Raise money from the public for charities

Every single charity depends on various forms of funding resources, although most count on grants from governments, corporations, organizations and other charities, individual donations provides a large proportion of continual source of their income stream. Only when a charity wins the public’s trust, can one earn voluntary giving from the individuals and communities. And such giving also increases the charity’s credibility and advocacy support among the public in return.

There are many ways to raise money from the public, but how could charities achieve on-going support from the general public as well as create a virtuous circles of donor loyalty? In that regard, this article lists four different fundraising ways that charities can take advantage of based on the various sizes, capacity, or charitable causes of your charity.

·         Face to face fundraising

With the weather warming up, it is time for charities to go out for face-to-face fundraising, which is the most direct way to approach your target populations, sign up supporters and convert them into monthly donors. You can launch different types of face-to-face fundraising methods such as collection from house to house, collection on a street or canvassing in a mall. Before you proceed, you probably need to seek for a permission from the local authority to run your charity collection.

Date and location are essential if you choose to fundraise for your charity on a street or in a mall. You may need a plan B if your first selection of collection site and date do not come out well, or to avoid having canvassers from other charities or non profits at the same spot. Set up in a spot with substantial passing traffic, so you can advertise yourself and reach out to potential donors in a short amount of time.  

You surely should train your volunteers or collectors prior to the charity collection, make sure they understand potential donors and are well informed about your charity. It is also extremely important for them to approach people with a friendly manner and show gratitude for your donors.

In addition to oral communication, it is helpful to use visual communication to deliver messages of your charity. Make sure the collectors dress up in your charity’s logo color, or supply them with graphic materials to promote your charity.

Last but not least, such form of charity collection should not occur too frequently at the exact same location or area, because you don’t want to pitch to the same group of people repeatedly and annoy them.

·         Event fundraising

Although event fundraising could be more risky and costly, fundraising events are widely popular among charities since hosting a great event can raise thousands of money for the charity. There are many types of events from running a marathon, organizing a concert to hosting a dinner gala. You should choose the right forms of events depending on the needs of your charity.

Before throwing an event, it requires lots of time and hard work to plan ahead. Ask yourself these questions: are there any other goals you want to achieve except raising money for your charity? What is the amount of money you want to raise at the event? Set a goal and a budget for the event you are planning, and include all expenses in your budget while taking into account the unexpected costs so that you won’t go over your budget. And don’t forget to prepare alternative dates and locations for your events, in case something goes wrong.

What’s next? Come up with a creative idea to attract and engage attendees for your event. Leverage social network, email letters, online ads and other marketing tools to promote the up-coming event. When planning your promotions, highlight the most exciting aspects of your event, and always offer fresh and exclusive content to your audience. 

Afterwards, you will need a reliable team with good management skills to execute the event. They will manage all event details and volunteers, handle any arising issue, keep everything running smoothly, and remain control over the costs. If you have little experience in organizing an event, you had better seek help from professional event planners.  

·         Online fundraising

Online technologies are shifting the landscape of charity fundraising. Online fundraising becomes a fast growing income source for charities, and it is important for charities to maximize their support by taking advantages of the online fundraising. For small and medium-sized charities with limited resources, online fundraising tools and platforms make it easier for them to raise money from the public.

Websites like CanadaHelps enable charities to provide their donors a convenient and safe donation experience and collect online donations at low administrative costs, all charities need is setting a free profile account and creating a custom donation page to direct their donations through CanadaHelps.

Similarly, JustGiving allows charities to create a custom fundraising page and boost their fundraising by sharing the page on Facebook. If you’re in the UK, your donors can make a donation simply by sending a text message to you. In regards of the increasing usage of mobile device, it is a smart idea to integrate charity fundraising with mobile and smartphones.

One great way to amplify your charity campaign is to turn your supporters into volunteer fundraisers. You can find peer-to-peer fundraising solutions on these online fundraising platforms, which allow your supporters to create a fundraising page to solicit donations for your charity, and empower them to spread the charitable message to their social network.

It normally creates more impact when including offline events as part of the online campaign. For instance, you can encourage your supporters to launch an onsite fundraising event like a charity bike ride and engage their personal network to join the event on Facebook.

·         Product trading

Have you ever considered raising funds through product trading? There are multiple benefits for charities to involve in product trading. Now you can collect donations of goods from your supporters in addition to financial donations. You are able to diversify the income stream by selling goods or service helps. And as long as you are a registered charity, your charity’s trading profits are exempt from tax.

You may remember shopping second-hand goods at a nearby charity thrift store. They usually provide a variety of affordable goods from gently-used clothing to cheap furniture. Charities like The Salvation Army run a charity thrift shop of their own and retail preowned household items from donors. But it could be time-consuming and expensive to set up and operate a charity shop.

The alternative is to cooperate with the third-party retailers such as WebThriftStore and EasyCharity, who make it possible for charities and non-profits to raise funds through product trading. You can register as a charity, list and sell your products on their websites, whilst the sale price will be proceeded to your charities. If you don’t have any products for sell, you can encourage your supporters to sell their products on the sites and select your charity as the beneficiary.

The benefits of working with such online retailers are clear, you don’t need to hold a large amount of inventory on hand or deal with buyers yourself. Beyond that, the EasyCharity website also offers an easy-to-use marketing toolkit for charities, with which you can request tailored promotional material for your online and offline campaign.

Apart from the four fundraising methods mentioned in this article, there are many other creative fundraising techniques for you to discover. No matter what methods you utilize for raising funds, these methods should be used together as a whole instead of being isolated from each other. By integrating different fundraising methods and giving more options for your supporters, you avoid the dependency on one single sources of funding and you are more likely to make a success out of your fundraising campaign.