Body & Soul1 min ago
Fundraising
6 Answers
hey all!
I wasn't sure which category to post this Q in but as the Chatterbank seems to cover most things, here goes!
I seem to find myself involved in all manner of groups & charities & am trying to come up with some new, innovative, interesting & exciting ways of fundraising. People must get bored with the same old raffles, bingo nites, quiz nites, cake stalls, calendars etc.
Does anyone have any ideas, suggestions for fundraising? Come on .. no holds barred!!!
T.I. A
I wasn't sure which category to post this Q in but as the Chatterbank seems to cover most things, here goes!
I seem to find myself involved in all manner of groups & charities & am trying to come up with some new, innovative, interesting & exciting ways of fundraising. People must get bored with the same old raffles, bingo nites, quiz nites, cake stalls, calendars etc.
Does anyone have any ideas, suggestions for fundraising? Come on .. no holds barred!!!
T.I. A
Answers
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A friend of mine supports the local hospice who helped her mother when she was dying from cancer. Last year she organised a charity ball, together with an auction, photographer, flight simulator, casino, entertainment etc in her honour. Tickets were quite expensive but it was a total sell out and they raised something like �18k for the hospice. Plus it was a truly wonderful night.
Charity balls are great, especially with raffles and if you can get the local high earners involved, solicitors, accountants, bankers etc... and get some great gifts donated for free advertising.
Jailbreaks are good fun, I did the old fashioned hitching way which is a bit dangerous but you could get the local police involved and get people raffled out of a jailcell or dress them up and get them to find their way from one point to another getting donations along the way.
You could ask local groups to busk to raise money for them like choirs or mini orchestra groups (you often see the students from the Great Nothern College and Cheethams out busking in town and they rake it in!).
A fashion show is great fun, get local shops to donate clothing for the advertising.
Charity bagpacking in supermarkets or Christmas gift wrapping.
Some carnivals can be good for fundraising, I once walked the whole 3 and a half miles of the Bridgewater carnival dressed (or not) in a basque, stocking, suspenders etc... and got quite a lot in my collection tin :)
I went on one a few years ago where firms of solicitors, accountants etc... were invited for a scavenger hunt round town, we had clues to find pubs along the way then a question in pub and random things to collect. One of my old firms won the "most daring thing" award with a naked picture of one of the doormen from a local lapdancing club! Great night, fun rivalry and the pub element adds a certain something :)
Jailbreaks are good fun, I did the old fashioned hitching way which is a bit dangerous but you could get the local police involved and get people raffled out of a jailcell or dress them up and get them to find their way from one point to another getting donations along the way.
You could ask local groups to busk to raise money for them like choirs or mini orchestra groups (you often see the students from the Great Nothern College and Cheethams out busking in town and they rake it in!).
A fashion show is great fun, get local shops to donate clothing for the advertising.
Charity bagpacking in supermarkets or Christmas gift wrapping.
Some carnivals can be good for fundraising, I once walked the whole 3 and a half miles of the Bridgewater carnival dressed (or not) in a basque, stocking, suspenders etc... and got quite a lot in my collection tin :)
I went on one a few years ago where firms of solicitors, accountants etc... were invited for a scavenger hunt round town, we had clues to find pubs along the way then a question in pub and random things to collect. One of my old firms won the "most daring thing" award with a naked picture of one of the doormen from a local lapdancing club! Great night, fun rivalry and the pub element adds a certain something :)
Just a reminder about licences being needed for charity collecting and busking before I forget :)
Summer car washing by lovely ladies in attractive outfits and the local firemen could be quite lucrative :)
Get some lookalikies and charge for photos to be taken with them, worked on the Apprentice!
You could ask local concert promoters if you could sell stuff in or outside venues which wouldn't impact on their trade such as silly ears and hats, rain capes and umbrellas for outdoor venues etc... traders charge extortionate fees and I'd rather give it to charity.
If you're not somewhere with a Christmas market you could do a similar mini version with gluwein or mulled wine and mince pies and such. Bratwurst in a bun if you're brave.
Summer car washing by lovely ladies in attractive outfits and the local firemen could be quite lucrative :)
Get some lookalikies and charge for photos to be taken with them, worked on the Apprentice!
You could ask local concert promoters if you could sell stuff in or outside venues which wouldn't impact on their trade such as silly ears and hats, rain capes and umbrellas for outdoor venues etc... traders charge extortionate fees and I'd rather give it to charity.
If you're not somewhere with a Christmas market you could do a similar mini version with gluwein or mulled wine and mince pies and such. Bratwurst in a bun if you're brave.
Today in the doctor's they had the radio on and the station was trying to raise money for the macmillan cancer charity by getting people to pay a pound to go to work today. It seemed to work so well-people were ringing in and texting telling their stories how they were all paying a pound at work. Their were companies employing 200, 30, 10 50 etc people a time. Just think how much they raised and so simple. Could this be applied in your case?
First of all, congrats on getting your group started! Taking the first steps of forming a group can always be a trying process... kudos for giving it a go!
One of the first things can really help getting started is finding ways to get organized early on. Coming up with the tools to manage your members, plan your events and get the word out about everything you do can be tricky.
I'd say the best way to get a jump on this: set up a group home page on a fundraising website. Many of them are free to use and can offer new groups amazing tools to organize, find new volunteers and raise awareness for a cause (regardless of whether you actually want to fundraise). Some require that you have non-profit status to form a group, but plenty others will give student groups, church groups and other groups without non-profit status some awesome ways to help get your group off the ground.
For example, one good site to help new groups is GroupSpaces (www.groupspaces.com). They offer plenty of tools to help get groups off the ground, including some event management functions that let you create events, as well as managing your members. And if you're interested in fundraising for your group eventually, they can link to your account and charge 2.5% of donations received (while some other sites charge as much as 5%).
Another good option would be Empowered.org (www.empowered.org). It is a bit newer than GroupSpaces and their platform is geared more towards social action, but are open to all small groups, regardless of non-profit status. Also, they offer plenty of solid tools to help new groups, and give groups the ability to create specific volunteer activities and events for each group (which GroupSpaces doesn't do). And if you ever were interested in fundraising, they offer specific fundraising campaigns (and charge 1.5% of donations) - nice if you ever go down that road.
There are some other sites worth looking into - Mee
One of the first things can really help getting started is finding ways to get organized early on. Coming up with the tools to manage your members, plan your events and get the word out about everything you do can be tricky.
I'd say the best way to get a jump on this: set up a group home page on a fundraising website. Many of them are free to use and can offer new groups amazing tools to organize, find new volunteers and raise awareness for a cause (regardless of whether you actually want to fundraise). Some require that you have non-profit status to form a group, but plenty others will give student groups, church groups and other groups without non-profit status some awesome ways to help get your group off the ground.
For example, one good site to help new groups is GroupSpaces (www.groupspaces.com). They offer plenty of tools to help get groups off the ground, including some event management functions that let you create events, as well as managing your members. And if you're interested in fundraising for your group eventually, they can link to your account and charge 2.5% of donations received (while some other sites charge as much as 5%).
Another good option would be Empowered.org (www.empowered.org). It is a bit newer than GroupSpaces and their platform is geared more towards social action, but are open to all small groups, regardless of non-profit status. Also, they offer plenty of solid tools to help new groups, and give groups the ability to create specific volunteer activities and events for each group (which GroupSpaces doesn't do). And if you ever were interested in fundraising, they offer specific fundraising campaigns (and charge 1.5% of donations) - nice if you ever go down that road.
There are some other sites worth looking into - Mee
First of all, congrats on getting your group started! Taking the first steps of forming a group can always be a trying process... kudos for giving it a go!
One of the first things can really help getting started is finding ways to get organized early on. Coming up with the tools to manage your members, plan your events and get the word out about everything you do can be tricky.
I'd say the best way to get a jump on this: set up a group home page on a fundraising website. Many of them are free to use and can offer new groups amazing tools to organize, find new volunteers and raise awareness for a cause (regardless of whether you actually want to fundraise). Some require that you have non-profit status to form a group, but plenty others will give student groups, church groups and other groups without non-profit status some awesome ways to help get your group off the ground.
For example, one good site to help new groups is GroupSpaces (www.groupspaces.com). They offer plenty of tools to help get groups off the ground, including some event management functions that let you create events, as well as managing your members. And if you're interested in fundraising for your group eventually, they can link to your account and charge 2.5% of donations received (while some other sites charge as much as 5%).
Another good option would be Empowered.org (www.empowered.org). It is a bit newer than GroupSpaces and their platform is geared more towards social action, but are open to all small groups, regardless of non-profit status. Also, they offer plenty of solid tools to help new groups, and give groups the ability to create specific volunteer activities and events for each group (which GroupSpaces doesn't do). And if you ever were interested in fundraising, they offer specific fundraising campaigns (and charge 1.5% of donations) - nice if you ever go down that road.
There are some other sites worth looking into - Mee
One of the first things can really help getting started is finding ways to get organized early on. Coming up with the tools to manage your members, plan your events and get the word out about everything you do can be tricky.
I'd say the best way to get a jump on this: set up a group home page on a fundraising website. Many of them are free to use and can offer new groups amazing tools to organize, find new volunteers and raise awareness for a cause (regardless of whether you actually want to fundraise). Some require that you have non-profit status to form a group, but plenty others will give student groups, church groups and other groups without non-profit status some awesome ways to help get your group off the ground.
For example, one good site to help new groups is GroupSpaces (www.groupspaces.com). They offer plenty of tools to help get groups off the ground, including some event management functions that let you create events, as well as managing your members. And if you're interested in fundraising for your group eventually, they can link to your account and charge 2.5% of donations received (while some other sites charge as much as 5%).
Another good option would be Empowered.org (www.empowered.org). It is a bit newer than GroupSpaces and their platform is geared more towards social action, but are open to all small groups, regardless of non-profit status. Also, they offer plenty of solid tools to help new groups, and give groups the ability to create specific volunteer activities and events for each group (which GroupSpaces doesn't do). And if you ever were interested in fundraising, they offer specific fundraising campaigns (and charge 1.5% of donations) - nice if you ever go down that road.
There are some other sites worth looking into - Mee
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