A quick search on Google will reveal a multitude of fundraising ideas. There are all sorts of things you can do to raise money such as:
- Quiz Nights
- Morning Teas
- Selling Wine
- Lamington Drives
- Sausage Sizzles
- Asking for Donations
There is no shortage of ideas, but what is going to work for you?
There are 5 questions to ask yourself, to help you narrow down your search.
How will you get people involved?
- How will you make it easy for those people?
- What is your return on effort?
- How can you make it simple and easy for yourself?
- What will you have to do?
There are 5 fundraising Must Do’s if you want to organise a successful and easy fundraiser:
FUNDRAISING MUST DO #1
Choose something that people will naturally get involved in
People are busy! They have limited time, and are getting more selective about where they spend their time and money. You want to choose a fundraiser that will appeal to people even if they are not personally connected to the cause.
The trick is to find something that is going to appeal to your circle of friends and contacts. Choose something that they already do, use or buy and therefore would get involved even if they don’t care about your cause.
Truth bomb: I hate to say it, but please don’t expect others to get behind your cause at the same level as you. You are probably involved with the cause for personal reasons, so don’t expect everyone to have that same connection and desire to support the cause. You need to appeal to the “what do they get?” mantra if you want easily attract people to your fundraiser.
FUNDRAISING MUST DO #2
Don’t make it tedious or difficult for your supporters
Time poor people hate fundraising because they are often left doing all the work. Sure it might be easy for you to hand out a book of raffle tickets but who has to do the work? EVERYONE EXCEPT YOU!!! Don’t lump your supporters with all the work and then expect them to fundraise on your behalf. That’s a perfect way to annoy the crap out of people!
Have a think about who has to be the salesperson or distribution chain for your fundraiser. Are they going to have to spend their weekend selling sausages or delivering lamingtons to their friends and family?
Make their job easy and fun, and they’ll love you forever! Can people pay with credit card (who carries cash nowadays!) or can they order tickets online? Is it easy to spread the word about your fundraiser via word of mouth, emails and social media?
And lastly, do they get something in return? Don’t expect people will just to give you money because you are fundraising. What are they getting in return? Do they get a quality product or a fantastic social experience? Or are they just left with an empty feeling in their wallet?
FUNDRAISING MUST DO #3
Understand your return on effort
You should have a clear understanding of how much effort you need to put in for the amount of money you will raise.
Ask yourself how much work is involved in hitting your target with the type of fundraiser you are considering.
(Make sure you check out the examples below where I explain this in more detail).
FUNDRAISING MUST DO #4
Don’t make it complicated and too much work for yourself
Keep it simple. It’s always harder when you create something from scratch; as you have to spend a lot of time creating flyers, posters, order forms and the like. Think about using something tried and tested by a professional fundraising service that have systems, templates and checklists all ready to go.
And keep the fundraiser as basic as you can. Have you heard of the 80/20 rule? 80% of your profits will come from 20% of the work; so don’t be tempted to have too many working parts. Just pick the most effective and profitable options and keep it limited to those.
FUNDRAISING MUST DO #5
Have an idea about what you will have to do before you get started
If you don’t have an idea of what you will have to do and the overall big picture, you are constantly flying by the seat of your pants. That’s not fun for you or anyone around you. It’s one of the major reasons that could keep you up at night worrying yourself silly. The big picture helps you work out exactly what you are doing, when you have to do it and who is going to help you. Having an idea of what you are doing sounds obvious, but sometimes good intentions can turn really ugly if you don’t think everything right through to the very end. (e.g. It’s great that we got 145kg of sausages donated, but how on earth do we keep them cold till the weekend?)
Make sure you give yourself plenty of time too. When you know well in advance what needs to happen, it’s so much easier to get helpers.
