Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with fundraising

How should I promote my anti-Westboro Baptist Church fundraiser online?

melodykramer — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 18:57:40 -0800

Westboro Baptist Church is coming to my area this upcoming week and I've started an economic counter protest (through Facebook) with people pledging $1/minute to the Matthew Shepard Foundation for every minute they're here. We've raised over 35,000 dollars so far -- and now I'm trying to brainstorm how to get some major blog coverage so we can up our donation amount even further. So far, I haven't really done much publicity for this movement -- it just kind of took off through word of mouth. BUT...the number of new members pledging a buck a minute seems to be slowing down some...and we still have 24 hours before they roll into town.

Any suggestions on how to get the word out on a Sunday?

Best Fundraising Websites for School for deprived kids in Colombia?

lapsang — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 08:43:49 -0800

Best Fundraising Websites for School for deprived kids in Colombia? Yesterday I visited a small independent school in one of the poorest part of the city of Cali, Colombia.

The school is part of a formal, but small, foundation and cares for literally the most abused kids from 3 to 16. It is well-run, modest and is often the only source of food, encouragement and hope for many of the kids. The stories I heard from the in-house psychologist were horrific: incest, armed 7 year old gang members, extreme trauma and deprivation. The school of 130 kids is run by a Catholic nun (somewhat renegade compared to her brethern it seems) and teachers who accept to live on below minimum wage. They also ran a hostel but have temporarily closed it because of financial constraints. The nun made an interesting point with regard to the boys in the school ...that the school is the only reason they are not already in violent street gangs - and thus 'we are helping reduce a vicious cycle of violence here'.

I want to help (for free) the school raise funds and also in an advisory capacity. Right now however they have to deal with basic fundraising and making up a major deficit next year. I love kiva.or but I don't think it is appropriate in this case because the school does not produce goods or services for sale.

To help with fundraising I want to reach out to people on the internet and would really appreciate if you could point me in the direction of websites that can provide fundraising services. So far I know of:

http://givemeaning.com/
http://myphilanthropedia.org/
http://www.justgiving.com/
http://www.facebook.com/93dollarclub - is also an interesting possibility

Wondering if you can point me in the direction of additional online resources to help with fundraising?

Please help me come up with some great fundraising ideas so my co-workers and I can help feed DC's homeless.

DrDreidel — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 10:55:26 -0800

I need some fundraising ideas to help feed DC's homeless. Every year, my office of roughly 200 people is split into two teams to "compete" against each other to see who can raise more money to donate to the DC Central Kitchen. It's a great cause, and the competition is very friendly. I've been tasked with coming up with a few good ideas to raise money.

So far, here's my ideas:

- Charity Kareoke - everyone who attends has the option to buy songs at $5 a pop. The twist is that you don't have to sing, but can choose to assign the song to someone else.

- Keg Party - after work happy hour, charging $10 at the door. We're able to get a good deal on a keg though a contact at a beer distributor.

- Book sale - We're encouraging people to bring in books that they've read to sell to they're co-workers.

Has anyone had success with office wide fundraising?

Help me run a basic online donor campaign.

lunit — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 07:19:03 -0800

Tips for running an online (free or cheap as possible) holiday donor campaign. I work at a small non-profit that has few resources for running a holiday donor campaign, but we want to try to tap into the holiday giving season and suggest that people think of us in their end-of-the-year charitable giving. We have a database of friends and contacts, and we want to optimize their participation as cheaply as possible. I'm looking for clever tips on how to best run an online campaign. What "hooks" have worked for you? Thanks!

Fundraising ideas?

R a c h e l — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 17:28:38 -0800

Do you have good fundraising ideas for a high school junior? I've read the previous AskMes on this topic, but none seem as specific to my situation as I'd like. I'm not fundraising with a group.

I'm a high school junior, with a fundraising quota to meet for a program I'm doing. I'm going to get to go to Guatemala and participate in some sort of service project (I find out tomorrow what I'm doing) either construction of a school, picking coffee, working in a clinic/hospital, or reforestation. The money I'm fundraising goes directly into the fund fund that's funding our projects - none of it goes to the organization, my tuition, airfare, or anything else. Basically, this is a pretty much universally-liked cause.

This isn't, like, fundraising to offset my tuition or anything - it's required that we earn this - I couldn't even pay it off with my own, already existing money.

We've been provided with some tools - we can sell coffee, wreaths, tote bags, etc. The coffee is direct trade, which is great - it's from the farm where we will be staying/working, so that's awesome.

So, the first part of my question is, other than nicely worded emails and things, how could I sell these? I've sold ~20 bags of coffee and ~5 wreaths from this. I'd like to sell coffee throughout the year (I go next summer) but I don't want to be repeatedly emailing people if they didn't like the coffee or would rather purchase elsewhere (it isn't cheap).
As far as this goes:
-I don't go to a church but have already contacted one neighborhood church about putting a sign up
-I only have one more week to sell wreaths
-I've contacted those at my mom's office, though my dad's is more corporate and he doesn't think it'd be appropriate
-Many organizations around here sell similar goods, so I have decent amounts of competition

The second part of my question is, what are some things that people would buy that I could make? Are there recipes I could assemble or make and then freeze, providing people with ready made meals/cookies/whatever? Do you think people would be interested in purchasing entire pies or other baked goods? I'm a fairly skilled baker, always get compliments, and I have a few specialties up my sleeve. I also LOVE to make homemade ice cream, and I'm confident I could sell pints for $6-7 (is this reasonable?) that would far exceed even premium store-bought ice cream (think Ben&Jerry's. etc.).Would another email to the people who already bought things be inappropriate? I've pretty much harnessed my entire network of adults for it, so there aren't many other people I could contact (I could also include handwritten, colorful notes about it when I deliver the wreaths and coffee. Could attach it to a 'sample'?

Sorry for the length, brevity is certainly not my strong suit. Do you guys have any ideas? I'm happy to do whatever, labor, making stuff, etc. I'm not fantastic at physical labor but I am fairly artistic, kitchen-savvy, love to babysit but already do that for profit.

What to do with this national network of volunteer fundraisers?

metajc — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 14:24:00 -0800

People want to help us raise money. How do we help them help us? I just started working for the relatively new US branch of an international charity non-profit. Although our charity is very well-known everywhere else in the world, few seem to have heard of us in the USA. That said, suddenly, our small fundraising office in the US has been inundated with requests from college student groups and others who want "fundraising packets" (non-existent) so that they can go out and get us money!

Happy as we are, we need a standard operating procedure, some kind of model to use. We have one street team to use as a model and a heck of a website ... but I'm interested copying an existing model.

Who has a good one? Who are the experts in this? Legal stuff to be concerned with?

Track the donor and get the cash!

Fuzzy Dog — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 12:33:31 -0800

Donor Tracking? What are using? I volunteer for a small non-profit doing techie things and they are in need of a Donor/Member/Volunteer tracking solution. I have seen this question, but it's over 2 years old.

The solution I seek needs to be easy to use, have good support (I won't always be here to fix problems) and not cost an arm and a leg (Raiser's Edge is to pricey).

If you work or have worked for a small non-profit what did you use? What did you like about it? What did you dislike about it?

Thanks hive brain!

I'm on the schedule to teach at an event, but can't afford to travel there!

FlyByDay — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 21:07:42 -0800

I'm on the board of directors of an org that's hosting an event. I'm expected to pay my way to the event, though I'm teaching and donating my time. This is a serious financial hardship for me, but not for some of my peers. How do I ask for/get assistance when they don't need it? How do I encourage the org to move to this model for everyone? I am on the board of directors of an (international) music organization. I've been on the board for about a year, but have been involved in this community for several years, and am considered "elite" and established in this genre. There are 19 people on the board, many of us new, all of us considered the cream of the crop of this genre (I tell you this by way of set up, not to brag). This org has started to partner with various festivals and events, some of which are 2-3 day events filled with concerts, competitions and workshops. We, the board members, are encouraged to teach at these workshops. Our expertise runs an impressive gamut, so we comprise a good amount of the instructors at these events.

The problem for me (and for the org, as I see it) is that the board members are not only expected to run workshops gratis, but to pay for (our) own travel expenses and donate the costs in kind. For some on the board, this is no hardship at all; for others, it very much is. I'm in the latter group, unfortunately. There's an event coming up next month at which I'm scheduled to teach. If I drove there, it would be a 15 hour drive each way, and the gas would cost close to that of a plane ticket (plus the wear and tear on my car). I would also be driving alone, so that plan seems prohibitive. I also happen to not know anyone in the area with whom I could stay, so I'd have to stay in a hotel, which is where everyone else is staying. I do not have the funds for this. I am struggling right now to pay my bills.

I have approached the org president privately, as well as the board member responsible for fundraising. I believe that our model for all such events should be that expenses should be covered, and both agree that should be what we work towards. We plan to talk about that in an upcoming board meeting. However, for this event, for ME, I'm not sure what to do, and it's coming down to the wire. The event is only a month away. I am on the schedule. There's still the chance that the org will come up with some $$ to cover me (though the policy has been that everyone covers their own expenses for these events), but my inability to pay has to be brought to a sub-committee to be approved or disapproved. That's fairly mortifying to me, but I guess it's the "price" I have to pay for not being as flush as other board members. And I'm not sure they'll approve it at all. In which case, my options are to not go, or to accrue more credit card debt, and pay. Though this would be a good event for me to attend, as both instructor and board member (it is a huge event, and a good one at which to make contacts, be visible, etc), it doesn't seem prudent to put these expenses on a credit card when I'm struggling so.

I guess my question is...what are your thoughts here? What would YOU do? How do I manage my embarrassment of being "exposed" to my peers as someone who needs financial help to get to this event, knowing that I may still be turned down? And then further, any thoughts on how to begin moving towards a model in which these expenses are paid for all board members via some fundraising program? I know that the latter might not be answerable without explicit info on this organization, so feel free to send me a private message.

Thanks!

If Mommy and Daddy give enough, you get a toy??

rahnefan — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 13:17:55 -0800

Isn't Pre-K too early to use a kid for fundraising? Especially teasing him/her with toys and prizes? OK so I'm new at having kids in school. And I was aware that people try really hard to use our little ones to raise money. But tell me if I am overreacting about this.

Thing 1 is in Pre-K. He loves it, which is great. They are having a third annual Fall Festival fundraising event for the Make-A-Wish Foundation®, great. Here's what happened when my wife dropped off Thing 1 this morning.

One of his classmates was inconsolably crying, just beside himself. Really, really miserable she said. Apparently his Dad had forgotten to bring money for donating. There's a chart on the wall -- a bar graph -- with each kid's name, showing how much their parents had donated...and incrementally, the toys and prizes that the kids can win depending on the amount of donations! It's a competition.

This is Georgia pre-K. The kids are four years old. Do the teachers expect them to go door to door asking for donations? I don't think most four-year-olds have more than a very basic concept of money -- they think their parents can afford anything they want. I think it is asking waaay too much to expect kids this young to understand the way this works and see it as a situation over which they have any control.

"Don't worry," the teacher told the boy, "your Daddy has plenty of time to go get some money."

Thing 1 didn't care, just went on eating his oatmeal. Until this afternoon when my wife complained to the teacher about the bar graph. The kids in the class don't exactly read yet, but they recognize their own names (and have been taught to, for weeks), and they understand progress meters/bar graphs probably a lot better than we did at that age (loading...xx% complete).

"This is how it is all through school," the teacher told my wife. "Better get him used to it now."

Is this not unethical? And irresponsible?

Fundraising Ideas Please.

Chele66 — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 17:40:16 -0800

Looking for a fundraiser idea for high school water polo team. Would prefer it to be sensible and reasonably priced. Do not want to sale cookie dough, wrapping paper, candy, candles, etc, and how much money can you really make doing a car wash when there's one just about every weekend on a couple of different corners, so no car washes or garage sales.

Any unique ideas out there?? Thanks ;-)

Lessons from the Obama campaign

Anonymous — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 10:15:39 -0800

Looking for best infodumps, narratives, archives, and analyses of Barack Obama's successful campaign for election, with a focus on volunteers and fundraising. I know the number one thing leading to the campaign's success was one standard, general issue Barack H. Obama, so just assume I have a candidate, issue or idea that has a chance, that is a bit different, that is controversial yet also popular, that can be identified with hope and change. An Obama it is not, of course, but I think it's worth exploring Obama's campaign and seeing what can be taken away, because my orthodox methods are not working worth shit right now.

Insights I need most include:

- The development of the messaging the campaign used, particularly at the local and special interest group level, to recruit and motivate the fantastic numbers of field volunteers, particularly the ones that never knocked doors/delivered leaflets/made voter phone calls before. I'm also interested in getting volunteers that have never worked with a political party before.

- Insights into organisational strategies / campaign management strategies/other methods or resources that helped to lead to and sustain the huge number of volunteers.

- The development of the messaging and the organisational strategies used to recruit hundreds of small scale and repeat fundraisers, both online and offline.

Besides looking for narratives elsewhere online, I'm also interested in your lessons from experience campaigning, either from the top or from the ground. What worked as a call to action for you? I need people to be as inspired to work hard as I am, and I need a lot of new people to get to the scale I need. Even if these tactics are nowhere near as successful as they were for Obama, any reasonable rate of return on the time and resources invested here would give us an edge.

We have an awesome, awesome computer system to organise our field work, we just need more people power and more money.

I am aware that these methods go back to Dean and Before, so non-Obama stuff is ok too of course.

I can't give a lot of details of specifics here, but if you have advice or questions you would like to share you can send them to battycampaignmanager@gmail.com

Thanks very much for your help. This is a frightening and overwhelming experience but it's also a wonderful one. I've never wanted something to succeed as much as this in my entire professional life.

How long should it take to write/update a nonprofit case statement?

Jacqueline — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 13:16:12 -0800

How long should it take to write/update a nonprofit case statement? I've been asked to estimate how long it would take me to write/update the case statement for a nonprofit I currently work for (in another position). The audience would be potential major donors.

I've never written anything like this before, but I've been reading up on what goes into a case statement, have several good examples to look at, and even a ~12-year-old copy of the organization's previous case statement (that was the last time it was updated, apparently).

The more I learn about case statements, the more it seems like this is potentially a HUGE project. Some of the books I've been reading even suggest going around and interviewing everyone in the organization before writing it, mention that dozens of people are going to have comments and revisions to incorporate, etc.

So, I'd really like to hear from people who've done it before -- how many hours, over how many weeks, do you think it usually takes to write a nonprofit case statement?

Also, any ideas on where else I might post this question and get good information?

Thanks!

Recomend some fund raising software.

munchingzombie — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 12:22:33 -0800

Looking for some good but inexpensive fund raising software for multiple political candidates. It will need to track donors, donations, print reports, and make life easier without a bazillion excel files. I work in a political organization that runs four regular elected officials and picks up the odd school board or county legislator race every now and again. We do so many things well it astounds me that our fund raising information is crap. Only one candidate has an actual database and the rest are slapped together excel files from disclosure reports (GHA!).

I want to get them to use a single piece of software that can do the following

1) Keep track of all donors and each of their donations
2) Print mailing labels
3) Print call sheets
4) add tags to donors and donations (such as issues, or events)
5) Manage multiple candidates

Access can do this, but Access is not idiot proof and idiots have messed up previous access databases beyond use.

Right now all information is in excel and on my Mac. But reentering information in another format or for another OS is not a problem.

How best to manage a prize draw / giveaway?

Anonymous — Fri, 29 May 2009 19:49:22 -0800

What rules / laws govern prize draws and contests in Ontario? How best to manage a giveaway much bigger than I've done before? I'm organising a fund-raising event for a non-profit and a charity (2 separate organisations). I was expecting to giveaway a gift basket and a few CDs as door prizes. I've done this before and never worried about rules governing prize draws in the past at similar events.

Somebody has very kindly donated a trip worth several thousand dollars. This puts me into 'how do I handle this?' territory, as I regularly see long lists of contest rules and 'no purchase necessary' type statements on such contests.

Does Ontario or Canadian law govern such contests?

I was thinking of giving a ballot with a purchase (from the non-profit) or a donation (to the charity). Is this ok? Or do I have to do a 'no purchase necessary' option?

While I will exclude staff of both organisations from the draw, I want to allow volunteers to be able to be able to enter. OK? I will get the person representing the donor to govern all aspects of the draw to ensure no bias.

What else should I know? Hiring a lawyer to draw up rules is not an option. Registering for a license is more than I want to do. I just want to give this thing away to somebody who will appreciate it, raise money for the charity and promote the non-profit.

I'm raising money with beer!

pdb — Fri, 22 May 2009 12:12:47 -0800

It's beer! For charity! But....what do I do with it? I'm doing a charity event this summer that requires me to fundraise. I'm doing the traditional send-an-email-and-hit-people-up thing, and that's fine, but I want to do something else too.

I have a friend who's a brewer, and he's graciously donating some of his brews to me to use as I see fit. The trouble is, I don't know what to do. I was thinking of having a party. The party would be free, but to fundraise, I was thinking of doing a blind tasting of four beers - two of his, two of my favorite craft beers - that would cost each participant $5-10 or so. This is where I struggle.

What should be the point of said tasting? Should I limit the tasting to a timeframe, ask people to rank their favorites, and then declare a winner ("winner" of bragging rights, maybe, but nothing tangible?) after a couple of hours of tasting?

Am I missing any other great fundraising ideas that involve beer? I don't want to get into doing raffles or giveaways, because there's laws that govern that sort of thing for charity and this doesn't need to be that sophisticated.

Any great ideas for fundraising you've seen - even ones that don't involve donated beer?

Help me find the FUN in fundraising

AlbatrossJones — Thu, 07 May 2009 09:19:51 -0800

[Lack_of_Data_Filter] Democratic Senators and Members of Congress travel to New York City on national fundraising trips very often, where they meet with wealthy people, attend fundraisers hosted by friends/acquaintances, etc.. How can I find out how much money they tend to raise on an average trip to NYC? Even if it is a ballpark estimate, I'm dying for SOMETHING.

I can haz blog post?

anthropoid — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 16:34:54 -0800

What's the best way to ask bloggers to promote a nonprofit fundraising event? I'm working on the promotion of a nonprofit fundraising event and I'd like to ask local NYC bloggers to post about it. It's different from these two questions in that we really cannot afford to offer anything in return - we'd like folks to let people know about it because they care about the topic.

I have done the background research making sure we are approaching bloggers who write about similar topics and whose audiences might be interested in supporting our cause. I am now looking for your input as to the best way to frame the letter, what we should and shouldn't expect in terms of their response, and any ideas on how to best thank them.

Anyone have experience in promoting nonprofit events on your blogs?

Thank you!

Fundraising Party Planners in Chicago?

Uncle — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 15:44:22 -0800

I need a fund raising party planner in Chicago. So my up and comming theatre company has $1000 that we would like to make grow. We were in talks with a company to plan a party to raise funds and awareness but they haven't really done anything since December and the party was supposed to be at the beginning of May. Does anybody know of a company that will work with a very small non-profit to plan a fundraising party? Thanks

Using Creative Commons licensed works on a political website?

Anonymous — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 09:22:57 -0800

Dear mefites, Is it legal to use creative commons stuff, properly licensed and attributed, on a political website that 1) expresses views that the original author might not like, and 2) raises money, such as for a candidate or a party's branch? Particularly interested in stuff that's got a non-commercial license but is okay to use for derivative works. This is in the U.K. Thanks!

Dolladollabillz: how to get them from you, for charity.

liketitanic — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 13:53:56 -0800

I need creative fundraising ideas! I'm raising money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Team in Training program and need creative ideas for incentives or for fundraising schemes. I've already raised a quarter of my total through offering some "subscriptions" lasting the 4-month duration of my training ($10 = a postcard every month; $25 = a mix cd every month; $50 = cookies every month) and plan to ask for donations for a ride I'm taking on my birthday (.26 cents for every mile I ride on my b-day training ride, since I'll be 26!).

Other ideas or incentives?

Theater marketing and fundraising

nax — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 08:09:48 -0800

Where can a Russian theater go in the US to learn about fundraising and marketing? The theater in Yekaterinberg where my boss was a competition judge earlier this year would like to come to the US next spring to study ways to bring more income to their theater and meet other musical theater professionals. We suggested that they attend the National Alliance of Musical Theaters meeting in Atlanta, and that they contact the International Sister Cities program.

Are there other resources they can look into? I'm in Chicago, but we don't need to limit it to here.

Where do I learn to pick an ear and keep it?

parmanparman — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 05:29:10 -0800

I need to learn state-level and/or federal-level lobbying. Where can I find classes, events, or seminars to study and observe this? I am in the Washington, DC-area, but I'm willing to travel 1,000 miles or less.

help with happy hour

divka — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 11:06:42 -0800

Does any have advice in regard to holding a small charity event in a bar in the DC or DC-adjacent area of Maryland? I'm trying to scrape together the minimum fundraising amount for a charity half-marathon. I'm pondering a charity night at a local bar--either a happy hour or a trivia night. I'm in the Bethesda-Rockville area, but I think somewhere in downtown DC would work nicely too.

Before I start with cold calls, I was wondering if anyone had any experience in setting this sort of thing up? Do you know of any bars in the area that are friendly to this sort of thing? What will they be expecting from me on my end of the deal (minimum head counts, purchases)?

What are the best resources for creating and managing a charity book & CD sales project?

shelbaroo — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 17:25:40 -0800

My husband is creating a fundraiser for an Armenian aid organization in the city of Gumri, where he did his Peace Corps service several years ago. The fundraiser has two parts: a book of poems and their Armenian translations, and a CD anthology featuring original music by a variety of artists who have agreed to donate their work. What's the best way of publishing and distributing this effort? We're familiar with Lulu, wondering if there are other/better resources we’re not considering. Advice on pricing and communications for this effort also appreciated! We’ve used Lulu for other things and been happy with their service. He’s given this some thought and from the perspective of this project, Lulu has a few things in its favor: No out of pocket costs and no inventory hassles – he can set it up so that people can order and the checks can get sent straight to the organization. We want sort of a “set it and forget it” operation on our end – create the product, do an initial push of promotion and periodic follow up thereafter as time allows, but for the most part have this creation “out there” and available and generating whatever resources it can produce for this aid organization, without ongoing babysitting on our part.

However, we’re uncertain whether there is a better deal or arrangement for accomplishing this. Lulu’s cost to print the book in its current size/form is $5.61 per copy; the CD cost is $5.50 each. We are thinking that charging $10 for each (to purchase separately or together) seems reasonable, though obviously the current economic downturn means it’s probably not a great time for impulse charity purchases like this.

So our questions, in summary, are:
1. Given the goal of optimizing both simplicity/ease and net benefit to the people of Gumri, what is the most effective way to get this charity project done? Specific services, links, etc. are most welcome.
2. Are we setting the pricing at a reasonable level?
3. What specific venues for promoting this project would be particularly effective, and why?
4. Is there anything else we should be thinking about here?

Donor Base Enlightenment!

goalyeehah — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 18:36:56 -0800

What does "donor base" really mean? I am in the process of starting a health/wellness non-profit and have started discussions with someone who looks to be a good source for start-out funds.
I want to speak to her clearly and in her language. One of the questions she's asked is who my "donor base" would be. I have always thought this to be, "people with money" It seems that a "donor base" it is a more segmented and specialized than that.

The non-profit will be a resource and archive for people interested in the benefits of raw dairy.

What actually is a "donor base?" Are there actual labeled segments in the philanthropic world that one needs to know about in order to fine tune request. Or does the definition remain general.