Fundraising - Where to Begin?

Either you've raised money for a charitable organization or you haven't.  Don't fret, we have you covered. The most important thing when fundraising is to begin early, that way you're not feeling pressure at the end of the fundraising timeline.  If you need any guidance or have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out to us.

Also share with us your successes, we'd love to share them with the group.  Here's a few ideas for all of you to use.

Create your Online Donation Page through Active Giving

Login to Active Giving and make some customizations to it.

https://www.active.com/donations/login/

Username = email address

Once logged in, you can choose “Edit Campaign Details” to customize:

-          Write a personal message

-          Add a photo

-          Set a goal

-          Change page layout/colors

Hosting a Corporate Lunch
This is a great fundraising event that brings in a ton of money.   Solicit a restaurant that is willing to donate a percentage of proceeds  to your cause.  Make flyers or sell tickets for the event that can be  presented at the time of purchase.  Sometimes places are willing to come  out on location to your office building or complex.  This is a great  idea if you have a ton of employees or work in an office park where  other companies can contribute and enjoy as well.

Example: Cricket Wireless- Carl’s Jr. 

• Carl’s Jr. truck came to their business park and sold lunches.
• Team Cricket fundraisers sold meal tickets ahead of time for $10.  This gave them a good idea of how many people were interested! 
• They posted flyers and sent out emails so that the other employees and businesses could get lunch too and donate to the cause. 
• Luckily they didn’t have to increase the cost of the lunch to make a profit because they had a corporate sponsor foot the entire bill.  100% of proceeds were able to go to their charity!

Hosting a Fundraising Event
This is a fun and easy way to make your team’s fundraising efforts a  huge success. Just follow these steps:

• Recruit team member volunteers to help out and take on different  tasks.
• Meet to brainstorm an idea that the entire team would enjoy  (popular restaurant or happy hour spot, wine tasting, pot luck,  auction, etc.)
• Make calls to solicit locations and see what types of deals are  offered.
• Finalize a date, time, & location.
• Create a flyer and send out emails to advertise the event and  details to everyone- not just the team.
• Think about how you could raise the most $ and get a large crowd-  reach out to local companies to get prizes donated and incorporate a  raffle at the event.
• Assign one person to be the “cashier” for the event who collects  all cash donations. Then, make one online donation for the total  raised on behalf of the team event.

Office Competitions

Start a friendly competition in the office.  This could include just about anything.  You could create fundraising teams (i.e. accounting vs. marketing) to see who can raise the most funds in a specific time period. Host a game of BINGO and charge to play, conduct a raffle with  donated prizes and sell tickets, have a bake sale, coin drive, etc.

Corporate Gift Matching

Many companies have programs through which they will "match" the  charitable contributions made by their employees. Through corporate gift  matching, your employer can multiply your gift, making it go further.   Be sure to check with your office’s Human Resource department to see if  they do have a gift matching program and if so, how the team members can  take advantage of it.  Many times, corporations are generous enough to  match the total raised by the team- essentially doubling each person’s  individual contributions.  Whether the gift match is dollar for dollar  or a percentage, anything helps.  So,  if possible be sure to request that the corporate donation be made  online contributing to the team total.

Sponsorship Dollars

Another great way to raise a ton of funds is to reach out to other  companies to sponsor the team.  Many times clients, vendors, partners,  investors, local businesses, etc. are happy to contribute.  This is an  opportunity to bring in some larger donations.  The sponsor could either  make an online donation to the team, or you could request that the  check be made out to your company.  This is a way to hedge any expenses  of the program including, hosting fundraising events, purchasing team  incentives, paying for team registration fees, etc.  Any sponsorship  dollars that are remaining after everything is paid for can be put  online at the end.  This would help minimize if not eliminate, any out  of pocket expenses for your team or company.