HOW TO FUNDRAISE CHARITY MONEY

Whether you are starting a new charity, working for a large non-profit organization, college or a church, the question remains the same. HOW CAN WE RAISE MORE MONEY? HOW CAN WE FUNDRAISE EFFECTIVELY?

Digital Relay Inc. constantly works with clients who focus on how to raise charity money. We asked our most successful clients to share the secrets that made their fundraising events successful and insights into what are the most costly mistakes.

How to fundraise with minimum risk.
Ideally, spend as little up front as possible. This is true when choosing your location, equipment, event consultant, internet fundraising software, food, beverages and all other expenses both large and small. Negotiate agreements with vendors that will allow you the best cash flow possible in case of unforeseen circumstances. The more you can pay post- event, the better. Online software such as DR*Pledge or EventOnline offers such a pricing structure.

Make it easy to find you!
If you know how to make it easy for people to find information about your event, your fundraiser has just that much more opportunity to raise more money. This is just plain common sense. One thing to never forget is that your website’s home page is generally the first impression people receive when visiting your site. This is called the landing page.

It’s the page where you should send people from your email campaigns, the address that should be written on all of your advertising and it’s the address people will hear on the radio. The number one item that must stand out on that page should be a link to your event’s website. This sentence is in bold for a reason! It has to jump out at you! When a visitor lands on your page, it must be obvious that this fundraiser is the single most important event occurring in your company or organization. Do not force your clients to click on “Events” first. Do not even use a text link. Include an image that matches the branding of the event and your posters and link that image to the event website. It doesn’t matter if the fundraiser is an online auction, a fundraising dinner, a door-to-door campaign or selling apples online. This applies to all fundraising ideas. And finally, make your event website open in a new window.

Make it easy to register
Successful fundraisers know that registration must be made simple and easy! Now that people have found you, it must be easy for them to register and, most importantly, to donate to your cause. Online registration is by far the simplest and cheapest way to facilitate this. Your registration form should be clean and simple, but professional. If the event website and registration form look amateurish, people will be disinclined to register.

This is especially true for sponsors. If your goal is to under promise and over deliver, that’s fine. However,  it is not a risk worth taking. Many designers will be delighted to create a great looking site for just a few hundred dollars. Organize your event website in such a way that the “Register Now” link is clearly visible on every page.

Make it easy for people to donate

If you know how to facilitate the donation process for people , you are on the fundraising fast track. If not, you may be missing out on a lot of potential sponsors. The easiest way for someone to donate is via credit card, online. The fear of giving a credit card number online is a thing of the past and security is no longer questioned as once was. It is your responsibility to choose an online service that provides proper security. Bear in mind that it is illegal to send credit card information through email!! Unfortunately, many web forms, even if the page is secure, send the collected information via email. This is poor business practice and you really should not compromise on this issue.

There will still be time when you will come across clients who feel much more comfortable sending you a cheque.  Ensure that you offer the option for donors to pay by cheque when signing up for an event. For your everyday online donation, use a free service such as DR*Donate from Digital Relay Inc. (www.digitalrelay.ca) or (www.canadahelps.org.)

Up-sell!
Use your registration form (volunteers, donors and participants) to offer the opportunity to purchase additional fundraising items such as pins,  shirts, pins, coffee mugs, car air fresheners, Christmas decorations, and of course, gift certificates from your sponsors. Offer to mail them on their behalf to a third party address as a gift. You can do the same on your online donation form. Find free e-commerce solutions at www.oscommerce.com.

In the case of an event, there many games and options people may buy into which are easy to manage and can result in additional income. Don’t forget the fifty/ fifty! Before, during and after then event, you should give your donors multiple attractive opportunities to give you more money.

Keep your sponsors happy
Knowing how to coordinate a fundraiser with style is an art, and keeping your sponsors happy is crucial. More often than not, your sponsors will be your single most significant source of income. Bend over backwards for them is you have to. Give them exposure on a quality website, on your automatic email responder and at the event.

Another aspect which is often overlooked but just as important, is giving special attention to the sponsors’ guests (spouses, friends, clients). The fact is, if your sponsors’ guests are having a fantastic time, your sponsors will indeed be much more inclined to return year after year.

Also, do not forget to publicly acknowledge sponsors at the event, in the media and at any post-event follow-up.

Happy volunteers keep guests happy
This is an important aspect of the product you are delivering. If you are subcontracting to an event planner, chances are their staff will be friendly and can facilitate a great experience. Posting ads for volunteer opportunities on local volunteering forums often attracts genuinely friendly people who like giving of their time. Don’t forget to also your own event website to recruit volunteers.

Leverage everyone!
This is key. Be viral! Talk to everyone. Don’t just give 10 posters to clients, ask them where they plan to put them up. Do not miss billboards at universities, colleges and community centers.

Give your volunteers a personal page on the event website so they too can be part of a team, set goals and raise money.

Prepare an email template that everyone can use. Build that email list as large as you can. Use free mailing software such as phplist. Use your donation form and the registration form to add contacts.  Remind people through email to use your “tell a friend” feature.

If you are not sure how to leverage online social network such as facebook and twitter, certain event software such as DR*Pledge has it all built in. Contact everyone on multiple occasions prior to the event reminding them to post the link on their facebook profile, to invite their contacts to attend and donate the event, and to temporarily replace their profile picture with the event logo.

Build a community spirit.
There is nothing more frustrating than participating in a fundraiser and then not hearing from anyone until the following year. Or worse, to never get invited to that event again.

Knowing who attended to what event from year to year is a must. Donor databases such as Blackbaud’s Raisers edge , DonorPerfect, can help you organise your information to ensure no one is forgotten. Free CRMs such as vTiger CRM can also be just as good, if not better, since they can be customized to fit your needs.

Where charities often fall short is at giving compelling reasons to return and re-live the event. Post some pictures to the event website post-event. Use that ever growing mailing list to invite everyone to return to the site. Give them the option to order pictures right off the website as another way to raise more money. When the news paper articles come out, let everyone know by sending them links.   A couple weeks later you can post a second set of pictures online and tie in a post event online auction. People will become more and more accustomed to donating money to your cause.

Your final product.
At the end of the day, it all comes down to your final chef-d’oeuvre. With experience, you will become better and better at polishing your fundraising ideas. If this is your first time organizing a particular fundraising idea, knowing how to make the details run smoothly or estimating how much money will be raised can be very difficult to predict. Plan for the worst and hope for the best by setting reasonable goals and strive to meet them.

In the case of yearly event, putting on a great fundraiser comes down raising the bar with each successive year. This requires you to know your audience and their needs. Every detail is important. If ten things about your event were just wonderful but one thing wasn’t perfect, you can be sure that this is the one thing many people will focus on and remember. You will be undone by your weakest link.

Some simple things to focus on are details such as the following:
Try to eliminateidle time as much as possible,  where the audience is simply waiting for something to happen,  time standing in line , confusion, crowded corners to access auction or other items, long speeches, etc. Keep things rolling and the money will keep coming.