What do you do now?

First, realize that fundraising is a team affair. If you have members that are committed to your group, you have the essential elements to set up an effective fundraising drive.

But keep in mind that to maximize effectiveness, your group has to inspire commitment to a cause from its members as well as from its supporters.

If we break it down, effective Fundraising involves several elements

The Amount:

a) What amount needs to be raised?
__ Make sure that you have a specific goal to work towards.

b) Why? What are the funds needed for. Define this specifically so that
__ your supporters understand the need.

c) Is it sufficient? Make sure that in reaching your target goal, your
__ fundraising endeavor will meet your needs and not reach short.

d) Is it realistic? Is your fundraising goal realistic given the number of
__ members and supporters available to your group?

The Organization:

In order to rally people to your cause, you need to create a buzz. The cause should be meaningful to your members and supporters. What communication strategies will your group use to create the buzz that will get both members and supporters on board for the campaign?

Your group should be able to communicate where it is heading (vision), why it is going there (mission), what is needed to go there (support).

Do this effectively and both members and supporters will increase their support
to your cause.

3) The Sales Force: group members go out and solicit donations from supporters

- How committed and motivated are they?
- Do they know and understand the importance of the cause and of the goal?
- Is it important to them? Have they bought into the cause?
- Are they fired up and enthusiastic about the cause?
- Are they driven by the urgency to meet the goal?

The best results occur when individual members collaborate on achieving a
shared purpose. They are all pulling together in order to reach a destination.

4) The donors:

- Does your group know who the donors/supporters are?
___Has it developed a relationship with them?
___Has it communicated with them and articulated the purpose of the cause so
___donors know why their contribution is useful and justified?

Your group needs to know who to communicate this to. Ideally it will have been developing a growing relationship over time with its community of members and supporters. This pre-supposes that it knows who its supporters are.

Answering the above questions will go a long way towards enabling your group to reach its fundraising goals.

Home