Non Profit Fundraising - Thinking Outside the Box
There are more groups that do fundraising every year than you can imagine.
I am a pastor and therefore every family in the church with a kid is in some sort of fundraiser.
You have the youth fundraisers, sports fundraisers, band fundraisers, Boy Scout fundraisers, Girl Scout cookies, candle sales, candy fundraisers and on and on.
I have a policy.
Don't you love policies? Actually mine is a principal.
I believe it's good for the kids to learn to make a presentation and actually try to sell something.
So, my policy is this; if a parent asks me to buy something from their children for a fundraiser my answer is always, "no thanks.
" But, if the kid comes and makes a presentation and asks me to buy I will always buy.
I try to help them with their presentation.
There was only one time when I was approached by the kid that I didn't buy.
I was in Newport Beach, California and this kid came up and asked me to buy some item.
I don't remember the item but do remember it was $30.
I guess in Newport Beach that price point is acceptable.
Funny how around here it's more like $1-$10.
In any event, I asked what the sale was for and they told me their football team wanted to go to Hawaii.
I said, "No thanks.
" I will help buy equipment for the football team and help them get to a reasonable tournament but I am not funding a trip to Hawaii for anybody but me and my wife.
Call me selfish.
But, I do get tired of all of the fundraisers having the same catalog.
I mean how many rolls of Christmas wrapping paper can you buy? I have it left over from three Christmas' ago.
And, what tools or ideas might there be involving the parents in the fundraising other than hitting up their friends to buy more wrapping paper or candles.
What methods could there be that wouldn't be one time, raise a little money and then plan the next fundraiser could be out there? Well, I wanted to know and here are some things I have come up with.
First, I found a ministry out in California called Kingdom Builders that does a tremendous job with a new twist on a golf tournament.
I hate putting together golf tournaments.
They are a lot of work and you get so little in return for all of the work you put into it.
You get as many as 128 players.
(It's the biggest one I have worked.
We used two courses simultaneously.
) You have to have gifts galore.
You rent one or two golf courses.
You have loads of people helping you.
There are transportation issues with all the gifts.
You have expenses in everything.
You feed them a nice breakfast, lunch and dinner.
And, you come out with $25 to $30K.
Well, these guys from Kingdom Partners have created a new way to do it and it works tremendously.
I actually used them and we raised $92,000 clear in one day with very little work.
The concept Kingdom Partners uses is that you recruit a maximum of 28 players.
Now you want people that love golf and have a nice rolodex.
Because the principal is the players play for free but they use their contacts to raise money for you and your event.
They write to their contacts and ask them to pledge $1 to $5 per hole.
Oh, did I mention that you play 100 holes.
It's an all day event.
You start with registration and breakfast.
You hit the course by 8:30 right after a group photo.
You actually play 50 holes with two balls.
There are many ways to use those two balls to lower your score but it is really a fun day.
I had two guys that raised more than $17,000 in pledges.
They bring most of them with them.
All of the tools are there to make it a great success.
One of the guys with Kingdom Partners is a Golf Pro.
He plays during the day with each player and gives him advice on his game.
He then gives them a written tool to help them remember what he has taught them during the day.
There is a video of the day and then everyone goes home with nice prizes and a photo of the group with the amount of money raised printed on it.
It's in a frame and is generally placed in their office and becomes a recruiting tool for the next year.
I thought this was one of the most ingenious methods of raising money I had seen in a long time and for what little work we had in it we generated a great return.
We did have a fairly large investment in the tournament but clearing $92,000 made up for it.
Our return on investment was almost 4/1.
Their average amount raised is $95,500.
They have had much, much larger amounts.
Their website is www.
Kingdom-Partners.
net.
Tell them I told you to check into it.
Second, I found a tool that not only generates money today but generates a residual income for the non-profit for weeks, months and years to come.
It's a product offered by a direct marketing/network marketing company called MyNet Universe and the product is a FREE software that pays the organization to give it away.
It is an out of the box thinking approach but worth considering.
These are just two ways of making money that are out of the ordinary.
There are many others I am sure but hopefully these two will stimulate your thinking and help you to find ways to sustain your work that is so valuable to our economy and our culture.
Thanks for what you do.
I am a pastor and therefore every family in the church with a kid is in some sort of fundraiser.
You have the youth fundraisers, sports fundraisers, band fundraisers, Boy Scout fundraisers, Girl Scout cookies, candle sales, candy fundraisers and on and on.
I have a policy.
Don't you love policies? Actually mine is a principal.
I believe it's good for the kids to learn to make a presentation and actually try to sell something.
So, my policy is this; if a parent asks me to buy something from their children for a fundraiser my answer is always, "no thanks.
" But, if the kid comes and makes a presentation and asks me to buy I will always buy.
I try to help them with their presentation.
There was only one time when I was approached by the kid that I didn't buy.
I was in Newport Beach, California and this kid came up and asked me to buy some item.
I don't remember the item but do remember it was $30.
I guess in Newport Beach that price point is acceptable.
Funny how around here it's more like $1-$10.
In any event, I asked what the sale was for and they told me their football team wanted to go to Hawaii.
I said, "No thanks.
" I will help buy equipment for the football team and help them get to a reasonable tournament but I am not funding a trip to Hawaii for anybody but me and my wife.
Call me selfish.
But, I do get tired of all of the fundraisers having the same catalog.
I mean how many rolls of Christmas wrapping paper can you buy? I have it left over from three Christmas' ago.
And, what tools or ideas might there be involving the parents in the fundraising other than hitting up their friends to buy more wrapping paper or candles.
What methods could there be that wouldn't be one time, raise a little money and then plan the next fundraiser could be out there? Well, I wanted to know and here are some things I have come up with.
First, I found a ministry out in California called Kingdom Builders that does a tremendous job with a new twist on a golf tournament.
I hate putting together golf tournaments.
They are a lot of work and you get so little in return for all of the work you put into it.
You get as many as 128 players.
(It's the biggest one I have worked.
We used two courses simultaneously.
) You have to have gifts galore.
You rent one or two golf courses.
You have loads of people helping you.
There are transportation issues with all the gifts.
You have expenses in everything.
You feed them a nice breakfast, lunch and dinner.
And, you come out with $25 to $30K.
Well, these guys from Kingdom Partners have created a new way to do it and it works tremendously.
I actually used them and we raised $92,000 clear in one day with very little work.
The concept Kingdom Partners uses is that you recruit a maximum of 28 players.
Now you want people that love golf and have a nice rolodex.
Because the principal is the players play for free but they use their contacts to raise money for you and your event.
They write to their contacts and ask them to pledge $1 to $5 per hole.
Oh, did I mention that you play 100 holes.
It's an all day event.
You start with registration and breakfast.
You hit the course by 8:30 right after a group photo.
You actually play 50 holes with two balls.
There are many ways to use those two balls to lower your score but it is really a fun day.
I had two guys that raised more than $17,000 in pledges.
They bring most of them with them.
All of the tools are there to make it a great success.
One of the guys with Kingdom Partners is a Golf Pro.
He plays during the day with each player and gives him advice on his game.
He then gives them a written tool to help them remember what he has taught them during the day.
There is a video of the day and then everyone goes home with nice prizes and a photo of the group with the amount of money raised printed on it.
It's in a frame and is generally placed in their office and becomes a recruiting tool for the next year.
I thought this was one of the most ingenious methods of raising money I had seen in a long time and for what little work we had in it we generated a great return.
We did have a fairly large investment in the tournament but clearing $92,000 made up for it.
Our return on investment was almost 4/1.
Their average amount raised is $95,500.
They have had much, much larger amounts.
Their website is www.
Kingdom-Partners.
net.
Tell them I told you to check into it.
Second, I found a tool that not only generates money today but generates a residual income for the non-profit for weeks, months and years to come.
It's a product offered by a direct marketing/network marketing company called MyNet Universe and the product is a FREE software that pays the organization to give it away.
It is an out of the box thinking approach but worth considering.
These are just two ways of making money that are out of the ordinary.
There are many others I am sure but hopefully these two will stimulate your thinking and help you to find ways to sustain your work that is so valuable to our economy and our culture.
Thanks for what you do.
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