Shake The Money Tree

Fundraisers Galore

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. . . for fundraising.  But seriously folks, all terrible, obvious literary references aside, fundraising in a recession can be incredibly difficult and incredibly rewarding.  Giving means more when there’s less to go around.  I’ve written at length in previous posts about how fabulously the Interwebs can convey your marketing messages and how useful a tool basic SEO is, but have left the direct, out-there-in-the-community side of things without much comment.

Grass-roots fundraising can be so much fun.  Observe:

Pie throwing, HA!

Some of the most satisfying experiences in my adult life have been coming together with my friends, family and community to do some grass-roots fundraising.  It’s spring, we’ve got good weather coming (though in the Northwest it will, admittedly, be a bit of a wait), and the time is right to get out there and raise some cash for a worthy cause.  This type of fundraising doesn’t need the power and structure of an organization to make things happen, it just needs a motivated adult or savvy teenager to get things started.  With two recent major natural disasters and all the non-profits we all know about that ALWAYS need money, why not add a fundraiser to your list of things to do for spring cleaning?

Five Community Fundraising Ideas

1.) Throw a Secret Cafe

I did this with friends in college on several occasions, for various causes that floated our boats at the time.  It helped us build our activist community and taught us some extremely valuable lessons about marketing, the many perils and joys of restaurant management and, weirdly, how to properly cook a turkey.

The idea is this: Your home is a restaurant for one night.  Put up some flyers at your local grocery store or neighborhood bulletin board (and don’t forget to tell all your friends), advertising the date and time of your Secret Cafe and a number people can call for reservations (I’d recommend 2 seatings- for dinner, one at 6 pm and one at 8), though of course walk-in guests are welcome.  Decide on a donation amount that people will pay at the front door (usually between $5 and $20, for a low-key SC).  A Secret Cafe works best in a house with indoor/outdoor space.  Set up a bunch of tables and enlist your pals to be the servers for the night.  You can either decide to buy the ingredients for your Secret Cafe Meal (here is a sample menu) or go and ask local restaurants to contribute ingredients or dishes.  In my  experience, some restaurants/co-ops/farms/where ever are willing to at least donate a side dish, a crucial ingredient or maybe a keg of beer (if it’s that kind of party), especially if you display news of their generous sponsorship on your flyers.  The easiest meals to prepare for Secret Cafes are ones that lend themselves to family style eating: roast a couple of large turkeys,  multiple racks of ribs or large casseroles of pasta or veggies.  Make cupcakes for desert or something similarly easy to serve.

For a busy SC, you’ll need to consider your ‘staff’ for the night and plan accordingly: maybe 3 people in the kitchen, 1 or 2 shifts of dishwashing (if you’re not using disposable plates), 3 servers and a host at the door to seat people with reservations and without.

The food takes some working out, but this is a great project for a group that’s already enthusiastic about entertaining.  I’ve had some of the most delicious meals of my life at various Secret Cafe’s and been a harried waitress, cook-in-a-pinch and bartender at a few, as well.  This is a great way, slightly more formal than a barbeque, to have a fabulous meal with your neighbors, not to mention raising that moola.

2.) Car Wash.

Total cliche, yes, but it’s spring, dammit, and you shouldn’t tamper with this tried and true formula for hustling up some quick cash.  This is a great one for teenagers to plan and have fun with- turn up the tunes (like this one), put out that money jar, and be sure to have a large cache of dry towels at the ready.

3.)  50\50 Community Garage Sale

As an avid garage saler, there is almost nothing that delights me more than running across a whole block that has pooled their used-goods resources and organized a multi-family garage sale.  Extra awesomeness at these events is often generated by a baked goods or cold drink table.  The next time you’re planning one of these extravaganzas (and, c’mon, spring cleaners, you know you want to!), consider giving 50 percent of your proceeds to a designated cause, or making an agreement with your neighbors that everyone will give half to the charity of their choice.  This can not only help you get rid of those old bar stools, VHS tapes and Star Wars posters, it could also, say, do a lot toward the rebuilding efforts in Haiti or go to your favorite local arts organization that is suffering in these trying times.  Or, for us stalwart Commie liberals, there’s always, always, an NPR pledge drive.

4.) Fun Run. Just don’t eat a big plate of Fettucini Alfredo (a la Michael Scott) beforehand and you’ll already be ahead of the game.  I’ll let EHow tell you how to get this thing rolling, as it is a complicated process.    This event will take a lot of planning, but is an incredibly fun and healthful way to join a community in a single purpose.

5.) Rent a Karaoke Machine.  This is not so much an idea for a specific fundraiser as a general tip: go out, rent one, invite 30 or so friends, neighbors and strangers, mix up a couple (or six) big jugs of hard tea or blended margaritas, put out that donation jar (a buck per song you sing, five bucks so you don’t have to sing, 5 bucks donation per drink etc.) and just see where the funnest night of your life takes you.  This is another fundraiser that could be held in a friendly bar, willing to yield their mic and karaoke system to some folks trying to raise some money and have a good time.  You can also use a rented karaoke machine to have a kid-friendly fundraiser, but that’s not really my area of expertise.

And now onto online fundraising: here are some sweet basic adjustments you can make to your site to take in more money for your organization.  Tinkering with your website in the middle of a beautiful spring day is, yes, slightly less fun than having a backyard barbeque or making bracelets for a cause, but suck it up, and you’ll be glad you did.

5 Easy Tips for Increased Donations Online

1.) Keep your Donate Button visible and above the fold.  If you’re a non-profit and one of your websites objectives is to raise money (and, somehow, I have a feeling it is), don’t be scared to place it prominently on your site.  ’Above the fold,’ in this case, means placed in the top half of your website, so no one has to scroll up or down to see it.  It needs to be immediately visible when your visitors land on your index page, or you’re looking at countless missed opportunities for donations.  This seems basic, but you’d be surprised how many people resist, or somehow, crazily, believe that online fundraising isn’t a big enough deal to warrant coveted space in the most visible areas of their site.  It IS a big deal and you WILL regret it if you don’t let your fundraising flag fly, in the most prominent place possible on your website.

2.) Make Your Goals Clear.  Keep a running tally of how much money you’ve raised and how much you need to raise to meet your fundraising goals- donors like to see the progress and are more inclined to donate if there’s a target amount specified.  I’ve already praised The Uniform Project for their use of this exact fundraising technique, and it’s still going smashingly for them, as they round the corner into this last couple weeks of their project.

3.) Provide Volunteer Opportunities. It’s counter-intuitive to be offering people ways to not contribute their cold hard cash, as a way to increase fundraising efforts, but the fact of the matter is that most organizations need from their donors both time and money and the two usually go hand in hand.   If you offer non-monetary options for people to contribute to your organization, this will also help you build up your donor base.  People who care enough to volunteer their time will almost always end up giving money to your organization.  When you do rope some folks into volunteering for you, here’s how to keep them happy.

4.) Timing is Everything.  If you use a service like Constant Contact or Emma to send newsletters or fundraising outreach emails (or if you don’t), there are some best practice tips to take into account: for the love of Pete, send your fundraising emails out early in the week (by Tuesday morning).  You want your email to be waiting in your potential donors inboxes when they get to work in the morning, so the smart thing to do is to send out any mass-mailings (repeat after me: it’s not spam!) late on Monday night or early in business hours on Tuesday.  Disobey me and regret it, dear readers.

Also, parenthetically, here are some things to ponder as you’re assembling those definitely-not-spam newsletters:

-keep the tone personable, but professional.

-keep it short.

-send consistently or don’t send at all.

-don’t be afraid to ask for what you want.

-if you’re not seeing any return, change it up and see what happens.

5.) Get Your Narrative Straight. People love a good story. Donors in particular love to be told exactly how their money is being put to use.  We all know the why, the who and the what we’re giving to; what we want to know is the how. How does it work, who does this money go to, how does it get there?  These are questions all your potential donors will have in their minds as they’re deciding whether to add that extra 50 bucks to their bills this month.  Explain it to them, in a relatable, specific way, with a minimum of overly-salesy language and you’ll increase your donation volume almost instantly.

All right, those are my dueling lists for the day.  Those you already enjoying shorts-weather, get on out there to your car washes and secret cafe’s and outdoor karaoke fundraisers- enjoy that sunshine, raise some cash and get to know a neighbor you’ve never met before.  The rest of us cold-weather nerds will still be inside, hiding from the drizzle and bluster of  long winter, making some slight adjustments to our websites that will yield some big cash.

-A.J.

Filed under: Fundraising, How-To's, Marketing, Online Fundraising by AJ