Fundraising is an integral part of raising money for schools, churches, charities and other not-for-profit organizations. Without fundraisers many of these organizations would suffer major financial shortfalls and be very limited in the services they can actually provide.
There are thousands of wonderful fundraising ideas available but one of the most important concepts in fundraising and a significant key to fundraising success is that of cooperation. Fundraising is group effort. It involves people working together cooperatively, sharing ideas, supporting one another’s ideas and whether or not one person’s particular ideas are accepted or not, coming together in order to achieve the goals of the group.
When considering the best fundraising ideas it is important to consider the talents and resources of the people involved in the fundraising. For example, if you have a group of moms in a school whose aim is to raise funds for new school books or equipment, then it is important to evaluate what each of those mothers can bring to the situation. Who are the best cooks, hand-crafters, organizers, administrators and movers and shakers? Utilize every member of the team in the way that moves the project forward.
Some of the most popular fundraising ideas that can involve whole families are car washes, bake sales, fetes, selling chocolates, raising plants for sale or packaging gift items into small gift packages. There are probably as many fundraising ideas as there are reasons for the fundraisers.
One of the most powerful forces for change and success is the power of a good reason. If the reason is strong enough, if the need is great enough and if people are motivated enough, fundraisers can be enormously successful. They can make the difference between a well resourced school and one that lacks even basic educational materials.
It needs to be mentioned that every State and Local Government will have its own legislation that governs fundraising. You cannot necessarily run raffles and go door to door asking for money even for fundraising purposes without permission to do so. It is therefore necessary to be accurately informed about any licensing or other legal requirements that you must adhere to before putting your fundraising ideas into action.
Fundraising is a powerful gift to the organizations you support but it will only work if the organizations support the people who are doing the fundraising. Done right, fundraising can be enormously successful. Done wrong, fundraising can cause loyal supporters to disappear.