Getting the word out.

Talk.

Fundraisers will never succeed if the word doesn’t get out about the organization and what it stands for.

It is a very daunting task to try and go out and talk to EVERYONE about your organization to work to get them to support you.

So, don’t talk to everyone, talk to your audience.

Your audience consists of people who are inclined to give to your organization, and would follow your organization on a regular basis.* People in your audience are people who can connect with your organization and find reasons to want to follow you on a daily basis and help out with your organization.

Don’t look to raise money…raise people.

Go out and talk to people to find connections between them and your organization. If you do, people will naturally give.

Once you have found the connection with that person and you have established the relationship with them, then you can begin promoting your events to them.

You must build an audience before promoting your event.

* Fried, Jason & Hansson, David. Rework.

So you want to raise some money?

Fundraisers are something that we get asked about a lot. It is at the core of a lot of organizations within the community and a way that can help grow the community. They sure are hard to pull off though. Sometimes they go great and sometimes not so great.

I just wanted to share with you a couple of tips that we have discovered through our fundraisers to try to help you in your fundraising ventures.

1. It’s all about the people.

Your fundraising event shouldn’t be about the creative way in which you are trying to raise funds. It honestly shouldn’t even be about the cause that your organization stands for. It’s about the people that stand for that cause. Programs, organizations, and causes will not accomplish anything in themselves, the organization or cause creates momentum in the community because of the people that stand for it.

2. Use people.

People are your greatest asset. Use them to reach out to the community by going out and meeting people in the community and sharing with them about the organization. They need to be passionate for the cause. People will support organizations because of people, not because of events.

Are you catching my whole point? It’s people. People are the key to a successful fundraising event. It is important to have a creative event and a worthy cause for people to support, but those in and of themselves accomplish nothing without an incredible group of people behind them to build relationships with the people in the community.