Jan
9
2012
College Fundraiser Event Ideas
College fundraisings are imbued with an energy rarely found in fundraising events related to other charitable acts, be they school fundraising, church fundraising, office fundraising, or anything else. This is the energy of youth and it lends itself wonderfully to the fulfillment of a noble cause once it has been directed and channelized properly.
College fundraisers can benefit greatly from the hosting of events because events can be made to match the theme and objective of a fundraiser. Colleges have a ready population to fall back on, that of students and their families. A minimum participation is easily guaranteed. You can do the math too if you so wish to apportion income from different events. The way to do this is to pass around a short question sheet asking for events that students would love to enjoy the most. You can easily pick two three popular events based on this information. A rough estimate of attendees will tell you about the kind of returns you can expect from the spending on a particular event. Mud-wrestling for girls is going to score with boys, no question about it. And so will a beauty contest. An ice-cream parlor will always work. Check...
Dec
3
2011
The best ideas for school fundraising
The great thing about school fundraising is that there is no dearth of ideas to carry out a successful school fundraiser. You can do it in any number of ways. What exactly are the attributes that go in favor of schools when it comes to fundraising? An understanding of this will help you organize a fundraising in a much more effective manner.
Schools have a veritable army of volunteers; yes school children make for excellent volunteers. Who can resist the innocent impassioned entreaties of a child committed to a cause? However, care needs to be taken that you do not get kids involved into fundraising at the cost of their curricular and extra-curricular activities.
Parents are enthusiastic fundraisers; they contribute with time, effort, and money. Moreover, they can also contribute through their networking skills. Schools have their own grounds, so indoor and outdoor event hosting is not a problem. You can organize an event any time of the year and save on venue costs.
So, what exactly makes a good fundraising idea really good? In a nutshell, it has to yield maximum profits with minimum inputs. Everything related with fundraising can be seen through this prism of profits, a good bottom-line. There are...
Dec
2
2011
Is there such a thing as an easy fundraiser
Yes indeed, the easy fundraiser does exist. But it’s relative. There are a few factors that come into play. For example, your fundraising target will matter. A small target for a minor operational expense can be covered through an easy fundraiser but you’ll need to think and work if you need to raise finances to meet capital expenses.
The idea should be to make the fundraiser as easy and as easy to carry out with as little expenses as possible. Money made in such a scenario is of course the sweetest earning.
Experience and expertise come at a cost. And for that matter so does quality. And these are attributes that make a fundraising easy. Do you know that there are certificate and post-graduate courses in fundraising? And guys with these qualifications make fundraising easy for you, or rather for organizations that can afford to hire people. They’ll source stuff from the cheapest sources, tap wealthy patrons, take care of the legal and tax aspects, and manage an information database. As mentioned above, it is all relative. If you have a workforce at your disposal you don’t need to pay for fundraisers, the volunteers will help you out enthusiastically. Experience gained in...
The success of your fundraising project depends upon how well-thought out your fundraising plan is and how well you execute it. You need to prepare as exhaustive a laundry-list of to-do’s as you can. Here are some of the questions you need to have answers for –
- Why am I organizing this fundraiser – The answer to this basically lays the foundation for your fundraising project.
- How much money am I looking to raise – Your subsequent actions and cost calculations will flow from this.
- What was my past experience like – If you have attempted and succeeded in a similar project earlier, you will know what to do right and what to avoid, you can do it better this time.
- Is there a better way to do it – Information is key and you need to know all you can.
- What are the sources of funds that I can tap for this particular project – This will help you concentrate your efforts on corporates, individuals, businesses etc as the case may be.
- What activities will work best – You need to spend time and energy on fundraising, where are the best returns? Choose from products, events, auctions, indirect sales, and different types of volunteer work.
- How...
What would you say if some-one was to ask you to list three or four most significant points that can make or break a college fundraiser? Let us try and go through the features that make a college fundraiser unique.
- Tapping the right senses – College means youth and youth means energy; there’s a lot of energy in a college environment. But how do you get the best out of it. By appealing to the higher and nobler instincts of youth and getting them to pitch in for their educational institution.
- Choosing the right fundraising programs – You have to be spot-on in selecting fundraising programs for a college event; you can really go boom boom if you can get folks enthused. For guys, it could mean anything adrenalin pumping, for girls it could be something that stokes competition. Maybe air-gun shooting for the guys and softball for the girls.
- Getting the theme right – Align the events and fundraising to the cause. Let there be coherence between the cause of fundraising and the efforts. The volunteers should know what they are doing and why, once this is accomplished. It becomes easy to ask for funds. You can reach out to people in...
Nov
28
2011
Ideas for smooth football fundraising
A couple of things are crucial to organizing and running a football fundraiser smoothly, it is of paramount importance to be aware of what your expectations from the fundraiser are. You will be able to communicate your needs to the fundraising company in a far more coherent manner in this way. If not, then you can expect problems particularly if you choose products for fundraising. Returns can be an issue, learn what discounts are on offer, and such things. Before you sign on the dotted line, you should be aware of the responsibilities and liabilities of the fundraising company. Who takes responsibility, for instance, if the ice cream arrives melted or the candies are not of the flavor you had ordered. What happens to your money in such cases? There are many questions and you cannot be too sure with the due diligence. Keep asking.
The objective of partnering with a fundraising company is to be in a win-win situation and you need to have your facts in order for this to be so. You are sacrificing some profit to save time by going with a company and those guys get paid for their expertise. If you can ensure smooth running...
Whether you belong to a club baseball team or a school baseball team, you know that you have to fend for yourself. There are costs and these have to be met. Traveling to a tournament costs money, equipment is an expense, practice costs both time and money, plus there will be sundry other operational expenses.
Baseball fundraisers are popular in America, it’s an all-American game and citizens don’t shy away from pitching in to take it forward. The important thing to remember is that your fundraiser should yield a high profit margin. But that’s not the only thing. It has to appeal to as many people as possible, only then can you reach out to more donors.
Fortunately there are many fundraising activities that are tailor-made to help you raise money for your baseball team. And there are several fundraising ideas that can be bespoke to the sport. Remember to check out baseball fundraising ideas that don’t cost a lot in either time or money and yet give good returns. Two examples of such an idea would be to hold a junk sale; all you need is space and people willing to give up stuff they no longer use. You can collect...
If there’s a fundraiser that is guaranteed to work at all times, it is a chocolate fundraising effort. Everyone loves chocolate and there’s a filling, shape, and taste to tickle every palate. The returns on investment with chocolate fundraising are very good and you can actually add to the bottomline by preparing chocolates at home or getting volunteers to make them. Artisan chocolates have their own charm and can sell for a good amount.
A search online will throw up results on fundraising companies that specialize in chocolate fundraisers. A lot of them stock chocolate candies from world-famous brands such as Hershey and Cadbury. There are any number of fillings to choose from such as pecan, different syrups, walnut, almond, etc. If your chocolate contains peanuts then mention it clearly because peanut allergy is not entirely uncommon.
You can sell chocolates at events or through door-to-door selling. For the latter, you can carry a brochure with you. Do not forget to arm yourself with a powerful fundraising pitch. The prospect should feel that he is getting a good deal and helping with a cause. You can offer volume discounts as well. This form of indirect selling has the advantage that you can...
Nov
23
2011
School fundraisers ideas to put into practice
School fundraisers are a common occurrence and in recent years have increased in magnitude and scale. This has led to increased competition for patrons’ time and money. You need to have a really solid reason for holding a fundraiser and asking people to pitch in with time and money. Many readers will doubtless be a part of PTA groups and will know that if you can hit an emotional chord with prospects, you are assured of funds for now and future.
There are many ideas that you can implement to generate funds for your school projects. Let us take a look at some attractive ideas. Each idea has its own strong point. Some will be easy to implement but cost more thereby brining down profits; some will require legwork but cost less so whatever you earn is profit; yet some will appeal to kids; and some to the older guys. A judicious mix of such fundraising ideas put into practice throughout the year will help you raise money to meet expenses.
A basket raffle is a neat idea. Sell raffle tickets and the winner gets a specially prepared hamper by children of each class. So there are enough hampers to keep...
