One fundraising strategy that many of our users have found really successful is offering prizes to their donors to create a little extra incentive to donate.   Often times, this can be great way to reel in potential donors who are sitting on the fence about donating. (i.e. those people who may have overlooked your emails in the past or may not have donated otherwise).

Although you many think this tactic too closely teeters on the border of bribing, the reality is that in most successful fundraisers, people donate for a number of different reasons. Sometimes people donate because they feel really connected to your cause. Sometimes they donate just because they want to support you as a friend. And then other times, people donate because they want to win a prize.

If it helps, think about it this way: you are fundraising for a great cause, your friends want to help you reach your goal, and someone along the way gets an iPod, gift card, etc.  I’d say it’s a win-win-win situation all around!

So, here’s how to create your promotion:

• Inform your contact list: Send out an initial email/Facebook message to your contact list informing them that anyone who donates over a certain amount will be entered into a raffle for an ipod or any cool thing you have lying around the house (autographed tissue, extra pair of moon-shoes, just a couple examples).  Make sure to follow up with subsequent reminders as the promotion moves along to keep people interested.

• Create a sense of urgency. People are more likely to donate when there is a sense of urgency, so to help get donations coming in you should structure your promotion within a short time frame or on a first come first serve basis.
• Time period: Anyone who donates within a certain time period (e.g. two weeks) is entered into a raffle to win the prize
• First come, first serve: The first X amount of people that donate (e.g. first 25 or first 50) will be entered to win the prize.

Timing of the campaign

• As far as when to begin such a campaign, it’s probably best to wait until your first or second round of donors have made donations- this being your closest friends and family first, then all your other circles of friends, co-workers, former dog-walkers, etc.  When the donations start to slow down and you think you have received all the donations you will get from these people (like when you know its time to take the bag of popcorn out of the microwave because there are 5 seconds between each POP), it’s a great time to start this little campaign.

Remember to have fun with it.

• The strategy above is just one example. But there are many ways to go about implementing a prize promotion and you will have to find a way for it to fit your fundraiser and personalize it.  If you’re real hard up for an idea or the funds to back up a good prize, simply offer your services.  If you’re a great photographer, offer to do a family photo shoot for free; maybe an oil change if you’re mechanically inclined, or something as simple as an extra hand around the house.  Be creative and make it work for your fundraiser and your friends.  You never know who will turn around and surprise you.

This week we have a special fundraising tip of the week.  We asked one of our users, Amy Cowin, who raised $30,000 on GiveForward for her sister’s kidney transplant to write about her experience and share with everyone how she did it.  Here’s what she had to say:

On April 2, 2009, I donated my left kidney to my one and only sister to save her life. Jessica was in renal failure, also known as kidney failure and needed a transplant. Upon completion of testing, Jessica was cleared for surgery and listed on the transplant list. In hopes that I would be a match to donate one of my kidneys, the hospital did some testing on me. Most of the testing was done, when the hospital called Jessica to let her know that the transplant process was going to be stopped. This meant that until Jessica received Medicaid, which could take at least three months to get or until we could pay for the transplant up front there would be no kidney transplant any time soon. Upon hearing this discouraging news, I jumped into action to start raising some money for the transplant.

Not knowing exactly what to do or where to go to get started raising money, I turned to Facebook. I wrote a somewhat frantic message to a small group of close friends and confidants, specifically chosen based on their various capabilities, knowledge and connections to different facets of the business world. Original message sent on Facebook:

Subject: “NEED HELP ASAP”

“Hi,
I’m sure most of you know that Jessica needs a kidney transplant and she will be taking one of mine. Unfortunately we have had some major problems with insurance and have hit another bump in the road. I need to figure out how to raise some money asap. If any of you know how to do this through Facebook or know of someone who knows how to do this let me know. The insurance will only cover $30,000 and the whole transplant will cost over $100,000. The rest we will have to pay out of pocket, which we definitely do not have. The hospital will not move forward if they don’t think we can pay for the transplant. She cannot wait another 3 months for a kidney.
PLEASE let me know!
Thanks so much,
Amy”

Within three hours I had responses from my friends, some were how they wanted to help me, times we could meet up to figure out ideas and websites to look at, including the one I chose to host my fundraiser, www.giveforward.org. The GiveForward website had everything I needed to start fundraising almost immediately. I spent three intense hours on Give Forward to make sure I had all of the information that the website required, such as a description of why I was fundraising, pictures, where the money would be going, a timeline, and much more. This process helped me strategize, organize and get excited about fundraising; because fundraising is a daunting task, especially for medical purposes.

I wanted to raise up to $100,000 in less than 90 days. In three hours of having the fundraiser published online, I had over $5,000 in donations. I didn’t raise the $100K like I set out to do, but I did raise $30,000 in less than 30 Days. Here are a few of the strategies that helped me raise $30K in 30 Days.

read more…

This week’s post is from Morrie Warshawski, author of The Fundraising Houseparty: How to Party with a Purpose and Raise Money for Your Cause – 2nd Edition.

PARTY PARTY PARTY!

Forward thinking GiveForward members realize that online fundraising is just one part of a comprehensive fundraising effort. One other very flexible and powerful tool for soliciting support from individuals is the increasingly popular fundraising houseparty. Houseparties are a perfect way to get people excited and energized around your project/cause, and often form the beginning of relationships with individuals who you hope will become major donors online and/or offline.

Politicians like Barak Obama and Howard Dean used houseparties to raise millions of dollars for their campaigns. Filmmaker Robert Greenwald harnessed the power of houseparties to have his supporters host thousands of them across the US to fund his social issue documentaries on Wal-Mart, Iraq, and Afghanistan.

You can organize a houseparty with just six weeks of lead time, and you can have them take place in your neighborhood, or in communities anywhere around the globe where someone believes in you and your cause. Begin by finding a host who is willing to provide her house for the party, and will open up her address book to invite her friends. Encourage the host to put together a host committee. This spreads out the work load and adds a few more address books to your resources.

Have fun with the process. Design invitations that can be sent by regular mail and/or as e-vites. On all the invitations, give people the option of donating to your project on your GiveForward page if they can’t come. You’ll make some money before the event even happens!

After people have arrived and had a chance to mingle and eat some finger food for a while, gather everyone into a room and make a formal presentation:

• The host welcomes everyone and talks about why she is committed to your project.
• You get up and talk about your cause. Ideally you show a DVD clip, or some photos – anything that will get participants emotionally engaged with your cause. Take a little time to answer any questions people have and engage in a dialogue.
• Someone – the host or a peer of people in the room – then stands up and makes a very direct, and heartfelt ask for support.

Be sure to have pledge cards ready for everyone to fill out. By all means have a computer or two available with your GiveForward page displayed so that people can make credit card donations right on the spot. You’ll find that having a face-to-face contact with donors is a satisfying, powerful, and effective way to solicit new support and deepen commitment to your cause.

MORRIE WARSHAWSKI is a consultant specializing in working with nonprofits on strategic planning. He is the author of THE FUNDRAISING HOUSEPARTY: HOW TO PARTY WITH A PURPOSE AND RAISE MONEY FOR YOUR CAUSE – 2^nd edition, available at his website: www.warshawski.com. SPECIAL OFFER: Readers who mention GiveForward can receive a $5 discount off the cover price of the book for as many copies as they like until July 31^st.

People have called GiveForward a “social networking site for fundraising,” and whenever they do, we’re pretty quick to correct them.  Our main reason is that most social networking sites are comprised of predominantly passive users…i.e. people that only half-heartedly contribute to the community.

With fundraising, the last thing you want to see is 12,000 supporters but only $150 in donations, which is what you get on other sites (ahem Facebook Causes).  That’s why we really encourage our users to actively ask their friends and family for money…not support.

Sure, you might use the language “please support me in my efforts.”  But at the end of the day what you really need is a donation.

Here are a couple of tips from Joanne Fritz, author at about.com, on how to get a donation vs. support:

• Create a sense of urgency by citing a deadline , or tie your request a particular holiday. Repeat your argument for urgency both in the text of the email but also in a P.S. and follow up emails.
• Be explicit when asking for money. Example: Send a special gift today of $25 or more. Be clear and repeat some variation of the message throughout the email.

Other ways to get your friends to donate include:

• Making a goal of $1 per friend and following up with those that haven’t given…who can’t afford $1?
• Promising to do something crazy/funny/ridiculous if you get to a certain goal by a certain time
• Offering prizes for donors who give within a certain window of time

The goal here is to get everyone you know to open their hearts and wallets for you.  You know what motivates the people you care about…use that knowledge for good!

If fundraising was easy, everyone would do it.  The truth is It’s hard. It takes practice, humility, perseverance, and creativity.  It’s kind of like…Foosball.

Remember when you first attempted Foosball?  Most likely you just frantically spun all of the players, jammed the table and prayed for a couple of balls to roll in when the other player was distracted.  That’s kind of like mass emailing people to give to your fundraiser.  You have no strategy…you’re just praying for a few kind souls to give you a break.

But as you get better at foosball…or table football for our friends on the other side of the Atlantic…you realize that you have to be a lot more mobile yourself.  You need to react to the other player, leave some of your men standing at attention, and pass the ball to yourself.  Basically, you need to diversify your game and recognize where your strengths are on the table. read more…

As a small company with a limited (i.e. zero dollar) marketing budget, we know how hard it can be to get the word out about a site. Since we’re sure many of you are in the same boat when it comes to promoting your fundraising page, here are a few low-cost suggestions for ways to bring traffic to your fundraiser. read more…

A 24-hour Facebook awareness campaign is when you ask all your friends to “donate” their Facebook status message for 24 hours to help spread awareness about your fundraiser. One of our users did this a little while back and raised over $1000 in a 24-hour period.

Here’s how you do it.

• Step one: Set up a Facebook group or event  (either one will work). You’ll want to set this group or event up 7-10 days before you plan on having the 24-hour campaign so as to give your friends enough time to know about it and invite others to join.

• Step two: Invite all your friends to the group or event, asking them to donate their Facebook status message for 24 hours.  For example, let’s say you are raising money for your friend Jim who is battling cancer.  You might want to write something like:

“As many of you know, our good friend Jim Smith was recently diagnosed with cancer, and we need YOUR help!  We have set up a fundraiser page on GiveForward.org to raise money to cover his medical bills.  On May 17 we are holding “HELP JIM DAY” on Facebook to raise money and awareness for Jim.  Starting at 1:00 PM on May 17 and lasting until 1:00 PM on May 18 we’re asking everyone to update their status message to ‘HELP JIM @ www.giveforward.org/JimSmith’.  IMPORTANT!! We need as many people updating their status message  as possible to make this work, so PLEASE invite your friends to join this group.  Even if your friends might not know Jim personally, please encourage them to ‘donate’ their status message for 24 hours.  Thanks in advance.  This will make a HUGE difference for Jim.” read more…

When it comes to online fundraising there are two types of donors — those who donate because they care about you and those who donate because they care about your cause.  The great majority of people with GiveForward personal fundraising pages will reach out to friends and family and then stop there, which is fine in most cases.  But if you’re looking to kick some real fundraising butt, this post will show you how to get donations from people who don’t know you personally but care about your cause.

read more…

Fundraising Tip of the Week #13: If your fundraising goal is relatively small (<$500) bump it up to $500 to help capture larger donations.

I am riding in an upcoming bike-a-thon to help Chicago public schools go green.  The fundraising requirement for the ride is only $200.

However, to make sure I make the requirement, I’m setting my goal to $500.

Here’s why…

Most people typically make contributions that are anywhere from 1% to 10% of your total fundraising goal.

So if I were to send an email out to friends telling them I had a fundraising goal to $200, I would likely receive a bunch of $10 and $20 donations.    With such a small goal, no one is going to donate $50 or $100 because it would seem like too big of a contribution.

However, if I bump my goal up to $500, I’m now way more likely to get some of those $50 and $100  donations.  So now instead of having to get 20 people to donate $10 to help me reach my $200 requirement, I can have four people donate $50 and I’ll have met my requirment for the ride.  Easy peazy…