Individuals raising funds for support -- Part 2.

Individuals Raising Funds For Support -- Part 2

Gathering Community Support

Here is a month-by-month strategy that will

assist you in gathering community financial

support for your fundraising project or event.

Even though it looks similar to the Appeal

Letter strategy at first, you will quickly see that you will be quadrupling your fundraising efforts. Thus, raising substantially more money.

Monthly Strategy

1st Month Gather names. Gather as many names of friends, family, business owners, co-workers, and church members that could, if asked, donate money to your efforts.

2nd Month Recruit an honorary advisory board. This advisory board should be a mixture of those that can help you make calls, make contacts, deliver products that you sell, and have connections with influential business people (door openers). Contact each and ask them to support your efforts.

3rd Month Prepare to conduct a fundraiser that will attract many people paying a small fee for a product or service that you offer. See the Fundraising Ideas or Fundraising Products here at Profit Quests for a fundraiser that fits your personality.

If you don't like selling products, you might want to conduct a Bike-A-Thon or Walk-A-Thon. In that case, go directly to Conducting An A-Thon.

Now, you'll need to get 100 to 500 customers through this product fundraiser. This will also give you an immediate flow of funds from the products that you have sold.

Make sure your new contributors know what you are raising money toward. Casually express to them that you will be sending out update reports occasionally on the progress of your goal achievement. Gathering names and sending out your progress reports is crucial to the success of your next steps.

Gather their names, addresses, phone numbers and e-mail addresses in some manner when they buy a product. A good way is to have a sign-up form so that you can track delivery or completion of a service. You will later use this information to send out a newsletter (store all names in a word document, spreadsheet, or contact management software like ACT! 2000 or Goldmine).

4th and 5th Month Begin selling your Fundraising Products. Make sure that everybody you know is alerted to your sales kickoff date. Make sure you alert all media outlets. If you are a Christian missionary, then alert all Christian radio stations in the area.

6th Month Send out a newsletter with a short article about where you are at on your goal. If you have more than 200 names, then ask a local church or ministry to allow you to send out a bulk mail through their postal bulk mailing ID# to help you save on postage.

Include a graph showing your goal achievement. Write a short article that will invite your readers to help you reach your goal by sending an extra $10 or $20. Provide a self addressed envelope so that they may send their check back to you.

Let them know that their donation is non-deductible for IRS purposes or your donors may assume that you are a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit entity. If you are under the auspices of a specific organization or ministry, then state this fact and ask that all donations be made out to the specific 501 (c) (3) ministry or organization with a note that it's for the "XYZ Fund".

7th Month Write a serious letter making your case for sending you out on your missionary journey and what you hope to achieve. Send this out with a self addressed envelope. You might even send a donation card that will show several gift ranges.

8th Month Conduct another fundraiser (see Fundraising Tips and Fundraising Ideas) if you still haven't reached your goal. This will help gather more funds and names. If you've reached your goal, go directly to the 11th Month below.

9th Month Send out your next newsletter showing where you are at on your goals. If you have found one or two donors that will make a "challenge gift" then post their challenge to give two dollars for every $1 raised during the next two weeks. This is a great way to increase gifts further.

10th Month Ask a well known business leader, philanthropists, religious leader, TV personality, or community leader to write an funding appeal letter on your behalf. (Hint: you may have to actually write the letter for them to send on your behalf, since they may be too busy otherwise). Send this appeal letter out to all of your contacts with a return addressed envelope.

11th Month Finally, send out your last newsletter. Tell your contacts that this is your last report to them this year (just in case you do this again next year). Alert them to how much you've raised and any deficiency that you may still have. Thank your donors profusely over and over.

This structure will provide you a rough outline of an effective method of raising substantial funds.

LETTER APPEAL -- Part 1

GATHERING COMMUNITY SUPPORT -- Part 2

CONDUCTING AN A-THON -- Part 3