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Grassroots Fundraising Resource Guide

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So you need to raise money... Where do you start?

This lens will attempt to lay out various fundraising strategies and focus on the ones most commonly used by grass-roots (i.e. small) organizations or groups to raise money. There are so many fundraising ideas that people have written books and published blogs and other articles just trying to categorize them. Just try Googling "Fundraising" and see the tons of search results.

This Lens will attempt to distill the world of fundraising down to the ones that are the most effective/practical/cheap for an organization on a tight budget. Hopefully it will help you find the right solution for your organization.

When thinking about fundraising here are the top five things to ask yourself before starting:

1) What am I raising money for?
2) How much money do I need to raise?
3) When do I need to raise this money?
4) What options to I have to meet these goals?
5) Is this realistic?

What are you raising money for?

Top 5

Here are the top five reasons an organization needs to raise money:

1) Cover overhead expenses
2) New project(s)
3) Complete/finish old project(s)
4) Hire staff / expand operations
5) Raise more money (you need money to raise money)

For most grass-roots organizations (think: church, school, sports team, local charity etc.), these might seem realistic. A school or church might need to raise money to fix a leaky roof, or a local soccer club needs to raise enough money to hire a real coach for next season.

The fifth reason is really only relevant to a larger non-profit that has a formal and frequent fundraising or development initiative. Most small community groups look to raise money for a specific purpose / project. Once you identify what you're raising money for, you can move on to step two from the first module.

How much money do you need to raise?

The next topic on our fundraising checklist is to decide how much money you need to raise. This is obviously determined by what you aim to use the money for. To give you a few ideas of use of funds:
1) Fix a leaky church roof
2) Add new wing to a school
3) Buy football team new uniforms
4) Hire new church pastor
5) Provide foot to every starving child in Africa

Obviously, these different project vary considerably in how much money is required to complete the task. You might only need a few hundred dollars for new football uniforms but you might need millions of dollars to provide food to malnourished children in Africa.

The take away here is that you need to know how much money to raise to cover a specific project. Based on the first lens, estimate how much money you think you need. Whatever you think you need, you'll need more by the time you're done. It's a pretty safe rule of thumb. You should probably use a proxy of 1.5 to 2.0 times what you think you need.

When do you need to raise this money?

So the third question you need to ask yourself is how soon do you need to raise this money? This will be the third answer you will need before you decide what fundraiser options are at your disposal. The two questions you need to ask yourself are:
1) Do I need to raise money within 3 months?
2) Do I need this money in a year?

These two questions fall into the category of short-term versus long-term, respectively. If you need to raise money in a period of weeks or months, your options are limited but can be very effective. If the time frame is long-term, you're options are varied and can be employed together to maximize the fundraising effort. The basic take-away is that you should try to plan your fundraising as far in advance as possible to keep your options (and possible fundraiser options) open.

Fundraising Resource Guide

Fundraising made simple and easy

This module will aim to simplify the world of fundraising ideas and actvities

Amazon Fundraiser

Easy and free fundraising idea - Amazon.com

Amazon provides an easy and free way for websites, content publishers and fundraising entities to earn money from referring sales to Amazon.com. It's technically an affiliate program where these websites are marketing Amazon in exchange for a fee for each sale they help generate. That fee translates into incremental fundraising dollars for any type of organizations...

So What Do You Think?

I want to hear what you think!

Please let me know if you've found the information useful. Thanks a million!

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SemperFidelis Oct 13, 2007 @ 8:16 pm | delete

A 5 to you (twice now)! Consider stopping by our Recycling lens and giving a rating. We raise funds for Save The Children with this lens. :)

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AmyP Sep 30, 2007 @ 3:38 pm | delete

Hi Jonathan - Thanks for visiting my lens. You have a lot of good fundraising information here.

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JTreiber Aug 1, 2007 @ 4:43 pm | delete

Hi All,

I like helping folks find cheap and easy ways to raise money for their cause. I've scoured the internet for fundraising ideas and will attempt to make sense of all of them here for you.

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Grassroots Fundraising Resource Guide

So you need to raise money... Where do you start?

Contents at a Glance

Contents at a Glance

Where to Start - Top 5 Things to Ask

What are you raising money for?

Top 5

How much money do you need to raise?

When do you need to raise this money?

Fundraising Resource Guide

Fundraising made simple and easy

Amazon Fundraiser

Easy and free fundraising idea - Amazon.com

So What Do You Think?

I want to hear what you think!

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