Thursday, March 22, 2012

Fundraiser Ideas For Schools - These are the Most Popular Fundraisers These Days

Fundraiser Ideas For Schools - These are the Most Popular Fundraisers These Days by Thomas Franks

 

As the years pass, people are always looking for fundraiser ideas for schools. Fall is the biggest time of year for school fundraisers, and everyone is looking for ways to raise money for school. Many schools are facing decreasing donations in a sluggish economy, so fundraising programs are more important than ever. It is extremely important to get your students motivated about raising money for the school activities. Fundraising is a great way to teach kids at an early age that you have to work to get many of the things you want in life.

Here are some great fundraiser ideas for schools you should try this year:
Mini Golf Fundraiser
This is something that will get the kids and the adults excited about raising money for the schools. You can have a contest where there are prizes awarded for getting the best score. You can publicize the event so that lots of people participate in the event. You would run ads in local media or local TV stations.

Holiday Fundraiser
Some people get the idea that you have to wait until Christmas to run holiday fundraisers. This is simply not true! You can start running Christmas fundraisers as early as September and October. Many people start thinking about Christmas and Christmas shopping when the school year starts. Gift wrapping paper is often sold during the holiday season, as everyone buys gift wrapping paper to wrap gifts during the Christmas season.

Pancake Breakfast
This is one of the more traditional fundraiser ideas for schools. You can advertise the breakfast in all of the local papers, or you can advertise it in other areas too. Advertise the breakfast everywhere you can, and distribute press releases as needed to get the word out about your pancake breakfast. People always love great pancakes, and this is a great way to get people together to fellowship and share tea together.

Coupon cards
Coupons are getting more high tech today. Most people still get coupons in the mail, but the traditional methods of getting coupons in the mail are falling by the wayside. With coupon cards, you can get discounts on your purchases at many major retailers. Retailers like Wal-Mart, Target, GameStop, KFC , and iTunes participate in these offers. Most people would buy these coupon cards because they get a discount on purchases they would already make anyways even if they didn't have the coupon card.

There are many great fundraiser ideas for schools that can raise a lot of money for your school. With the weakening economy, most schools need to find new revenue streams to raise more money for school.

Monday, March 19, 2012

How to pull in last-minute online donors

Gail Perry

Did you know that 40 percent of online donors give in December?

Even more interesting, the last two days of December, you can expect your online gifts to spike up.

It's not too late to design the right kind of e-fundraising effort that will actually touch the hearts of your online donors right there at the end of the year.

Can't you just imagine all those e-gifts streaming into your account right there at year-end? What a sack of presents to greet you and your wonderful cause.

Remember: The psychology of online giving is quite different from donors who give through the mail.

Attention spans are far shorter. Copy must be lively. Web sites need to be alive, and get updated often.

And just getting your folks to open your email is an art form that you need to study carefully.

What will it take to be ready for this onslaught? Here's how to craft a sizzling email campaign to reach those donors.

Offer a matching or challenge gift. Study after study show that matching gifts inspire donors to give more and to give within a specific deadline.

Especially in these times, donors are responding to the appeal of a matching gift that will double or triple their own investment.

Create multiple e-appeals that build on each other. Plan your emails for the last week of December according to a schedule like this:

December 23: a "holiday support" emailDecember 29: an email emphasizing tax-deductible giving opportunitiesDecember 31: a final "last chance to donate" email

Make your call to action clear and specific. Let your donors know exactly what you need, how much money you are trying to raise and how it will be used.

The more specific your result, the more money donors will invest. If you let them restrict their gifts, they will give more.

Create an extra large "Donate Now" button. And plaster it on your homepage - especially in December.

A recent study showed that buttons draw more "click-throughs" than simple links. So go with the button.

Change your homepage to a donation page just for year's-end. Many smart organizations are replacing their regular home page with their donation page just for the last few days of the year.

Why not? Most people visiting your site during this time are either researching gifts or wanting to make a gift. So make it easy for them.

Put that call to action and that "donate now" button right up front.

Add a heartwarming picture to your donation page. Studies continue to show that emotion tugs at heartstrings and opens wallets.

When someone visits your page to make a gift, a lovely heart-rending picture will reinforce your message, and assure your donor.

Streamline your donation process. If there's only one thing you do to prepare for year-end giving, do this:

Make a $5.00 donation to your own cause and see for yourself what your donation process feels and looks like.

Just like any online shopping cart, your donors may be abandoning your donation page at astonishing rates.

Why do they leave the page? Because the process is cumbersome, keeps rejecting their data for trivial reasons, or is frustrating to the donor.

Check it out. You'll never know this unless you walk through the giving process yourself.

If you follow all these steps, I bet you'll be pleasantly surprised when the end of the year comes around. Get started now and you'll be glad you did.

Gail Perry, CFRE, is an author, consultant, blogger, keynote speaker and coach to nonprofit leaders. Fired-UpFundraising.com 

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Friday, March 16, 2012

Raffle Ideas: Good Raffle Prize Ideas Under $100 updated Fri Feb 17 2012 1:30 pm EST

Raffle Ideas: Good Raffle Prize Ideas Under $100 Log In Explore Topics Join Us Go Squidoo Close Home » Nonprofits » Fundraising » Fundraising Activities Raffle Ideas: Good Raffle Prize Ideas Under $100 Like 69 RSS Pin It Ranked #44 in Nonprofits, #8,113 overall

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