Fundraising is a tried and true means of acquiring the funds needed for a special project, charity or non-profit organisation. To begin with the people involved need to come up with an exciting idea, theme or unique aspect to motivate people to part with their cash. The initial stage of getting people involved and interested can be done through the internet.
Social networking is the new fangled gadget for this generation of buyers. So using it is imperative and pretty much a necessity if a fundraising project is to reach its audience. Many projects have launched off of social media. Reaching this group can be done through website development and just plain conversation with others on the network.
How this is done is the genius of every new entrepreneur wanting a new project to take off. Creativity seems to be the order of the day, and attracting attention through the use of, quite frankly, the bright and shiny new thing on the block is critical.
Schools and charities can also start their fundraising like this getting the parents involved as most people would already be friends on Facebook or other social media sites. The next stage is to think of an event or fundraising niche that can help you to raise the funds. The following five idea’s have been tried and tested and are proven to work as fundraising tools.
1) Primary and Secondary schools are well-known for fundraising. Anything from a cake sale to a sponsored walk or silence can be used to raise funds.
2) Hosting fun and new things to do for the kids on the school grounds can bring about donations and people will pay for their seats to watch a good show.
3) Sporting events for the children can be hosted by the school, and these gatherings can often raise funds for school facilities or even for non-profit organisations.
4) Alumni events for primary and secondary schools can bring in donations, and often the oldster enjoys seeing the current pupils working hard and will give generously. Gathering with past friends can bring about donations and can be a networking event for the attendee, too.
5) Raffles are a great way to bring in some cash with some well placed donations from parents or local businesses you can really sell lots of tickets and raise hundreds of pounds with very little effort.
The next few suggestions are only for the braver fundraiser with schools in particular in mind these are some great smelly fundraising ideas that are a little different.
1) What about getting the children to create their own perfume? Not bad since perfume is one of those customer commodities that seem to need new invention, plus the mother’s buying it will feel they can buy a unique scent and support the school or charity at the same time.
2) They can also create art work or arts and craft with a theme like Christmas, Easter, Mother’s Day or Valentine’s Day and they can use scented pens. This will give it a unique twist and get the parents excited, plus if their own child has made it they will probably buy the product.
3) Everyone loves the smell of freshly baked bread, this would be a great idea as a project for the children and for the parents to then buy the items their children create. If every parent paid 50p for a cob or baguette this would raise a considerable few hundred pounds for most schools. This could also work at a church or centre with a large amount of community support. This could also branch out into the more traditional cakes too.
4) How about a Movie screening night: people can donate the price for a ticket at the cinema and you can sell fresh doughnuts, popcorn and drinks and make a really good profit. The movie itself would have to be screen with permission however, if it was a school project to make their own films as most media studies students have to then this would not be an issue.
Fundraising doesn’t have to be the same old stuff; sometimes branching out into a new area can bring better results for you fundraising.
For more information on general fundraising including ideas for schools or charities, visit Easy Fundraising who can help with a school fundraiser.
Barry is an office manager and in his spare time, he enjoys fundraising for various causes and charities.