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When non-profit organizations aren’t out changing the world, they’re appealing to supporters and the public for donations. Fundraising is a constant challenge for non-profit organizations and it’s not because people don’t want to give the money – it’s because people don’t always know that there’s a need.

Fundraising efforts include direct mailings, advertising, and marketing campaigns. Each of these is costly and there’s no way to guarantee return on investment. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to gain exposure and elicit donations without having to dip into the coffers? You can – they’re called “editorial placements,” or as we in media relations like to say “free advertising.”

Newspapers and magazines live and die by their content. If people don’t want to read what they’re printing, they’re in trouble. Being able to offer a print publication (or even a broadcast network) with a story that will entertain, educate, or inspires its readers is a challenge, but well worth it if it’s printed.

Which of the following newspaper placements do you think will garner more public response: an ad placed in the “weekender” or “volunteer opportunity” sections describing your organization and asking for donations; or a touching feature story about how the organization is making a difference in the community? The feature story will almost undoubtedly send more people to an organization’s Web site than an ad, and the funny this is that the feature story cost the organization nothing to secure.

Why does the public respond more strongly to a feature than an ad? Because appearing in the media provides instant legitimization. People tend to trust the organizations or people they see in the paper or on TV. If you run a non-profit animal shelter that is featured on the weekend nightly news’ adopt-a-pet segment, chances are the public will think of you first when looking to adopt a pet as opposed to if you simply placed an ad in the Sunday paper every week.
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When your youth group needs to raise money quickly, you need a fast free fundraiser that you can rely on to generate the necessary revenue. The amount you make on these free easy fundraisers will depend on how much time you have to prepare and how well you execute your plan.

Here are three time-tested projects to raise some fast cash:

1 - Car Wash
2 - Yard Cleanup
3 - Community Cleanup

Car Wash Fundraiser
Car washes have proven to be great fundraisers in virtually every community. All you need are willing volunteers, a high-traffic location with good visibility, and some attention getting signs. You can put your car wash fundraiser together on short notice.

Here’s what you need to do:

1 - Line up a location with good main road frontage
2 - Ensure it has water access
3 - Assemble supplies list – hoses, buckets, wash towels, dry towels, squeegees
4 - Assign each volunteer an item from the supplies list
5 - Make 8-10 poster board signs in high-contrast colors
6 - Arrange your volunteers in 2-hour shifts
7 - Wash cars for six hours (Saturday preferred)
8 - Have dual lines so you can wash two at once

Your car wash fundraiser’s success will of course depend on the weather. If you can wash 12 cars an hour (one every 10 minutes in each line), you can easily raise more than $500 in one day.

Remember to put together a quick flyer that includes the reason why you’re raising funds and clearly states the price. You can even offer some extra services such as Armor-All tire treatment or interior vacuuming for an additional fee.

Alternatively, you can advertise a free car wash and just ask for donations for your cause. Often, this can raise more cash than stating a specific price, because people will see a group of volunteers working hard and having a good time, and may pay more than you would hav asked.
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1- Have a written project plan
Run your fundraiser like a small business. Have a written project plan that spells out all roles and responsibilities.
Slot motivated individuals into those roles and equip them with everything they need to do a great job.

2- Use your website
If you don’t have one, get one. Use it to communicate goals, thank your sponsors, highlight periodic offerings, recognize successes, honor individual contributors, etc. Promote your web site on all your materials.

3- Review previous records
See what’s been successful before. Look for ways to improve upon the past.
What items sold best? Get more of them.
Has your gift-wrap sale lost its luster with declining revenues?
Jazz it up with newer offerings.

4- Set a specific timeline
Make sure that your start date and end date are both firm.
The best selling period is 17 days, including 3 weekends.
Any longer and the drive runs out of gas; any shorter and you limit your prospects.
Avoid any scheduling conflicts.
Plan ahead to avoid overlapping other important community events, holidays, etc.

5- Actively recruit volunteers
Get more and better volunteers by going after them. Don’t wait for them to come to you.
Use a calling tree to root out prospects.
Ask for dads, older siblings, and grandparents to get involved.
Advertise for specific help via newsletters and word of mouth.

6- Identify needs and define roles
Do it ahead of time and match your group’s needs to each volunteer’s skills and availability by including it in each position’s description.
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Looking for ideas for fundraisers? You’re not the only one. Every group is searching for easy fundraisers that produce big results. Well, selling fundraising discount cards is one of the best fundraisers around.

Discount cards deliver considerable revenue for your group at $10 each. They usually produce average sales of 10 units per seller. Coupled with their 80%-90% profit margins, they also generate considerably more profit than most other fundraising products.

These are simple immediate-sale fundraiser products that your group can offer. Discount cards provide these benefits:

-They are easy to sell
-They offer good value
-They produce excellent results

Three types of fundraising discount cards:

-Shopping cards
-Pizza cards
-Fast food cards

Each of these fundraisers has benefits that are easy to explain to your supporters. They have widespread appeal and each can be offered for immediate sale or sold via a simple brochure.

Discount Shopping Card
What exactly is a discount shopping card?

It is a wallet-sized card packed with a selection of prearranged discounts at local and national merchants in your area. Most usually contain a dozen special offers that save the bearer either a fixed amount or a percentage discount.

Each card usually retails for $10 and provides for almost unlimited usage of the special offers. The only exception is when you custom design a card to feature a special one-time only discount from a sponsoring merchant.

This type of premium offering is often worth half the $10 purchase price all by itself, such as $5 off from a national oil change company.

Other money saving examples include free drinks with a fast food order, $1 or more off on a submarine sandwich, savings on video rentals, haircut discounts, free ice cream, and other special offers.

Because of their high perceived value (what family doesn’t want to save money these days?), these cards are excellent fundraisers.

Discount cards can often produce impressive unit sales per participant. It’s not unusual for each seller to make ten or more sales.

Another interesting benefit is the unique customization of the card. Many suppliers can place your schools’ name and logo on the front side of each card. This firmly affixes your group’s value proposition in their minds for your next fundraiser.

Cards are usually good for a one year period and bear an expiration date on the front. This creates a built-in market for repeat sales.

In my book, Fundraising Success! you can find a supplier cross-reference section where I list 27 suppliers for these types of cards.

The reference section can be found on my website at www.fundraiserhelp.com
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Return On Investment (ROI) is a fundamental business concept. Its also something that every fundraiser needs to take into consideration.

A business investment consists of working capital, physical assets, and peoples time.

ROI is the net gain that results from a business spending money and utilizing physical assets, along with the expenditure of employees’ time, in an effort to produce tangible profits.

So, the investment in a fundraiser consists of: any up-front expenditures that are required the costs associated with the assets that are utilized the value of people’s time spent fundraising

Some key points about ROI in fundraising:

1- Analyze your up-front expenditures vs. your net gain
2- Lowering costs boosts your ROI, but maybe not your net
3- Always consider the hourly value of each volunteers time

Put an ROI value on upfront expenditures
The most important point is to analyze all of your up-front spending versus the net gain from each expenditure. Obviously, don’t spend money if nothing is actually gained.

One example would be evaluating advertising expenses for a capital campaign. Before you commit to it, run a small series of test ads to determine the response rate.

If you don’t get the desired response, either revise your ad campaign or consider not spending any more money on advertising.

Look for areas where the returns are greatly magnified for every dollar spent. This generally includes effective publicity, quality communication, targeted prospect lists, and timely reminder campaigns.
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School budgets are short. Cities even need help. On top of that, there are all sorts of organizations that are looking to make some extra money to help fund them. Fundraising is the perfect thing to do just that. If you are looking for some remarkable method of fundraising to turn your school or organization around, there are plenty to choose from, but they may not all be remarkable. In fact, sometimes the simplest of plans works the best.

In fundraising, you need to consider two things. First, you need to understand what the percentage of sales you will receive through the fundraiser. This information should be in writing and put right in front of you before you start with the company. Simply, how much are you going to make off of each sale that is made?
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Car wash fundraisers are a proven money-maker in virtually every community. All you need are willing volunteers, a high-traffic location with good visibility, and some attention getting signs.

You can put a car wash fundraiser together on short notice, but they work best with a little planning. Here’s how to get started…

Things To Do List
1- Line up a location with good main road frontage
2- Ensure it has suitable water access
3- Assemble supplies list – hoses, buckets, wash towels, dry towels, squeegees
4- Assign each volunteer an item from the supplies list
5- Make 8-10 poster board signs in high-contrast colors
6- Arrange your volunteers in 2-hour shifts
7- Get advance publicity, if possible

How To List
1- Organize your group into teams - Promotion, Sales, Wash, Dry
2- Promotion team attracts new clients with signs
3- Sales team explains offer (use flyer for quick info) and up-sells clients
4- Wash team soaps, scrubs, and rinses each car
5- Dry team gets water residue off, vacuums, does tires, etc.
6- Have at least two lines so you can wash two or more cars at once
7- Wash cars for six to eight hours (Saturday 9:00 to 3:00 preferred)

Your fundraiser’s success will depend on the weather. If you can wash 12 cars an hour (one every 10 minutes in each line), you can raise $500- $1000 in one day.
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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!
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If you are young and just getting to grips with financial products, you may have looked into getting a credit card. Although credit cards are not an essential product for everyone, many people have at least one card, and so it pays to know about how they work. If you want to know whether or not you are ready for a credit card, then here is some advice to help you out.

When to get a card?

Most people think about getting their first card when they go to University. Although some avoid the temptation and others get cards earlier, generally speaking you should look at getting your first credit card from about the age of 18 onwards. When you are at University or starting out a job, you are likely to have more outgoings than you did before, and a credit card is a useful tool to cover some of these expenses.

What type of card to get?

If you are going to University, then you should look at getting a dedicated student credit card. These cards do not require such strict credit checks, and you can usually get a much better limit than you can with a regular card. Also, you will receive additional benefits such as discounts on books, clothes and music. If you are starting a job, then it may be harder to get that first card, although if you can prove your income you should be fine.

Benefits of having a credit card Read the rest of this entry »

Why does the credit card I’m interested in want me to put money into a bank account. Can’t I get a credit card without doing that?

An unsecured credit card allows you to obtain credit without having to deposit money into a bank account. This type of card does not require that you maintain any sort of minimum balance in order to use it. Unsecured credit cards are become the rule rather than the exception to the rule. Got no cash? Put it on a card and pay for it later.

Interested in getting an unsecured credit card? Just wait — the offers will come to you. Lots of credit card companies are sending out applications to almost everyone these days. All you have to do is fill out the application and send it in. Some companies will even allow you to apply over the phone or online. Applying in this manner allows you to get your new credit card even faster!

No credit? No problem! If you haven’t yet established your credit, you may not have received a credit card offer in the mail yet. You can go online and check out credit card sites. This may be your best option for getting an unsecured card. When you compare offers you’ve found online, you can choose the deal that’s right for you. As long as you’re bringing in income, you should have no problem getting approved. Your credit limit may be low, but it will get higher as you build up your good credit.

Shop around for the best deal. Do your research. Make sure that the credit card company that you choose is in good standing. You should be trying to get a card with one of the major credit card companies. Look for the offers that have lower interest rates. You may have to settle for a higher rate if you haven’t established your credit yet, but as your credit gets better, so will your interest rates.
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