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Emails/Internet Email and Internet communication is becoming more common. Will this idea get us in trouble? Where are such people to be found? Telephone: You will be using the telephone to call donors, follow up with workers, and to finalize details of fundraising efforts. Building a team atmosphere through occasional meetings can also help motivate your team. A smile.
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If your non-profit seems to be involved in every cause and seems to want to try every type of fundraising, your efforts will simply be too scattered. Good body language. Some projects are more complicated and may need to have a professional touch to appeal to people.
Fundraising Ideas: Finding the Best Ones for Your Non-Profit - part 3
Marathons: Marathons involve getting people to volunteer to participate in an event. These volunteers then recruit other volunteers to sponsor them for money. For example, the most popular types of marathons usually involve walking or running.
Participants have friends and family sponsor them for a flat fee or for a specific sum for every mile jogged or walked. Once the marathon is done, the volunteers go to their sponsors and collect the money, which is then handed over to the non-profit. In order to organize a marathon, you will have to find a place for the marathon, ensure that advertising gets enough participants, and arrange ways to feed or refresh the participating volunteers.
The nice thing about marathons is that volunteers will often work themselves to find sources of money, which increases the amount of fundraising money that the non-profit can get through this method. Since marathons are also quite visible, many companies are often willing to help with expenses and supplies in exchange for some advertising at the event. Many non-profits successfully hold a once- a-year marathon in order to help with fundraising.
In many cases, you can get more volunteers to take part by offering prizes to participants who raise the most money. Besides that usual marathons that call for participants to jog or walk, there are other types of marathons:
Dance-a-thons: In these events, participants have to dance to provided dance music for a specific amount of time. This type of event is good if you have a younger target donor list.
Sew-a-thons: In these events, participants sew (or quilt or craft) for a pres-set period of time or until a specific amount of things have been created. As an added bonus, the things created this way can then be sold at a fair or sale. However, if you decide on this sort of marathon, you will need to make sure that you can find enough volunteers willing to sew or craft for an extended period of time!
Exercise-a-thons: These were popular a number of years ago, but it is still possible to find this sort of marathon hosted by non-profits. Participants are encouraged to exercise for a specific period of time or are encouraged to take part in once type of activity (skiing, swimming, horseback riding, biking, boating, aerobics, skateboarding, in-line skating, or some other activity). It is important to ensure that the marathon is not so long that people will be injured and it is important to provide some medical help at the marathon site to ensure that anyone who is injured or becomes ill can get the help they need.
Clean-a-thons: This type of marathon is very popular among groups with a green theme. In exchange for the possibility of cash and prizes, participants agree to clean part of a city or highway, often agreeing to pick up specific amounts or garbage in order to get sponsor support.
This type of marathon is nice because it has several side advantages. The city or town area will usually be much nicer-looking after the event, which means that media or town politicians will often support such an event, ensuring more participants. Schools, neighborhood groups, churches, and other groups interested in the community are usually willing participants, ensuring that you have enough people taking part.
This type of marathon certainly makes everyone happy. It is also a snap to organize. You will need to provide refreshment, prizes, and garbage bags as well as thick gloves to protect participants. You will also need someone to take collected recyclables to be recycled. Additional volunteers will have to follow up with participants in order to get sponsors contributions.
Kiss-a-thons: As the name suggests, in this type of marathon calls for participants to kiss for a specific period of time. In many of these marathons, participants have also tried to get participants into the world book of records for the longest kiss.
Fasts: Marathon fasts are becoming quite popular. Events such as the 24 hour famine raise awareness about world hunger as well as the money that can change poverty. Participants need to be told about the dangers of long-term fasting before beginning.
Cook-a-thons: In these events, which are often better for small towns where security issues are not as much of a concern, participants cook for a specific period of time. The food cooked can be sold to raise even more money or can be donated to a shelter or food bank. These marathons can be expensive to sponsor unless you can get a company to help you, as the cost of cooking supplies can be quite high.
Eating contests: Part race and part marathon, these contests are often part of a fair or bazaar. Participants try to eat as much of an item (usually a pie) within a set period of time.
Sit-ins: In the 1960s, sit-ins were used to protest certain conditions or institutions. Today, some non-profit groups are using the sit-in to raise money and awareness for specific issues. Participants spend a few days in a specific area, camping out creating a stir about an issue while also raising money through sponsors. This type of marathon requires lots of organizing and careful controls to keep everyone safe. Also, you will need to find someone willing to lend space for your event.
Read-a-thon: In this type of marathon, participants read as many books as they can over a period of a few weeks. In exchange, sponsors give participants a specific sum of money for every book read. Since this activity takes place on participants own time, there is no need to provide a space or refreshments.
Participants also provide their own books, making a read-a-thon one of the more inexpensive forms of marathon to organize. Schools and libraries are often willing to help advertise or support this type of event, as well, so you can be sure of getting help with this type of project.
In fact, any event or activity that can be organized to take place in a group for a few hours can generally be made into a successful marathon. For inspiration, try looking at the Guinness World Book of records and other similar reference works for activities that could be converted into a marathon.
Fairs or bazaars: These events take a long time and much effort to organize but they inevitably draw large crowds of all ages. Fairs and bazaars are basically mixed events that may contain rides, auctions, fair booths (such as palm-reading stations, pie eating contests, dunking booths and others), rides, refreshments, and other attractions.
Often, you will need to rent some of the apparatus (such as the booths or rides) which means that this sort of fundraising event can become quite expensive in some cases. You will also need to organize plenty of volunteers in order to keep things running smoothly. There are many types of fair themes and styles, ranging from country fairs to haunted house or Halloween bazaars to family fairs.
Dances and other entertainment events: These events usually charge for admission and the money raised through admission is used to support the non-profit group. Usually turn out at these events is quite good as the public gets entertained for an affordable rate. This type of fundraising event can also, in some cases, be inexpensive and fast to organize:
Dances: Dances (especially themed dances such as retro sock hops, country square dances, or 80s pop dances) are always a big draw and are very easy to put together. You need a space for the dance, some decorations, and a good DJ. Admission fees and the sale of refreshments usually ensures a profit.
Movie nights: Whether you decide to organize a drive-in or get your local movie theater to offer your group a night showing, movie nights are very popular, especially if you can offer inexpensive admission. In many cases, offering older movies for viewing will draw a bigger crowd and also prove less expensive to organize.
Plays, variety shows, and comedy shows: Live shows and entertainments can be a great way to entertain and draw in money (again, through ticket sales and refreshment sales). They can take some time to organize and require lots of practice and work from volunteers, but start-up costs can be quite low if you can get someone to arrange an inexpensive venue for the show to take place in.
Bingo or casino nights: These offer exciting fun and the possibility of winning prizes and money. Proceeds (which can be quite high) go to your group. Just be aware that some communities have laws about who can hold such events, which are sometimes considered gambling. Check local laws before trying this idea.
Dinners: Turkey dinners, Sunday dinners, and singles dinners draw plenty of people who want to meet others and who do not want to dine alone. For a dinner event, you will want food and refreshment, a place for the dinner, some decoration and possibly some quieter entertainment that will still allow for talking among diners. Dinners are fast to organize and can be help frequently, if enough people seem interested in the event. Money is raised by having people pay at the door for the event.
Holiday events: Whether its a family Easter egg hunt, a Halloween haunted house, or a Christmas caroler concert, hosting events with a holiday theme always draws those who want to celebrate a special day. Charging admission is a good way to raise money at these sort of events, and other fundraising ideas - such as sales or raffles, can be added to the event to ensure greater fundraising success.
Tours: Offering walking or driving tours of a city can be a great and inexpensive way to raise money for your non-profit, especially if you live in a city or town with a large tourist population. Tours can take place a few times a week during the summer or can be conducted year round.
They require little more than a few hours of volunteer time, a staff that knows about a city or area (or can learn about it by reading books) and some advertising. In addition to raising money by charging money for the tours, a non-profit can also hand out pamphlets about the organization during the tours, raising awareness as well as money.
Hay rides and barn dances: These activities are quite popular during the fall and summer, as they offer family entertainment for city dwellers who want to get away for a few hours. You will need to find a farm that can accommodate donors.
Additional fundraising ideas - such as pony rides and a hay bale maze - can easily be added to raise even more money. Setting up the event may take money and time, but once it is set up, it can easily operate for an entire season, bringing in money regularly. A farmer offering a pick-your-own business may be willing to allow a non-profit to use a small parcel of land in exchange for drawing tourists and customers to the area, so it does not hurt to ask around.
Drives: Drives are basically requests for things. Of course, all fundraising is basically a money drive, but sometimes asking for objects (especially for items that people may be getting rid of anyway) can help bring in a better response. Many people who will not donate money will be able to afford to donate something that they may want to be rid of anyway. If you are planning on having a sale, you may need to organize a drive first in order to ensure that you have the items you need to sell. Drives can also be used to gather items that can be used in a non-profits programs. A homeless shelter, for example, may wish to hold a bedding drive in order to get the beds and linens needed to house the homeless. Such a drive may get a better response than simply asking for money in order to buy the bedding. Some of the more common drives include:
Blood drives: usually organized only by larger non-profits such as hospitals, clinics, larger shelters, and the Red Cross, blood drives ask people to donate blood so that those who need a transfusion can get the medical help they need. Blood drives are expensive and require trained medical personnel as well as plenty of equipment for taking, testing, and transporting blood to be stored.
Food drives: These drives usually aim to raise non-perishable food for food banks, shelters, overseas programs and other non-profits.
Toy and gift drives: Often held around the holidays, these drives aim to offer toys and gifts to children who might not otherwise get a holiday. In some cases, excess toys and gifts can be sold to second hand shops in order to raise money as well.
Book drives: Non-profit groups having to do with literacy or education sometimes seek book donations in order to give books to students and others or in order to organize programs such as bookmobiles. Books can also be sold to raise money for non-profit programs.
Housewares drives: Some non-profit groups ask for household items which can help those in need or which can be sold for fundraising purposes.
Clothing drives: Some non-profits ask for donations of used clothing (sometimes specific items such as coats) in order to clothe those in need or in order to sell the clothes in order to make money for non-profit programs.
Volunteer drives: Some drives ask for specific work or volunteers for projects. For example, Habitat for Humanity, a group working to create affordable housing, often asks for labor work (construction workers, plumbers) that can help in building houses.
Many people (and even companies) are willing to offer their help and labor even if they are more cautious about offering their money. This sort of drive can be invaluable as it can save enormous amounts of money on services. If you need to build or renovate an office space, for example, you can get contractors to offer some of their services. Then, you will only need to raise a smaller amount of money through other means in order to pay for utilities and other necessities.