Effective Fundraising Ideas for Nonprofit Organization this 2021
Hosting a fundraising event is just one of the many essential social affairs of any nonprofit organization. Although a fundraising event is usually organized to accomplish one agenda to another, a successful nonprofit organization incorporates these fundraising activities into their organizational plan. Through effective fundraising strategies, a nonprofit organization can become socially functioning and inclined to the community’s needs. Moreover, fundraising can become a tool to address the problems, at the same time, strengthen the people’s involvement in the community. Hence, nonprofit organizations need to have the grandest and strongest fundraising proposals to ensure the sustainability of the organization and community involvement. It would be very wise to create effective development plans that align strategically with the community’s overall objectives.
To be successful, any organization needs to create fundraising ideas that will certainly give value for money. Once the organization has established its reputation and gained the people’s trust, then, it would be easier to plan for future events. Additionally, excellent fundraising events will turn your organization into an impressive collaborator, and one that is highly regarded.
Factors To Consider When Hosting A Fundraising Event
While there are different ways to establish a fundraising event, it is crucial to make careful planning that will ultimately lead to success. And even though your event is a great way to support an important cause, some challenges can prevent you from getting most of the benefits. Hence, planning ahead of fundraising Ideas for a nonprofit organization will make a big difference by the time the event has taken place.
- Make Sure That You Identify The Purpose And Intent Of Your Event
A lot of nonprofit organizations only host a charity event to fund a certain project, however, that kind of mentality may stir up issues. It is important that your organization can identify the utmost purpose of your event. You have to identify whether the event needs to gain the attention of the media and community or is it just a small scale funding event. Depending on how large the scope of your event, you also need to identify if you require a large crowd of volunteers or not. Aside from identifying the purpose, you also need to consider your target audience. Getting the right audience will ensure their cooperation, and in return, success for your event. After identifying the main purpose, you also need to create an initial list of how you would accomplish the event.
- It Is Vital To Create A Budget Plan For The Event
A budget plan is always necessary for your fundraising event because you mostly rely on the sponsorships and donations accumulated. Whether you received a large or small amount of donations, it is still imperative to stay aligned with your budget. In this way, you will not defeat the purpose of why the event was created in the first place.
There are various ways to stay aligned with your budget. First, you need to know the required expense of the event, which will likely include the cost of staff, materials, venue and food. When you host an event, you must include in your budget a contingency budget plan to cover an unexpected expense on or before the actual event occurs.
- Make Sure To Select A Venue That Is Suitable
Although the venue can be too costly, it is still important to find one that is suitable. To be able to find one that really fits your need, it is necessary to come up with at least 3 price estimates. Moreover, the venue of charity fundraising highly depends on the number target audience and the kind of activity you are running. An important factor to consider is that your venue must fit with your event theme. For instance, if you are holding a concert, then it would be necessary to rent a venue that can accommodate a great number of people, as well as adequate space for equipment. When choosing the target audience that is high profile, it is wise to select a venue that is already well known, and that is also constantly being used for high-profiled events too. In this way, your supporters can easily trust your motives.
- Finalize Your Fundraising Event Theme
With so many great themes available, you need to consider the one that will really work, and the one that really fits your need. It is also necessary to look into the needs of the people because the community’s support will guarantee your success. You can always be creative however, you also need to create a suitable atmosphere that is readily accepted by anyone. While some fundraising charities raise awareness for a specific issue, your organization can make it fun and informative.
- Use The Social Media Platform To Promote Your Event
Nowadays, social media platforms are very effective in promoting just about anything. Products and businesses alike are successfully integrated into social media. This is also one of the fastest ways to increase your charity event’s recognition because of its wide coverage. Moreover, people are now switching to social media because this is also an efficient way to engage with a broader audience. Consequently, using social media also eliminates to need to spend money on flyers, or transportation just to advertise your event. Hence, to effectively network your event as well as gain online donations, you need to harness the power of social media interaction.
Essential Guide To Fundraising Ideas
Whether your organization is campaigning for donations to support a cause or just simply creating an event for awareness purposes, you need to choose the activities that will surely benefit you. When your organization is involved in charity fundraising, you are socially developing your community at the same time motivating the people in many ways.
- Host A Community Benefit Concert
A benefit concert is considered to be one of the most stable and long time-running activities for every nonprofit organization. People love the idea of listening to music, attending a concert and watching their favorite celebrity with their family and loved ones. However, a benefit concert does not have to feature high profile singers, but local talents can equally deliver a beautiful performance. Featuring the local talents of your community can help your event run smoothly. This is because they are easily accessible whenever you need them to make necessary changes. Moreover, local performers can easily contribute to the increase in the audience. People they know, such as their family, friends, and people included in their circle can participate in the event. Furthermore, a concert is easily recognizable because of its popularity. Although benefit concerts can be expensive and suited for large organizations, it is highly manageable for small organizations too.
- Set A Gala Night
A Gala event is usually for large nonprofit organizations that can cover the cost of the food, staff, and rental fees. Other costs include security, VIP guests, transportation, parking and hotel fees. However, the idea of attending dinner, dancing and entertainment are all enticing to people who become acclimated to such events. A Gala event can be strenuous and one must carefully look into it because it requires strong effort, and many resources to pull together. While this event may only benefit large nonprofit organizations, a small organization can also execute a Gala event with proper planning.
- Hold A Sporting Event
A sporting event can attract athletes and sports enthusiasts. Although this is a traditional fundraising campaign, a community is always open to participate in one because of its many benefits. A sporting event can motivate people to showcase their skills and talent in sports, if not, improve their skills. Aside from generating profit in this type of event, you are contributing to improving the healthy lifestyle of people in your locality. Team sports such as baseball, soccer, football and hockey are very popular and would interest anybody. Furthermore, staging a marathon fundraising event is also beneficial for people who are health conscious. Either way, your organization can easily cover both teams sports and individual sports for your benefit.
- Incorporate A Live Auction
If you are looking for an event that can truly bolster your profit, then consider holding a live auction in your area. This is very effective in getting your supporters to spend more money and attract donors too. While you are getting monetary support from your attendees, you also allow them to socialize and form connections. This may be the opportunity to gather businessmen in your area, and allow them to meet potential clients. Hence, this is a win-win situation for you and your supporters. According to Classy, live auctions, most often than not, yield a high return on investments. (1)
- Install An Art exhibit
An art exhibit can be a great opportunity for you to obtain profit and showcase the talents of your community. One effective way to hold an art exhibit is to create a contest where your local artists can put up their most priced painting or artwork. Your organization can also set up an exhibit area where people can just choose and buy. While you are helping your local artists to broaden their connections and build their careers, you are also gaining monetary support from the event.
- Encourage A Walkathon Event in Your Community
A walkathon is a very flexible activity that can easily attract and benefit anyone. There are many advantages in establishing a walkathon event because it is fun, active and appealing to small and large organizations. One benefit of a walkathon is its adaptability to an organization’s structure. For instance, if your nonprofit organization is linked with the academe such as schools and universities, a walkathon can be customized to include faculties, teachers, parents, students and professors. Hence, there is no limit to the opportunities that a walkathon can offer.
Aside from encouraging a healthy lifestyle, a walkathon is relatively affordable, allowing a small amount of cost expenditure for the whole duration of the event. Consequently, a walkathon is also a great venue to mobilize local businesses and vendors to market their products. You can easily set up these local vendors on a sidewalk or somewhere participants can simply take notice of them. Apart from schools and universities, a walkathon is also appealing to religious organizations, cancer fundraiser teams, animal rights organizations, and sports teams. There are also ways to make your walkathon event colorful, vibrant, and unique. Depending on your strategy and organizational structure, you can choose themes that will also keep your participants in full cooperation.
Breast Cancer Walkathon
This is a very good theme to improve awareness of breast cancer. People will be motivated to walk a healthy life to beat cancer. To maximize this theme, you can hold the event during breast cancer month.
Super Hero Walkathon
This theme can create a great impact for people who acknowledges the heroes in their lives. The participants can wear their favorite hero costume allowing them to feel a sense of victory and pride.
Dog Walkathon
Dog owners can really benefit from this theme because this will enable them to walk their dogs over a long distance. Moreover, they can also meet new people as they follow their course.
- Carnival Event
Hosting a carnival night is a fun way of giving families, friends and organizations to gather together for a day full of games and fun. According to Double The Donation, big rides are expensive, but you can always choose to set up inexpensive activities. (2) Aside from the games, you can also encourage the participation of your local businesses to market their products.
- Set Up A Trade Show
A tradeshow is one fundraising activity that can really generate money from the registrations and sponsorships. The purpose of a trade show is to market products and services and to help businesses obtain new clients. Hence, hosting a trade show will strengthen your community’s business dealings.
How many auction items should you have?
In general, you need at least seven to twelve items for your live auction. This also depends on the time you have during the fundraising event. If the time is short, then keep things easy and brief by presenting items that are of high value. It is necessary to keep the guests from feeling restless, tired, or bored.
An item usually takes an average of 3 minutes to be an auction. Since most auctions only last to a maximum of an hour, you need to make sure nothing exceeds more than an hour.
It is important to note the number of guests that will be coming to the fundraising event. The bigger the crowd, the less item you’ll need. It is because you cannot contain the attention of the bigger crowd, and they tend to have a shorter attention span.
Live Auction Tips
- When doing a live auction, always make it a goal to present every item well. Make sure proper lightings are available and the item is in very good condition.
- Get a professional auctioneer to make it a success. They are skillful in handling the crowd in a buy and sell transaction without making them feel bored.
- Plan early so any changes can be made without ruining the whole auction event.
- Make a program flow no matter how small the auction is. The flow will help both you and the guests from feeling lost or confused.
When choosing auction items, take these into consideration:
Affordability: make sure the bidding falls into an affordable range so people can participate in the bidding process. They will not get involved if they feel it is something they couldn’t afford. An auction won’t be successful if it is not within their financial capacity to participate.
Interesting: Your items should be something that catches the interests of the bidders. You need to make them want it so they can place their bids.
Rare and Unique: A rare item is valuable and can drive the bid because people would want to get something that is rare or unique.
A live auction can be an effective tool to raise enough funds for your organization. Procuring the right items can make a big difference in the success of your event.
https://www.insider.com/most-expensive-items-sold-at-auction-in-the-past-decade-2019-11