The Importance of Location in Fundraising

01 March 2010

Location, Location, Location!

There are few things that are more important than location. It not only
applies to real estate, but to fundraising too.  Here are some tips to
expand your horizons when trying to maximize your fundraising efforts.

Traditionally, fundraising efforts are concentrated on:
-Friends
-Neighbors
-Relatives
-Co-workers

Besides the usual suspects, there is a whole lot of money in other places right under your nose.

You have to go where the money is. The big money in fundraising is being located where people are shopping. They are out and about with cash or checkbooks in hand.

There’s no better time than that for offering a quality fundraising product at these locations:
-Drugstores
-Home Improvement Stores
-Grocery Stores
-Shopping Malls

Drugstores – Nice entry-level sales spot. Generally have good sidewalk space available.

Home Improvement Stores – Big weekend traffic spots. Lots of do it yourselfers diving in to their next project.

Grocery Stores – Prime hunting grounds for product fundraisers. A small, high-quality food item does real well here.

Shopping Malls – Hard to get approval for outside space, but a location near the food court is golden.

And don’t forget the 800-pound gorilla: Wal-Mart – The Holy Grail of fundraising locations. A day spent fundraising in front of this high-traffic retailer is like being in fundraising heaven. You’ll have more potential prospects than you can shake a stick at.

Because of the sheer volume of Wal-Mart shoppers, you’ll
need oversize signage to get your fundraising message across quickly before
your prospects hurry on in

Casing the Joint Ahead of Time
You want the best location for your weekend fundraising table. Scope out the lay of the land. Check which entrance gets the most foot traffic.
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The Hard Task Of Coming Up With A Fundraising Idea

10 February 2010

When trying to get a fundraiser set up probably the hardest decision you will encounter is trying to decide which fundraising idea will work best for you. Choosing a fundraising idea is not as easy as one may think with the variety of ideas available. Many companies do business supply products as fundraising ideas for various organizations. Not only will you have to decide which product to sell, but you have to choose one of the many ways to conduct fundraising.

Some of the fund raising ideas for the product itself range from chocolates, cookies, candy, pet supplies, magnets, candles, books, posters, and the list goes on. Your next step will be deciding how you are going to get these products to the people. Maybe your fundraising idea will be to sell from door to door. This has the advantage of talking to the people face to face about your fundraising, but be prepared that everyone you talk to will not welcome you with open arms and will close the door in your face.
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The Four Major Forms of Fundraising

05 February 2010

Fundraising is, without a doubt, extremely challenging work. For any of you with experience in this line of work, you will understand what I mean. For the rest of you, go out and volunteer your time with a local non-profit organization. After that, I think you will understand. While this can be a challenging profession, it continues to be quite rewarding in many respects. This article was drafted with the new fundraising coordinator in mind. So listen up, kids!

There are four major forms of fundraising. When one mentions fundraising to the average person, the image of a well-meaning person going door-to-door begging for support immediately comes to mind. While most of us have been there at some point or other, there is a lot more to this business than meets the eye. And yes, my friends, this is a business. We are in the business of managing relationships; relationships which, more often than not, are the key determining factor for success.

The first major form of fundraising is dealing with institutional grantors. These organizations are often the most difficult to deal with, due to the inherent bureaucratic nature of these types of organizations. On the other hand, grants and endowments from these organizations can often amount to incredible sums of money. For this reason alone, they should not be dismissed. You may have to invest a lot of time and energy into convincing these institutional organizations into supporting your particular cause, and this where the business of managing relationships comes into play. A single grant from one of these groups could secure the future of your non-profit activities.
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Soccer Fundraising Ideas

21 January 2010

It seems like soccer fundraising is either a season-long effort or a quick hitter that doesn’t cover all your needs.

Well, the good news is that there are some ways to make money quickly, or even all season long, that merit your consideration.

What are your fundraising goals?

Many youth sports teams and leagues want:

1 – Fundraisers that can be done with little effort
2 – Fundraisers that may be done sporadically
3 – Fundraisers that will produce significant results

Soccer fundraising programs
In this article, we’ll examine several soccer fundraisers that are quick hitting and sure to score.

The three soccer fundraising programs are:

Bottled water
Shot cage and radar gun
Fast-food discount cards

Soccer Fundraising: Bottled Water
The first soccer fundraising program is selling bottled water. Consider for a moment that each team member will bring water to every practice and to every game. That’s at least a couple dozen bottles right there and probably a whole lot more.

Add in sales to spectators and you’ve got at least 500 bottles that could easily be sold. Sure, you can buy in bulk at a warehouse club, but you can add extra value to your soccer fundraising with private branding of your bottled water, either as a team or as a league.
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