| by Howard Gottlieb, President, Easy
Fundraising Ideas
Raising Money with Fundraising Products: Balancing
Input with Outcomes
Part Five
Whether we like it or not, fundraising is a very important
issue to parent groups, sports leagues, and other organizations
that require funds in excess of normal budgets and commitments.
Since these groups depend on fundraising ideas to make ends
meet, it only makes sense to periodically review the effectiveness
and results of past fundraisers. The fact of the matter is
that most people do not like fundraising. That's why it's
so important to make sure you are producing proportionate
results based on effort and expectations.
This week we will address different ways to raise money
by selling fundraising products, which products seem most
effective, and how to choose the right path.
Before you start, though, there are a few questions that
should be discussed among the people responsible for meeting
budgets. The first thing to review is your organization's
reasons for raising money in the first place. Are you raising
money to fund a special project like buying land for a baseball
field or building a playground at the local elementary school?
Or, do you have to raise money to provide for the basics
that in an ideal world would have been covered without additional
fundraising? Is it possible you really don't need as much
money as you think you do and that the organization has become
an out-of-control fundraising machine? Be sure you take the
time to really understand why your organization is raising
money in the first place.
The next issue to consider is who will help with the fundraiser
and whether or not it can run without overburdening participants
or their parents. The car wash is a great example of fundraising
that has disproportionate returns based on the number of
man-hours invested, which isn't to say that car washes are
not good fundraisers for some groups. However, we have heard
complaints for years now about the amount of work and preparation
it takes to raise a couple hundred dollars through a car
wash. The idea sounds good at first. In fact, you can even
interest high school students in car wash participation.
But all that seems to change on the day of the wash, when
kids want to spend more time waving signs than actually cleaning
cars and the organizers or parents end up cleaning an endless
line of cars whose drivers offer only a few dollars for their
effort. The point to be taken here is that there needs to
be an adequate return on the time invested by your team of
fundraisers.
You also want to identify who your target market really
is. If you are looking for elementary
school fundraising ideas your target market is most
likely families with elementary school age children or people
close to that demographic. You should consider the fundraiser
from their perspective and not your own before finalizing
a decision. After all, those are the people who will be your
customers. If they would support a frozen
cookie dough fundraiser better than a magazine sale,
then you should obviously sell cookie dough, even if it involves
a little more work.
Knowing how much money you really need to raise
will help determine the number of fundraisers you should
hold each year. Holding too many will not accomplish your
goal for a couple of reasons. First, your participants will
grow weary of selling. They can only ask the people they
know to support your group so many times. If you ask them
to overdo it, then they might just stop asking altogether.
It is important to identify the proper fundraiser that will
produce the results with one or two major fundraising events
each year. If chosen properly, supporters may actually look
forward to learning it's time for your fundraiser again.
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