If you don’t think our little kits are the perfect solution and need some more ideas. Here, we will give you some golden fundraising tips and some unique alternative fundraising ideas.
| Tip 1: January is a time when Christmas spending shows up on credit card statements and families are feeling the pinch. Try fundraising in November and December when people expect to give a little to charity OR run a Valentines fundraiser in February, a Halloween fundraiser in October OR over any long weekend such as Thanksgiving when families are together. |
If you have someone in your group who enjoys buying and selling on Ebay, you might consider running a charity auction on Ebay. It is an amazing way to sell your products to a world full of buyers. Ask local businesses and the members of your group to donate items for the auction. Gift certificates, antiques, collectable toys such as LEGO or Action Figures. You'd be surprised what can sell for a terrific price. You will need a digital camera, someone who can take care of the items until they are sold and then ship them. You will also need to check for email from potential buyers several times a day. From the Ebay site, look for Charity Auction
Alternatively, search for fundraising products on Ebay which you can buy for a reasonable cost and then resell to your participants at a profit. Just enter the words fundraising or bulk items or wholesale in the search area. It is totally free to register as an Ebay user.
| Tip 2: Don’t bombard your participants with requests for money. Choose 2-3 fundraisers and spread them out throughout the year. |
Chapters-Indigo now offers a fundraising program. Your group invites guests to the store to shop. The best part is, you can showcase a choir, musical group or drama performance for the guests. Chapters Indigo will provide staff to help your guests pick out books and they donate 10-15% of the books sold back to your group. Instead of packing parents into a small gym, craning necks to watch their children perform, the whole event could be turned into an evening out and fundraising event. This would be a good idea for a Christmas fundraiser.
Chapters-Indigo also has a program called Love of Reading Fund in which they accept donations to promote literacy in Canada.
| Tip 3: Consider selling 2 complimentary products at the same time. Give participants a choice of product. This way, you are not asking for money twice, you can utilize your volunteers for both products and chances are, many people will buy both items at the same time. |
One company which offers several products and services both to the USA and Canada is efundraising. They offer the old staples: magazines, chocolate, cookie dough, and scratch cards. They also offer free info kits and free samples. Some of their products are also nut free. Just click on the Fundraising Ideas link to enter their web site. They claim you can raise up to 90% profit with the scratch cards.
| Tip 4: Consider the economy of your community. |
Tip 5: No fundraising campaign can be run without volunteers. Before ordering any product, sign up your volunteers and assign their tasks.
If you only have a couple of volunteers, choose a simple fundraising product and a simple plan. The easiest plan for a sports group, for example, is to have your fundraising product available on registration day. As each participant registers, ask them for the additional fundraising fee up front and hand them the fundraising product. They are then free to sell the chocolate bars, first-aid kits or whatever at their leisure and keep any money they collect.
If you have many volunteers, you are free to run a longer campaign and have volunteers help out each day. Longer campaigns can be much more fun and raise more money. Use prize incentives to pump up sales and reward the top sellers of your group. Draw on local businesses to donate their products to your cause.
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| Tip 6: Thank Everyone!! When people don’t feel appreciated, they will not donate again. Thank your volunteers, thank your participants, thank businesses who donate to your cause, thank your kids for all their hard work. Don’t just say thank you consider sending out thank you cards or hosting an appreciation tea. |
Tip 7: If you are asking local businesses to donate to your cause, let them know what you can do for them in return. How will you promote their name? How many people will see their ad at your event? How many people in your community will use their services in the future?
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| Tip 8: Values. Consider the values of your participants. Draws or scratch cards may be viewed as gambling. School boards may not approve of products which promote the eating of junk food. Certain movies or types of entertainment may not meet the approval of many religious groups. |
| TIP 9: Try a fundraising fair. Invite the parents of your participants to attend a once a year event. Sell all the fundraising products at the same time. Parents spend their fundraising budget on the item they most need. Add bake sale items, books and crafts at the same time. |
Tip 10: Why are you raising funds? People will give more generously to new playground equipment rather than to the school, OR a trip to carry out missionary work in Romania rather than to the church.
Know exactly what you are fundraising for and how much you need. Promote your specific needs in newsletters, on notice boards and if children are involved, get them to make posters or write stories about the necessity. Let people know how it benefits them and the community. |
| Tip 11: Don’t order a product you can’t sell! Don’t order so much of a product, you will be in the red. One way to avoid this is to send out a newsletter telling participants about the product, along with an order form. Have them pre-pay for the product. |
| Tip 12: The first time your group sells product, sales may not go as well as you expect. The second year you sell the same product you should net more sales. People are often not sure about a new product. They may be hesitant about using it. Once they have tried it and are sure it will be useful, they will be more willing to hand over the cash for it again. Word of mouth from other buyers is also a strong incentive to buy the second time around. The fundraiser then becomes and anticipated event in subsequent years. |
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