwitterFeed to automatically broadcast your blog posts over Twitter updating your followers automatically.  If a follower likes your post they can retweet your posts.  Tweeting and retweeting become infectious as others promote your cause.

In conjunction with Twitter, online fundraising platforms have developed to maximize the potential of a connected world.  People using social media are most often found on more than one platform.  Twitter users have accounts with Facebook and LinkedIn and engage in Internet forums, weblogs, social blogs, microblogging, wikis, and podcasts.  Online fundraising platforms create fundraising campaigns that connect all the different forms of social media.  And like Twitter, it’s all for free.

Twitter can help your cause further by:

  • People across the globe can be informed of your cause with a click of the mouse
  • Twitter is succinct, people voice their opinions keeping you up to date about what they are thinking
  • Follow other fundraisers to share ideas and receive real-time advice
  • Twitter gives you the tools to promote your website and cause

Virtual communities are developing every second and the world of interconnectedness positions the smart fundraiser to capitalize on its unlimited potential.  Twitter and online fundraising platforms are bringing the world to your doorstep and many in the world, are interested in social good.  Try connecting today.

How Charity Fundraising Benefits from Technology:Online fundraising is changing the game

Charity Fundraising has moved to the web.  Today an individual or group with a charity fundraiser can sign up and create an online fundraising campaign with just a few clicks – all for free.

As budgets are slashed to meet the new fiscal demands of the twenty-first century the return on investment of traditional charity fundraisers is sinking precipitously. In response charities are developing new cost effective ways of generating funds.  They realize that in order to compete for the money available each year, they need to harness the power of technology.  

With the advent of social media, and the development of online fundraising platforms, charities can pursue a multitude of web channels: Facebook, Twitter, LinkeIn for the cost of sitting down and navigating through a few clicks.  Once your page is setup you can add widgets that connect with your friends, followers and connections alerting them to the positive change you are effecting.  With one click every friend you have on Facebook will know what you are doing and how he or she can help.

The online fundraising platform provides your charity fundraiser with the tools to connect to the social media platforms but further allows you to connect using a variety of devices: desktops, laptops, iPads, mobile devices – including SMS texting.  We live in a connected world.  The more opportunities you have to connect with your donors the more efficiently you will raise money and the more successful you will be with reaching your charities’ fundraising goals.

Traditional forms of charity fundraising like bake sales require the generosity of people to make and sell the goods, collect the money and securely transfer the funds so the charity so it can support its efforts in positive social change: a big effort for a small return on investment.  With technology the old ways of doing things have become just that, old.

Technology is developing at light speed in directions that mimic a three-dimensional net: reaching out in every direction.  The online fundraising platform is developing around this net, taking advantage of this ever-changing paradigm.  And the charities are reaping the benefits: connecting with more potential donors than ever before for very little cost increasing their return on investment in ways not imagined even ten years ago.

The charities that recognize this evolutionary process will prosper and compete for years to come.

 

 

Connecting with Donors in the Digital Age:How Savvy Charity Fundraising is Finding Success in the Modern World

Bake sales, 5K runs and raffles have traditionally been tools of charity fundraising.  While these methods remain relevant forms of raising money, many charities are beginning to tap into the potential of the Internet by bringing their fundraising efforts to the web.

 It is estimated that 240 million people in the United States use the Internet according to ITU – the UN agency for information and communication technologies.  That’s about 77% of the population.  And those numbers are projected to grow. 

 If your charity fundraising goal is $1 million dollars and you potentially had access to 240 million people in the United States alone – the World Wide Web is accessible to 25% of the world’s population, about 2.1 billion people – it would be a foolish choice to disregard the web as a viable source of funds for your cause.

Examples of online fundraising

  •  Email – Email campaigns can target donors and deliver personalized messages about your cause 
  • Websites – Websites can be customized to attract donors from around the world and provide detailed information about what your cause is and how to help 24 hours a day 7 days a week
  • Social Media – Social media is a more recent phenomenon that gives charity fundraisers the opportunity to connect with communities and inspire whole communities to join the conversation

 The Internet would not be what it is today without innovation.  That desire to create something new from what existed before has spurred a new wave of Internet tools looking to change the world.  These tools have come to be known asonline fundraising platforms. 

 Online fundraising platforms bring together email, websites, social media and other tools into one space centralizing the tools of the web.  Best of all these platforms can be created in minutes with a simple sign up.  Your donor page is created automatically.  It can be customized to your specifications from a simple donor page to full integration with your current website.  And you can connect with friends and followers in the social media sphere with the click of a button.  All for free.  Your charity fundraiser will not incur any cost for the life of the campaign.

 The Internet holds endless potential for individuals and organizations that possess the desire to change the world for the good.  If you have a charity fundraising campaign that needs to join the 21st century it would be foolish to overlook the possibilities forming on the Internet.

 

677 Million Registered Users:Facebook Fundraising and the Potential for Non-Profits

 Non-profits are setup to fail.  1.5 million exist in the United States today and the number continues to grow.  For funding, many non-profits rely on a grant pool that over time has remained constant, not nearly matching the increase in demand.  To exacerbate the growing need for more funding the world’s economy collapsed in 2008 and is showing only meager signs of recovery.

 A reliance on grants and the reality of a shrinking pool of money have created a ‘can’t fail’ mentality for non-profits.  If a program is funded through a grant and the non-profit reports the funded program as a failure, the funder will most often choose to go somewhere else: find a successful program to fund.  A cycle of waste develops as non-profits choose to report only successes, for fear of losing the money.  In the end, broken programs receive money while potentially successful programs sit on the shelf and gather dust.

 Innovations in non-profit fundraising techniques have helped non-profits succeed when others have failed even as traditional revenue streams have dried up.  Social media spaces like Facebook can make the specter of raising money a whole lot easier by spreading your fundraising goals over a larger pool. 

 With over 677 million registered users worldwide and Facebook fundraisingsearches up 85%+ the Facebook community is an incredibly fruitful space for getting your message out and attracting donors. You can share links to your fundraiser on your friend feed, message or email your friends directly, participate in groups and much more to gain exposure and raise money and supporters for your cause. 

 Facebook fundraising is a very simple process that can oftentimes be covered with minimal staff, allowing your resources to go towards creating truly successful programs. 

 And once your friends are informed of the good you are doing they can act as a bullhorn, letting even more people know about what you’re doing.  Your message can quickly jump on the exponential bandwagon in short order go viral.  In no time you can have people from across the globe reaching out and helping fund your cause.

 Boiled down to its essence non-profit fundraising is about recognizing a cause, developing a message around that cause and getting that message out to the people who can best support you in affecting positive change around that cause.  

Fundraising Ideas for Online Fundraisers

People from all over the world spend most of the time on the Internet therefore fundraising activities can be successful using this medium. Donors can give to charity or donate to organizations online without leaving their house. There are many fundraising ideas that can be done through the Internet that people in need can benefit from. The proceeds immediately go to organizations in a short period of time as payments are done via electronic transactions. These organizations do not need to make time-consuming and stressful inventories just like in regular fundraising activities that are done personally.

Fundraising online is possible through Internet auctions. Members of the organization can bid some of their stuff in websites that do auctioneering. They collect a portion of the proceeds to be given to charity. Non-profit organizations can also register their group in a certain website that has a charity program of their own. These groups will be able to get all of the proceeds from the items that they auction provided they open a seller’s account in the said website.

Another way for fundraisers to raise money for charity is to tie-up with local businesses. A specific amount of some of the items sold online by these businesses can be given to the fundraisers. For example, a company that sells baby clothes can donate 10% of the sales they make online to an organization supporting an orphanage. A cosmetic company’s website that sells make-up for women can also donate a percentage of their monthly sales to a women’s crisis center. A publishing company can also donate children’s books to a public school.

 There are also fundraising websites that allow organizations to create a page of their own with them. The website manages the page while the organization is the one who asks for donors and does the fundraising activities by advertising the page to family, friends and supporters. All the proceeds that the organization will receive will directly go to them. This is a way for the fundraisers to help such organizations in their missions and goals for a specified time.

There are also fundraising malls in the Internet that help organizations raise funds for charity. To do this, an organization has to have a website where they will put a link to the online shopping mall. When a person buys something from the seller’s website through the link provided by the organization, the latter gets a portion of the sale made. The customer gets to buy something he really needs and at the same time would be able to give to charity. There are also online shopping malls that encourage organizations to create a web page in their websites for easier and instant access.

 Online fundraising is easier to do than the traditional fundraising activity, which requires time, preparation, location, transportation expenses, advertisement, and inventories. Fundraising online just requires a web page and that alone can reach millions of people around the globe. There are just so many fundraiser ideas that can be implemented via the net that would benefit those who are truly in need. 

Fundraising Online with Free Fundraising Tools for Causes

If you want to raise money for charity, fundraising can be done online using various free fundraising tools that are available in websites. Internet surfers can become possible donors. The first thing to do is to create a website and make your presence known online. With a website or a web page, this will get you money from donors with just a click of the mouse. A website will allow you to make a fundraising event, do an online auction, accept donations and sell event fundraiser tickets.

Once you have a website, you can do all the preparations and invitations of a fundraising event. You can hold a dinner-concert where the proceeds will go to your favorite charity. You can invite donors to the event through your website which contains all the necessary information of your activity. They can buy the tickets online using their credit cards and confirm their attendance there. This will save you and your donor time and money spent on communication.

With your website, you can do fundraising online by accepting donations. A donor can just give your organization money using his credit card. For this, you will need a tool to be used on your website that will allow you to collect money via e-transaction. Make sure your site has a donor’s page and make it informative, attractive and compelling enough to capture people’s interest and encourage them to donate. Donating via credit cards is a way of showing that your organization is professional and legitimate and because of its convenience and accessibility, it will encourage supportive people who are far away to donate.

You can also sell event fundraising tickets via your website. People who are interested to attend the fundraising activity you have organized, such as a benefit concert, can with just one click and purchase many tickets at once. They no longer need to go to an office to buy the tickets thus saving them time and money. For your part, selling tickets online will allow you to make an easy inventory as online ticket sales can be immediately documented and easily tracked.

You can also conduct online auctions with your website. Ask your family, friends and members of your organizations to donate some things and sell them online. You can also enter into agreement with other websites that do online auctions and bid items with them. You share the profits, depending on your agreement. Donors will purchase something they do need and be able to contribute to the less fortunate or to the cause you are fighting for.

When you have a fundraising event advertised in your website, you can add a Sponsors Page where individuals and businesses can place their ads. They just need to upload their ad and pay for it via credit card. This will earn you money and give your donors exposure. You can also tie-up with a fundraising website that will allow you to create a web page with them. There, you can have free fundraising where you invite people to donate to you while the website owner manages the page for you.

With these fundraising ideas, your noble cause will surely succeed.

Church Fundraising Online with Free Fundraising Tools

 Churches need money for its operation, maintenance, renovation, charity, and mission trips. They are able to get money through communion services and offerings from parishioners and churchgoers.  Church fundraising is often necessary so that the church’s needs are met. They also solicit for help from the neighborhood or community they are situated in. There are times that the money raised is not enough therefore they constantly need to think of ways to generate cash for other necessities.

Nowadays, many churches have used online fundraising platforms to raise money for their needs. They have discovered that in having their own website, they can reach many people and solicit for their support. Their website serves as their virtual office and very minimal expenses are spent. They no longer have to incur communication expenses such as phone and fax bills and they can use the money saved for other charitable purposes. People, especially those who are located in other cities, states or countries, can still visit the church via its website and acquire information or make a donation with just a click of the mouse.

Church fundraisers can also be conducted online. They can hold a live auction in certain websites that do auctioneering and ask their supporters to donate some items to be bid in these online auctions. Many people from all over can participate in this event and they can donate at their convenient time as the auction can run 27/7 for a year or so. In traditional fundraising activities, much time is spent on planning and these can also be very expensive. Churches have to rent a venue for the event, get additional staff, and spend on advertising and invitation.

The use of the Internet for fundraising activities breaks all geographical boundaries as people from the United States can correspond with individuals, organizations and governments from Asia in seconds. The Internet allows massive exposure of the church and its activities. Social media sites have millions of members and when the church has its account on such sites, its mission and objectives will reach many quickly. An online church fundraising campaign for an orphanage does not only reach a nearby community but a global level.

Most of the time, church fundraisers end up spending a lot of money for advertisements and other expenses. They make banners to be placed in specific locations. These banners however will not be used again once the activity they are promoting is finished. Sometimes, churches also advertise on local dailies and radio and TV programs to get support for their causes and this can be very expensive. With online advertising, such expenses are eliminated. There are even search engines that pay for ads of charities and place the link to the church’s website on their pages, as long as they are a registered 501 c 3 non profit.   

Donors can also make online donations to the church fundraisers using their credit cards. They no longer need to travel all the way to the church and give their donations. In just seconds, they can give to their favorite churches to support their causes.  Fees for credit card transactions online are paperless and less expensive and hectic than depositing money through a bank.

Using multiple channels for church fundraising online is indeed very convenient, traceable, and economical.

Charity Fundraising Online with Free Fundraising Tools

Organizers of charity fundraisers have discovered the benefits of technology. Groups and companies now conduct charity fundraising online where they are able to use and be aware of free fundraising tools and ideas available on the Internet. These organizations have set up their own websites where they can plan and conduct their charitable events. People and businesses donate money through credit cards, electronic payments and wire transfers.

One fundraising idea or tool is the use of a website to hold an online auction. Items are displayed and people bid for them online. The highest bidder gets the item and proceeds from the sale will be donated to charity. Such auctions can cater to people living nearby or in the other side of the world. Unlike live auctions that run on a specific schedule with a time frame, the online auctions are done every day therefore people can participate any time. With online auctions, you will also be aware of the items and products that are easily sold therefore you can use this information in similar endeavors in the future.

 You should also allow members of your organization to each have a fundraising page in your website. These pages should be attuned to the main site in terms of appearance and design. The members however can upload their own images, wordings and videos that describe the cause you are all advocating for. Studies show that organizations giving their members their own page from the main website raise more money. This is because these people know may other individuals whom they can tap to make a donation.

 Charity fundraisers like you can also hold an entertainment event such as a dance show or a gala to raise funds.  People love entertainment and they will actually be keen on the thought of enjoying something and at the same time giving to a cause. You can promote this activity in your website and people who will attend will fill-out a form and make the necessary payments online. You can also sell tickets to the activity in your website. Your event will entertain people and help the less fortunate as well.

 Fundraising for a charity can also be done through the popular social media websites. Almost everybody has an account in these sites where they have hundreds or even thousands of friends. Your organization can create a Fan Page in the popular social media sites and there you can invite everyone to donate to your cause. You can even put a link to your own website in this Fan Page so that people will click on it and will arrive at your site.  It is your job therefore to make you site appealing, interesting, informative, and convincing so that people can participate in your activities and donate online to your charity fundraiser.

 The internet is a very powerful fundraising tool because of its way of making people from all across the world to communicate, share and interact with one another.  A charity fundraising campaign will never go wrong and is sure to raise lots of money when he/she uses this tool for a good and noble cause.

School Fundraising Online with Free Fundraising Tools

Schools conduct various school fundraising campaigns for the repair, maintenance and renovation of their buildings and facilities. They also raise money for books and scholarships for the less fortunate youth. They are ensured of donors because these can be their alumni, their students, the parents of their students, faculty members and staff. But because most of their graduates are living in other cities, states or countries, it is therefore necessary to put up an online fundraising capability system in the school’s website. This will allow people from all over to donate to the school for their noble causes. 

Almost everybody knows how to use the Internet. They have email addresses, accounts in social media sites, blog sites and even personal websites. It is possible that graduates of a certain school do everything online such as communicating with others, shopping, paying utility bills, and donating to their favorite charities. With a school’s own website, their graduates would be able to maintain a connection to their alma mater and be informed of the latest activities. Their loyalty would encourage them to donate to school fundraisers. In addition, participating in such events is very convenient and easy. 

One event that can be organized online is to sell merchandise. Students, teachers and the school administrators can have an online auction sale. They can invite the alumni to buy these merchandise and the proceeds will go to the purpose of the fundraising activity. The school can also make use of other website’s free fundraising tool and just pay a minimal portion of the proceeds to the websites.

There are also free fundraising web sites that can manage a school’s fundraising event for them. The school just needs to sign up with them and have an online presence. One website also conducts ways to raise funds for a school and sends the school the money collected once the desired amount is reached. The school just needs to send a link to the site to all their contacts which gives free advertisement to the website. 

The school can also participate in online charity malls by registering to them. When the school sends a customer to the charity mall and he buys something from that site, the school will get a commission. If many customers are referred, the funds earned will be bigger.  Referral is the key therefore the school just needs to send the link to the charity mall to all its contacts via email or by posting the said link to its own website or social media accounts for their online visitors to see.

The school can also put a system in their website that allows people to donate funds via their credit cards. With just a click of the button, donors can immediately give money without any hassle. Depositing through banks is inconvenient as this entails going to the bank, filling out a deposit slip, lining up, and waiting to be called by the bank teller.

Online school fundraisers are the best way to raise money for the overall welfare and betterment of the school’s students and community.