The Right Choice for a Nonprofit: Sharing Ideas for Success
The tickets we purchased were reasonably priced and very professional looking, which was great for our small not-for-profit group.
~ Britt C. Menchhofer, R.S., Northwest Ohio Environmental Health Association Planning Committee
The Ohio Environmental Health Association (OEHA) works as a state association, but has four district planning committees that provide education for environmental health professionals and advocates for the profession. Each OEHA district plans its own events throughout the year.
The Northwest planning committee organizes an “education conference each fall that is offered to local sanitarians (specialists in sanitary science and public health) and other environmental health professionals and industry workers.” Attendees are able to network with other members in environmental health fields, and they are provided with opportunities to earn educational credits.
“In the past our district has had a raffle where prizes were available and tickets were purchased by attendees and placed into the buckets for the prizes. Prizes were usually items donated by individuals and businesses for the event. In the past few years, it has been harder to get businesses to donate prizes for the raffle,” Brad told me.
For that reason, the Northwest Planning Committee needed to rethink its fundraising strategy. It looked to the Northeast Planning Committee for advice.
A Reverse Raffle
“We decided this year to try a reverse raffle to raise more money and also be able to reach more people because the tickets could be sold prior to the event and to people other than attendees. Our Northeast district has a reverse raffle and gave us the details on their raffle.”
The Northwest district learned from the Northeast’s district’s success and adopted its fundraising strategy.
In the most common version of a reverse raffle, tickets are sold as they would be in a regular raffle, but the goal is to not have your ticket drawn. Instead, tickets are drawn in a reverse order. The losers are the ones that are drawn early, and the winners are the remaining tickets. For this raffle, the grand prize was $500, and $25 for every twenty-five tickets sold.
The money from this reverse raffle went to the George Eagle scholarship fund. “The scholarship fund aims to provide one graduate and one undergraduate scholarship each year for individuals studying a field of Environmental Health.”
Everyone is Responsible
In order for the reverse raffle to work, all the planning committee members needed to be on board. Each was asked to sell at least ten tickets each. “The tickets were marketed through email and mailings related to our conference. Asking people face to face is one of the best marketing strategies.” The organization employed both digital and physical mediums in order to reach its intended audience and did not downplay the importance of word of mouth sales.
Unfortunately, some of the tickets were not sold, and the fundraiser fell a little short of its goal, but, “[We] were still able to give a significant amount back to the scholarship fund,” Brad explained. And for that reason, “the event was a success.”
You’re not sure what your classroom budget is going to be this year, but you are sure it won’t be enough. As you look out over the faces of your young students sounding out words and carefully calculating math problems, you wish you could give them something more to reinforce their education. Whether you want to raise the money for extra books, school supplies or creative materials, holding a fundraising event using custom printed wristbands can be key to bringing cash into your classroom.
A School Carnival
Paper bracelets or Tyvek Wristbands go hand in hand with your fundraising plans, especially if you’re planning a school carnival. A carnival is a traditional choice for a school fundraiser. It is the type of event that opens the doors of the school to the community. Individuals get to see the cause they are donating to, and faculty and students get a chance to show off their place of learning to the public. As an added bonus, school carnivals are just plain fun!
Security and Safety
Making sure that an event on school grounds is secure and safe should be a top priority of any planning committee. Tyvek wristbands can help you reach this goal. Somewhere between paper and plastic, these wristbands fit snugly around your attendees wrists. They cannot be transferred or removed without being cut off, so you can rest assured that the right folks are at your event.
Event wristbands are available in several colors. You can set aside ones for faculty and staff, parents, students and friends of the school. When individuals see the colored wristbands, they can easily identify the type of relationship an individual has to the school.
Raffles
Your school carnival will likely have games, food, student performances and displays. Another big draw might be door prizes or raffles, based on wristband numbering. In order to save additional money, you may want to solicit a local vendor or merchant sponsor the event by donating a prize. Prizes can be big or small. What counts is the spirit behind them and the enthusiasm with which your attendees participate.
Because event wristbands can be securely numbered, they can serve a dual purpose at your event. They will help to keep your event secure, but they will also double as a raffle ticket. Each guest with an event wristband gets a chance at the prize. And, they won’t run the risk of losing their chance at the raffle.
Guests can feel safe participating in carnival games and rides. The Tyvek wristbands will stay securely around their wrists no matter how many rounds of skee ball they play. They can even take a few rounds in the dunk tank because these event wristbands are waterproof!
Your Students are Worth It
It’s easy and cost effective to design and print custom wristbands. Event wristbands can be customized with your school’s logo making them unique and memorable. Not only will members of your school’s community have a fun time, you’ll be earning money so that you can buy the much needed extras the budget may not cover this year.
You may have sold out the event, but last year’s Christmas party got out of hand, and not in that good way, which leaves you with a bad headache and perhaps a bill for a few broken windows, along with the reputation as the organization selling the hottest ticket in town. It was merely a matter of poor planning. Selling plenty of tickets to the event was just not enough. Long before printing the event tickets, there are stages of preparation that ensure the perfect party.
• Book the venue
• Hire caterers
• Hire bartenders
• Book the entertainment
Seems simple enough, but each of these steps requires more forethought. Don’t just sign the first contract that comes along. When booking the venue, consider your needs. How many people can you reasonably expect to show up? How many can the venue accommodate? Don’t forget the unmentionable basics: will there be enough restrooms for all the guests? How about easy access to the outdoors for smokers? The fanciest ballroom in town will still flop if partygoers are packed in shoulder to shoulder with no room to move.
As for caterers and bartenders, be certain that you understand the terms of their contract. While you may be impressed by the quality of the food, it will do you little good if you didn’t realize that you were supposed to provide your own plates. The caterer may be happy to bring their own tables and chairs, or these may be provided by the venue, but if nobody brings tables and chairs, that can lead to disaster. Some party planners are chagrined to find that their very expensive caterer provides only plastic flatware. Communication is key. If you think your guests may find the bartender’s tip jar a little tacky, assure him or her that you will be tipping generously at the end of the night. Ask for what you want. Negotiate up front.
Discuss your expectations with the entertainment as well. Will the band be willing to play an extra set if the party runs long? If that’s a possibility, you probably want to set up the terms in advance. If you’re hiring a Santa Claus impersonator, be sure to get some references. It’s important to know that you’re truly hiring a professional who won’t let you, or your young guests, down.
Once you’ve settled on the basics, printing event tickets is a breeze. With the knowledge that your venue, food, drinks, and entertainment are planned, you can easily add the event’s highlights to a ticket template and begin selling with confidence: confidence that the entire night is well in hand.
Need a little help getting those donor wallets open and jump starting event ticket sales? Maybe you haven’t provided a great enough incentive. Give your supporters the gift of glamor: make your next fundraiser a fabulous casino night. Recreate the allure of Monte Carlo and start selling event tickets for your casino night.
You’ll need:
• A crew of eager volunteers
• Games of chance (call a local party supply company for rentals)
• A passel of donated prizes
• A venue of sufficient size
• Flashy print publicity
• Some event ticket printing
If your organization supports it, a cash bar will truly make the night successful. You can boost bar sales with Drink Tickets. Remember: inebriated gamblers are your most profitable gamblers.
Start by determining whether there is interest in this night among your group. Once you have enough support, you can start rounding up the volunteers. Take some time to ascertain which skills each volunteer possesses, and then dole out the tasks. Events flow more efficiently if everyone has their own job. Decide whether your volunteers will work the game tables—many party supply companies will also supply the croupiers and dealers.
Meet regularly with your team to check on progress. This will help you see, in advance, if you’ve assigned the proper tasks to the right people. Make a schedule: who will book the venue, and when? How will you distribute event tickets? If there is to be live entertainment, that must also be arranged. Of course, it wouldn’t be a casino night without fabulous prizes.
Your best bet is to start early and look for impressive donations. However, even if nobody has the courtesy to offer you a speedboat or a big screen HDTV, don’t despair. Keep asking. Ask local business owners if they would be willing to make a donation in exchange for extra publicity (you can mention them as sponsors on your event tickets, in the event program, and in other forums, wherever you promote the event). If you get a lot of great donations, amp up your fundraising ability by adding a prize draw to the event. Then you can start selling raffle tickets well in advance, and add another fun component to the night as you announce the winners.
When you print up your event tickets, you can create matching event collateral at the same time: flyers and posters, invitation and raffle tickets. Printing event tickets and matching event kits really helps you get your publicity going. Announce your casino fundraising event:
• In your print or email newsletter
• To your mailing list, using printed invitation
• On your website and allied forums
• Via a press release, sent to all local news outlets
The year is 2010 and the face of live theater has changed. Around the globe, money is tight, attention spans are short, and approaching-infinite hours of free entertainment are available 24 hours a day in the privacy of the viewer’s home. The new millennium, it might seem, has not been friendly to a venerable tradition that asks patrons to pay for the privilege of turning off their cell phones, sitting in one place for three hours, and listening quietly without offering any opinions beyond appropriately placed applause, laughter, and perhaps an occasional and well-deserved hiss.
Not a friendly environment in which to create a successful new company.
But live theater isn’t dead: far from it. Your company offers an experience that cannot be replicated in front of a computer monitor. It’s hard, sweaty, uphill work, but hot new companies are making their mark, inspired by the bonds of friendship and their passion for acting.
Who are these starry-eyed optimists, and how are they faring?
Trial by Fire, based in Eugene, Oregon, is founder Benjamin Newman’s lifeline in a hostile world. Reborn over and over again from the ashes of projects going back as far as 1999, the group achieved what seems to be a sustainable critical success this year.
Aerial Angels and Stand Up 8, the brainchildren of writer-director-actor Allison Williams, are based out of Kalamazoo, Michigan, but have developed as traveling troupes, presenting their unique brand of circus arts all around the world since 2003.
And making their mark in film-saturated Los Angeles, California, title3, founded by reunited classmates Lane Allison, Molly Leland, Jane Montosi, and Jiehae Park, has waded into the water with their first production and found it inviting.
The Backstory
So, how does one create a theater company with no money, no space, and no history? Is love of the stage enough to succeed?
Johnny Ormsbee as The Hactor in Trial By Fire's RUBY BY THE RIVER (2006). Photo by Michael Brinkerhoff.
Benjamin Newman would say that, for some, it isn’t even a choice. He recalls the mantra, offered by countless professionals across the country: If you can imagine yourself doing something else, then this is not where you belong. “I have tried,” he says, “but I cannot. Where I have veered from my path, life became confusing and disorienting, a series of challenges which I was unable to face, because I had no support, no grounding, no definition.” If the creative path is an actor’s North Star, dedicated performers, must, like Newman, return again and again, to trod the boards, regardless of the outcome. Or, as Allison Williams says, “truly motivated people don’t fail—they have learning experiences in which money is lost or creative dreams go unrealized, but it’s not failure unless they walk away without being educated by it.”
So the short answer is yes, if your love is strong enough, passion can carry the day. But the long answer, of course, is that love is merely the propeller that moves you forward through each new script, new rehearsal, new production, new season. Love lets you persevere. Today’s artists must also carry with them a new toolbox: the gear if the information age.
The Setting
Aerial Angel Spike (Zay Weaver) performs a free street show at Covent Garden in London England. Photo by Fehmi Comert
The old ways are disappearing, according to Williams. Traditional theater is “extremely boring and pointlessly irrelevant and ridiculously overpriced. Its audience is literally…greying out and dying. Subscription theatre is fading away—nobody under 40 ever wants to see another kitchen sink drama ever again—watching Death of a Salesman once in high school was enough.” The future, it seems, is in finding new ways of telling stories. We may be telling the same stories as those who came before, Newman argues, but we tell them through the lens of our own perceptions, so that each new telling provides a new understanding. Though all the stories may have been told, we still must “let each man and woman have their turn” in telling so that we do “not simply honor one voice, but all voices.”
This philosophy was the nucleus of title3’s origin. The group evolved organically out of a weekly writer’s group, where participants began to focus on women’s experience and the place of the female voice in the arts. While simply complaining got them nowhere, they realized, “we could generate the kind of change we hoped for. Thus, our company mission: dedication to the creation of innovative work with an emphasis on providing opportunities for women in the arts.” And so, another company was born, one working within the parameters of the modern world.
With its focus established, title3 reports that, “doors opened and people aligned in ways we never would have thought possible.” LA, perhaps, needed title3’s perspective as much as title3 needed a forum in which to present it.
It’s not surprising, then, that for their first production, they chose a new play by Constance Congdon, called Paradise Street, one that required an all-female cast. Trial by Fire, in earlier incarnations, performed works written by Newman himself. Although less concerned with modernity, they have created a focus on outsider voices, first making a success of Kiss of theSpider Woman and now opening Alfred Jarry’s surrealist work Ubu Roi.
The Properties
Chip Sherman and Benjamin Newman in TRIAL BY FIRE's Kiss Of The Spider Woman (2010). Photography by Jon Meyers.
In the 21st century, the default setting for multiple voices is, of course, the Internet, and those with stories to tell cannot ignore the power of the web for communicating their message. Successful modern theaters understand the need to harness those channels. Newman exults in the possibilities of a world where “artists who have just begun their career can simply be stumbled upon, and more forms of expression, such as film, music, writing, photography, and painting, are just a click away.”
By this point, even most traditional old theaters have at least begun to make a place for themselves in cyberspace, but the vanguard is completely comfortable there: the Internet is their living room, their office, and their playground. They no longer conduct letter-writing campaigns; they send mass emails. They don’t rely on print media to spread the word; they create their own websites from which to launch publicity drives, drum up support, issue press releases, and spread the word.
For title3, there was no question that web presence went hand-in-hand with a new venture. They began not only with a website, but also with a strong presence on social media channels such as Facebook. To date, they have successfully shared photos on their website and Facebook pages, and they are in the process of developing video content that illustrates their process: recordings of rehearsals and “other interactive offerings.”
In fact, title3 considers itself “a multimedia production company.” They began with theater, because that was what they knew, but ultimately they “also have a goal to use multimedia in our theater work and hopefully expand to other media in future.”
Allison Williams also understands the driving force of Web 2.0 for creating a vibrant community of fans and attracting new patrons. Explaining the power of social networking, she says, “being ‘friends’ rather than an advertiser is powerful and important.” She’s also comfortable posting not only teasers, but also entire acts, on YouTube. The way she sees it, “our enemy is not piracy but obscurity.”
Drew Tydeman as Dopey in Trial By Fire's BALM IN GILEAD (2003). Photo by Jon Meyers.
For modern theaters, there can be no conflict between these two modes, and offering up some content in public forums can only lead to positive publicity. Williams explains, “The experience of seeing it live is fundamentally different than a YouTube experience,” and, she even goes so far as to say, “live theatre has an edge over movies.” In the twenty-first century, offering a few tantalizing tastes—or even an entire serving—only whets the viewers’ appetites for the real experience: live theater, performed by real human beings in front of real human beings. On demand content is wonderful, but it is no substitute for an event that cannot be paused, that has a life independent of the viewer’s decision to hit the play button.
While title3 calls the Internet “a primary driver of both publicity and ticket sales,” and, through tracking, learned “that Facebook and email were effective in mobilizing people to attend our performances,” Williams’ traveling show reports that only a small percentage of their ticket sales take place online, with the majority purchased at the door. However, they’ve used other modern tactics to boost sales, such as Street Crew. According to Williams, “it’s personal contact that sells a lot of tickets.” Sending supporters out to stump for the show, offering deals such as free admission if you bring 3 friends or hang 10 posters, helped them boost attendance and create new fans. Newman agrees: in his mind, the Internet is a great boon for communication, up to a point, but, he says, “there is simply no substitute for human contact.”
The lesson here is that you can’t ignore either end: you’ve got to utilize all the technological tools in your arsenal, and you must continue making direct contact with patrons. You may simply need to get creative on both sides.
The Backers
Allison Williams eats fire in a free street show in Budva, Montenegro. Photo by Dragan
Trial by Fire has recently filed for nonprofit status and begun to apply for grants and search out new sponsors in anticipation of running a full season in 2010/2011. Newman himself has sunk a great deal of his own capital into getting shows produced in the past, and, like many producers, watched the dual evolution of a critical success alongside a fiscal failure. Now, it looks as if Trial by Fire is finally poised to achieve solid financial ground.
While Trial by Fire’s evolution was long and convoluted, inextricably tied to Newman’s emotional state and his own determination to try again, title3’s first production came together in a more surprising way. Just as the group had begun discussing a production, they were offered a space “on very appealing terms.” The only catch was that the slot was only 2 months in the future, “an insanely short period of time to rehearse and put up a show, much less choose the show, do preproduction, and set up a company.”
But, the group was dedicated to following through. How did they get funding in such a short period of time? They made direct appeals, sending letters to everyone they knew: family, friends, former professors. Rather than simply asking for money, they explained their mission statement and helped donors understand how their contributions would further that cause. They also filed for fiscal sponsorship through Fractured Atlas so they could receive tax-deductible donations. The next step for title3 will be to increase their fundraising efforts, and to begin applying for government grants.
Benjamin Newman and Tara Wibrew in TRIAL BY FIRE's Beirut (2008). Photography by Michael Brinkerhoff.
Stand Up 8 took a different, and very modern approach, to finding funding. Conceived as a for-profit venture, the group originally hoped to find 80 donors willing to contribute $1000 apiece. Williams says, “I thought we’d start with our parents and move outward from there, but then a friend told me about the Canadian reality TV show Dragons’ Den.” They auditioned, got on, and hit big, attracting investor W. Brett Wilson, now a half-owner of Stand Up 8.
For the Aerial Angels group, Williams keeps the overhead low. The Angels usually perform at street festivals and similar outdoor events. They often book gigs that are paid in advance,
Allison Williams and M.A. Harrison perform acrobatics on a grand piano in Stand Up Eight. Photo by Dan Lines
but just as often they conclude their shows with a hat pass. Williams explains, “We get paid by doing an amazing show that connects with people on a personal level, by touching their hearts and their funny bones to get to their wallets.” She can easily see that the more joy she brings to her audience, the more money she makes. “We offer a 30 minute escape with awe and wonder and comedy, and we ask for the price of a cup of fancy coffee, and the people who can afford to pay subsidize the people who can’t.”
For Williams, nonprofit status wasn’t worth the effort. She found “the level of hassle and paperwork is so tedious it wasn’t worth the piddling grants,” and feels that receiving adequate grants requires employing full-time grant writers. “Frankly,” she says, “I’d rather just go out and make the money without the strings.” Williams, who has written, directed, and starred in dozens of stage productions, makes good use of her experience and consummate can-do attitude to really make live theater pay off. Her belief is that, if you are selling a desirable product, people will buy it, and you can feel good about encouraging them to do so. If it’s not good enough to sell, she says, “start over with a better product.”
She attributes some of her ease at selling performance as a product to “being a non-fourth-wall performer,” who constantly connects with the audience. Selling herself onstage is the same as selling herself before the show. At the same time, she acknowledges, “I’ve done my fair share of Shakespeare, and marketing that is the same process, so maybe more serious theatre people should be thinking like circus artists.”
Curtain Calls
Emmy Walker, Jun Ogura, Julianna Zarzycki, Tara Wibrew, and Harry John Shephard in TRIAL BY FIRE's Angels In The Architecture (2008). Photography by Bing Putney.
Live theater, Williams believes, is ready for a revival. Audiences “do still want to see stories and connect with humans and be a part of an experience they can’t have with their TV, they just don’t always know they want it and they’re unwilling to pay more than their phone bill to find out.” The women of title3 agree that one of the greatest challenges to modern theater is that younger generations have less exposure to theatre and arts in general. For one thing, “school arts programs are disappearing,” so “children won’t have theater as a frame of reference.” As technology captures a greater share of entertainment, young adults “may choose to spend their entertainment dollars on other mediums simply due to the fact that they don’t really know what theater is or means.”
But companies like Stand Up 8, title3, and Trial by Fire are committed to combating those attitudes. The world needs live theater, and the modern world needs a modern theater. Modern theaters must make their own way and recreate the ancient art. Newman reminds us that our dearest dreams are not presented to us “in a nice little package all wrapped up with a bow on top. You have to fight for them, you have to travel long distances to find them, and most importantly, you have to make them for yourself.”
Even huge events focusing on large issue such as hunger relief or cancer research can benefit from an active grassroots movement to aid a larger, national cause. It’s time to gather your local grassroots community! If you are starting such a community from scratch, call a town meeting that will give you an opportunity to gauge the importance of your movement within your community, as well as find volunteers who can help you get the ball rolling.
*You Got Your Goodwill Army, So Now What? Now that you have the support and muscle of people in your community, your grassroots effort may begin. With these people, begin to plan and create a fundraiser. Let them tell you what the community wants. Sell tickets to the event to raise money. Sell raffle tickets to generate even more money for your cause.
*Get Local Exposure: Utilize local media such as newspapers and radio stations to raise awareness of your cause and your event. Be sure to tell people in the community how they can attain a ticket to your fundraising event. Take notes to ensure that you say all that needs to be said via the media to get the word out about your cause and your fundraiser. Use statistics, even local statistics if you can get them, to further the cause. For example, if you are raising awareness about Diabetes and aim to have a fundraiser about it, be sure to cite stats such as how many people in the country have the disease, as well as a stat of how many people in your community are afflicted. The reality of statistics will give your grassroots movement a solid foundation and awake the cause within your community.
*You Got the Exposure, Begin Planning the Event: Much of the preliminary details such as where and when must be decided before you speak to the media. But there’s more to planning and implementing the details: food, entertainment, or speakers. Continuing to use the example of a grassroots movement for Diabetes, an appropriate speaker could be a local doctor or an artist or musician in the community. Often local authorities and celebrities will donate their time for a fundraiser. Put out calls in the community for appropriate speakers to perform or speak at your event.
*Event Tickets for Your Fundraiser: Research event ticket designs: choose the perfect ticket template and create your own tickets online for speed and convenience. After your tickets have been designed and printed, begin selling within your community. In addition to selling your event tickets to your friends, neighbors, and coworkers, pound the pavement and do some selling door to door. Continue to promote the event, reminding potential guests about to get tickets. Use poster, flyers, Internet forums, microblogging, social networks, and your website. It is easy to create a simple website that can be exclusive to your cause with news and a schedule of events at this fundraiser and others to come. The website can also function as a way to educate the community about your cause as well as keep a running tally on the money that has been raised.
*Don’t Stop When the Party’s Over: Your successful grassroots campaign has created a mobile army for your cause. Keep them mobilized. Encourage them to bring new and creative ideas to the table and run with them.
It’s murder most intriguing! Themed events, beloved of churches, libraries, schools, and radio stations, can highlight your products and services while helping you raise funds, and the Mystery Dinner Theater is a popular theme that can help you sell more event tickets. As a librarian, I created and hosted several successful Mystery Dinner Theater events, and you can too.
Our events were free and functioned as a way to highlight the library’s place in the community, while also spotlighting the mystery book collection. For cost effective purposes, I got creative and wrote my own plays, casting them with local actors and teens in the community, as well as a few librarians. Ready to try? Here’s a step by step guide: how to create this deadly exciting event.
Theme of a Theme: Decide on a theme for your play. While the event itself is mystery-themed, it helps to create the play and the promotional materials with still another theme, allowing yourself the creative license to combine appealing elements. For example, in one of the plays, Harry Potter was found dead and the X-Files’ Scully and Mulder were sent in to solve the crime, with the help of the audience, of course. Once you have your theme down, you can create compelling event tickets using online event ticket templates.
Figure Out Your Cast of Characters: Think of what characters you will need (and consider how you will cast them) before you begin writing the play. After you’ve figured out the characters, the plot and clues will come easier. Your event tickets can even incorporate an image or symbol that may give your audience a clue about the characters.
Write Your Play: The play can begin with pure brainstorming; just get a plot going and begin to think about clues that would be appropriate to use in that plot. Of course, the plot should include a crime with clues, as well as a resolution. The resolution, however, should not be totally realized in the play itself. It will be the audience’s job to use the clues you set out in the play to solve the crime.
Cast Your Play: Send out a casual call to community actors and teens in the community who enjoy theater. If you do this, you will invariably get a large response from enthusiastic amateurs. Your event gives them exposure as well.
Promote Your Mystery Dinner Theater: I created posters in Microsoft Publisher to publicize my MDT, or you can print posters online. Create event tickets and make small postcards or bookmarks to hand out to customers. Your promotional material should include What, Where, When, as well as a clever title and tagline. For example: Solve a Mystery at Your Library: The Case of the Murdered Magician.
Create Event Tickets: You can create and print fun event tickets online. Using a ticket template helps you include all relevant event information, and perhaps a logo or image appropriate for your event’s purpose. Playing with the template, you can use mystery imagery like magnifying glasses, caution tape, and, in the case of a library, a stack of mystery books.
Something Extra: Even if your event is free, you may desire to have a raffle at the event for a door prize. Find raffle tickets templates online and sell chances for a small fee if you’re raising funds, or just use the stubs from the event tickets. Give away a prize that relates to your overall theme like a stack of Agatha Christie novels, some mystery DVDs and some popcorn.
Have a Successful Event: Proper planning and organization, dedicated rehearsals with your actors, and the right publicity ensure a fun and successful event!
If you’ve already read “The Smart Money: Online Fundraising for Schools Part One,” you know why the Internet is your best bet for expanding your donor list and your profits. You’ve read a few tips to get started, and you’re ready to learn the rest: ten more ways to boost your online fundraising dollars, make the most of donor communication, and promote your school’s online fundraiser, along with some basic guidelines for conducting online or offline fundraisers.
Communication and Promotion
Use the Internet to keep your potential donors aware of your school and its needs. You’ll want ongoing communication to ensure everyone’s up to date on upcoming fundraising events and school needs, particularly those of student clubs, organizations, and teams. The more involved they are, the more they’ll give. Here’s how to keep everyone in the loop.
4. Start an email Campaign
Starting an e-mail or e-newsletter campaign is the most important step you can take to ensure the success of your online fundraiser. If people aren’t informed, they won’t help. Make your campaign a success with the following tops:
Tailor Emails to Recipients’ Interests: Build detailed profiles for each potential donor. You can send an initial email asking about the recipient’s needs and demographic, or you can send more surveys and polls over a longer period of time. The second option is often best, as it allows for better relationship building as you gather information and develop continually more personalized emails.
Do Not Solicit in Initial Mailings: Even the most generous among us usually don’t care to give money to organizations or individuals before we have established some relationship. The importance of not soliciting recipients with their first email cannot be emphasized enough. Initial emails should be used to gather information on the recipient’s needs and interests in order to provide more valuable content. There is a direct correlation between the relationships built with potential donors and the amount they will give.
Purchase email Marketing Software: Email marketing software will save you time and money. This software allows you to automatically upload your donor database into an email marketing application and helps you tailor your emails to a recipient’s interests. Emaillabs.com offers great basic email marketing software. WildApricot, Convio, GetActive, and LocalVoice are designed specifically for online fundraising and offer a handful of specialized tools not offered by general email applications.
Establish a Schedule for Writing and Distributing: The whole point of an email marketing program is to hold the recipients’ attention by keeping them continually informed. People should look forward to receiving your email. Establish a set frequency based on time constraints and your school’s ability to produce relevant news or content.
5. Start School Blogs and Forums
Forums are especially great for school websites. They provide parents, students, community members, and faculty a place to share ideas and become involved. An active forum helps you understand the community’s concerns and communicate instantly. A blog is a great way to provide information on current school happenings.
6. Incorporate a Web Calendar
Integrating a web calendar into the school website is essential because it allows visitors to view upcoming fundraising events at a glance. There are many web calendar applications out there. Trumba event calendars (www.trumba.com) are easy to use and boast a number of features. Google and Yahoo both offer free event calendars.
7. Integrate an RSS Feed
RSS feeds automatically update subscribers on new website content or events; there’s no need for users to continually check your website. New blogs, email newsletter shipments, wiki page updates, and upcoming fundraising events should be placed on an RSS page. This will greatly increase fundraiser participation. For more info on creating RSS feeds visit /www.wilsonweb.com.
8. Create Wiki Pages
A wiki page is a webpage that can be edited by website visitors. Wikipedia is the most commonly known wiki site: a visitor edited, free encyclopedia. Submit your school’s details and history to this site, as it often comes up first in search results. Wiki pages for every sports team and student organization can be of great benefit. Parents, students, and staff can contribute unique pictures and stories about each group, establishing a sense of community while keeping the entire community informed about student activities. Write about notable alumni, too. Giving staff the ability to quickly edit these pages will make them more valuable and interesting. Search engines consider frequently updated content more valuable, so wiki pages increase your website’s natural search results. JotSpot provides a fully integrated wiki application that makes creating wiki pages a breeze. While most wiki pages are text based, JotSpot allows you to create rich web-based spreadsheets, calendars, documents and photo galleries with ease. For additional information on general wiki page creation, visit www.intersci.ss.uci.edu.
9. Create and Distribute Charity Badges
A charity badge is a small widget, often including a picture, brief description of the organization, and link to where you can make a donation. Using charity badges is good practice for any fundraising campaign. Although they may or may not produce large donations, they are an effective way to promote a fundraiser. Placing yours in targeted locations can help you reach new demographic groups. These badges also allow users to share with one another by simply clicking on “get this badge” and copying the html code onto their website or blog, which helps you target individuals who may donate. They are inexpensive and easy to create. Simply follow step-by-step instructions though providers such as CareBadges or ChipIn.
To get your school’s charity badge started, choose a provider and create a badge. Then, email those who would be most likely to make a contribution or share the badge with others. After this, donate to your charity badge yourself, and have co-workers and friends do the same. People are much more likely to donate if they feel they are part of something big. Finally, promote your badge though your school blog, social networking sites, email newsletter, or forums.
The Basics
Here are some basic tips to increase the effectiveness of any fundraiser.
10. Base Appeal on Benefits, Not Needs
Communicate how your school will be a better place for children, or the community will be better off as a whole, after receiving fundraising dollars.
11. Create a Sense of Urgency
Communicate the need for urgent action with clear deadlines and purposes. Catch people in the moment, with a sense of immediacy, and they are more likely to make a donation.
12. Provide Convenience for Donors
Give donors the convenience of paying online, over the phone, or via mail. Establishing several media for submitting donations or purchasing Raffle Tickets increases the likelihood of participation.
13. Following up with a Thank You
Don’t forget to send thank you notes to any direct donors, big Raffle Ticket customers, and purchasers of auction items.
14. Use Online Fundraising as a Supplement
Encourage online participation, but don’t let this be the only alternative. A lot of people do not want to become engaged with the online process. Make sure traditional fundraising activities are still in place. Online fundraisers are long arms, while traditional fundraising is the backbone of your fundraising efforts. Think integration. Allow your offline and online fundraising efforts to complement each other.
You need extra-curricular activities, office supplies, and roof repairs. You need to make up for the budget cuts, expanding classes, and an increase in Internet bandwidth. In short, you need money. When the PTA is stretched thin and your kids refuse to sell another chocolate bar, it’s time to take matters into your own hands. Don’t worry if your hands are tied! You can earn more money for your school with online fundraising, and you never even need to leave your desk. In this two-part article, we’ll discuss the why and how of filling the coffers without overwhelming your calendar.
fundraise
7 Reasons to Take Your School Fundraising Campaign to the Net
1. Online giving grows exponentially every year, from just over a half a billion dollars in 2000 to more than $4.5 billion in 2005. (www.groundspring.org)
2. One-click giving helps convert the philanthropic urge into fast action. Your supporters are much more likely to turn their impulse to help into actual donations, Raffle Ticket purchases, or auction bids, when they’re online. The instantaneous nature of the Internet promotes action by catching people in the moment. Being “close to the click” means being close to donors and dollars.
3. Online fundraising eliminates geographic borders. With the right incentive, you can attract a world of potential donors outside your region.
4. People are more generous online. An email campaign launched by North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics resulted in a 20% increase in the average donation. Their overall efforts resulted in a 150% ROI. (www.bronto.com)
5. Online fundraising attracts alternative demographics. cMarket conducted a study concluding that 71% of their online bidders are women. They found that women are turned off by the highly competitive, testosterone induced environment of the traditional auction. Internet bidding turned this demographic into major donors.
6. The Internet is quickly becoming donors’ medium of choice because it’s quick and easy.
7. Online Fundraising is a great option when your potential patrons are pressed for time. The typical auction lasts 1 to 3 hours; fewer people will be able to attend in that small window. Online auctions generally lasts 1 to 3 weeks, expanding the potential for more people to make more bids.
14 Ways to Boost Your School’s Online Fundraising Dollars
Think you know fundraising? Online fundraising is a different beast! If you’re ready to made the move from traditional fundraising to Internet fundraising, here are a couple of things to keep in mind.
1. Offer Big Incentives for Big Returns
Online fundraising works on a much larger scale than a PTA pancake brunch. You’re not limited to your usual group of donors; you’ll be tapping into an audience that is larger and more diverse. However, you’ll be competing for their attention, so they can be much harder to engage and coerce into action. You need the right incentives. The Mount Madonna School, located in San Jose, conducted a raffle with a $1.8 million, 2800-square-foot dream home as the prize. They set a benchmark of 26,000 tickets at $150 each before the house could be given away. Even though they fell short, selling only 19,137 tickets sold, they still gave $1 million to the top winner and $141,000 to the remaining 319 winners, and while managing to raise $1 million for themselves. Eliminating geographic limitations and providing the right incentive creates a massive audience, and your rewards grow exponentially.
2. Partner With Online Fundraising Providers
To greatly expand the audience for your auctions, consider selling on eBay Giving Works. (www.givingworks.ebay.com/). eBay Giving Works is dedicated to nonprofit and charity listings. Start by signing up on MissionFish (www.missionfish.org/), a site that makes it safe and easy for nonprofits to sell on eBay. AuctionPay (www.auctionpay.com) is another resource that can help create bidding activity outside your school’s local geographic range. St. Mark’s School instituted AuctionPay’s Online Auction Solution and managed to raise $25,000, more than one-fourth of the school’s total revenue of $97,000. A bidding war even erupted between two grandmothers, one in Florida and one in California, over lunch with a teacher, followed by a movie at a local cinema. The experience sold for $2,200 (www.nptimes.com).
3. Measure Everything
One of the great things about fundraising online is there are many useful ways to measure the effectiveness of your campaign. Normal metrics you should gather with your email campaign include email open rate, click-through rate, forward rate, opt-out rate, and email list growth rate. You can also track valid website metrics as well, including traffic growth, and the number of visitors who register. It’s also important to keep track of online versus offline funds raised, and the number of participants that are new donors.
Read Part 2 of The Smart Money: Online Fundraising for Schools for 11 more ways to improve your school's online fundraising efforts.
by Lance Trebesch and Dustin Stoltz on August 11, 2009
Your Challenge: The Successful Raffle
Great rewards require great effort. The payoffs from a prize draw can be substantial, if you make an investment of time, forethought, and common sense, but don’t count your revenue before it’s collected! Consider possible stumbling blocks. According to TicketPrinting.com’s survey of over 200 raffle holders, the top five most difficult tasks are:
Selling Ticket
Tracking Sales
Encouraging Participation
Soliciting Prize Donations
Raising Awareness
There is no silver bullet solution, but there are resources and techniques to help your organization rise above obstacles.
Ticket Sales: By far, the #1 most difficult task reported was the ability to sell tickets. Different people have different tastes in prizes. Make sure your prizes make sense for your organization and your potential ticket purchasers. For instance, if your prize is a hunting package, you don’t go to animal rights groups to sell tickets. You try a sporting organization or a gun club! Do go to local business and other groups in your communities. Make your presence known at large gatherings, and don’t forget to ask your family and friends. Remember, you’ll sell more tickets with fun or clever promotions. Here are some ideas:
a.Early bird pricing: Offer a special low price in the early days of selling tickets. People love a good deal and will be more likely to buy.
b.Special deals: Find creative ways to give deals to customers. For example, offer $40 for as many tickets they can fit once around their head, waist, neck, etc…
c.Dunk, throw pies, or cut hair: Along with your prizes, find a sympathetic local celebrity (a school’s principal, a TV reporter, a popular coach) and sell tickets for a chance (or multiple chances) to dunk him, throw a pie at him, or cut his hair. Don’t forget to invite the newspaper and local media outlets for more publicity.
d. Advertise on your website, local radio, public events, newspapers, and at local business.
e. Prizes for sellers: Offering rewards for most tickets sold, most hours put in, or best attitude provides ticket sellers with an attractive goal.
It is also important that the consumer knows why you are selling tickets. You’re not just earning money for your cause, you’re also spreading its message. Create an enthusiastic sales pitch. Include your organization’s name and purpose, address frequently asked questions, and finish up with a request that the listener purchase tickets. Keep it short and sweet so you don’t lose their attention.
Tracking: Ticketprinting.com’s survey reported that 19% of nonprofits did not record ticket sales, but the government will require you to report the outcomes of your raffle. You’re legally obligated to keep track! Accurate tracking can also create a database of potential customers for your next raffle. Microsoft Excel was nonprofits’ favorite program for tracking, with 43% of all respondents using the program. Record everything! This includes names, relation to seller, phone number, email, addresses dates, ticket numbers. Excel allows you to easily set up a spreadsheet with all the required information. Set up your spreadsheet correctly, and it can be used over and over again. Below is an example of a typical recording spreadsheet in Excel:
raffle spreadsheet
Participation: If your raffle will depend on volunteers, it may be hard to find reliable support. People can’t help if they don’t know about the raffle, so tell everyone about your opportunity. Joining online networks specifically for volunteering is an excellent way to connect your organization with people in your area who are ready and willing to help. Remember you must accommodate your volunteers. According to volunteermatch.org, 89% of volunteers think it is important for volunteering to fit into their schedule and 80% found it important to understand expectations. So be specific about your needs! Idle volunteers probably won’t come back. Always show your appreciation by following up with thank-you letters.
Donations: Finding the right prizes is the first step in initiating a successful raffle. There are many online sites where businesses and individuals can make donations. Sign up for one today and start collecting. Also, ask local business to provide prizes. They are often willing to give back to the community, especially if you can offer some positive publicity. Adding their logo to your Raffle Ticket or providing free ad space in your publication is a great motivator! Don’t be shy about approaching anyone who might help. You may be surprised when you find out how many powerful supporters you actually have.
Awareness: The most effective way to create awareness for a raffle is through word of mouth. Promote your raffle through your website, newsletters, email, TV, and meetings. Tell everyone about your raffle and ask them to do the same. 63% of the respondents in TicketPrinting.com’s survey said they hold raffles in conjunction with a major event such as a dinner or a sporting event. This way your raffle can be promoted through the event as well.
Now you know the challenges and the solutions. Get out there and start selling Raffle Tickets to support your organization!
The Right Choice for a Nonprofit: Sharing Ideas for Success
campaign. Although they may or may not produce large donations, they are an effective way to promote a fundraiser. Placing yours in targeted locations can help you reach new demographic groups. These badges also allow users to share with one another by simply clicking on “get this badge” and copying the html code onto their website or blog, which helps you target individuals who may donate. They are inexpensive and easy to create. Simply follow step-by-step instructions though providers such as CareBadges or ChipIn.
1. Offer Big Incentives for Big Returns
