fundraisingonline's posterous http://fundraisingonline.posterous.com Most recent posts at fundraisingonline's posterous posterous.com Thu, 26 May 2011 14:35:00 -0700 Church Fundraising: Thou Shalt Not Be Lame http://fundraisingonline.posterous.com/church-fundraising-thou-shalt-not-be-lame http://fundraisingonline.posterous.com/church-fundraising-thou-shalt-not-be-lame

A power of the t-shirt! It’s a mighty power, not to be messed with. You can screen print your church logo for cheap on t-shirts, hoodies, muumuus, loincloths, whatever you like and sell them to the public and congregation. Or let your creative juices flow and put favorite quotes or funny pictures on them, anything you think might resonate with your community and represent the voice and personality of the church. Everybody loves a t-shirt! And don’t think your consumer base is limited to churchgoers – you’ll make a killing on “ironic” sales from the disenchanted, hipster population of your community (every community has one  – check your local Urban Outfitters).

Calendars

First let me say, get your mind out of the gutter. Not “CALENDAR” calendars, unless the 85-year-old organist has lived with a secret desire to be known as “Miss January” (then who are you to deny an old woman her dream?). People love calendars almost as much as they love t-shirts, and since they’re composed of pictures they offer the same freedom for creativity. If you’re catering to churchgoers who have a personal attachment to the church, then fill them with pictures of the congregation, funny photos from past events and so on. If your church fundraising campaign is meant for a wider audience, then the world is your oyster! Fill them with pictures of oysters if you want. (Disclaimer: do not fill them with pictures of oysters as that is weird and nobody will buy them.)

Concerts

You know there’s this whole genre of gospel music and Christian rock with a massive cult following and tons of artists? Oh you did? Yeah I was just sayin’. There’s no doubt a local group with built-in fans in your community that would love to be part of a church fundraising concert. They get a sweet venue, you get a cool band and everyone’s scratching each others’ backs until they need your hands free since they can’t really play guitar without them (you can pick it back up later). If you’re looking to go big or go home (in which case, stay! Go big!) then it’s worth it to try and reach out to bigger acts in your area. It’s for a good cause! They could be willing to help out if you ask.

Cookbooks

This is like the bake sale on steroids (not literally, please). While the bake sale route is nice and yummy and great for finally fitting into those pesky jeans that are just WAY too big for you (thanks cupcakes!) they’re pretty labor intensive and don’t generate a lot of revenue. Instead, you can whip up a cookbook with favorite recipes from churchgoers and sell them for $10 or $15 a pop instead of watching your profit go up in 50 cent increments with each disappearing cookie. There are tons of sites where you can make your own cookbooks, complete with pictures and customized designs. It takes your church fundraising bake sale to the next level – and everyone will just EAT. IT. UP. (So sorry. Couldn’t resist.)

Online Donation Drives

Speaking of taking things to the next level, every ounce of effort you put into your church fundraiser offline can be maximized by incorporating an online campaign. This is the best way to reach your audience and increase your donor base, and the most efficient source of donations. You can sign up for an online fundraising platform that allows you to reach people through email, Facebook and Twitter and lets people donate to your church with the click of a mouse. It’s an incredibly simple way of spreading the word and reaping the biggest rewards for your church fundraising efforts. Maybe we should start a list of the church fundraising commandments: 1) Thou Shalt Not Be Lame, and 2) Get Online!

There are of course tons of ways to raise money for your church fundraiser – car washes, rummage sales, and the always popular and gut-busting pancake breakfast. Just make sure to be a little creative with whatever you choose to stand out from the crowd – and at the very least, use the web! It’s the easiest way to get a lot of bang for your buck. No, wait – a lot of buck for no bang. Bang is effort. You get the drift.

 

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Tue, 10 May 2011 15:22:00 -0700 Church Fundraising Events To Raise Money For Spiritual Causes http://fundraisingonline.posterous.com/church-fundraising-events-to-raise-money-for http://fundraisingonline.posterous.com/church-fundraising-events-to-raise-money-for

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Churches need funds for construction projects, provide aid forpeople, extend support to conduct various activities, mission trips and much more. So it is required to raise money to fulfil the financial needs. Raising funds require church fundraisers and different fundraising ideas. Organizers can find an array of ideas to raise the required amount of money. However, choosing the appropriate method is highly important. The amount of money that needs to be raised, resources available in the Church, location of church fundraisers and volunteers, etc. all influence the selection of the appropriate method or church fundraising.

Fundraising at the church is one of the easiest fundraising options. The church gets a regular attendance on Sundays and it is common for church-goers to offer their assistance by means of donation and any other possible way.

It’s important to assemble a team of volunteers who will spearhead the fundraiser. Some of the fundraising events that interest you may involve selling a range of products for a specific period of time, or it may happen on any specific day. Some of the ideas require detailed planning and might be hard to organise, while some fundraising ideas can be implemented very easily.

The very simplest church fundraising idea to raise funds is by placing fundraising collection boxes in the Church. Churches can find few companies that offer religious products to sell through the church fundraisers. From the overall profits earned by the fundraisers, a specific percentage of amounts will be offered to the fundraisers. Selling candles with great quotes and inspirational messages, t-shirts, religious books and magazines, etc contributes great towards earning funds. Regular worshippers of Church, their family members and friends will buy the products sold through fundraising events.

Church fundraising ideas can include several events. For instance, it can include an auction, car wash fundraiser, race/walkathon, dinner, or even a game. In addition events can also include selling baked goods, hot food, crafts, etc. Silent auctions in churches have proven to be successful in collectingdonations for a spiritual cause. However, planning is required to make any kind of event successful.

Another option as church fundraising idea is publishing a cookbook. It is a time consuming fundraising event which requires more effort and hard work. Fortunately, its results are great and worth the effort and hard work. You can ask the church members contribute their favourite recipes and compile all the recipes to publish a cookbook. This type of church fundraiser is ideal during festive seasons such as Christmas and Easter and often will attract a lot of people who will want to buy a copy of the cookbook as a sign of support to the church or out of their own culinary interest.

Similarly, you can choose to host a dinner as your church fundraising event. You need to sell the tickets in advance to collect money as well as to know the quantity of food that needs to be cooked. Often, the congregation donates the food for the church fundraiser and allows church to utilize the entire amount collected on ticket sales.

Fundraising requires a lot of planning ahead but church fundraisers can be a successful way to attract more donors and to raise funds for causes that are supported by the church.

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Fri, 22 Apr 2011 15:24:00 -0700 Church Fundraising Online Helps Churches to Help Out Others http://fundraisingonline.posterous.com/causes-they-are-everywhere-and-you-can-donate http://fundraisingonline.posterous.com/causes-they-are-everywhere-and-you-can-donate

Church fundraising has been seen as a noble and wonderful past time that has launched careers of many different humanitarians around the world. Collecting for the betterment of a church and its parishioners is one of the best and most original forms of fundraising for a cause. Most religious groups have been running church fundraising campaigns since their inception as a religion. There are very few religious groups within the world who do not recognize the need to help their fellow man with works of charity to the less fortunate. These works raise millions of dollars every year to help not only the charity that would directly benefits from the church fundraising but also other people across the globe who may also be in similar circumstances.

Church fundraisers have been at the center of trying to help people through some of the roughest parts of their lives. Fundraising for churches has been around for hundreds of years and has been present all over the world at one point or another. These days, most of the church fundraising has been centered on North America and has helped people all across the world.

However, some of the best church fundraising campaigns have been the work that has been accomplished online. To raise money online, religious groups really need to be cognizant of the audience that you wish to reach out to and raise money from. Now, this audience may not just be limited to the people in your city or town. As it may be a cause that affects people across the entire world and therefore it would be a good idea to broaden the search for donators to the entire world rather than just your own city or town. To do this you will want to try to use larger medium to raise money online.

These mediums will most likely include a website, blogs, Facebook, YouTube and twitter. You may be familiar with one or even all of these mediums; however they can be used to great effect in raising money online for your church. With these channels, someone around the world from you can hear your message and understand the cause that you are trying to raise money online for. These mediums can help you to reach across the world and broaden your exposure to people and places that you would not be able to on a regular basis. Church fundraising online typically uses some or all of these programs in their quest to raise money over the Internet and the world.

Church fundraisers may be happening right now in your own town. Go and check your local paper, you would be hard pressed to find an issue that some sort of religious group was not trying to raise money for some sort of charity or group. Church fundraising has a wonderful history of kindness and humility that should be considered the next time you try to either raise money for a religious organization or when you may think about giving back to a church fundraiser. These church fundraisers seek to help people do things that they could not do before hand, better the common man.

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Fri, 22 Apr 2011 09:51:00 -0700 Church Fundraising – Tips for Earning More Money at Church Fundraisers http://fundraisingonline.posterous.com/church-fundraising-tips-for-earning-more-mone http://fundraisingonline.posterous.com/church-fundraising-tips-for-earning-more-mone

The only way that churches can raise money is through communion services and church fundraising. When there are mission trips to plan or renovations required for the church, it takes extra effort on everyone’s part to complete as many successful church fundraisers as possible. Some of these events do turn out to be a success, but many of them fall short of the funds needed for the mission, renovation, or other needs for the church. If you want to guarantee that you will get money from your church fundraising efforts, consider some of the tips below.

You have to think about ways to market your church fundraisers. In some cases that may just mean talking about the church fundraising at a Sunday service, but in other cases, you need to think about widespread marketing. Flyers and posters will help a little, but if you really want to reach out to people nowadays, you need to think about doing online fundraising. You can promote your church fundraiser on your social network pages and the church’s website to reach out to as many people as you possibly can. The results if your church fundraising should be much better after that.

Church fundraising online will make it easier for you to keep track of the money that is going in and out of the church, and it will also help you process the money collected from the church fundraising. This makes everything much simpler because you can do it from a computer, and it gives donors a convenient way of contributing to church fundraisers. All they have to do is go online and upload a payment. They are much more likely to give you money if they are able to do it quickly at home.

Successful church fundraising is all about reaching the right people at the right time. You can do that easily on the web, and it will not cost you much money at all. If you are set on having a live fundraiser though, at least make sure that you do it in a place where you can reach potential donors. Make sure you have the right church fundraisers for your community. Hopefully, with strategic planning and some help from a marketing team you will be able to get all the funding you need through online church fundraising and live church fundraisers. Your church will be set for the future.

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Sat, 09 Apr 2011 17:34:00 -0700 Church Fundraising Ideas – Boost Your Churches Donations Online http://fundraisingonline.posterous.com/church-fundraising-ideas-boost-your-churches http://fundraisingonline.posterous.com/church-fundraising-ideas-boost-your-churches

Church fundrasing activities are noble and worth supporting. The fundraiser must be equipped with what we call church fundraising ideas that would ensure support and donations. Church Fundraising ideas must be feasible and not overly dramatic. They must be convenient, easy, accessible and not painstaking.

Piryx, has revolutionized church fundraising ideas by the use of the internet. The company now provides a solution to the prolonged agony of waiting responses from benefactors to just a few clicks away. Piryx’s answer to the new age is the creation of an online account for church fundraising that would benefit a chosen church or one that the fundraiser is associated with. Setting up the account is in the same manner as creating a Facebook account or signing up for a webmail account. This way, a web page is developed and designed for a certain church fundraising activity or several pages for different set of goals.

Piryx encourages the use of Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, Multiply, StumbleUpon and the like as sharing hubs for the dissemination of the cause that a church seeks to support. Sharing on these social networks has become a hobby for most users. Current events, social updates, weblogs, celebrity fallouts and the like have been shared one too many times in all of these social sites. People with common goals can easily share one link to others and so it eliminates the hassle of going around and informing other people one by one, door to door. The process allows for a contact to share the link on her wall, and others who become interested can share it too, hence a rapid widespread approach. Link sharing is one of the best church fundraising ideas because it not only utilizes the social network to affect a worthy cause, but it also builds a useful connection to the outside world. Long before the advent of computers, church fundraising has been shown to be very rampant and tiring. Now, with Piryx, fundraising has never been fun.

It does not stop there, the account created is amped with social network features that are set to reinvent and reintegrate your account when necessary. It has personalization features that would allow you to design your page and make it look better. It gives you the freedom to update the status of your cause just like the social networks. It also safeguards the information and progress of your cause. It has an analytical tool that helps you determine which approach is best to further gain recognition and perk up your supporters. Amplify your web page by knowing what needs adjusting, conversion rates, useful gadgets that indicate growth and overwhelming support. What more can you ask from Piryx?

Last but not the least, the establishment of character in social networks can also be applied here. The maintenance of the webpage, the success of the cause and the growth in the number of supporters will reflect on the wellness of the campaign. One way of ensuring growth is to persuade your supporters with the updates, to share the link of the cause to their other networks. This is in a way reaching out to the community without wasting words. Rather, just by accessing your page from the shared links, prospective supporters and benefactors will surely appear right at your doorstep.

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Mon, 04 Apr 2011 16:46:00 -0700 Church Fundraising Online Helps Churches Raise Money Fast http://fundraisingonline.posterous.com/church-fundraising-online-helps-churches-rais http://fundraisingonline.posterous.com/church-fundraising-online-helps-churches-rais
Some people feel that church fundraising is somehow paradoxical in a sense because having the Supreme Being in their presence means not having any need. However, statistics shows that the church, just like any other organization needs financial help to be able to realize their goals as a group.

The church has a lot of projects that help the poorest of the poor and their members who are in need.  With this, the Bible has different passages that emphasize the need to carry on with helping others because it is a sign of a good member of the church.  The ancient times are a witness to the charitable efforts that are able to bring more benefit to the whole society. This only proves that church fundraising is a legitimate activity that can spawn favorable results not only for the church but also for the society as a whole.

Of course, one of the biggest questions in church fundraising is – how?  It is important to note that it does not have to be a materialistic manner.  There can be a lot of ways possible to have church fundraisers to help them with their causes.  Church-goers can voluntarily give a tithe of their income to the church as a contribution.  They can also opt to donate money every Sunday during mass.  There can also be seasonal events such as Christmas and Lent, which can be great avenues for church fundraisers.  The members of the church organizations can also hold contests, raffles, bake sales or garage sales.  They can raise money through these events and also able to promote togetherness of the community.

These church fundraisers can be difficult to organize and they can take time and effort so that they can be executed well. The best alternative is having online church fundraising.  With the advent of the Internet today and the number of computer literates, it can be a viable alternative to the traditional church fundraisers.

Church fundraising online can help bring together people in the same religion, that are living in other areas.  By bringing them together, you can harness the potential of being in a big group and all rallying to work together for the same cause.  You will never know that someone from another state who is in the same church would want to help you out.  There is strength in numbers and online church fundraising can definitely be the best place for that.

Online church fundraising is taking church fundraisers to a whole new level. Helping the less fortunate has now become easier and more convenient because you can organize everything quickly online and wait for people and their donations to flood in.  Online church fundraising will give the same satisfaction to the donors just as they do their charitable work knowing that they are able to help someone in need.

The Church is an important entity in our society so learn more about how you can help raise funds through an online church fundraising platform today!

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Tue, 29 Mar 2011 17:54:00 -0700 63 Percent of Charities Predict an Increase in Giving in 2011, says Report http://fundraisingonline.posterous.com/63-percent-of-charities-predict-an-increase-i http://fundraisingonline.posterous.com/63-percent-of-charities-predict-an-increase-i

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.

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Tue, 29 Mar 2011 16:16:00 -0700 Church Fundraising: Ideas to Increase Your Donations Online http://fundraisingonline.posterous.com/church-fundraising-ideas-to-increase-your-don http://fundraisingonline.posterous.com/church-fundraising-ideas-to-increase-your-don

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.

 

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