Fifty-Three Ways for (Board) Members to Raise $1000
April 26, 2010
article written by Kim Klein
All good fundraising plans have one thing in common:
They show a diverse number of sources for their income. The board of directors plays a crucial role in selecting, implementing, and evaluating fundraising strategies. In addition to other ways that board members may participate in fundraising, they individually commit to raising and giving a certain amount of money, or commit to working by themselves on specific strategies with no financial goal attached.
It is a good idea for board members doing fundraising on their own to write up their plans. This “contract” allows staff to know when they might be called on to help, ensures that events don’t happen on the same day or the same donors aren’t solicited by several board members, and also
helps to remind board members of their commitments. In order for this method to work, the organization or the board fundraising committee should think of many specific ways board members could actually raise money by themselves. The fifty-three ways suggested below are not an exhaustive list, nor will they all work for every group. Few board members could use all fifty-three ways, but almost any board member should be able to use two or three of them.
All of these methods have been used by different volunteers in a wide variety of organizations. Some methods are much more popular then others. Some depend on access to certain resources.
Presenting board members with fifty-three ways that would work for your organization helps counter the excuse, “I would help but I just don’t know what to do.” Having each board member write out a plan, with goals and a timeline, also gives them a sense that if they do their best with this plan, they will have helped significantly. Many board members feel that fundraising is never ending, and that no amount of effort is enough. “Whatever I do, I could have done more and probably should have,” they say. This feeling of inadequacy leads to high turnover, burnout, and resentment
in boards. Specific fundraising contracts can help avoid that result. Following the description of the fifty-three ways board members can raise funds, there is a suggested format for a contract and examples of some completed contracts.
1. Give it yourself. This is the easiest way for those who are able, although if you are able to give this much money you should be helping to raise much more than $1000.
2. List all your friends who are interested in your organization or similar organizations. Decide how much you want to ask each one for. If you are not sure of an amount, use a range. Write to them on your own stationery, include a brochure from the organization and a return envelope. Phone those people who don’t respond in two weeks. Some people will need 10 friends to give $100, and some people need 50 friends to give $20. Most people will need a combination of gifts of $100, $50 and $25.
3. Give part of the $1000. Then ask your friends to join you in giving $50, $100, or whatever amount you gave. This is most effective because you are not asking them to do anything you haven’t done.
4. Set up a challenge campaign. Challenge gifts can be quite small. Tell people you’ll give $5 for every $25 they give, or will match every $50 gift up to ten gifts. For added suspense, make this challenge during a fundraising event. You or the host can announce, “We now have the Dave Buckstretch Challenge. For the next five minutes, Dave will give $5 for every new member that joins Worthy Cause.”
5. If your organization has several grassroots fundraising strategies in place, use them all:
Sell 100 raffle tickets (@$2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$200
Give $200 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $200
Sell 10 tickets to the annual event (@ $25) . . . . . . . . $250
Buy two gift memberships (@ $25). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $ 50
Get 12 friends to join (@ $25) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$300
6. Help with your organization’s phone-a-thon. Bring the names of people you think would like to join and call until you have raised $1000. Or trade names with someone in the organization and call their friends until you have reached $1000. This is particularly effective for people who are shy about asking their own friends for money but are not afraid to ask people they don’t know.
7. Acquire mailing lists for your organization. If you belong to another group, perhaps you can set up an exchange, or perhaps you have access to a list of members of some other group. You can ask all your friends to give you the names of 10 to 15 people they think would like to join. You would need to recruit about 25 members at an average gift of $40. Depending on how “hot” your list is, you might need as few as 200 names (to do a bulk mailing) or as many as 1500-3000 (if you expect a 1–2% response). You would have to have a greater response if you wanted the mailing to pay for its costs and also generate $1000.
8. Give the organization something they need that is worth $1000, such as a new computer, filing cabinets, couch, software program, etc.
9. Pledge $28 a month, and get two others to do likewise.
10. Teach a seminar on a topic you know: fundraising, knitting, organic gardening, organizing, proposal writing, environmental impact reports, gourmet cooking, dog grooming, starting your own business. Charge $50-75 per person, with a goal of 15 to 20 people. Either absorb the cost of promotion or have enough participants to cover it.
11. Give some or a lot of things to your organization’s garage sale, making sure they are worth $1000, and then help to sell them all.
12. With four or five friends, have a spaghetti dinner at a temple, church or union hall or other big room with a large kitchen. Charge $10 per person and feed more than 100 people. You can charge extra for wine or garlic bread, or for dessert.
13. Have a fancy dinner at your home or a regular dinner at someone’s fancy home. Serve unusual or gourmet food, or have special entertainment. Charge $40 or more per person, and have 25 or more guests.
14. Get three friends to help you have a progressive dinner. Start at one person’s home for cocktails and hors d’oeuvres, progress to the next person’s house for soup or salad, the next person’s for the main course, and the last person’s for dessert. Either charge by the course or for the whole package. To make it extra special (and much more expensive), get a limousine for the evening that carries guests from house to house, or have live music at each site.
15. Host a house party. Do not charge admission and invite as many people as you can. During the party, give a short talk about your organization and ask everyone to consider a gift of $25, $50, $100 or more (depending on the crowd). Either pass out envelopes and ask people to give then, or after the
party contact everyone individually who came and ask for a major gift. Indicate that you have given and, if appropriate, how much you have given.
16. Get your gambling friends together. Charge a $5 entrance fee and have a poker evening, asking that every “pot” be split with the organization. Individuals win and so does the organization. You can charge extra for refreshments, or include one or two glasses of something with the price of admission. (Watch the laws in your community on this one. In some communities it is illegal to gamble, even in your own home.)
17. Do one fundraising event every other month. This might look like:
Poker Party. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $200
Fancy dinner (8 people °— $50). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $400
Sell 50 raffle tickets @$2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$100
Book sale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . …$200
Recycle newspapers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..$100
18. Solicit small businesses, churches, synagogues or service clubs for $1000. If you are active in a church or you own your own business and are involved in business organizations or service clubs, this can be very effective. You can often raise $200-$1000 with a simple proposal and oral presentation.
19. Take a part-time job in addition to your present work and give everything you earn up to $1000.
20. Ask five to ten people to save all their change for three to five months. You save yours. Count it at the end of the prescribed time and use one of the other methods to raise the rest.
(You may not need to.)
21. Ask two to five friends to help you put on a bake sale, book sale, or garage sale. You and your friends bake the goodies or get the books or the other stuff required for the sale, staff it
and clean up afterwards. This is an excellent way to get people involved in fundraising without ever actually asking them for money.
22. For the fairly rich: Give your organization $13,000 as an interest-free loan for a year. They invest it, earn 8%, and at the end of the year, they give your $10,000 back.
23. Sell your organization’s materials, buttons, T-shirts, bumper stickers, or whatever else they have for sale. Also, help distribute these to bookstores or novelty shops.
24. The Farming Out Method: Entice five friends to sell 100 raffle tickets at $2 each, or invite ten friends to raise $100 however they like. Share this list of suggestions with them. Give them a
nice dinner at the successful end of their efforts (or a bottle of good wine, or a weekend away).
25. Get a famous or popular person to do a special event. Watch the costs on this, or you may lose money.
26. Invite people to your birthday party and ask that in lieu of gifts they give money to your organization.
27. Conduct a volunteer canvas. For one evening, you and a group of friends take literature to all the neighborhoods around you and ask for money at the door. Be sure to comply with city and county ordinances.
28. Lead or get someone to lead a nature walk, an architectural tour, a historic tour, a sailing trip, a rafting trip, or a horseback ride. Charge $15-$25 per person, or charge $35 and provide lunch. Advertise the event in the newspaper to draw in people from outside your organization.
29. Start a pyramid dinner, or a chain dinner. Invite 12 people and charge $12 each. Get two people of the twelve you invited to invite 12 people each at $12, and two people from each of those two dinners to have 12 people at $12, and so on. Here’s the income:
Your dinner $12 °— 12 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $144
From your dinner $12 °— (12 + 12) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $288
From those dinners$12 °— (12 + 12 + 12 + 12) . . . . . . . $576
From those dinners $12 °— (12 °— 
etc.
Twelve is used in this example because it worked very well for the Nuclear Freeze Campaign in California, which was Proposition 12. In many communities, most of the income for the campaign was generated by 12 °— 12 dinners.
30. Collect cans for recycling. Ask all your friends to save their cans and bottles for you and turn them in to a buy-back recycling center.
31. Sell your frequent flyer miles to friends or donate them to the organization for a raffle. Watch the rules of the airline on this but some airlines let you give away miles, and you may be able to sell your miles as long as you don’t go through a mileage broker.
32. If you live in a nice house or own a getaway cottage in a beautiful place or an expensive city, rent it out for a week or a weekend two or three times during the year and give the proceeds to your organization. Or rent a room in your home for much less than the cost of a hotel room to people needing a place to stay while they are on business in your city. You may even make a new friend in the process.
33. Organize a service raffle. Get four people (one can be you) to donate a simple but valuable service that many people could use and sell raffle tickets for $10-$20 each. Keep the price a little high so you don’t have to sell so many and so that the buyers have a higher chance of winning. Services
can include childcare for a weekend or for any weekend night two weekends in a row; one day of housecleaning; yard work; house painting (interior or exterior), etc. Sell the tickets to neighbors, work mates and to other board members. Encourage people to buy several by offering discounts
for multiple purchases, such as one for $10, 2 for $20, but 3 for $25, 4 for $35, 5 for $40. If you are really bold or live in a more affluent area, or have few friends, sell the tickets for $50 each. A full day of housecleaning for $50 is a real bargain, and buyers have a high chance of winning with fewer
tickets sold.
34. Offer to do something your friends and family have been nagging you to do anyway and attach a price to it. For example, quit smoking on the condition that your friends donate to your
group, or get your friends to pay a certain amount for every day you don’t smoke for up to 30 days. Agree to match their gifts at the end of thirty days if you didn’t smoke and to give them their money back if you did. (This method could be applied to other healthy behaviors, such as exercising or not
eating sugar.)
35. Find out what items your group needs and try to get them donated. This is good for people who really hate to ask for money but who don’t mind asking for things that cost money. Items that one can sometimes get donated include computers, office paper and other office supplies, office furniture (second-hand from banks and corporations as they redecorate), fax machines, adding machines, and food, even cars.
36. If you or someone you know owns a small business that has regular customers who receive a catalog or announcements of sales, write them an appeal letter for the organization. Your letter can say something like, “You are one of my best customers. As such, I let you know about sales coming up and good things happening in my store. Today, I want to tell you about another good thing—what I do when I am not minding the store.” Then go on to describe the group and ask for
a donation.
37. Similar to #36, post this letter on your Web site. Link to the organization’s Web site and ask people to donate.
38. If the organization doesn’t have a Web site or doesn’t keep their Web site up, ask all your techie friends to donate $100 each and hire a Web Master.
39. Give it yourself. (This is so good I have to say it twice.)
40. Strategy with a long-deferred payoff (we hope): leave the group a bequest.
41. With similar hopes as above, get friends to include the group in their wills.
42. Ask friends who belong to service clubs, sororities, antique collecting groups, support groups, bridge clubs, etc. to discuss your organization in their group and pass the hat for donations. A once-a-year sweep of even small groups can yield $100 from each.
43. For the church going: ask if your organization can be a “second collection.” The church passes the plate for its own collection and then you or someone from your organization gives a
brief talk (or sometimes the whole sermon) about your group and the plate is passed again; the proceeds go to your group.
44. A variation on the above is to organize a “second collection Sunday” and get as many churches as you can to take up a second collection for your organization on the same Sunday. Someone from your group will need to be at each service and give a brief talk. Second collection Sundays can be very lucrative: the Catholic Campaign for Human Development collects
as much as $20 million on one Sunday in all the participating Catholic churches in the United States.
45. If, as a child, you collected something avidly that you now store in a basement, consider selling it. Coins and stamps are particularly valuable and have usually increased in value over the years. But your collection of rocks, toy ships or rockets, arrowheads, or dolls can also be valuable. When you donate the income from the sale, you can deduct that amount from your taxes—an added bonus of this strategy, since you probably paid little or nothing for the items in the collection.
46. Have a sidewalk sale or garage sale for your whole neighborhood or building. Go around to your neighbors and tell them you will take their stuff outside and sit with it all day to sell it if they will donate half or all of the proceeds to your group. Since this is stuff people want to be rid of anyway, it is a good deal for them. In one apartment building with ten units participating in donating stuff, an organization netted $3,000 in one day. Three people from the organization helped with the selling. With a few high-ticket items, such as a washer/dryer or some nice lamps, you can make
good money.
47. If you have an artistic bent, offer to design greeting cards to specification for organizations or individuals for a fee. If you are good at calligraphy, sell your skills to schools for graduation announcements, friends for classy but low-cost wedding invitations, or just fun certificates such as “World’s Greatest Dad” for Father’s Day or “Outstanding Friend.” Create unique Halloween costumes or masks. Donate the proceeds from your artistry.
48. Create a take-off on the “adopt-a-highway” technique by naming budget items of your group as available for adoption. You could develop a flyer that reads, “The following items have
been found near death from negligence and abuse. Won’t you help? $25 per month will ensure that our computer is maintained. $100 per month will release our photocopy machine from toiling with no toner and a dying motor. (We can lease a new one.)”
49. An idea for people who live in border towns: Get permission to place a large container in stores or even at the airports of towns near national borders. Have a sign that asks people (in several languages) to throw in any coins or paper money they have not exchanged. Many times people leaving Canada or Mexico don’t have time to exchange all their money or cannot exchange their loose change. Multiply this times hundreds of shoppers or travelers and you can make a lot of money. UNICEF does this in many European airports.
50. Hold an “I’m Not Afraid” Auction. You can do this with just a few friends or hundreds of people if you have enough items to auction. You survey a few people (and use your own common sense) about what things need to be done in their home of office that they are afraid of or would really rather not do. This is different from a service auction—there has to be an element of dread in the activity. For example, some people cannot wash their windows because their apartment is too high or the second story of their house is too high and they suffer from vertigo. If you are not afraid of heights, you can sell your window-washing service (bring a sturdy ladder). This goes for drain cleaning, minor roof repairs, antenna fixing, etc. Or, if you are unafraid of cockroaches or spiders, you can offer to clean out that dark corner or garage or basement for a small fee. Snakes can be found in gardens and woodsheds, but maybe that doesn’t bother you. The problem doesn’t need to be as
serious as phobia. How about allergies to dust, pollen, weeds? If you don’t have them, you can mow, sweep, and clean for a fee. By marketing it as an “I’m Not Afraid” Auction, you also have the option for people to name something they need done to a group of volunteers, and then have a
volunteer say, “I’m not afraid to do that.” In that case, you will need a set fee for service.
51. Similar to the suggestion above is the “Details Auction.” This is for all your friends whose desks are overflowing with papers or who can’t get their receipts in order to give to the
tax preparer or who complain they can never find anything. If you are a well-organized person, offer to clean up their desk, get their Rolodex in order, file their papers, etc. If you like to shop, sell that to people who don’t and do their holiday shopping for them, or buy birthday, baby shower or
niece/nephew presents for them. Anything that people feel they cannot control is the organized person’s fundraising dream come true.
52. Find out which of your friends (perhaps this is true for you also) work in corporations with matching gift programs. Then ask them to donate and get their gift matched for your organization, and ask them to ask their co-workers to donate and get their gifts matched.
53. Think of a store or service related to your organization or where a lot of your members shop. Ask the store to donate a percentage of profits for a certain day or week, or even forever.
You can also explore this with mail-order firms. Then you advertise widely to friends, family and members that Joe’s Florist will give 2% of each sale during Valentine’s weekend to anyone identifying themselves with your group. As you can see, almost all of these strategies involve asking for money and giving money yourself. These are the basic premises of fundraising—you must ask, you must
give. Everything after that involves creativity, imagination and a sense of fun.
$100K Charity Challenge- *Update* Rape Survivor Stories [Video]
April 7, 2010
CAUTION: This video contains real stories from survivors of Rape & Sexual Assault. Upon completion, please comment below (and share on twitter and facebook). Take a stand with us, STOP the silence. Imagine the impact of helping thousands of men and women realize they have a community that supports them. That is the purpose of the 100K Charity Challenge: To support Jeans 4 Justice, a charity dedicated to reducing the prevalence of Sexual Violence through prevention and education programs, and a charity that allows survivors to have a Voice. Please watch and take action, even if it is simply by commenting below.
(Join the newsletter list to the right to receive Morgan’s full story, more survivor videos, and updates on the challenge)
Call To Actions:
1.) Become a Change Agent. Take a stand against rape & sexual violence. Support the victims of these horrible crimes. We are looking for 5 more men or women that what to Step Up and help us with “The $100,000 Charity Challenge” supporting Jeans 4 Justice until June 3. Make a commitment to raising money to help us reach $100,000. Simply comment “Count Me In!” & we will reach out to you. Thank you in advance for your heart and look forward to embracing you into our community (plus provide you with all the tools for the challenge). Click Here To Read More About The Challenge
-or-
2.) Share your comments or story below about the videos, inspiration for Jess to reach her dream, or your own experience. Share this page with your friends and family through emails, twitter, facebook and your blog. Speak out, share your voice; we are a community that will support you.
-or-
3.) Donate Here! Help Us Reach Our $100,000 Goal!
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New Video: Morgan, Rape Survivor, Shares WHY Jeans 4 Justice Is Needed!
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Previous Video: Jessica Johnson, Founder of Jeans 4 Justice
SHARES HER PERSONAL STORY AND MISSION!
Watch in this video as Jessica shares the story about a Court Case ruling that ruled a woman could not have been raped because she was wearing jeans. Also watch as Jess not only shares her own powerful story of WHY she started Jeans 4 Justice, but she also shares how Jeans 4 Justice is taking a stand and making a difference in the community. We are asking YOU to join Tribal Truth, Jeans 4 Justice, and the hundreds of other change agents to support this cause.
Please leave a comment below – share your story, your dream, your mission in life, or your inspiration for Jessica in following her dreams. This is a small step in voicing your support.
REMEMBER: If you want to do more, Simply comment: “Count Me In!” and we will reach out to you & provide you with more information about becoming a Change Agent as part of the $100,000 Charity Challenge through June 3! -or- Share This Page With Your Friends & Family. -or-
Donate Here! Help Us Reach Our $100,000 Goal!
Please leave your comments below…
Introduction to $100K Challenge
April 7, 2010
Novalena shares her story and the story of the
ALL NEW $100K Charity Challenge benefiting Jeans 4 Justice!
Now it’s your turn. Please leave a COMMENT HERE—your story, your dream, your inspiration for Jessica Johnson and her dream — anything— and thanks in advance. We look forward to hearing about you. Please check out all the comments on Jess’ Story, NEW VIDEO and leave your comments at this link – Watch Video & Comment Here.
ABOUT THE $100K CHARITY CHALLENGE
Tribal Truth, an international community of women empowering women, is launching its $100K Charity Challenge on April 28 and 29th.
This program is designed to empower members in taking bold action in their lives. By playing full out in a challenge to raise money for a charity in less than 48 hours, members will truly experience that anything is possible through intention, action, collaboration and teamwork.
Tribal Truth has selected a non-profit founded by one of our members and will raise $100,000 collectively to bring the non-profit to the next level. The Challenge will extend to June 3 after the 48 Hour launch on April 28/29. The 48 Hour launch is designed to challenge people to get out of their comfort zone and breakthrough barriers, while the extension until June 3 is designed to teach the importance of follow through and completing the project that we set out to accomplish.
Imagine the feeling the founder will have when she receives 100% of her funding for the next 1-3 years. The number one issue that charities have is funding.
Imagine the feeling the members will have in contributing to someone’s dream and supporting a cause that touches, moves and inspires an entire community.
Our recipient is Jeans 4 Justice. Members will participate in fundraising efforts and have the opportunity to be featured in the Jeans 4 Justice Fashion Show on June 3. Each member who participates and raises money will be on stage. The top 10 members who raise over $1000 will be highlighted individually in the show by being at the microphone or walking down the aisle.
ABOUT JEANS 4 JUSTICE
The name Jeans 4 Justice comes from a grassroots campaign inspired by a 1999 case in Italian High Court in which a rape conviction was overturned because the victim was wearing jeans. The court concluded, “It is common knowledge…that jeans cannot even be partly removed without the effective help of the person wearing them…and it is impossible if the victim is struggling with all her might.”
This campaign inspired a movement to bring an uncomfortable and understated issue into the limelight using a vehicle that is fresh, edgy, and universally understood…fashion!
Rape has nothing to do with what you wear, yet victims often deal with their pain by turning inward and creating reasons why something so terrible happened. We use fashion as a vehicle to speak out against sexual violence and raise funds to promote prevention through awareness and education, by creating partnerships with cutting edge events, designers, innovators, survivors and advocates. Jeans 4 Justice enlists the support of the art community, fashion industry and general public to give a voice to an issue that affects all people, regardless of their age, race, gender, religion or ethnicity.
Our primary audience is young people, as 80% of victims are under the age of 30.
Jeans 4 Justice campaigns and education programs strive to make an impact on those who are most affected by this prevalent issue by inspiring them to have a voice and empowering them to make safe choices.
Jeans 4 Justice has created a menu of accessible and relatable opportunities for survivors, students and the general public. We encourage local and national communities to use them and get involved in changing the massive stigmas that keep this important issue at bay.
Jeans 4 Justice is an outlet for:
- survivors to begin the healing process
- students to empower themselves and educate their peers by taking matters into their own hands and learning how to create safe, supportive communities and friendships
- the general public to explore the ways one can help decrease the prevalence of sexual assault by getting involved, sharing their voice, opening up discussions with friends and loved ones and believing in the power of one person’s commitment to make a difference
In 2008 it was reported that 1 in every 4 college aged women is a victim of attempted or completed rape. That staggering number inspired Jeans 4 Justice to take an active role in the college communities, and lead to the creation of one of our most important programs, J4J Campus.
WHERE YOUR MONEY WILL GO
The money you raise through the 48 hour challenge will support Jeans 4 Justice in developing, implementing and evaluating programs in high schools, colleges and the community at large.
- Jeans 4 Justice Campus: J4J Campus creates student organizations comprised of rape survivors and supporters who want to build a more empowered, educated student support network on campus. Students are provided with tools and guidance to produce events that engage diverse pockets of the student body, and peer education programs that highlight both proven and intuitive prevention strategies. The pilot program at San Diego State University yielded an attendance increase of 300% at the Survivor Outreach and Support group meetings and continues to spark the interest of new supporters.
- Jeans 4 Justice High School: J4J High School includes age appropriate workshops on self esteem, healthy relationships, positive role-modeling, knowing and owning your boundaries and being a supportive friend. Workshops are designed with the intention and objective to create safer, more open peer communities within the high schools. In a culture where it is becoming increasingly dangerous to grow up, J4J High School defines the issues, discusses their relevance in a language that speaks to the teenage population, and strives to transform the culture of relationships into more understanding, supportive, educated student communities.
- Community Campaigns: Jeans 4 Justice works with the art and fashion community, the media, and the health and wellness industry on campaigns, events and programs to break the silence and shift the social stigma that it is “taboo” to talk about sexual assault. Jeans 4 Justice Fashion Shows integrate local celebrities, business owners, community leaders, media figures and survivor advocates into a creative outlet that educates audiences on the urgency of our actions to address this issue. National campaigns like Justice in Motion empower individuals from across the country to share their voices and speak out against sexual violence by participating in various national races. Through creative channels such as art, fashion and fitness, we facilitate dialog among families, friends and the community at large, who would not normally feel comfortable bringing such a sensitive subject matter to light.
Now it’s your turn. Please leave a COMMENT HERE—your story, your dream, your inspiration for Jessica Johnson and her dream — anything— and thanks in advance. We look forward to hearing about you. Please check out all the comments on Jess’ Story, NEW VIDEO and leave your comments at this link – Watch Video & Comment Here.