Fundraising Online Grows Fast in 2010

Online fundraising is the fastest-growing fundraising channel for nonprofits, a new study says.

In 2010, clients of Convio raised over $1.3 billion online, up 40 percent from 2009, says the annual Convio Online Marketing Nonprofit Benchmark Index Study.

Based on an analysis of data from nearly 600 nonprofits with at least 24 months of data and that raised a total of over $1.15 billion in 2010, the study says 79 percent of those organizations raised more online in 2010 than in 2009, while 21 percent saw their online giving decline.

The median growth rate in online giving totaled 20 percent, up from 14 percent in 2009, with online giving growing fastest for small organizations.

Groups with fewer than 10,000 email addresses saw a 26 percent increase in online giving.

Among organizations that grew fundraising in 2010, 88 percent saw an increase in the number of gifts.

Among 430 organizations that were fundraising continuously in 2009 and 2010, the median donation size grew to $91.94 in 2010 from $83.44 in 2009.

Among organizations that saw online fundraising grow, 88 percent saw the number of gifts grow, with the size of the average gift growing more than $8 in 2010.

The increase in the number of gifts and average gift size indicates “more people are moving online to give even if inspired through other channels,” Convio says.

Constituent engagement “is profoundly multichannel,” Gene Austijn, CEO and president of Convio, says in a statement. “Leveraging only traditional channels or only online channels results in partial engagement. The modern nonprofit and the modern constituent realize the value of fully engaging through multiple channels – traditional and online – to get the most out of each relationship.”

The total number of advocates on file grew 20 percent, with 6.4 percent of advocates on file also making donations, up from 5.9 percent in 2009, the study says.

The median total email file grew 22 percent to 48,700 constituents, it says, indicating that if nonprofits want to maximize the value of each relationship, they should ensure their communications and their non-profit fundraising requests match their constituents’ channel preference.

While giving to relief efforts related to the Haiti earthquake accounted for roughly $250 million, or about 20 percent of the total raised online by Convio clients, the “efficiency and timeliness of online and other digital forms of engagement is creating more opportunity for other organizations to reach people and engage them in a deeper relationship,” Convio says.

Fundraising Shows a Little Growth in 2010

A bigger share of charities raised more money or the same amount in 2010 than in 2009, while a smaller share raised less, signaling a slow uptick in fundraising that still lags far behind pre-recession levels, a new survey says.

It also says strong fundraising results were more likely for charities that invested resources for fundraising staff and infrastructure, including volunteer management.

And it says charities expect giving in 2011 to grow and are likely to keep staffing and spending for fundraising at 2010 levels.

Forty-three percent of 1,845 charities surveyed in February by the Nonprofit Research Collaborative for the 2010 Nonprofit Fundraising Survey saw year-to-year growth, 24 percent raised the same amount, and 33 percent raised less.

A year ago, the Association of Fundraising Executives, or AFP, found 43 percent of charities responding to its survey saw an increase in fundraising in 2009 compared to 2008, while 11 percent said fundraising remained the same, and 46 percent saw an increase.

And in the inaugural survey in November by the collaborative, a group of six organizations serving the nonprofit sector, 36 percent of charities reported an increase in the first nine months of 2010, 26 percent reporting raising the same amount, and 37 percent reported raising less.

With the share of charities that reported raising the same amount more than doubling to 24 percent in the new survey by the collaborative from 11 percent in the AFP survey a year ago, the big shift overall represents more charities now reporting flat fundraising and fewer reported fundraising declines, the new survey says.

It also suggests the increase in fundraising that the November survey found charities were anticipating in the final weeks of 2010 might have occurred but that the growth in contributions still did not match expectations for the year.

“While many organizations stopped the bleeding, giving simply didn’t rebound like we thought it might, especially given the economic growth we saw in the last quarter of the year,” Paulette V. Maehara, president and CEO of AFP, a member of the collaborative, says in a statement.

Based on analysis of results from 1,616 participants whose organizations did not represent a random sample and were overwhelmingly from charities with annual budgets under $1 million, the survey says 48 percent of charities that increased financial support for fundraising by 15 percent of more saw contributions grow by 15 percent of more.

Another 27 percent saw giving grow but by less than 15 percent, while 24 percent saw giving remain flat or fall.

Fifty-six percent of charities that maintained flat financial investment in fundraising saw contributions decline or stay the same, while 24 percent saw giving rise.

And 43 percent of charities that let fundraising spending decline by 15 percent or more saw giving fall 15 percent or more, while 36 percent saw giving stay the same or grow.

For organizations of all sizes, declines of any amount in financial investment and declines in staffing both were associated with a lower probability of meeting fundraising goals, while a reduction in volunteer engagement in fundraising at organizations with expenditures of less $1 million also was associated with a lower probability of meeting fundraising goals.

“Despite the unexpectedly flat fundraising results that charities reported, the survey showed that success was more likely when organizations invested resources in fundraising staff and infrastructure, including volunteer management,” Maehara says.

Among all charities surveyed, only 45 percent received more than half their contributions from individual donors, the survey says.

And Internet and online giving grew at 58 percent of charities that reported using it, with more than 75 percent of all charities surveyed reporting using online fundraising.

And 51 percent of charities reported that 75 percent of more of the funds they raised in 2010 supported operations, rather than capital, investment or endowment.

Sixty-three percent of charities expect contributions will grow in 2011.

Thirty-nine percent expect to spend more for fundraising in 2011, while 49 percent say spending will remain the same, and 65 percent say development and fundraising staff levels will remain the same.

In addition to AFP, members of the collaborative include Blackbaud, Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, Foundation Center, GuideStar USA, and National Center for Charitable Statistics at the Urban Institute.

63 Percent of Charities Predict an Increase in Giving in 2011, says Report

Giving to most charity fundraisers stayed the same or increased last year, according to a new survey released by the Nonprofit Research Collaborative, a coalition of six organizations that study or represent non-profits and fundraisers on Tuesday.  However non-profit officials and charities said that gifts did not increase as much as they had hoped, given the economic recovery.

The study asked about two key measures of fundraising — the percentage of organizations reaching their fundraising goals and the percentage of charities raising more funds in one year compared to the previous year. In the NRC survey about 2010, just 52 percent of organizations reported reaching their fundraising goals that year. In a survey conducted by the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP, a member of the NRC) about 2009, 53 percent of charities reported meeting their yearly fundraising goals that year. 

63 percent of the more than 1,800 organizations studied said they expect private donations to rise in 2011. Nearly two-thirds said they do not plan any increases in the number of fundraising staff members this year.

The study pointed out that the fundraising situation for these causes was more stable in 2010 than in 2009, when many of the charities were reeling in the wake of the 2008 recession. While only 11 percent reported that they had raised about the same amount of money in 2009 as they did back in 2008, 24 percent said they had raised as much money in 2010 as in the previous year.

The percentage of charities that said their donations declined fell from 46 percent at the end of 2009 to 33 percent at the end of 2010.

“While many organizations stopped the bleeding, giving simply didn’t rebound like we thought it might, especially given the economic growth we saw in the last quarter of the year,” said Paulette Maehara, president of the Association of Fundraising Professionals, one of six organizations that make up the research collaborative. “Despite the unexpectedly flat fundraising results that charities reported, the survey showed that success was more likely when organizations invested resources in fundraising staff and infrastructure, including volunteer management.”

Spending More Pays Off?

According to the survey, three-quarters of the organizations that increased their spending on fundraising activities saw collections rise. Almost half of the organizations that increased their spending on fundraising by 15 percent or more saw contributions increase by 15 percent or more.

This does not point out if there was even a return on their investment. So, you increased the spending on advertising (those dollars donated to your organization for ‘projects’ most likely) and you saw an equal increase in contributions?

Let’s say organization X spent $15,000 on advertisements and increased their contributions 15%, which was up from $10,000, that is only $1,500 and a loss of $13,500 that could be used to feed multiple families in poverty, rescue animals, provide clean water to villages in Africa, etc. This type of scenario would not be productive and an utter waste of resources.

The survey also showed that online giving produced the most growth out of all types of solicitations charities use.  Of course, it should. Fundraising online is much more easier, requires less time, and is overall much more productive for organizations. It’s easier to track the results of fundraising campaigns and see what works, what doesn’t, and allows you to measure very accurate results.

Online giving rose for 58 percent of organizations that use the Internet to seek donations by running online fundraising campaigns. Net proceeds from special events rose for half the organizations that use that approach; efforts to seek big gifts also rose for half of the groups. Less than half the groups that sought foundation grants, sent direct-response appeals such as mail and e-mail messages, or solicited gifts from board members or corporate contributions saw increases in those categories.

The study did not point out how much of an increase those organizations realized, nor is it completely accurate in its findings. While only aggregating data from several resources, which accounted for ONLY 1800 organizations, there are still more than 1.5 million other registered 501 c3 non-profit organizations that data was not gathered from.

The large organizations that are all most likely surveyed account for incredibly high amounts of overhead and are notorious for being inefficient with their fundraising and giving. Many of which are not effectively fundraising online to be more productive with time, capital, and return on fundraising efforts.

The way people give to causes is changing. More and more people would like to see transparency with the non-profits and charities they give to.  Instead of giving $100 and having no idea where it goes, yet most likely 99% to salaries and other expenses, while 1% gets distributed to actual causes, donors would like to see that if I give $100, there will be tangible evidence that my contribution was used for this project, and this was the result, etc.

There is a shift in the way people give and will continue to gain momentum over the coming years, as online fundraising campaigns by causes, big and small continues to grow. More donors will donate to smaller, flexible, and more efficient causes, opposed to the very big ones that have proven to be not as effective, when measured pound for pound to the smaller ones.

For example, if a smaller non-profit is fundraising to raise money online for a project to build a school and fresh water system that will allow a community of 1,000 people in Kenya to be self-sufficient for $40,000, and will take 90 days to complete, would you donate to them, if they have proven results with other projects, good donor feedback, and pictures and videos to back it up?

Or, would you donate your $100 to the American Red Cross for example, as they do not point out where and how exactly the money will be spent for a cause such as the Japan Earthquake Relief Efforts? Most likely it will go to salaries, events, and other expenses, as maybe $1 or so gets passed on those in need.

The times and way people are giving is changing, while the Internet and cause transparency will be major fuel for this momentum in the coming years. For donors that are debating on what cause to give to, it is highly suggested to do some research on the organization and understand the percentage of donations that go to what part of the organization. This will help you decipher what cause is more effective in helping those that need it.

Political Fundraising: Obama Challengers Would Need to Raise $590,000 a Day to Match His 2008 Campaign

 According to a recent article published by Bloomberg, during the first half of 2007, Barack Obama managed to raise $59 million for his presidential campaign.  In order to match that, any prospective Republican, Independent, Libertarian, Green Party, and/or any other challenging candidates to Obama’s re-election would need to raise approximately $590,000 each day, until June 30th if they entered the race today.

Former Minnesota Governor, and Republican, Tim Pawlenty, announced the other day that he was setting up an exploratory committee to raise money for a possible candidacy. With some experts now predicting that President Obama could become the first billion-dollar candidate, every day that passes by other potential challengers to his re-election, will make it much harder to match the President’s war chest for getting re-elected.

“It would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, for the Republicans to raise as much money as Obama,” said former Republican National Committee finance chairman Al Hoffman Jr., who is a North Palm Beach, Florida, real estate developer.

However, this does not mean that the Republicans and/or any other party candidates can’t mitigate an Obama fundraising advantage. There are the popular outside groups, such as Karl Rove’s American Crossroads, who helped the Republican party take over control of the U.S. House of Representatives in 2010 and are preparing for the 2012 election as well. The prospective candidates are lining up major fundraisers and continually preparing efforts to attract small donors to boost funds.

“All of the potential serious candidates have been laying that groundwork for a long time,” said former Republican Representative Bill Paxon of New York.

“Just because they haven’t actually started collecting the resources doesn’t mean they haven’t been working on building the infrastructure that will allow them to collect the checks” when needed.

That infrastructure Paxon touched on includes the forming of teams of people to raise money from circles of high net worth donors. These circles of wealthy donors have been a staple of presidential campaigns since George W. Bush in 2000 became the first major-party nominee to be elected president after declining to limit spending for the primaries in exchange for federal funds.

“When they give the signal to go, the checks will be written and the money will be there,” said Frank Donatelli, a partner in the law and lobbying firm McGuireWoods LLP, who raised more than $100,000 for 2008 Republican presidential nominee John McCain.

“The moment you start a committee, the overhead starts,” he said. “That’s what’s holding everyone back.”

Candidates MUST Attract Smaller Donors

This election cycle’s prospective Republican, Independent, and other party candidates are also making plans to focus on small donors, following Obama’s 2008 example of incredibly successful fundraising for his campaign. Obama raised 54 percent of his money in contributions of $200 or less from donors, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington-based research group.

“One is cognizant of that,” said Sam Fox, chairman of the St. Louis-based investment firm Harbour Group, who raised at least $200,000 for Bush. “A lot of attention will be paid to that particular aspect of raising money.”

Four years ago, nearly all of the main contenders for both Republican and Democrat parties’ presidential nominations had announced their plans to take on the White House. Presently, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia was the closest to an official announcement which came on March 3, as he announced he was setting up a website in order to raise money to explore a presidential run, besides Pawlenty.

Other prospective Republican candidates have been using political action committees to raise money and spend on activities that could benefit a quest for winning the presidency. The activities include hiring staff, developing targeted donor lists, while traveling around the country and meeting as many possible supporters as possible.

Without a doubt, President Obama ran the most successful political fundraising campaigns in history, propelling a Junior Senator from Illinois into the most powerful position in the world. Attracting small donations from millions of poor to middle-class supporters paid off handsomely for his run, while heavily fundraising via the Internet, which has made giving donations much easier for donors nationwide.

As the presidential race for the 2012 White House heats up, analysts predict strong growth in the online political fundraising space, where both sides of the aisle, including all those running for president, could reach $40 billion in money raised for their campaigns, with about $4 billion being raised online.

 

PTA Fundraising? Parents & Teachers Need to Raise Money Online

If you are on the PTA committee at your child’s school, than you may be looking for innovative ways to make your PTA fundraising efforts successful. Why not go online? By using a simple but robust online fundraising platform, you can create your fundraising campaign in minutes and get your message out to a lot of people who are willing to donate to your cause.

An online fundraising platform enables you to run and operate a very easy and successful PTA fundraising campaign. All you do is register for free, and set up your campaign, which takes only a few minutes. Once you have everything set up, a quick click of your mouse will send your campaign off to your chosen contacts via email and the social media websites you may be a part of such as, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and MySpace, etc. The fundraising platform will also send your campaign messages and links to your donation page out to their many web channels to give you as much exposure as possible. This is where the power of the Internet can really be seen: your campaign goes viral, and brings donations in from places and people you didn’t even know existed.

Social media is here to stay, and is not just for college kids or people who have nothing better to do all day than sit in front of their computer. It is for people of all ages who want to share and connect with their friends and families, who for the most part are in different time zones and locatioins all over the world. They may have family members who live 3,000 miles away, and social media provides a wonderful way for them to keep in touch daily if they wish. It makes sense that your PTA fundraiser also use social media – to connect with people you know, and have your friends help spread the word to people they know, and so on.

PTA fundraisers are an important part of the school curriculum; almost as important as math or spelling. Funding from the government and local school boards is dwindling; school administrators are depending more and more on each school providing their own funding for things like books, technology, gym equipment, sports programs, and more. Children deserve to attend a school that has all of the latest amenities; they shouldn’t have to use second hand books or run down gym equipment, amongst other things that sometimes can even pose a health danger.

With your online fundraising platform, you can ensure that your child’s school gets the most money possible by spreading the word and exposing your cause to the masses, and it starts with your own social networks of friends and family. This is much more effective than traditional offline activities like car washes, dinner events, baked food and candy sales, and neighbourhood canvassing. Your child’s school will get the funds they need and your child will attend a school that is worthy of them. Plus, you and your child will not have to waste hours and hours of time fundraising, while only raising a few dollars here and there. Raise money online for your PTA fundraiser in much less time, and in higher donations volume today.

 

Sports Fundraising Online: Tips for Winning at Fundraising

A parent with a child that plays a sport, or is in a sports league themselves, knows that participating in such an activity requires money to participate. Sports fundraising is key to making sure that a team is able to have a successful season, by being equipped with all the things they need, from uniforms, to travel expenses, referees, and much more. Below are a few helpful tips to get you on the right track in order to produce the best results.

Tip #1: Have a Plan

Sit down with the other parents and/or team members and conduct a brainstorming session to come up with ideas for a sports fundraising event. Evaluate what worked in the past, what hasn’t been done and what changes need to be made to keep things fresh. List everyone’s fundraising ideas down and then do a process of elimination. Make sure each person has a chance to contribute and provide feedback. Once you have a working plan together, use it as your go-to guide and execute, analyze, optimize, and keep improving all until you reach and/or exceed your sports fundraiser's goals.

Tip #2: Networking

It really is about who you know and who knows you. Social networking online is a great tool that can help you and your group find donors that can assist you in reaching your sports fundraising goals. In addition to contacting previous supporters, tap into new sources for possible new donors. Aside from the traditional method of contacting friends and family, don’t be afraid to bring your coworkers and boss on board. In most cases, employers are more than happy to attach their names as donors in order to create positive exposure.

Tip #3: Use the Internet

Think that your sports fundraisers options are limited to baked food, candy sales and car washes? The Internet has created even more opportunities for sports teams and leagues seeking funding for their various needs, so why not take advantage? These days, you can use very simple but robust online fundraising platforms that provide services to help consult, offer ideas, resources and tools related to sports fundraising online, as you can raise money from donors anywhere, as the fundraising platform will process all and inject all money into your set up banking accounts. Working with a professional company that not only knows the ins and outs of fundraising online, as well as how to promote such causes online, is ideal for groups that have little to no experience in this category or wish to make this part of the process less stressful.

Tip #4: Don’t Forget Social Networking

The Internet not only has the ability to improve the number of donors a sports team or individual players can tap into, but it is also home to the latest global phenomenon: social networking. Utilize the latest and most popular social networking sites, such as Twitter and Facebook to increase exposure for your sports fundraising events. Not only will you be able to reach those locally within your community, you’ll also be able to notify individuals and companies nationally (and even internationally) about your fundraising efforts to help your sports team, player, and/or league.

By spreading the word through social networking sites, your sports fundraising efforts will receive plenty of attention that will definitely catch the eye of more than enough people that would be more than happy to contribute the money you need to your cause. The web has made it so much easier for people to simply give to whatever cause they care about on their own time, and not have to feel pressured in face to face settings of people asking them for money on the street corner, mall, bowling alley, airport, and supermarket, amongst other situations.

 

Cancer Fundraising: Ways You Can Contribute to Cancer Fundraisers

Cancer is one of the most devastating diseases in the world today. Families around the globe have experienced the loss of a loved one or multiple people close to them to the disease at some point or another in their lives, or at minimum, know of someone who has cancer or has lost someone close to them that had it.

Cancer fundraising efforts make it possible for studies, rigorous research and trials to be conducted in order to combat this debilitating condition. As such, many organizations, programs and foundations that aim to find a cure for the various cancers that aile people are in constant need of financial support from individuals, groups and businesses that share the same goal or killing cancer for good. When it comes to cancer fundraisers and events, there are plenty of ways you can contribute to this important cause.

Donate Money to the Cancer Fundraisers of Choice

Perhaps the most effective and direct way to provide support for cancer fundraising is to donate money to the cancer cause or causes of your choice. Even if you have never given money to such an organization before, there are many ways you can go about taking action. If you don’t already know someone that has access to such information, the Internet is a great resource to use in order to find cancer fundraisers or groups to donate to. More often than not, these organizations have special links or buttons on their website, blog or social networking profile that allow people to make secure donations online. It is fast, easy to do and doesn’t involve any paperwork or middlemen.

Volunteer for Cancer Fundraisers

While cancer fundraising efforts are always in need of money, another area where help is appreciated is through volunteer assistance. The majority of fundraising events that deal with fundraising for cancer require a large group of passionate and dedicated people. If you have the time and want to really make a difference, sign up to be a volunteer for a local cancer fundraiser that is devoted to the cause. Whether your volunteer duties are very involved or seem basic, it will be greatly appreciated by the group, program or organization hosting the cancer fundraising event.

Promote your Cancer Fundraiser Online!

What better way to help cancer fundraising organizations succeed in reaching their goals than by bringing their efforts into the spotlight? Without the proper marketing and exposure, no one would know about the cancer fundraiser in the first place, nor would they have any idea where and how to make their donations. Take it upon yourself to help with spreading the word not only to your family, friends and community but online as well. You can easily set up a free blog, social networking profile, group page, or website that is dedicated to the cause you are supporting and use it to gain additional donations as well as invite people to scheduled events.

Use your own social network to spread the word about the cause you care about helping. A first step would be to email your contacts and ask them to support the cause you care about, you should also share the links to the cancer fundraisers donation page via Facebook, along with Twitter, and/or other social networks you are a part of too.

Cancer fundraising is a year-round effort that needs all the help it can get. Whether you end up donating, volunteering, promoting or doing all three, your personal contribution will make a huge difference in the process of ridding the world of cancer much sooner than later. From the big cancer causes to one in your backyard, you can make a difference.

 

Group Fundraising Online is Easy for Group Fundraisers to Raise Money

Do you belong to a group that needs to run some group fundraising activities in order to raise money for your operations, projects, or other needs? Are you trying to think of new ways to raise money for your cause? Try going online! When you move your campaign efforts to a social media giving platform, you can transform your group fundraisers from a campaign that makes a just few dollars, to a campaign that makes ten times as much, or more.

Offline methods are becoming less and less effective: canvassing door to door takes time and can be dangerous in certain neighbourhoods; bake sales and candy sales bring in only a few dollars and are very time consuming and costly; car washes and event dinners can also be time wasters. Bringing your group fundraisers online will help you get your cause out to the masses and bring in donations from people and places you’ve never even heard of, while allowing you to spend a little time.

It’s very simple to get your group fundraiser started up online. All you have to do is register for free at the online fundraising platform of choice; set up your campaign, which usually takes only a few minutes; then with the click of a mouse your campaign can be sent to tons of your contacts via email and on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace, and more. The online fundraising platform should be free to use with no set up, monthly, or annual fees and should also do their part by sending your campaign to websites across the net that they have partnered with; this gives your campaign a more exposure and it can be seen by thousands of people in a very short time.

Managing your group fundraising campaigns is equally as simple. Just log in to your account that you created, and you will instantly have a dashboard where you can see your total donations, who donated to your cause and where they came from. This allows you to analyze your data and optimize your efforts. All donations are collected and processed by the online fundraising platform, so accuracy can be assured. Keep in mind, that a small fee for donations processing is typical. You can even manage more than one fundraising campaign, even if you have several going on at one time. You can keep everything organized and work more efficiently.

Social media is here to stay and there is no better way to connect with the world than the Internet and harnessing the power of sites like Facebook, Twitter, StumleUpon, Reddit, Digg, and others to get your message out to and engage the masses. Your group fundraisers will be more successful and you will be able to raise more money than you ever thought possible. You’ll be able to repeat the process with ease and efficiency whenever you need to.

 

Church Fundraising: Ideas to Increase Your Donations Online

Most churches need to fundraise for specific events or assist with charitable causes without using it’s member contributions, or offerings. This is where church fundraising comes into play. By holding a church fundraiser, you can raise money by selling or auctioning off goods that have been donated to your church from other supporters.

So what type of church fundraisers should you have? Quality and faith are necessary components in determining what is best for your congregation and the recipient of the money that will be brought in. A quality fundraising event with quality products will bring, not only more people, but bigger spenders. And faith in what the event is supporting will show buyers that you support the cause and make it easier for them to spend their money with an end goal of helping others.

Quick church fundraisers are fine, but make sure your product is of excellent quality. However, church fundraising online is probably the most convenient way to hold this type of fundraising event. With the massive popularity of social networks, the word can get out to massive amounts of people very quickly, as the web's social communities will allow your chruch to transcend space, time, and geographical boundaries that may limit your chruch's fundraising efforts. And usually this is the most cost effective route to follow.

What is great about using online fundraising platforms to host and promote church fundraisers is the fact that a lack of finances will not keep you from moving forward. Specifically, you don’t necessarily have to have a product to give in exchange for monies. Church fundraising efforts could be aimed more towards a donation model. However, it is always nice for those donating their hard earned money to get something in return.

By promoting your church fundraisers online with your online fundraising platform via email, facebook, and twitter - in that order of importance, in terms of reach, highest conversions on average by your contacts, etc. You will be on your way to minimizing your time and effort that goes into fundraising for your church, while raising the money you need to gain from your community. Share, share, share, and then share some more! Encourage your community to share the links to your church fundraiser with their own social networks and you will succeed with your church's fundraising goals.

So if you do choose to go with an online church fundraising platform and want to provide a quality product in return, then it is easy to have your brochure available for buyers to browse and pledge their purchases. But it is also easy to set up church fundraisers to except donations online. Or perhaps you want to be able to do both. Some may prefer to get a product while other may simply just want to donate to your church. However, most people would not want to feel pressured into buying something, especially if they have no need or use for it, yet would prefer to just give money to the causes they care about. And always, just a little bit of recognition goes a long way for those that do give.

 

School Fundraising: Raise Money Online for Your School

 Are you in charge of this year’s school fundraising project for your child’s school? Or maybe you have helped out with one in the past? Are you unsure of what activities you should do, or how to get started? Fear not: an online fundraising platform can help you out with your fundraising efforts and raise money for your school’s projects, operations, sports, or any other number or fundraising needs.

Offline activities like bake sales, car washes, candy sales, and event dinners can be fun and get the whole school involved; but it doesn’t usually raise enough money, it requires a tremendous amount of time, effort, and amonst other human and capital resources.  Plus, you have to do more than one event or activity to get the funds you typically will need. Schools have cautioned kids not to go door to door canvassing, because of the danger it can impose. And with the obesity epidemic, candy sales and bake sales are being frowned upon by school administrators; that doesn’t leave you with a lot of options. You might think that your school fundraiser is doomed; but when using an online fundraising platform, you can create one or multiple online fundraising campaigns in minutes and share it with the world or just your own social network of contacts. You can literally reach millions of people with just the click of a button, thanks to sites like Facebook and Twitter, amongst others. 

With an online giving platform, it takes just a few minutes to set up your school fundraising campaign and get the word out to social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. It’s free to register and set up; and you will be provided with tools and resources that you can use to enhance your campaign further and get even more donations. The giving platform will place ads throughout the internet for you on the various web channels that they are partnered with. You can ask your friends to spread the word online to their friends and family, and so on.

Facebook is not just for college kids anymore; it has become a way for people of all ages to connect , engage, and share information. Perhaps you have family that lives far away but you are connected through Facebook; they would probably be happy to donate to any of your school fundraisers. They in turn can ask their friends and other family members that are local to them to support their family members and donate as well. Before you know it, you’ll have donations pouring in from all kinds of different sources and your child’s school will have the funds they need.

With an online fundraising platform, you will have access to a dashboard that will quickly tell you how many donations you have, how much each person contributed and the location that the donation came from. This will allow you to analyze the data and allow you to make decisions to ensure your next school fundraising campaign is even more successful.