From time-to-time, I get to introduce you to a rock star in my universe, a colleague I trust implicitly. Today I’m thrilled to introduce you to Clover Frederick, a fundraising and marketing expert from Lincoln, Nebraska. I love her idea of fundraising events being a “22-hour piñata”! You can follow her on twitter @cloverfrederick. Special [...]
Last night, I was asked for some tips to help my fellow board members with a fundraising dinner on Thursday. Fundraising events so often devolve into board members huddling together in tight groups of people they all ready know. But money is raised when board members act as ambassadors and hosts. Here’s what I wrote. [...]
This week, I’m pleased to introduce Sherry Truhlar. Sherry is an auction expert so I’ve asked her to come and share with us how to make our nonprofit’s next silent auction better. Be sure to check out her free guide of auction items — listing the 100 best-selling items to sell in your benefit auction [...]
This week, I’m honored to introduce Vivanista. Vivanista is a member-based, lifestyle community for charitable volunteers. I really like their practical tips as well as their emphasis in women in philanthropy. Check out their tools at Vivanista.com This top 10 list was put together by Vivanista’s founder, Layne Gray, a Bay Area entrepreneur and experienced [...]
Earlier this fall, I was at the National Catholic Development Conference in Chicago. Wandering through the exhibit hall, I came across this flyer. If you’re like me, you don’t really know what that box is in the upper righthand corner. It’s called a “QR Code.” Apparently, years ago Toyota created them as a way of [...]
Lately I’ve been getting lots of questions about how individuals can fundraise for walkathon events and many other -athons: bike, bowl, etc. Here are some of the ideas I’ve been offering:
First of all, good for you! Thank you for caring enough about the cause to put yourself out there and raise money for it. Our world is a much better place because of people like you. Thank you!
Specifically. Not the “more-is-better” answer but how much? $1,000? $2,500?
This will often come from the minimum amount you need to raise to be part of the event. But what if you raised more? Figure out a specific dollar amount.
This just doesn’t happen.
We’ve been studying fundraising for decades. Although this sounds wonderfully egalitarian, experience shows that people give varying amounts.
Plus, if you only ask $25 from someone who’d gladly have given $100, you’re leaving money on the table.
To do the research of creating a plan, go to a tool like GiftRangeCalculator.com. Plug in the amount you want to raise and the calculator tells you what size gifts you need to ask for and how many prospects you need.
If you do it for $2500, you’ll get something like this:
You’ll see that it recommends your top gift be $625–the equivalent of 25 people giving $25! A tool like this is based on decades of fundraising experience and can really help you develop a map to raising the amount of money you need.
You’ll also see that if you get all the gifts recommended, you’ll actually raise $3200. I did this intentionally. I wanted this calculation to be conservative so that even if you miss some of the 49 gifts, you’ll still reach your goal.
I also did this because if your cause is worth fundraising for, it’s worth raising more than the minimum!
How To Become a Fundraising Hero – International Bowl Expo 2010 View more presentations from Marc Pitman. Here are my slides from today’s session How to Become a Fundraising Hero at the 2010 International Bowl Expo here in Las Vegas, NV. I really had a blast talking to for-profit businesses and helping them help nonprofits [...]
