Finance And Mortgage Blogs | Jadeastrust.org

Posts Tagged ‘fundraising’

These three fundraising events work well for any size group. To maximize your success, you must create awareness within the community of both the specifics of your fundraising event and the reason why your group is raising funds.

Both are important to any fundraiser, but they are absolutely critical for pulling off a successful event. You have to generate enough publicity to draw a sizable audience and you must motivate the attendees to support your program.

So, which fundraising events shall we talk about?

Three Event Ideas:

1- Get The Picture
2- Rubber Duck Derby
3- Clean Comedians

#1 – Get The Picture
Get The Picture is a name I coined for portrait event fundraisers. The idea here is to offer family portraits, glamour shots, vintage photos, and other “dressy” pictures.

You’ll need a central location with plenty of room for costume changes, picture-taking backdrops, and a waiting area. The best times are usually Saturdays. Pre-sell the event with flyers and reserved session” tickets.

You’ll want to get photo commitments up front from 250 people to make this worth your while.

Your sales pitch should “Focus on the Fun:”
Capture The Moment (before it slips away)
Dress up Picture Party (be there or be square)
Goofy Faces Wanted! (yours included)

Or tug at the heart:
When’s the last time you sent a family photo Christmas card?
They’re not getting any younger… Get a portrait!
Mother/daughter, Father/son – Pictures last a lifetime!

Your group can coordinate with a local photographer or partner with a national photography chain. One that I recommend is Vista Studios. They offer a 10×13 family portrait for $8 and your group gets paid $6, plus additional performance bonuses.

#2 – Rubber Duck Derby
The Rubber Duck Derby is an easy and fun fund-raising event that can be scaled in size to fit your group’s supporter base. The actual event, crazy as it may sound, involves racing rubber ducks down a local waterway.

Your local community “adopts” the ducks for a chance to win valuable donated prizes. Duck races have become a unique and profitable event for many charities.

Your group sells a ticket linked to a number that’s painted on one of the racing rubber ducks. Depending on the prizes involved, tickets are priced somewhere between $5-$10 a ticket.

A standard size for a race is 3,000 rubber ducks, but you can adjust that up or down depending on the size of your group and the amount you need to raise.
Read the rest of this entry »

Location, Location, Location!

There are few things that are more important than location. It not only
applies to real estate, but to fundraising too.  Here are some tips to
expand your horizons when trying to maximize your fundraising efforts.

Traditionally, fundraising efforts are concentrated on:
-Friends
-Neighbors
-Relatives
-Co-workers

Besides the usual suspects, there is a whole lot of money in other places right under your nose.

You have to go where the money is. The big money in fundraising is being located where people are shopping. They are out and about with cash or checkbooks in hand.

There’s no better time than that for offering a quality fundraising product at these locations:
-Drugstores
-Home Improvement Stores
-Grocery Stores
-Shopping Malls

Drugstores – Nice entry-level sales spot. Generally have good sidewalk space available.

Home Improvement Stores – Big weekend traffic spots. Lots of do it yourselfers diving in to their next project.

Grocery Stores – Prime hunting grounds for product fundraisers. A small, high-quality food item does real well here.

Shopping Malls – Hard to get approval for outside space, but a location near the food court is golden.

And don’t forget the 800-pound gorilla: Wal-Mart – The Holy Grail of fundraising locations. A day spent fundraising in front of this high-traffic retailer is like being in fundraising heaven. You’ll have more potential prospects than you can shake a stick at.

Because of the sheer volume of Wal-Mart shoppers, you’ll
need oversize signage to get your fundraising message across quickly before
your prospects hurry on in

Casing the Joint Ahead of Time
You want the best location for your weekend fundraising table. Scope out the lay of the land. Check which entrance gets the most foot traffic.
Read the rest of this entry »

If you have children still attending school, then you probably know all too well the feeling you get when you receive a flyer stating the need for yet another fundraising event! That horrible feeling in the pit of your stomach that says you’re going to have to contribute in some way, either buying something you really don’t need and really can’t afford, or by donating hours of your time, hours that you don’t have either.

But do not despair. Life for fundraising people has got easier because of the Internet, and with computers in general, as you can use the computer to make your life easier in many ways. You can document the jobs needed to be done by volunteers, you can email volunteers to keep them all informed of meetings, jobs and the like, and computers can help you keep track of donors, donations, and so much more.

The trick with fundraisers is to find something that people want to buy from you, either a product or a service, and that you want to sell and promote. And of course, if the event is because you are fundraising for your school, ideally it should be something that will inspire as many students as possible to participate.

That rules out the good old favourite bake sale, as it is hard to devote the time to helping preschoolers bake for a bake sale, but with so many food allergies around, and fear of food contamination, I think those days are over. I remember how awful I felt when I baked for the school fundraiser, only to find that my daughters had bought the goods so they could see what mommy’s baking tasted like! I must admit, baking didn’t happen very often because of a shortage of time, but I didn’t realize my family felt so deprived!
Read the rest of this entry »

Fund raisers are a great way to raise money for your school, sports team or other type organization. What’s also nice about them is that they are a very sociable way to earn money for a good cause because you’re out there meeting the community. For younger participants, fundraisers can even be an early lesson in sales and marketing.

A very high-profit fundraising item right now is candles which are fun and very easy to sell because of their popularity. Candles are a much better choice than food or over-priced novelty items that tend to generate lower profits. They are a rapidly growing option that is more appealing to the public because they are a non-junk food alternative to fund raisers.

Candle fund raisers can also be very lucrative because they come in so many different varieties of size, color and scents creating a great earning potential. For school fundraiser such as band or sports teams, you can purchase and resell candles in your school’s colors. For any type of organization, especially religious congregations, think about holiday themed candles for those times of the year.

If your group has decided to embark on a candle fund raiser, a plan of action is a very important step for reaching your fund raising goal. You should start by determining the amount of money you want to raise. Next, figure out how many people in your organization are willing to take part in the campaign and then set your deadlines by deciding on when your group is planning to start and stop the fundraiser.
Read the rest of this entry »