Fundraising Services

Patrick J asked:


Two of my friends and I are looking into opening a bar/restaurant. We can not get a full loan from the bank to cover all of the costs in opening. One friend’s suggestion was that we have a fundraiser at another popular bar in the vicinity. Is this acceptable?

Stanley Gallor asked:


Nonprofit organizations need fund. Apart from sponsorship, donations and governmental aid nonprofit fundraising is the other way to increase organizational fund. A lot of nonprofit groups, communities and organizations appoint fundraising coordinator. The job of a fundraising coordinator is to help the group increase and raise fund.

Fundraising coordinators keep looking for fundraising ideas and products all the day, even when they are spending time in leisure. The job is certainly difficult and stressful but not impossible to achieve.

If you search the web, you will find a lot of fundraising products but you cannot use just any product for your group. Points that you need to concentrate on while choosing nonprofit fundraising product are:

• The product must go with the culture of your group

• It should be unique so that everybody likes it

• It should have the potential to become popular

• The product must fetch good amount of money

• It should not take much time to sell

With that said, let’s learn how to select nonprofit fundraising campaigns that brings you ultimate benefit.

The product should go with the theme of your group:

The product should go with the theme and culture of your community. That’s a good point definitely. Rest assured that most fundraising ideas and products are quite sober and nice. However, if you are nearing to any social occasion or event, you can choose a suitable fundraiser accordingly. Christmas cards, New Year cards, scented candles or Halloween masks are some of the seasonal fundraising products that may sell well.

Unique fundraising ideas, products or events:

Unique products become popular easily and it becomes easy for your volunteers to sell these products. To get unique fundraising ideas, you may consider talking to fundraising professionals and experts. Unique fundraisers not only help you raise fund fast but let you create a brand as well.

Popularity quotient of the fundraiser:

When you select a nonprofit fundraising product, make sure it has the potential to become popular. If you decide to sell Christmas cards in the month of February, chances are you will get a poor response! So be realistic while selecting fundraising product.

Try to address the issues that we all face everyday; for example, we all need to clean the sides of fridge at home. Why not sell a fridge frame! It will keep the fridge clean and allow the buyer to display family photographs as well.

Fundraising product should fetch good money:

Make sure you do not need to invest a lot on the fundraiser. Calculate the profit margin before finalizing your nonprofit fundraiser. Know the cost of the fundraiser and per unit price at which you would sell it. Then calculate the return over investment. You should always look for 50% to 55% profit.

Time factor:

Make sure the fundraising idea can fetch you good money in short time. If you need fund before a specific event, you need to raise fund fast.

Just keep these points in mind while choosing a fundraiser for your community or group. Consult nonprofit fundraising professionals for more help.

Juan Franco asked:


Copyright (c) 2008 AIM Fundraising

Why is it most schools doing fundraising do not apply the principals you see discussed below, I have no clue. Maybe because most schools are trained to focus on the wrong things while choosing and planning a fundraiser.

School fundraising companies by nature emphasize their product lines and brochures. But that doesn’t answer the question why the school down the street that picked your second or third choice had a better sale! Your fundraising success has less to do with which brochure you pick (Don’t they all look pretty much the same anyway?) than with how you run the sale. Even profit % means little in how much money a school makes if the sale lacks the one key ingredient… MOTIVATION!

Here are the top 2 secrets on school fundraising that if heeded will make all the difference in your final profit.

First Secret - Run Your School Fundraising Event as Early in the School Year As Possible.

Deciding when to start the fundraiser can mean thousands in profit gained or profit lost. It is a well known fact that the first group to go into an office or neighborhood with their fundraising materials to ask for orders has higher sales than the groups that follow second or third or forth. Timing, however, is not the number one reason schools have profitable fundraisers.

Each month delay from the start of school that you put off starting your fundraiser will take $6.00 off every students sale! Multiply that by 500 students and a mid October kickoff and that school is missing out on $6,000 in sales simply by choosing that date on the calendar! Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that waiting till close to Christmas would be a good time to start your sale. It seems to make sense, but the statistics don’t confirm that to be factual. THE Main secret coming next…

Second Secret- (The Main Thing!) The Thing That Affects Your School Fundraiser Most is How You Run Your Sale.

Two similar elementary schools can have excellent leadership and both be excited and they both start their sale on the same date. They both can do everything they know to maximize their sale, so WHY can there be $5 - $10,000 difference in results?

Ready? Here is the number one, the most important, the “Big Kahuna” secret of all. Program Management (how you run the sale) is the most important element in running a successful fundraiser. You may Say, “I knew that but what is wrong with the way I run our fundraiser now?” The main problem I think is that not many fundraising companies train the fundraising sponsors in how to properly run their sales. In the interest of “getting the sale” they let the school have the lead, especially when dealing with a “headstrong” sponsor.

The are several key elements in Program Management that are key:

1) Set Goals

2) Have a Memorable Fundraiser Kick Off

3) Keep the Excitement Up During the Sale

4) Place Emphasis on Motivating Students and Teachers

The most important factor for changing the results for a better school fundraising event is the motivation you provide to the students and the teachers. The main reason why one elementary can have an $19,000 sale while the another, very similar elementary, will have a $40,000 sale is the way they do their incentives for students and teachers! It would surprise you how easy it is to do.

Jessi McCafferty asked:


Organizing a college fundraiser can be rewarding and taxing or often easy and demanding. The contradictions may seem a little too much for a simple fundraising event. However, once you understand the market of these activities, it will become clear why these endeavors require proper preparation and a surefire idea in order to succeed.

College fundraising activities are different from other fundraising endeavors because they are trying to reach a different level of maturity: college students. Faculty members as well as other adults in the university are also part of the potential donors of college fundraising endeavors, but it is best to concentrate on students since they by far outnumber the other people on the campus.

These young adults are mature enough to make their own decisions, so it will be easy to appeal to their charitable side. However, college students are also hard to connect with. After all, they are usually preoccupied with their studies, their social lives, and their extracurricular activities. A good university fundraising plan must be sufficient enough to collect funds for these worthy causes. At the same time, they must be creative and exciting enough to catch the attention of the intended audience.

Show Them It Is Necessary

Among the popular university fundraisers are those that appeal to the need of the students and the faculty members. An example of this type of fundraisers is the “clean For A Buck” fundraiser. Here, the fundraisers go door to door to ask other students for a dollar in exchange for vacuuming their dorm rooms. This activity works, obviously, if the school has huge dorm halls.

Another similar activity is the labor auction or sale for members of the faculty. For a few dollars, a professor or any member of the faculty can have a student work for them. This works just like the usual celebrity fundraisers, where one can spend a day with popular personalities through winning the auction.

Everyone Likes Food

Of course, another basic human need is food, and what better way to collect funds than to use this need. College fundraisers can collaborate with various local food establishments such as restaurants, cafes, bars, and ice cream shops. This college fundraiser can work in various ways.

The establishments can opt to give a percent of their earnings for every customer the fundraisers bring in, or they can give a percent for every purchase of a particular item in their menu. Either way, both fundraisers work because they require minimal cash-outs.

For the “clean for a Buck,” the fundraisers will only need vacuum cleaners, which they can easily borrow from various individuals, while the fundraisers merely have to collaborate with the local establishments. With no capital invested, any amount of money garnered from the college fundraiser is sure to become revenue for the event.

The university fund raisers can also use other common ideas such as pizza fundraisers and discount card fundraisers, although they have make to sure the ideas can still appeal to the more mature market. But regardless of the difficulties, the university fundraisers are indeed fulfilling tasks to accomplish.

Jessi McCafferty asked:


There are times when you cannot organize the fundraising event by yourself. This can be due to a number of reasons - you do not have the funds, you do not have the resources, you do not have the skills to organize such big scale event, your do not have good fundraising events ideas for the event, among other reasons. Fortunately, you can hire a professional fundraiser to help you organize your fundraising event. But is it really wise to hire a professional fundraiser? Or should you do it on your own?

What Is a Professional Fundraiser?

A professional fundraiser can be a company or an individual which or who you will hire to do some of the organizing for your fundraiser events. Their services and their rates vary, as well as the terms for payment. The usual term for paying a professional fundraiser is by paying a pre-set amount. The professional fundraiser will then provide with the tools and materials, or the items that will be used for your fundraising events.

Besides the fact that the professional fundraiser does most of the handiwork for the fundraising event, one of the main advantages of this service is that it can used by organizations and individuals who do not have funds for the endeavor. This is possible for a number of reasons. First, you can use a pre-order type of fundraising event - people order and pay for items, then you give them items after a few days. The professional fundraiser will give you catalogs, which will be used so the people can choose which item to buy. Both you and the professional fundraiser will get a cut from the revenue. Another method is through paying the professional fundraiser a certain percentage of the fundraising event’s revenue. The percentage can be discussed with the professional. This delayed form of payment works best especially for those who need to hold the fundraising events but do not have the cash.

Why Would I Not Want to Hire a Professional?

Of course, hiring a professional fundraiser can have a number of setbacks. For one, the delayed payment can cut a significant amount of revenue from your endeavor. This means you really have to make the effort to make the fundraising event a success-and earn a huge sum of money. Otherwise, you will be left with only a few dollars for your efforts.

Control can also be an issue here. After all, the service of professional fundraisers is limited to a certain extent. While their services for fundraising events are effective if done properly, they may not be what you have in mind. Hence, you will have to settle with what they have to offer.

The Decision is Yours

So with these advantages and disadvantages, you should now be able to decide if you will hire a professional fundraiser for your fundraising events. Of course, it cannot be denied their services are convenient-a great alternative if you are running out of fundraising events ideas.