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If you are a member of just about any club, group, or organization, you will probably become involved in fundraising efforts at some point in time. That’s just the way it is nowdays. If you have school-age children you’re probably already in the midst of fall fundraisers. Let’s see, since my son started school in the middle of August, we have already sold Entertainment books, peelers, wrapping paper, chocolate, candles, advertising, held an ice cream social, banquet and a silent auction. And that’s just for the choir!
This blog will be all about fundraising techniques for volunteers; because most fundraising for small nonprofit organizations is done by volunteers, not professionals. However, after a year on a fundraising committee you may feel like a professional!
There are so many creative ways to raise funds for your organization or cause. In addition to selling things or holding a fundraising event, nonprofits can also receive grant money from government agencies and foundations. It doesn’t take a professional fundraiser to write a winning grant proposal either.
In future posts I plan to write about activities that I have participated in and share our successes and flops. I’ll also write about general fundraising methods that you can use in your efforts. I’d love to hear your comments and, please, share your own fundraising successes!
Article by Amy Passmore of DIY Fundraising. Visit www.diyfundraising.com for do-it-yourself fundraising ideas for nonprofit organizations, clubs, schools and groups.
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our school in ontario canada raised $58K last year through writing grants. we got a comprehensive list from www.raisingspirit.ca and we had huge success. WE have eliminated all but one fundraiser at the school. The parents are no longer financially drained from the continual requests,and our parent council is no longer exhausted from the time committment. Well worth it!
Instead of trying to sell more wrapping paper, popcorn, candy, cookie dough, frozen pretzels or coupon books, why not give your School’s supporters something they will truly enjoy and use? DealsForSchools.com takes the “group buying” concept (where a large group of people can negotiate a better deal from a business versus an individual) and brings it directly to Schools that need to raise funds. Millions of families are already using sites like Groupon.com and LivingSocial.com to
Really great resource you all have going here. Just thought I would shed a little light on the online fundraising campaign my school booster club just started with GivingJOE. Basically, each time we shop online, we go through GivingJOE and we earn for our booster club. We're making a LOT of money and the great part is, it's free! All we have to do is go through the online portal. Well that's it :). Just thought I'd let everyone know how great this program is!
I like the jewelry idea and we did it but it only appealed to eh women. We do all of our fund raisers without a third party fundraiser company, we just buy or get the stuff donated - maybe we are diong it wrong. :-) This time we asked our members about their interest as well as visitors that we were expecting. We ended up with three categories of products. 1) Arts / Crafts 2) Technology 3) emergency items. We bought many at discount or received donations but these were our best returns. 1) MOdel / craft clay with a small clay oven. It helped we had an expert to show how to use it. Do a search on Polymer clay oven. We got a discount and all for less then $40.00 and sold over 2X that.Only had one. Crafts is a good area if you haev lots of ladies. 2) The best technology item was a small stone tablet called a personal rosetta stone (not the language course). I can't explain what it does but it was popular with the guys and discount was good with 4X profit only had one. 3) Best for last, Emergency food, water and medical kit. Not as much profit here but we had 3 could have sold 15. We got it at Costco. I highly recommend this one, you just need someone with a costco card and they might even give you a discount on the items - they cost over $100 off the shelf but they are great. It pays to have someone that knows about these popular items to help you find the companies that will discount or donate. Best of luck and don't do food.
Change has arrived in fundraising. I came across a website www.raisewhileyousave.com (RWYS) the other day when looking into Green fundraising oppurtunities, as I am fed up with my kids going door 2 door and selling cookie dough and magazines. I looked into this new fundraising program which is helping parents Save Money while raising money.they are also helping great causes which don't have any budget to run a fundraiser, as they do all the work for you, by building you a webpage attached to thier website. Thier products are these really snazzy energy saving product kits, which can save parent $100's of dollars on those bills we all hate to open. I thought I would share this information as we could all do with a little extra cash during this economy Im sure. My friend who is a PTA mom is always complaining about the difficulty of getting new ideas, and the lack of interest they have in the same old boring fundraising oppurtunities. I think this is very clever, as the schools and community fundraisers, don't purchase anything, the kids don't need to do anything, the kits save money and help raise money, and apparently they even send the kits out to the parents home, so PTA moms like my friend no longer need to chase moms around the playground to tell them thier products are in the sports hall for collection. we've all been there. :)
Hi, I'm the mom of 4th and 6th grade students and I've done many of the normal fundraisers. Our school is building an Outdoor Classroom and we found the most perfect e-fundraising idea which is also "green". We are selling "E-cloths" which are microfiber cloths that clean windows (my windows are now streak free)and hard surfaces with only water-no chemicals. The best part is everything is handled on-line. The purchaser only has to follow the website address, click on the school and make a purchase which includes shipping costs. Our school is getting $5.00 per cloth order! I like this idea because it's not an "in your face" fundraiser and it can continue throughout the year. Check it out at green4myschool.com. The teachers love the cloths and are sending them as gifts to all their friends and using them with the kids in the classroom (they've never had cleaner white boards)!
Our organization just finished a fundraiser that brought in more money to us than anything we have tried in the past. The company can be found at www.yourgolddrive.com. What they did for us was amazing. With very little effort or time spent running the gold drive by our members, we were able to get a higher participation rate and raise more money for our cause. The way they run it is simple. People who are interested in participating receive a gold drive pack. All the member has to do is fill the pack with their unwanted and unused old jewelry (like gold, silver, diamonds) This fundraiser not only rewards the organization, but pays the member for their items that are sent in. Our members for the first time were happy not to have to pull money out of their pockets or buy anything and in return they got paid. Our organization was given a large payout at the end of the fundraiser. Simple as that, all we did was promote this to our members and the community and YourGoldDrive did the rest. If ever I was to give my endorsement to an outstanding company it would be for YourGoldDrive. You can find them at their website www.yourgolddrive.com (they also have another site that explains their concept in a web video at www.goldforyourchurch.com A+ TO YOUR GOLD DRIVE.
Hello all. After 16 years as a supporting parent in dance, cheerleading, soccer, baseball, and most recently 6-7 tackle football, I finally found what I have to say has been the easiest fundraiser yet - as well as the most profitable. I found a company that uses a keepsake t-shirt to place a personalized message from friends, family, and other supporters for the team members to wear. The money is paid to the group or organization and they keep 60 to 70 % of the money raised based on the participation level and the product usually arrives in 2 - 3 weeks. The other % is paid to EZ Moneymaker for the shirts-ink-labor-and shipping. This was definitely a much better payoff for us over selling candles-cookies- or anything else due to our level of participation. For a small rec team of 15 we raised over $1800 in just 2 weeks. The web site is still under construction but I urge you to check into it at www.ezmoneymakerfundraising.com . I still have the information if you would like to speak to someone who has actually done this. You can reach me at
address@removed.I am the PTA President at my daughter's school. We are so happy with our latest fundraiser that I promised the owner of the company that I would tell as many people as I could. I hope this is a good way to get the word out. Anyway it is a relatively new company called ShareBecauseYouCare.com. They have an on-line department store which sells a little bit of everything. What they do is give a code to your organization. You then let everone know to go shopping through the store rather than the old-fashioned catalogs with a bunch of over-priced junk in them. Your organization gets a percentage of the profit from each purchase. The BEST part is that you never have to collect $ or pass out any merchandise after the fundraiser is over. For all of you who have felt the pain of "pick-up day", you'll know how much better it is that the items are sent right to the customer. We actually spread the info about the fundraiser by e-mail as well and asked the parents to forward the message around to friends and family. That strategy more than tripled the amount of supporters. Anyway, if you are in need of a super easy fundraiser, check out www.ShareBecauseYouCare.com and get your organization a code.
I took Michelle's blog advice and give2network is amazing! You can use online sign-up sheets and there's a good selection for the online shopping merchants. Our group has already raised about $500 in the past few months just by searching and shopping online. I suggest you all try it out as a fundraiser.
Great Blog! I wanted to share our new fundraising program with you. This is the easiest fundraising deal you will ever come across! You raise lots of money and your supporters get a great discount on Great Vacation Rentals in St. George Island! It’s simple: All you do is post a banner on your website, put information in your newsletter or forward an email to your supporters. That’s it! When one of your supporters book one of St. George Island Vacation Properties fantastic rental homes, they will help to fund your organization. For every reservation, St. George Island Vacation Properties will donate 10% of the sale to your organization! Plus, your loyal supporter gets a 15% discount when they book on your behalf! The average rental for this program is about $2000. That means you would earn $200 per reservation, just to pass the program information along to your supporters. Think of the possibilities... Just think how fast that 10% would add up. Call me today to learn more about signing up for the easiest fundraising program you will ever come across! www.stgeorgeislandvacationproperties.com
I wanted to attach to this blog with one of my own. We've just launched a new fundraising portal, and looking for early adopters. Please visit GiveWithoutGiving.org to learn more about this revolutionary fundraising program.
Hello everybody! I am a working mother of 2 and heavily involved in fundraising for my boys’ soccer team as well as a member of the PTA. I began searching for new fundraising ideas because of the demands of my schedule and selling things were just too time consuming. So to supplement the other traditional fundraisers I participated in, I started using the give2network. I told all of my friends, family members, co-workers, and fellow soccer moms to help out through this web service and it was so easy that they couldn’t reject the idea. This is how it works: You go to this website www.give2network.com and download a toolbar. Next, you register your toolbar to the group you want the proceeds to go to. Every time you search or shop online, use the toolbar to get there and follow the links to the advertisements on that same page. Yahoo gets paid when you click and poke around on the advertisers’ website and then you get part of those proceeds. Also, there’s a list of online shopping sites such as Macy’s and Barnes and Noble where a percentage of your purchase will go directly towards your group. If your group doesn’t exist on the page, you can simply create one and become the coordinator. Check it out! it’s really easy and effortlessjust a few minutes online and chances are, you are online anyways...AND you don't have to sell anything!
Hi, I have designed a unique program to fund local schools, churches and sports teams. There is NO SELLING of any products. Our website is http://usasavingsclunb.com. We have over 400 local merchants in Miami. We will be opening on June 1. We are expanding our program to over 100 cities in the next year. I would appreciate any comments or questions. Thanks, Terry Mowery
Hi Amy...Thanks for taking time to share. I wanted to tell you about the fundraiser i ran through my sons school. It was a blast. The kids were very involved and the profits were great. Many of the parents have pulled me aside to comment on the wonderful products received. The company is called ArtWare by You. Children draw pictures in school during art class. The artwork goes home in an order envelope and the families order to have that artwork tranferred onto an assortment of products ranging from tee-shirts to piggy banks. The artwork almost looks better on the products. The colors are so vibrant. It really does seem to build self esteem in the kids knowing there art is becoming a permanent keepsake. Here is the link to there site http://www.artwarebyyou.com/ Check them out!!!
This is a great blog Amy! I wanted to share information about a website I've built (www.nummafunds.com) that aims to take a lot of the hassle out of raising funds. Through it, fundraisers set up a "fund" and select web retailers they'd like to include in it. Web retailers include eBay, Amazon, iTunes, and many others. The fundraiser agrees to motivate people to do their shopping through the selected web retailers. The web retailers then contributes a percentage of the sales to the fund. The contributions are collected by nummafunds.com and direct-deposited into the fundraisers bank account. If you're interested in learning more please visit the site and let me know if you have any questions I can answer. --Brett
Hi, I read rebeccas idea and it sounds like a good one. I own and operate 2 websites that sell gold charms. I am trying to figure out how to get my businesses involved in fundraising. For the past couple of years I have sold to many schools. (gold number charms for football teams etc). I always wonder how the schools could make some extra money from this. I am willing to hear what anyone has any good ideas. Thanks Annette
Hi Rebecca - I think that is a great idea for a fundraiser that doesn't involve members having to sell something. Holding a jewelry fundraiser with a local jewelry artist would probably be very successful right before the holidays. Or, how about in the spring? You could sell items for graduation gifts or mother's day gifts. If you didn't have the fundraiser at a school you could also have it at the home of a member of your organization. If your organization was, for example, a women's group you could combine jewelry sales with something like a tea party or wine and cheese party. Thanks for taking the time to leave your comment! Feel free to share more of your fundraising expertise in the future. -- Amy
Hi Amy, I love this blog! I wanted to recommend a way of fundraiser that many people don't know of. I am a sterling silver jewelry artist, and have held fundraisers for various organizations. Basically what people ANYWHERE should do is find a local jewelry artist that makes things that are AFFORDABLE and good quality! Ask if that person is willing to do a fundraiser and what percentage he/she is willing to give. If it sounds like a good deal (free money is always a good deal) then schedule a day for the special event at a central location like for example you school. Make sure everyone knows about it... pass out flyers to local stores and see if they will put them up, call the local radio station and see if they will announce it, etc. Have the event last a good amount of hours so many people can come. The best way to find a jewelry artist in your area is to ask around or to go to local fairs and festivals and ask around! Hope this helps... Rebecca best-fundraiser-ideas.com