The answers to these questions will enable you to establish the aims and objectives of your fundraising. Remember that fundraising is about need, not about money. Any fundraising message you develop should start by establishing the need (what needs to be done to make the world a better place) and how your organisation can do something to relieve this need.

How Do We Fundraise?

Five key fundraising methods are:

1. Public donations. These can be accessed through events, raffles, street collections, advertising, inserts and direct mail, etc.
2. Supporters/donors. If you already have some financial supporters/donors, you can approach them to give a repeat gift, via direct mail, telephone, or face to face.
3. Foundation grants.
4. Government grants.
5. Sponsorship/donations.

Fundraising Checklist

• Check out the law before you start fundraising. Make sure you have the necessary permits for raffles, street collections etc.
• To offer tax deductibility for donations, you must be registered as a non profit organisation.
• Recognise risk. Public activities or events have a measure of risk. Examine your insurance need to provide safety and cover any legal costs. Ask the police for advice.

Some Guidelines To Get You Started

1. Identify why you want to raise funds. Be as specific as possible.
2. Set a reasonable target for your fundraising activity.
3. Identify appropriate fundraising strategies to reach your target.
4. Ensure you have available resources to run the activity and plan well ahead, particularly if relying on volunteers to help.
5. Often you will have to pay for fundraising activities well before any income is received, so budget carefully with this in mind. Don't rely totally on funding from one area, because this increases risk.

Foundation/Government Grants

Many foundation and government grants specify criteria for funding requests. Investigate this before submitting an application, as your application will be rejected if it doesn't meet the criteria laid down by a foundation.

Are Ethics Important?

Are there people or organisations that may compromise your independence or integrity if you were to receive money from them? For example chemical, tobacco or oil industries. If so, you may wish to exclude them from your fundraising activity.

Top 5 Do's And Dont's

Do

• Include your phone number, web address or a coupon if possible on all your communications.
• Collect the name, address, phone number and web address of your donors. You're never too small to start a database of those who give.
• Keep in regular contact with your donors/supporters... people give to organisations they have a relationship with.
• Negotiate to get goods in kind or at a reduced cost to assist you in running fundraising activities cheaply.
• Communicate clearly, passionately and with urgency about your organisation.

Don't

• Create expectations you can't fulfil.
• Exaggerate about your activities.
• Be vague about why you're fundraising.
• Launch into a fundraising activity without planning and budgeting.
• Raise money for a specific project and then spend it on something else without first informing your donors.

Cyber Fundraising

If you have a website, give people the opportunity to donate online. Make sure you investigate a secure website, to give people peace of mind when handing over their credit/bank details.

Have a look at some charity fundraising websites before developing your own.

 

Queensland University Of Technology http://www.qut.edu.au/bus/ponc/ponc5.html#fundraising
This site has tutorials on using the internet to raise funds, giving examples as models.

Fundraising UK
http://www.fundraising.co.uk/examples.html
Lists a page with examples of charities using the internet for fundraising.

The Hunger Site
http://www.hungersite.org
Check out this site for an example of an innovative fundraising site. Donate food for free to hungry people in the world.

Get Active homepage - mission - you can make a difference - making it happen - planning your campaign - site map