Wednesday, June 5, 2019

A Few Fundraising Ideas For Worthwhile Causes

By Scott Bell


There is a myriad of organizations that firmly believe that they are making a difference in the world and that they deserve the support of the community. It often seems as if not a day goes by without someone appealing for donations and assistance. Many ordinary citizens can never help all those that ask for help and they tend to focus on one or two issues that appeal to them. Organizations appealing for help compete with each other and they can only succeed if they have interesting fundraising ideas.

Potential donors cannot help everyone appealing for assistance. In addition, different people have different priorities and they tend to support those causes that are close to their hearts. Organizations looking for donors would do well to study the kind of target market most likely to support them. They need to know as much as possible about this target market if they want to reach them and convince them to support them.

Raising funds is a specialized field and it is time consuming. The majority of organizations asking for donations are already short of resources and struggle to find the time to organize events for raising funds. The best course of action may be to leave this in the hands of professionals. They may charge a hefty percentage of the money that they manage to raise but it leaves the organization free to focus on its own aims.

It is certainly not easy, but finding a benefactor can hold untold benefits. People in the public eye often have numerous admirers and followers. Their opinions count and if the support a cause their followers will often follow suit. Many of these benefactor celebrities become the face of the organizations that they represent and support. Corporations, too, often act as long term benefactors to organizations that appeal to their sense of community involvement.

Many worthwhile causes benefit greatly from grants. Lottery and casinos in many countries, for example, has to spend a certain percentage of their profits on supporting charitable organizations. Many government departments and corporations also specifically budget for grants to such organizations. Obtaining such a grant can be time consuming but is most certainly well worth the effort. Professional help with the application process may be needed.

Organizations that organize their own events to raise money need to be creative and innovative. People are busy and they are selective about the events that they attend. These events need to draw new supporters and old stand by concepts such as a jumble sale simply do not work any longer. It is better to have just a few truly professionally organized events than a lot of smaller ones.

Organizations appealing for financial assistance need to be accountable. There have been many examples of charities that abuse the funds that well meaning supporters gave them. This has caused potential donors to be more wary. It is vital to make sure that potential supporters know exactly how their money will be utilized and to then actually use that money as promised.

There can be no doubt that there are numerous causes worth supporting. The problem is that one cannot support all of them. There are simply too many. One thing remains certain, however, and that is that without the efforts of these organizations society will be in a very sad state indeed.




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