Fund raisers are a great way for your non-profit organization to generate revenue to pay for various expensive. Groups conduct fundraisers for lots of reason like paying for trips or team uniforms. Here are some of the most popular types of fund raisers by organizations:

• School Fund Raising
• Church Fund Raising
• Cheerleading Fund Raising
• Sports Team Fund Raising
• Elementary Fund Raising
• Political Fund Raising
• Charity Fund Raising

Here are some of the most popular types of fundraising ideas:

• Candy fund Raisers
• Cook Book Fund Raisers
• Candy Bar Fund Raisers
• Cookie Dough Fund Raisers

There are many great ways to raise funds for your team, school, or any organization.  It’s the best way to raise the money you need to have a great organization! Let us know if you would like to be connected with great fundraising companies that can get you started raising the funds you are looking to.

How would you like to get a FREE Amazon gift card? When you launch or re-launch an online magazine fundraising campaign and sell a minimum of 20 subscriptions between November 1st and December 31st, 2007, you will receive a $25 gift card for Amazon.com. If you sell 40 or more subscriptions you will receive a $50 gift card to spend at Amazon.com!

The Online Magazine Sales fundraising program is available for church groups, schools, scouts, sports teams, individuals, or anyone raising money for any cause. It’s really easy to start too. You just sign up online. Then you can shop for magazines for yourself and gift subscriptions for family and friends. The website makes it easy to tell your friends and family about it too so they can support your group. Then every month you’ll get a check for 40% commission on all sales!

You don’t have to be a registered non profit organization to do the Magazine Fundraiser. Anyone, even individuals, can do this. However, it is only available in the USA.

Find out more about the Online Magazine Fundraiser and start earning your Amazon bonus and 40% profit.

How would you like to get a FREE $25 Amazon gift certificate? That could buy a book, a DVD or two, or 25 music downloads! Now when you sign up for an Online Magazine Fundraiser and sell (or buy) at least 20 magazine subscriptions you’ll get that Amazon.com bonus!

This program is available for school groups, sports teams, individuals, or anyone raising money for any cause. It’s really easy to start too. You just sign up online. Then you can shop for magazines for yourself and gift subscriptions for family and friends. The website makes it easy to tell your friends and family about it too so they can support your group. Then every month you’ll get a check for 40% commission on all sales!

So back to the FREE Amazon Gift Certificate… When you launch or re-launch an online magazine fundraising campaign and sell a minimum of 20 subscriptions between November 1st and December 31st, 2007, you will receive a $25 gift certificate at Amazon.com. If you sell 40 or more subscriptions you will receive a $50 gift certificate at Amazon.com!

You don’t have to be a registered non profit organization to do the Magazine Fundraiser. Anyone, even individuals, can do this. However, it is only available in the USA.

Find out more about the Online Magazine Fundraiser and start earning your Amazon bonus and 40% profit.

Online fundraisers are becoming more and more popular as a way to bring in money for schools and charities. But how exactly do you set up an online fundraiser? Do you have to be a computer wiz to do this? Thankfully, no you don’t! It is actually very easy to set up an online fundraiser… just follow these three steps and you can have one set up in 30 minutes or less.

1. Choose an Online Fundraiser

There are basically three types of online fundraisers: online shopping, donations and auctions. Explore the different options available and consider which one(s) are best for your group.

1. Online shopping sites give your group cash back, or a commission, when someone buys something from an online store. These are the easiest online fundraisers that you can run.
   1. Promo Fundraising - get cash just for trying offers (like Netflix)
   2. Online Magazines - earn 40% profit on every magazine sold
   3. iGive - online mall with many stores
2. Direct donation systems are a way for your group to ask for monetary donations that directly support the group. There are several providers of this service. The one that I like the best is FirstGiving because it is easy to use and very flexible. Direct donations are really best for charities rather than public school groups.
3. Online auctions are a fun way to raise funds and people love auctions anyway. While you could use eBay, the best online auction site for schools and charities is cMarket. Auctions are the most time consuming of all of these online fundraising options, taking more time to plan and volunteers to run it.

2. Set Up Your Website

You do not even have to have your own website to run an online fundraiser; the companies that provide these will provide a special site for you! Each of these sites have a step by step online set up and most of them are pretty fast and easy too.

When you sign up for the online fundraiser just have the following information on hand since this is what they will ask for:

1. Your organization name (As it will appear on checks)
2. Mailing address
3. Phone number

3. Promote Your Online Fundraiser

While it’s pretty easy to get started with an online fundraiser, the most important part is promoting it to your group!

1. Email. Many of the providers mentioned above have built in email promotion tools which are a big help. You will need to send at least one email to everyone in your group, but more than one is really best. If your online fundraiser has a deadline, send an email the day it starts, once during the midpoint and another two days before the deadline. Ask your members to forward emails to their friends.
2. Your website. Many charities and schools have their own website. Promote your online fundraiser with a link and banner on your home page and in the sidebar of all of your pages. Make it a prominent feature on your website, not buried at the bottom of the page!
3. Blogs. Ask your supporters to blog about your online fundraiser. If your group has its own blog you can post periodic updates about the program. This is especially good for online auctions as you can blog about new items and what the “hot” auction items are.
4. Old fashioned promos. So the first three promotional tools listed here are online, but don’t forget “real world” promotions! Give flyers to your supporters, place phone calls and make announcements at your meetings.

Ready?

Now if you are still a bit unsure about online fundraising, just start with the online shopping programs because those are the easiest to start. Just be sure to publicize it as much as possible so that it has the best chance of success.

This article is an entry into The Writers Manifesto contest 

Online communication has revolutionized interaction among friends, family, fellow students, and coworkers. Email enables schools to maintain constant contact with students and their families from initial engagement, to alumni status. As funds become increasingly competitive, email marketing presents one of the most efficient ways for a school to market. Keeping your high school at top-of-mind is becoming more challenging. There are continually more schools for parents to choose from, and these competing schools are willing to put forth more effort to recruit students. Effective email marketing solves this problem by developing valuable relationships with parents and students.

7 Guidelines for a Successful School email Marketing Campaign

1. Provide Targeted Information

The importance of providing targeted, relevant, and valuable information within emails cannot be underestimated. Parents or alumni do not want to be burdened with hoards of solicited emails containing information unrelated to them and sent only for means of delivering a donation request. The emails should include relevant and pertinent information sculpted around their interests. The success of your email campaign will be determined by the extent of the effort spent segmenting recipients based on data pertaining to their interests and involvement with your school. A 3-step plan is provided below.

1. When initially contacting a prospect, it is important to provide some useful information immediately. Use the rest of the email to gather information in order to provide the recipient with more relevant information. Incorporate a detailed list of topics with corresponding checkboxes.
2. Send information up-date emails once a month to keep email content relevant.
3. Purchase an email Marketing Program. Incorporating this type of interface will allow for highly targeted and relevant email messages while eliminating the grueling task of manually uploading data. Email Labs (www.emaillabs.com) provides an excellent email marketing application.

2. Provide Relevant Links

Each email should contain relevant links to areas of the school website, as well as adjacent articles, resources, and sites. For example, a parent with a child involved in football and rodeo may wish to receive links to the football page and rodeo page, as well as third party information on childhood injury prevention. As more data is gathered, emails will become more valuable and recipients will anticipate their arrival.

3. Distribute emails at the Right Time With the Right Frequency

Time - The time of day and the day of the week make a significant difference in the responsiveness to email. Weekends are a horrible time to send emails. This practice should be avoided whenever possible. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday are the best days to send emails, with more emphasis on Tuesday and Wednesday. Over 60 percent of emails are opened between Tuesday and Thursday. Roughly 30 percent of emails are sent between 9am and 11am. Seven percent are opened at 11am and 60 percent are opened between 8am and 4pm (www.emaillabs.com). This makes early morning an optimal time to ship new emails.

Frequency - The frequency of email shipments is critical. If too many messages are sent, especially if they include donation requests, your audience will surely be turned off. On the other hand, emails should be sent on a consistent basis. Recipients look forward to receiving regular email newsletters pertaining to a topic of interest. A schedule should be well thought out and effectively implemented. The resources needed to gather relevant information, and write, edit, and publish the newsletter will largely determine frequency.

4. Facilitate Viral Marketing

An “Email This” link should be integrated into the email template. A link should be provided at the top of the email near the headline or title as well as the bottom of the email. The link should include the universal “Email This” icon (the back of an envelope) so that it can be easily identified. Incorporating these elements into every email sent will help recruit potential prospective students, or engage others interested in your high school.

5. Keep it Catchy

The subject line of your emails should be eye catching and memorable. They should be easy to read and capture the interests of the reader. In the body of the email, stay away from clutter and information overload. The layout should be logical and organized.

6. Measuring and Adjusting

Track all statistics relevant to your email campaign. Valid metrics include click through rate, open rate, click to open, bounce rate, referral rate, and unsubscribe rate. Track traffic coming to the website from targeted links within emails to determine campaign effectiveness. This is the beauty of email campaigns, everything can be measured. If you are not satisfied with the performance of your current email campaign, reconsider design and implementation. Start by asking basic questions. Why do they not find it valuable? Does the content need to be more targeted? Etc. Email campaigns are an ongoing process requiring constant attention and direction.

7. Build Trusting Relationships

The idea is to build trusting and ongoing relationships with recipients. Email is just another medium to help facilitate this. Traditional forms of communication should not be forgotten.

Email is an excellent way to encourage communication feedback, donations, recruitment, and promotion of school events. Incorporating the above elements into your high school’s email marketing campaign will surely accelerate results.

Article courtesy of Lance Trebesch and Colt Lapham of TicketPrinting.com

What did you last buy online?

A book on Amazon? A rare vinyl copy of your favorite guilty pleasure band on eBay?
Did you buy something online to support your school’s fundraiser? Would you do it often, and would you remember where to go to make sure your group makes money?

I have been working in the fundraising industry for over 7 years, and have been in many a meeting within some of the biggest and brightest fundraising companies who are adement to blend online big brands with loyalty and fundraising.

It’s hard, very hard indeed - but the potential revenue and cost effective ‘onlinesolution in a box’ keeps driving them on.
I am going to let the cat out of the bag, and hope some of you reading this will forward it to people who make decisions on fundraising, as a cautionary tale - and perhaps you know someone who has some other solution that I have not seen, so let me know…. here goes - the brutal truth your fundraising groups need to know:

The Truth Is This:
We are still ahead of the curve, most people will not frequently shop online to support their group - just because you send them an email asking them to.
The following story is true:

Mrs. Smartypants (name has been changed to protect the ego of a real PTO Chairman, and also because I like the new name a lot) is the Chairman of a fairly large High School.
Her background is in marketing, and she is familiar with affiliate marketing in particular. She has told the Fundraising Chairman she will help her look for an additional fundraiser that will not replace their highly successful Worlds Finest Chocolate fundraiser, but add an extra revenue stream for their school using an online initiative.

She looks up on Google ‘Online Fundraising’ and finds a bunch of companies claiming to be able to harness the power of the Internet, and provide fundraising dollars in the thousands. After really understanding the way in which these dollars are supposed to magically appear, she realizes how it could really come true:

History:

Back in the day when every company was dying to increase online sales and brand awareness, a couple of smart cookies started affiliate marketing solutions. You have a widget you want to sell online? Easy - contact www.CJ.com and they will allow you to promote your product (as long as you pay commission on sales) to thousands of people who have web sites, those websites have people looking at them, and as quick as 1,2,3, widgets are being sold via banner ad’s and text links leading to the widget web site - and commission is being handed out left right and centre.
Now if you don’t have tons of traffic on your site - how can you also take advantage of this affiliate commission structure? Easy - find a group of people who’ll do the hard work for you, getting the attention of potential buyers, asking them to click on the advertising on your groups fundraising site they design, and they in return will share a percentage of their commission with your group on each sale.

Magic.

All of this looks great on paper, but the real hump to get over, is to find a company that has a great user experience awaiting potential customers, and a way to get them on the website more than one time.
Some companies set up multiple email reminders, (can be annoying), offe incentives (not always great), begging normally followes, then disappointment and frustration set in on behalf of the fundraising group. They do not recommend the service to other groups and the fundraising companies either give up, and continue to sell cookie dough, or go under.

Mrs. Smartypants could see that although these companies dazzled her with big brand names, products she thought might be interesting to her community, she knew `build it and they will come’ is not a way to run a successful fundraiser for her school.

Mrs. Smartypants spoke to the school Principal. This was her approach:

‘I have invested my time to bring to the table a personalized website for our parents to buy magazines from, where our school earns around 40% of each sale - the user experience is good, prices are fair, and I know with a little help we can raise thousands without involving the kids, and in fact we’ll do little work at all - but I need your help’

Principal:
‘Sounds easy - what do I need to do?’

Mrs. Smartypants:
‘If you really believe in this, I have set out the following step by step guidelines to guarantee our success (yep’ she was in marketing all right!) :

1) Before we even tell parents we have this site, I want you to personally write a letter, asking all parents in principal - if we invest our time in setting this up, will they at least look at the website during the first week it’s launched and see if they are already subscribed to one or more magazines. You will also ask them that it’s very important for them to agree to bookmark the site, confirming they will do this if we move ahead. It will help determine if our school proceeds. The letter will also focus on not just what the money raised each year will be used for (in this case it was yearly upgrades to computers) but much more importantly what effect having outdated equipment has on their children’s learning - THE CONSEQUENCES OF INACTION!
2) On EVERY (not some, but all) school communication, the School Magazine Stores Web Address (plus short request for help) would be visible. This basically meant adding it to the letterhead, which took around 20mins of work.

3) On the home page, there would be a link added - directing people to the store.

The Principal agreed.

Mrs.Smartypants raised over $5000 in the first 6 months, and each year sales have risen by around 10-17%

The parents committed in principal, were always made aware of the store, and knew what would happen to their kids if they fell behind with their Information technology learning.

The brands parents found online did not guarantee success, the brain power of a savvy PTO President did, plus an open minded Principal.

it also became pretty clear that many parents already had subscriptions - and a simple renewal through the site brought in a ton of money - what luck!

Why Fundraise Online?

1. Online giving is growing exponentially every year, from just over a half a billion
dollars in 2000, to more than $4.5 billion in 2005. (www.groundspring.org)

2. People are much more likely to turn their impulse into donations, raffle ticket purchases, or auction bids when online. The instantaneous nature of the internet
promotes action by catching people in the moment. Being “close to the click” means being close to donors and dollars.

3. Online fundraising eliminates geographic borders. With the right incentive you can attract a world of potential donors outside your region.

4. People are more generous online. An email campaign launched by North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics resulted in a 20% increase in the average donation. Their overall efforts resulted in a 150% ROI. (www.bronto.com)

5. Online fundraising attracts alternative demographics. cMarket conducted a study concluding that 71% of their online bidders are women. Women are turned off by the highly competitive, testosterone induced environment of the traditional auction, making them a highly un-represented group.

6. The internet is quickly becoming the donors medium of choice because it’s quick and easy.

7. Online Fundraising is a great option for a time constrained world. The typical auction lasts 1 to 3 hours making it difficult for a lot of people to attend. An online auction generally lasts 1 to 3 weeks, creating a lot more time for bids to be posted by a lot more people.

Article courtesy of Lance Trebesch and Colt Lapham of TicketPrinting.com

Find out more about the online fundraising options available

Maintaining ongoing communication with potential donors ensures they are up to date on upcoming fundraising events and school needs.

1. Start an email Campaign

Starting an e-mail or e-newsletter campaign is the #1 most crucial factor in the success of your online fundraiser. If people aren’t informed, they won’t be willing to help. The tips provided below will make your campaign a success.

Purchase email Marketing Software: Email marketing software will save a great deal of time and money. This software allows your donor database to be uploaded directly into an email marketing application, eliminating the need to manually upload data. Emails can be easily tailored to a recipient’s interests. Emaillabs.com offers great basic email marketing software. WildApricot, Convio, GetActive, and LocalVoice are designed specifically for online fundraising and offer a handful of specialized tools general email applications do not offer.

Do Not Solicit in Initial Mailings: The importance of not soliciting recipients with their first email cannot be emphasized enough. Initial emails should be used to gather information on the recipient needs and interests in order to provide more valuable content. There is a direct correlation between the relationships built with potential donors and the amount they will give.

Establish a Schedule for Writing and Distributing: The whole point of an email marketing program is to hold a recipient’s attention by keeping them continually informed. People will look forward to receiving your email. A set frequency should be established based on time constraints and your school’s ability to produce relevant news or content.

2. Integrate an RSS Feed

RSS feeds allow for subscribers to be automatically updated on new website content or events without having to regularly check your website. New blogs, email newsletter shipments, wiki page updates, and upcoming fundraising events should be placed on an RSS page. Doing this will greatly increase fundraiser participation. Keeping people engaged with student clubs, organizations, and teams is very important. The more involved they are, the more they will give. A few ideas are outlined below.

3. Start School Blogs and Forums

Forums are especially great for school websites. This gives parents, students, community members, and faculty a place to share ideas and become involved. A blog is a great way to provide information on current school happenings.

4. Create Wiki Pages

A wiki page is a webpage that has the capability to be edited by website visitors. Wikipedia is the most commonly known wiki site, offering a visitor edited, free encyclopedia. It’s a good idea to submit your school’s details and history to this site, as it will often come up first among search results. Schools can also advantage from wiki by developing their own Wiki page for every sports team and student organization. This will allow parents, students, or staff to contribute unique pictures and stories about each group. This not only helps establish a sense of community but also informs the entire community on student activities.

A wiki page can also be used for school details including school history and notable people. Giving staff the ability to quickly edit these pages will make them more valuable and interesting. For one more added benefit, search engines consider continually updated content more valuable, so having wiki pages will increase your website’s natural search results.

PBWiki provides a fully integrated wiki application that makes creating wiki pages a breeze.

5. Create and Distribute Charity Badges

A charity badge is a small widget often including a picture, brief description of the organization, and link to where you can make a donation. The beauty of the charity badge is that it allows users to share with one another by simply clicking on get this badge and copying the html code onto their website or blog. Using charity badges is good practice for any fundraising campaign. Although they may or may not produce large donations, they are a very effective way to promote a fundraiser. Having your badge placed in specific targeted locations can help you reach new demographic groups.

Also, charity badges are often shared from one friend to another, making requests targeted to individuals who may donate. They are also very inexpensive and easy to create. They cost no more than the time it takes to make them, which is minimal (simply follow step-by-step instructions though providers such as CareBadges or ChipIn).To get your school’s charity badge started, choose a provider and create a badge.

Then, email those who would be most likely to make a contribution or share the badge with others. After this, donate to your charity badge yourself, and have co-workers and friends do the same. People are much more likely to donate if they feel they are part of something bigger. Finally, promote your badge though your school blog, or social networking sites.

Article courtesy of Lance Trebesch and Colt Lapham of TicketPrinting.com

Find out more about the online fundraising options available

I love it when I find one of our “Super Fundraiser Approved” fundraisers mentioned in the news.

Well done CMarket for again providing the tools needed to get the job done!

Opening this article will allow you to click on a link that leads you to the Promise House CMarket site. It’s a great way to see a real online auction in progress!