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Did you know that 85% of Non Profit Fundraising every year is acquired from direct individual donations?

That 85% consists of large and small donations but it is the steady stream of small donations that keep most nonprofits afloat.

One should plan and forward his or her steps careful if the organization is new and they are not sure about the process of Non Profit Fundraising.

Ideally, first step should be to cultivate donors in the local community and than move on to Internet Fundraising.

How does one raise funds?

One can raise your funds through grants, product sale and special events and by phonathons. Online fundraising is very popular around the world these days.

Primarily one has to find one or two donor who will make a large donation (known as major donors).

Let us discuss some simple steps to get prospective donors interested and involved in the project.

1) Create a list of prospective donors who may get interested in organization’s activities.

2) Primarily one should concentrate on friend-raising activities rather than a
fund-raising one, like organizing some special events (a spaghetti dinner, carnival, concert, or some other fun activity) with several door prizes.

3) Now create a mailing list of those persons who are somewhat interested or may get interested about the organization. One should include the following points in the mailing list-

a) detailed address of office and residence

b) phone number

c) personal & detailed information

4) Within 3 days mail a nice letter to every listed individual. In addition, tell them-

a) how the organization is helping someone in the community.

b) that it is only possible with the support (monetary and otherwise) from
good people like them.

c) ask them for contribution and include a pre-addressed return envelope to make it easy for the donor.

5) Try to invite the prospect to come as a volunteer.

a)  have a volunteer coordinator well prepared in advance to accept all calls, and to put them to good use.

b)  the coordinator should introduce them to the staff, and make them feel to be a part of the organization. Once a volunteer feels to be a part of the
organization, he or she (and friends) is more likely to contribute.

6) Send letters and newsletters to those who did not volunteer. It may work to good effect if they are asked to speak to their civic groups, church groups about the organization. A good relationship always pays. .

7) Thank anybody and everybody whenever and however possible on whatever occasion.

Finally, maintaining donors’ involvement over time is indispensable. Try to get them excited about what you are doing with their kind help.

Remember: Non Profit Fundraising is all about building relationships.

Fundraising is, without a doubt, extremely challenging work.  For any of you with experience in this line of work, you will understand what I mean.  For the rest of you, go out and volunteer your time with a local non-profit organization.  After that, I think you will understand.  While this can be a challenging profession, it continues to be quite rewarding in many respects.  This article was drafted with the new fundraising coordinator in mind.  So listen up, kids!

There are four major forms of fundraising.  When one mentions fundraising to the average person, the image of a well-meaning person going door-to-door begging for support immediately comes to mind.  While most of us have been there at some point or other, there is a lot more to this business than meets the eye.  And yes, my friends, this is a business.  We are in the business of managing relationships; relationships which, more often than not, are the key determining factor for success.

The first major form of fundraising is dealing with institutional grantors.  These organizations are often the most difficult to deal with, due to the inherent bureaucratic nature of these types of organizations.  On the other hand, grants and endowments from these organizations can often amount to incredible sums of money.  For this reason alone, they should not be dismissed.  You may have to invest a lot of time and energy into convincing these institutional organizations into supporting your particular cause, and this where the business of managing relationships comes into play.  A single grant from one of these groups could secure the future of your non-profit activities.

The next significant form of fundraising is the promotion of special events and product sales.  While this area could potentially include thousands of ideas, there is a central theme between them all.  What is the donor getting in exchange for their donation?  These types of fundraisers are labor intensive, and require a lot of detailed planning.  In the case of event planning, spend the majority of your time on ticket sales.  While you may want to obsess over every little event detail, it won’t really matter if people do not show up.

Direct marketing is another one of the major fundraising types.  This approach includes direct mailings, telemarketing, paid advertising, public service announcements, and door-to-door canvassing.  Direct marketing can be extremely effective, as it affords your organization the ability to reach out to a vast number of potential donors.  In this area, it is crucially important to have a reliable donor list.  There is no point spending resources trying to ask individuals or organizations for donations, if they are not connected with your cause in some way.  Be sure that your direct marketing efforts are highly targeted, and you will undoubtedly achieve the desired results.

Last, but not least, we explore the idea of approaching individual donors.  This approach is very similar to that of institutional donors, but it is geared towards well-to-do individuals.  Individual donors can contribute to your cause in a number of different ways.  One area that is common to individual donors is the planned gift.  In simple terms, this refers to the choice of an individual to leave a portion of their estate or life insurance policy to your organization.  Approaching individual donors should be left to your more experienced team members.  As we mentioned before, fundraising is the business of managing relationships.  A mentor once told me that “80% of your money should come from 20% of your donors”.  Wise words, indeed!

Talk about your hard workers! Band groups are awesome when it comes to putting forth the effort it takes for fundraising success. The key is making sure they have the right fundraiser that will leverage all that energy.

In this article, we’ll consider three band fundraisers that:

Take some effort
Are perfect for medium-sized groups
Produce excellent results

Citrus Fruit
One band fundraiser that fits the easy fundraiser formula is selling cases of citrus fruit shipped direct from the Florida groves.

Here, the band members use an order-taker brochure to explain the offering to prospective supporters.

You really need to go door-to-door or sell from a merchant table to achieve the kind of numbers where you’ll raise substantial funds. This is perfect for a band group with enough members to canvass entire neighborhoods by working in pairs.

Customers can choose from Navel Oranges, Tangelos, Tangerines, Red Grapefruits, and mixed cartons. Order sizes range from ten pounds all the way up to forty pounds.

A common size is 2/5 of a bushel or 20 pounds. Generally, you can expect to pay roughly $8 for this size and make a profit of $4 each. These are rough prices because citrus fruit can vary in price based on weather patterns and availability.

Citrus fruit is a wintertime offering with availability best between mid-November through mid-April. There are discounts for large orders and bonuses for ordering a whole truckload.

Christmas Wreaths
Another band fundraiser that’s a good fit is selling Christmas wreaths via an order-taker brochure.

It’s another late fall fundraiser that takes advantage of a holiday “must have” decoration.

Since they’re made fresh, you can get an early jump on the retail stores and conduct your fundraiser as an order taker before Thanksgiving.

There are a number of offerings in addition to the traditional door wreath.

Suppliers also offer door swags, mantelpieces, centerpieces, candle wreath packs, and fresh cut holly. Prices range from $17 up to $50.

Profits are approximately 40% of the selling price on most items, so it makes a great band fundraiser because the total revenue is high.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see how quickly your band profits can add up with an aggressive marketing campaign. You need to set some high goals for each band member, such as ten sales each before Thanksgiving.

Delivery is easy, with each wreath sealed in a plastic bag to preserve freshness. Get your orders in early and allow two weeks minimum for delivery.

Coffee Fundraiser
A third band fundraiser that produces great results is a coffee sale. Like the other two fundraisers we’ve already discussed, a large selection of pre-bagged coffee products are sold via an order-taker brochure.

Your supporters can select from twenty or more flavors. Most suppliers have small “dollar bags” or the better selling half-pound package.

Usually, the cost for a half pound of quality coffee is $3, and the retail price is $5 or $6. You can offer a choice of whole bean, or ground varieties.

The idea here is to tap into the market for something that almost every household buys regularly, then expand upon it with multiple flavors.

Their names conjure up images of a cup of coffee wafting delicious aromas throughout the kitchen – flavors like Hazelnut, Toasted Almond, Hawaiian Coconut, Butterscotch, or Morning Glory.

Again, success is best achieved by presenting your offering to large numbers of prospective supporters. Set up a table at any event that draws a large crowd. Offer samples from tiny paper cups. Get the word out to as many people as you can.

Your band group works hard. Make sure you pick a band fundraiser that works just as hard by being impossible to resist.

These facts are very important to understand when choosing a private label bottler — because those who sell low-quality labels would have you believe that nothing better is available because of the short runs required by private label customers. Nothing could be further from the truth.

In order to succeed, your label must be professionally designed and produced with high-quality materials using a printing process that renders a high-quality result. Waterproof lamination is also required for long lasting labels. This is easily achieved for an affordable unit cost using the right equipment for the job.

Quality of Customer Service

The design and production of private labeled drinking water is complex and requires intense interaction between the customer and supplier. Communication and a culture of customer service excellence is a prerequisite to the creation of an effective theme message and a successful event. Without a significant commitment to customer service on the part of the supplier, the impact of the theme message will fail.

A supplier with a fully interactive e-commerce site is an ideal way to create a high quality label, modify the label to reflect event changes and to order more water as demand changes.

A supplier that is experienced in fund raising and is willing to commit management resources to support a school fund raising program is a definite asset to individual schools.

Choose a quality supplier to help develop and communicate your message and to create success for the school fundraising event.

Student Participation

Students are both the beneficiaries and the key assets of fundraising. They can control the quality of their own athletic and scholastic programs by actively participating in the event   and friends and family fund raising activities. Gaining a student “buy in” for programs will guarantee success.

What to Look for in a Private Label Water Supplier

There are a number of private label water suppliers but they vary widely in the quality of their product offerings. There are three areas to investigate when choosing a supplier:

Quality of Water

Events with a large number of participants require proper hydration with water of the highest quality. High quality water in terms of health and taste is also critical for the acceptance of the theme and event message. If the water is low quality or tastes bad then the message will fail. The best quality water on the market today is purified using a distillation/ filtration/ oxygenation process that removes all impurities, including all bacteria, and creates a light, refreshing taste.

Quality of Label Design and Production

The label is the message part of the product and poor-quality labels send a poor-quality message. Production of a poor-quality label is a waste of money and adversely affects the message and theme.

It is very important to know that the vast majority (almost all) of the private label opportunities in this country come from water resellers (not bottlers) with desktop-model “thermal” (or “thermal wax”) printing devices with a quality level that cannot compare well to even consumer-grade inkjet printing devices widely available for less than $200 at your local electronics store. These label printers are very cheap in both quality and cost, typically ranging from $10-20k depending on configuration, and are widely used throughout the private label water industry because of their low cost.

In sharp contrast, a quality label, i.e., one that looks like a top-shelf brand that you might find in your local gourmet grocery store, needs to be produced with professional-quality equipment using professional-grade printing equipment. There are three types of printing equipment that can produce a high-quality label.

1. Rotary offset lithography;
2. Flexography; and
3. High-quality digital presses.

For most smaller runs (under about 10,000 units), digital equipment offered by Heidelberg or HP is the most cost effective solution, but instead of $10-20k, the minimum equipment costs for these professional solutions range from $750k to $1.25M per station.

Like most organizations, schools in the United States are subject to constant budget stress. Important athletic and scholastic programs are subject to budget cuts as demographics change and taxpayers become increasingly budget aware. As a result, schools include fund raising resources in their planning for programs.

Education should rank high on the list of tax payer funding. With exception of defense, it is hard to imagine a governmental effort that is more important to our country than good education. Education and schools focus on our future leaders and it is in the schools where lessons in character are coupled with the development of skills required for success in a modern society.

Fund Raising and Healthy Products

Schools, both public and private, have turned to fund raising to help fund sporting and educational events. Where large number of people have gathered, schools, through sports teams, booster clubs and scholastic societies have raised funds by selling products for a profit at events or by using team members to sell products to friends and family..

Historically a number of products were sold that generated revenue and these were mainly food products like carbonated soft drinks, cookies, pizza and candy. As a group these products were not considered healthy by many. Recently, for example, an agreement was finalized to discontinue the sale of carbonated soft drinks in schools and this is a landmark effort to help reduce obesity and create a healthy lifestyle for students.

Many schools are now exploring fund raising with healthier products. As a result private label water is becoming increasingly popular as a healthy alternative method to raise funds.

Private Label Drinking Water

Private label drinking water is an effective and healthy way to raise funds for a number of reasons:

•    If the water is purified, it represents a wholesome addition to a healthy lifestyle.

•    Creation of a private label is an effective form of advertising that adds value to the water and the event. This additional value is reflected in a higher price, greater revenue and more profit.

•    Private label water is consumable advertising that is often carried from the event and serves as a reminder to participants and others.

•    The label design offers flexibility that allows schedules and scores to be listed and updated.

•    Private label water is ideal for outdoor events and is very cost effective. The cost decreases as volume increases.

•    Private label water can easily establish a brand identity for the school or team.

•    The design of one label can be used for many school events.

Two Avenues of Fund Raising

Private label water is a versatile tool for fund raising. It can be sold directly at school events and players and participants can resell private label water to friends and family to raise revenue. Either avenue is an effective fund raising device.

Both avenues are available to schools most of the calendar year and provide consistent fund raising opportunities.

Since many schools and other organizations today find themselves suffering from a chronic state of under-funding, they are increasingly forced to hold multiple fundraisers through the course of the year. Unfortunately, this can lead to a complete ‘fundraiser burnout’ for many customers as well as for fundraising salespeople.

So the critical question is: how do you maintain real interest on the part of customers so as to keep support for your group strong, and how do you keep your salespeople from flagging, losing energy and interest in raising money for your organization? Although there are many potential solutions, here are just a few examples to get started with.

In order to keep customer interest high, and as a way of maintaining goodwill, sell different products during each fundraiser throughout the year. There’s nothing wrong with repeating a successful fundraiser, but once a year is probably more than enough – even an extremely popular fundraising option can quickly lead to customer burnout if it’s repeated too frequently.

As a matter of maintaining customer goodwill, offer useful products and services in your fundraisers – everyone loves cookies and chocolates, but there comes a point where customers will only be buying them to support the organization; some will just quit buying them at all. If you find a way to provide goods or services that supporters of the organization already want, then they are able to support your organization by buying something that they might have somewhere else anyway – a win-win situation.

As a corollary of this, be sure not to have too many fundraisers – you’re better off with a few wildly successful ones than a dozen mediocre fundraising programs – customers will buy more readily when they’re asked to buy less often, and salespeople can stay excited if they’re not asked to sell constantly.

To keep your salespeople excited, offer creative incentives to encourage them to compete with one another. Depending on your organization, the chance to throw pies at a principal or dunk some other authority figure could go over very well. Also, make the connection obvious – show your salespeople the benefits that the organization will see from fundraising and by extension the benefits that they themselves will see.

There are many other ways to keep fundraising fun and ensure that your customers and salespeople stay interested – just make sure to use common sense and think positively and creatively – your organization is bound to be successful!

Looking for tips on writing a better fundraising letter? Use these quick tips  to craft your next donation request letter. Feel free to modify the sample letter below to fit your specific needs.

-Good news – Always start the letter with a series of good news
- Use bullets to build momentum and make entire letter entertaining and informative
- Use foreshadowing to tease your reader and keep him or her reading.
- Create a widow at the end of the first page (a thought that’s finished on page two)
- Make your reader turn the page
- Describe what you want to do next
- Tell what you’re going to do.
- Why you’re going to do it.
- How you’re going to do it.
- What results you expect.

List suggested contribution amounts
- Use even numbersin graduated amounts
- Offer a monthly auto charge credit card option ($10 a month is $120 a year)
- Include a blank line for write-in amounts
-Remind readers that their contribution is your budget – Your successes have been possible because of their past contributions
- Thank them!

Use P.S.’s for skimmers
- May titillate skimmers and get them to read the entire letter.
- To create a sense of urgency.

Sample Donation Request Letter

Date

Dear Name of sponsor,

On (date of event), I will join hundreds of others to help end the devastating effects of multiple sclerosis by (riding/walking/skating) in the MS (event name). By making a pledge on my behalf, you are supporting research and local services to those affected with this unpredictable disease.

Give details – Tell your story: I have a personal stake in this particular event. My (dad, aunt, sister) has MS. Not only do I want to help him/her, but also the many others diagnosed with MS. MS is a disease that affects the central nervous system. Some symptoms of MS may include loss of balance, impaired vision and hearing, fatigue, muscle weakness and, in some,
paralysis. Even simple everyday living skills become increasingly difficult.
Everyone is affected differently by these symptoms.

My goal is to raise at least (specify dollar amount) this year, which represents $1 for every person with MS registered with our local MS Chapter. Please help me reach that goal with your pledge. Your donation is tax deductible. If you wish, you may mail all or part of your payment amount today in the self-addressed stamped envelope enclosed with this letter.

Otherwise, I will collect your pledge after the event. Please make your check
payable to the National MS Society. My deadline to get my pledges in is (deadline date).  Following the event, I will send out a brief recap of the MS (event name) to all my sponsors.

Thank you in advance for your support. Please call me if you have any questions or comments about the MS (event name).  I can be reached at (phone number).

Sincerely,

Your name

For larger fundraising projects you should put together a team to help you otherwise you will be stretched far too thin and stand a good chance of failing. The ideal team from a cost perspective is volunteer-based but you might have to occasionally hire someone especially if it’s for a specialized task that most people can’t do.

Many people dread being asked to volunteer and do so begrudgingly but you will be surprised at how many people you ask will be more than happy to “roll up their sleeves” and pitch in for no other reason than to help out a good cause.

The best people to approach in building your fundraising team should be individuals or groups that are sympathetic to your cause. Example: Parents with players on the football team have a vested interest in helping the team get new uniforms.

Others are just naturally giving in their time and are usually involved in several projects at once. If you can land one of these types of go-getters on your team they often have the drive and ambition of several volunteers.

To find volunteers just use common sense. Try the people that are tied to the cause first and build from there. You might consider placing ads in your local grocery stores if they have free Community Bulletin Boards in the entrance and exits. Another idea is to approach your local paper and see if they will donate a small ad for you to use to find help.

Talk to your prospective volunteers and tell them exactly what you are trying to accomplish and what you would expect from them in terms of time and effort. It’s a good idea to have some type of fundraising plan drawn up that you can show them as this not only shows that you are organized and serious but they will also be better able to see how the time and skill requirements fits into their schedules and abilities.

Training should be done by you or someone that knows the exact role the volunteer will be performing and you want to be sure to thoroughly go over any tasks and duties they will be performing so there are no misunderstandings later on. Be careful to not talk down to them or lecture them. Remember, they are giving you one of their most precious resources, their time, so respect that and them as a person and you will go far.

It is important to match the task with the person when making job assignments. You probably wouldn’t want someone who is an expert in selling to stuff envelopes when they would be more valuable and happy working the phones trying to solicit donors.

If you are working from an office environment be sure and make it as pleasant and comfortable a place as you can. Easy access to snacks and drinks (maybe provided free by a generous donor?) should be available and any other creature comforts you can add will be most welcome.

If it’s a long project you might want to consider some type of event for reaching a milestone. This would of course depend on your budget but it could be something as simple as bringing in pizza to celebrate.

Always keep an eye out for overwork and stress. People that have volunteered want to help you so respect them and if it looks like they are being overwhelmed it’s time to bring in some more help. The key idea is to keep them happy and wanting to continue to help rather than feeling like they are stuck because they are too polite to quit.

Be sure and give praise and say thanks often to each and everyone of your volunteers. Let them know how appreciative you are of their help.

Keep an eye out for any personality conflicts and work swiftly to resolve them. This might be something solved easily like relocating someone to another part of the office or it might mean asking the person to leave. Don’t be afraid to do this if you have to because you ultimately are responsible for the group as a whole and the success of the project falls on your shoulders. Be a leader!

Follow these simple steps, communicate frequently, respect and thank your team often and you will find that your fundraiser will be a great success!

When trying to get a fundraiser set up probably the hardest decision you will encounter is trying to decide which fundraising idea will work best for you. Choosing a fundraising idea is not as easy as one may think with the variety of ideas available. Many companies do business supply products as fundraising ideas for various organizations. Not only will you have to decide which product to sell, but you have to choose one of the many ways to conduct fundraising.

Some of the fund raising ideas for the product itself range from chocolates, cookies, candy, pet supplies, magnets, candles, books, posters, and the list goes on. Your next step will be deciding how you are going to get these products to the people. Maybe your fundraising idea will be to sell from door to door. This has the advantage of talking to the people face to face about your fundraising, but be prepared that everyone you talk to will not welcome you with open arms and will close the door in your face.

Another fundraising idea you have is direct mail. This is not by selling a product, but by asking directly for donations. It can be a bit costly because letters have to be made up. To have these done properly, they should be done by a marketing firm, which can cost you more than you anticipated. This fundraiser idea will have to have self addressed envelopes included for donors to respond, and there is really no way of telling how much money your fund raising will solicit from the donors out there.

Out of all the fund raising ideas that are out there the donation boxes as got to be among the easiest and the cheapest way to coordinate a fund raiser. This is where you place containers in the businesses around town. These boxes are usually clear with the group’s name printed clearly on the container. Be prepared though, the drawback for this fundraising idea is that the boxes fill up very slowly and you can’t depend on this for your whole fund raising. This fundraising idea is a supplement for other fund raising ideas.

Another way to make a fundraising idea work is to team up with other groups. In this way you have all the fundraising help you need and the results can really pay off. Combining schools and churches for instance can make a very successful fund raiser. There are many more fundraiser ideas that you can explore. It is you that will have to decide which fundraiser ideas will work best for you and your cause.

There are lots of fundraising ideas, but you have to know what you need, plan it and do it well for it to succeed.