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Ideas for Free Advertising For Fundraising Events

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How to Advertise Your Fundraiser Events for Free - Promote Your Events!

Free Advertising For Fundraising Events is something that many volunteers are looking for. Here are some of the things I have done in the past that cost little or no money.

Have you ever tried to advertise for a Fundraising Event without spending any money? It is possible but requires some creativity along with time and effort.

I have been on a good many advertising committees and have learned quite a bit about how to get the word out about an event without spending any money. I would like to share these ideas here and hope that you find them helpful.

. Let's face it. The less your money you have to spend organizing your event, the more money you will be able to generate for your cause. The old saying that "you have to spend money to make money" does not always hold true and I can prove it.

Take advantage of every opportunity to promote your event. For example, I am promoting my event while making this general lens about advertising your event by using it as an example.

Of course, it helps to have a cause that most people believe in. Our community is known for its ability to pull together for it's children and our Veterans Park Ball Fields need a great deal of work so promotion is not very difficult.

This is a scroll down web page so please read and scroll until you can scroll no more. Thank you.



I hope these fundraising ideas for non-profit organizations are helpful.

Photo: This is the flyer from the 2011 Freedom Fest in Pendleton. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like this event will be happening again this year.

12 ADVERTISING IDEAS FOR FUNDRAISERS

Check out each one of these to learn more

  1. 1. Organize a Great Advertising Committee
  2. 2. Make a Squidoo Lens about your Event
  3. 3. Promote Your Event Lens Using Free Social Media
  4. 4. Submit Your Event To Online Newspaper Calendar of Events
  5. 5. Blog About Your Event
  6. 6. Ask Websites To Post The Link To Your Lens or Blog
  7. 7. Design an Eye Catching Flyer and Distribute It!
  8. 8. Design and Sell Event Merchandise With Your Advertising Flyer
  9. 9. Banners and Signs Get A Lot Of Attention
  10. 10. Ask Other Organizations to post your event in their newsletters and/or send to their email list
  11. 11. Send out Press Releases to local newspapers and magazines
  12. 12. Send PSAs to Local Radio Stations
  13. Learn More About Veterans Park in Pendleton SC

1. Organize a Great Advertising Committee

The more people involved in planning an event, the more people you will have attending the event.

The first thing that one needs to do is to get a great committee together. I try to make sure I have someone who is a good writer, someone who doesn't mind doing leg work and someone artistic.

A lot of times one may find that it is just easier to do it themselves than to delegate it to someone else. This attitude can hurt your project because you need to get lots of people involved.

A great committee is probably the number one most important part of advertising but even as important is to remember to use your committee and to delegate responsibilities.

Communicating with your committee is also very important and it is easier to do if they all have internet access. I would not, however, not use someone who does not have email because that person may have a lot to offer. Listen to your committee and don't be afraid to change a preconceived notion of what should be done. New ideas and suggestions help keep your advertising fresh and appealing. All our Freedom Fest Committee Chairs contribute to the Advertising plus some other local volunteers who are willing to distribute flyers and promote the event.

Once again, the more people involved - the more successful your event will be!

2. Make a Squidoo Lens about your Event

Advertise your fundraiser on Squidoo

Squidoo is a free website where you build these Scroll Down Web Pages on any subject that you are passionate about. You can even earn a little money to benefit your cause. Of course, it is as important to be an active member of the Squidoo Community and learn ways to promote your lens. This will help it become a high ranking lens which will help you to earn money but also will help increase the number of visitors to your lens.

I also have a Squidoo Lens about Happenings In Pendleton SC and of course have linked to my Freedom Fest lens on that lens. Of course, it is also linked to our Friends of the Park lens. I have found Squidoo to be one of the best fundraising ideas for non-profit organizations

If you are not a member of Squidoo, you are missing a great opportunity to promote your cause and write about your passion.
Click Here To Begin Making Your Own Lens

My Squidoo Lenses about Events and organizations that I have promoted

Freedom Fest in Pendleton SC
Freedom Fest is traditionally held the Saturday before July 4th at Veterans Park in Pendleton. It is a fun filled family event with a patriotic theme featuring music, games, great food, and entertainment.
Spring Brunch Fundraiser
Friends of the Park enjoys hosting a Spring Brunch Fundraiser each year to raise money for our Veterans Park. Each table is hosted by a volunteer who decorates it unique to his/her invited guests.
Friends of the Park
Friends of the Park is a group of organized citizens interested in making Veterans Park the best it can be.
Step Up To The Plate for Veterans Park in Pendleton SC
Step Up To The Plate is a fundraising effort spearheaded by Friends of the Park, Pendleton Recreation Association and the Town of Pendleton to raise money to renovate the ball fields and erect a Veterans Memorial.
Palmetto Live Steamers Club
The Palmetto Live Steamers exhibited a couple of their Locomotive reproductions at our Freedom Fest 2011.
Pendleton Happenings
This page is a bulletin board, of sorts, for Happenings in and around the Town of Pendleton SC.
Grits and Gospel
Grits and Gospel was a fundraising by Pendleton Pride In Motion to raise money to give a Pendleton High School Scholarship.
Pendleton Pride In Motion
Pendleton Pride In Motion is a non profit organization working to make Pendleton a healthier community.
Diamonds Are A Girls Best Friend Fundraiser for Veterans Park in Pendleton SC
A group of PHS Alumni Lady Bulldog Softball Players have organized this fun day!
Christmas In Pendleton SC
List of events going on during the month of December in Pendleton SC

You can earn money for your cause if you are chosen as a Squidoo Charity

Non Profit 501c3 Organizations can apply to become a Squidoo Charity

Friends of the Park became an Official Squidoo Supported Charity in March 2010
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Friends Of The Park is a Squidoo Partner Non Profit

and makes a little money each month for Veterans Park through Squidoo

Lensmasters can opt to give a percentage of their Royalties to an approved charity and Friends of the Park is one of those charities listed. Thank you to everyone on Squidoo who contributes to our cause.

We are a group of concerned citizens interested in making Pendleton SC's Veterans Park the best it can be. We currently have a playground, walking trail, three picnic shelters, a concessions pavilion with restrooms, and three old ballfields.

3. Promote Your Event Lens Using Free Social Media

Twitter, Face Book, and LinkedIn are a few of the great places to promote your fundraiser

Twitter Button from twitbuttons.com

Nancy Tate Hellams's Profile | Create Your Badge
Nancy Tate Hellams's Facebook profile

We also have a Veterans Park Fan Page on FaceBook. See the side panel to join.

Twitter and Face Book are both great places to promote your event but both of these will work better if you have built a large local following. Find people who you think might be interested and establish a relationship whether it is as a Face Book friend or a Twitter follower. Hopefully each person you connect with will in turn pass the information about your event onto all of their followers.

On Face Book you can start a group and add your event. This way you can send out invitations to all of your local friends. All you have to do is to filter your friends to show the ones in your local network. You then send out an invitation to each of them.

Facebook Fan Pages are a wonderful way to promote an event and be sure to tag lots of people when you post your flyer. That way it will be displayed on their wall and each of their friends will see it.

On LinkedIn you can easily join groups with similar interest and that are local. Then you submit your event news and it will appear on their newsletter that goes out to all that group's members. Ohme's Linkedin Profile


View Nancy Hellams's profile on LinkedIn


See our Veterans Park Fan Page on the right side of this lens.

4. Submit Your Event To Online Newspaper Calendar of Events

Free promotion for fundraising

Plan ahead as this must be done at least 30 days prior to event in most cases.

Online Newspapers offer Calendars of Events for local happenings and it is free. It also helps to get your event recognized by Google so people can easily find it when searching the internet. You can post the link to your lens for more information.

There are also some online magazines that offers this service so take advantage of each one that is out there. Submit your event and lens url to as many places as you can find.

Online Local Newspapers

Links to our local newspapers below

I have submitted Freedom Fest to all three of these online newspapers.

Be sure to do this at least 2 to 3 months before the event date.
Anderson Independent Mail
Anderson Independent Mail online offers local news and event listings.
Upstate Today
Upstate Today is the online newspaper for the Seneca Journal and Messenger
Greenville News Online
The Greenville News offers an online Calendar of Events.

5. Blog About Your Event

Advertise your fundraising event on your blog

Setting up a blog is easy and free.

I like to use Blogger but there are many other blogging sites that are just as easy. Add pictures from past events and rss your blog into your lens. You can also benefit from finding other local bloggers and following them and hopefully they will follow your blog as well. You can comment on other blogs using your Event Lens URL as your identity. This way when the reader clicks on your avatar or name, they will be directed to your lens.

Pendleton SC on Blogger

I have more than one blog

Keeping your blog up to date is very important. Add photos to make your blog more appealing.
Loading Fetching RSS feed... please stand by

6. Ask Websites To Post The Link To Your Lens or Blog

Local Websites Can Easily Link To Your Event Lens for free promotion

The Town of Pendleton is very good about linking to my Event Lenses as is South Carolina Information Highway and others.

Town of Pendleton SC

Links to some of my reciprocal link sites

Find active websites that will link to your event

South Carolina Information Highway
SciWay has been wonderful to link to my Squidoo lenses that promote events and the town of Pendleton
Town of Pendleton
The Town of Pendleton offers links to various community organizations and events.
Pendleton High School
The Pendleton High School website offers a Calendar of Events and have been very good about posting community events for me.
Discover Upcountry
South Carolina's Upcountry Tourism Website
SciWay
South Carolina Information Highway
American Towns
American Towns.com website reads: Welcome to AmericanTowns, your local link to the people, issues and activities that matter most in YOUR daily life.
Festivals and Events
This site lists Festivals and Events by State

7. Design an Eye Catching Flyer and Distribute It!

Get lots of help with this one!

Freedom Fest 2010I use two programs to make my fliers: Microsoft Picture It and Microsoft Home Publishing. Each one of these offers something to help make my fliers more attractive. Each allows non profit use of their clip art which is the nicest thing about these programs.

Printing fliers can be very costly so this is what we do. First, I ask each member if they would mind printing off at least 5 fliers and posting them around town. Most of the time people are willing to do this.

Secondly, I usually will buy ink and card stock paper and use that as my inkind donation or find someone to sponsor the printing.

We are also very fortunate to have a Friends of the Park member who is also a printer and has been so very generous in donating printing for us. These will be distributed to businesses around town and handed out at events such as Pendleton Recreation Association's Diamond Day, Farmers Market, Various Organizational meetings, etc.

The best places that I have found to post fliers and have some available for pick up are at grocery stores, hair salons, restaurants, doctor and dentist offices, pharmacies, Libraries, hotels,and insurance offices. Just think of places that people will be going the most and have them available there.

We have done mini fliers printing 2 or even 4 fliers per page which are nice for one on one distribution. Printing fliers for distribution to school aged students is a big expense and unless you have a sponsor willing to pay for this, it would not be worth it. It is good to go schools to publish the information in their newsletters and this would not cost anything.

Table Toppers are usually successful but do not hold up well in restaurants where they are constantly spraying and cleaning tables. They usually will not hold up over a week unless you have plenty of the upright plastic kind that takes inserts. Restaurants and bars are usually given these by beer companies and sometimes will let us use them. We have even taken some old ones that were donated by a distributor and took all the advertising off with mineral spirits. It is a lot of work for only one week but sometimes it is worth it.

Sometimes, it is possible to get School Art Classes involved in this.

What about asking folks to make a larger sign for their back car window. This could attract some attention especially in the car rider lines at the schools.

SAVE THE DATE Cards Make Great Early Advertising

Start handing them out about a 1 1/2 months before the event.

Save The Date cards for Fall Harvest Festival

My Graphics Programs

There are updated versions of these available on Amazon

Picture It! Photo Premium 9 [OLD VERSION]

Picture It! Photo Premium 9 [OLD VERSION]

Amazon Price: $29.99 (as of 02/14/2012)Buy Now

Microsoft Home Publishing

I love their clip art

They allow for non profits to use their clip art
Microsoft Home Publishing Suite 2000

Microsoft Home Publishing Suite 2000

Amazon Price: $145.00 (as of 02/14/2012)Buy Now

8. Design and Sell Event Merchandise With Your Advertising Flyer

I do this using the Print on Demand Company - Zazzle

Freedom Fest Shirt shirt
Freedom Fest Shirt by ohmeakanancy
Browse more Freedom T-Shirts

Freedom Fest Merchandise on Ohme's Zazzle

Advertise with merchandise

Freedom Fest Infant Creeper Freedom Fest Infant Creeper by ohmeakanancy

Buy Now

Freedom Fest Spaghetti Strap Tee Freedom Fest Spaghetti Strap Tee by ohmeakanancy

Buy Now

Freedom Fest Apron Freedom Fest Apron by ohmeakanancy

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powered by Zazzle.com

9. Banners and Signs Get A Lot Of Attention

Promote Your Fundraising Event with a Banner and Signs

Banners are expensive to have printed but here is another way:

Our organization can not afford to have a banner printed so we found these two ways to make banners to hang at prominent locations around town: Old Hunters Store, Bi-Lo Grocery Store and Veterans Park Ball Fields. Be sure to get permission and it usually has to go before the town, too, to make sure you follow the Sign Ordinance.

Central Textiles is a company that makes blue jean pocket material and they have been kind enough to donate bolts of this material for our use. One of our members owns Village Alterations and she donates putting the gromets on the banners for easier hanging. This fabric will take permanent marker. I always have a supply of permanent markers but if you don't, you might find a store willing to donate some.

The best banners that I have found to use are the Coca Cola banners which have their logo on one end and the rest is blank. They are plastic so hold up good in the weather and have long heavy duty string for attaching to fences or buildings. Our Bi-Lo Grocery Store has been able to get us some of these banners from their Coke Distributor and we use the same ones year after year by just changing the date. In fact, Bi-Lo is a great place to display a banner or large sign and they are usually willing to do this especially for non profit organizations. We have hung them where the carts are parked inside the grocery store and it seems to get a lot of attention. In a small town like ours, the grocery store probably has the most daily traffic.

These Signs Worked Out Great

Recycle Old Campaign Signs

Advertising Sign for eventWe had recently held our local election for Mayor so there were many signs available that were donated for our use. One of our members took the old campaign signs and painted both sides completely white with some left over paint she had around her house. Then I used the Shiny Folk Art Paints to paint these attention getting signs on both sides. We put them around town at various locations where they could be seen from the road in both directions. We will save these for the next year and just change the date.

Marquees Make Great Advertising For Your Fundraiser

Usually it just takes asking the right person well in advance

Our town has a marquee and are willing to post events that are open to the public and benefit the community. Some businesses around town have marquees and will post the event information if they are giving plenty of notice. The schools are usually willing to post the event on their marquees once school is out. Since ours is a summer event this really helps especially the schools that are on busy highways and their marquee is easily seen.

Pendleton High School was kind enough to put our Freedom Fest info on their marquee. Pendleton High School is located on Hwy 187 better known as Wild Hog Road and it gets a lot of traffic in the summer with people going to the lake and also people going to work at the Clemson Research Park or shopping at Lodges Landscape which is across the street. Thank you PHS.

10. Ask Other Organizations to post your event in their newsletters and/or send to their email list

Find the contact person for each organization in your community

We have several organizations that are willing to do this for us and it is always greatly appreciated. Just send an email request with the general information and a contact number and attach your flier.

Our area churches are also really good about publishing the information in their newsletters and bulletins.

Send out an email to your membership and ask each member to send out to their friends and family members. Word of mouth is often excellent advertisement.

11. Send out Press Releases to local newspapers and magazines

Plan to do this at least 30 days in advance

Writing a good press release takes time and talent. I usually like to have someone on my committee who specializes in this.

The next thing is to make sure you get it to the right person at the newspaper or magazine and follow up to make sure they received it and ask if they need any additional information. This can be done online but it is also a good idea to send via email to a specific person at the paper.

You can also get into Online Press Releases and Articles which is a good idea.

How do you write a good press release?

How To Write A Press Release
I found this website very helpful in learning to write a press release. There are many websites available with this information.

12. Send PSAs to Local Radio Stations

Learn how to write an effective Public Service Annoucement

Most stations will require specific guidelines to be followed when submitting a PSA. Find out what those are and follow them. After your PSA is written be sure to send directly to the right person. This may take some phone calls to find out this information but will be well worth your time.

How To Write A PSA

I found this link helpful

Check the world wide web for more informative websites on how to write a Public Service Announcement.
How To Write A Public Service Announcement
This website helped me in writing our PSA

These Books Offer Many Ideas For Fundraisers

Learn Ways To Promote Your Fundraiser

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Thanks for stopping by and I hope this information was helpful

Do you other suggestions for Free Advertising? Please share. Thank you.

These fundraising ideas for non-profit organizations is geared toward my local area but I hope you will find some information that will be helpful no matter where you live.

I would love to hear your thoughts. Anyone may comment. You do not have to be a member of Squidoo. Just click "visitor", type in your comment, fill in the security word and submit. Thanks so much!

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Learn More About Veterans Park in Pendleton SC

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OhMe

Free Advertising For Fundraisers is a list that I compiled for my own benefit and decided to share it with you. I always seem to be doing a lot of promoting... more »

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