Fundraising Basics

Today there are more non-profit and charity groups than ever. On
the one hand, this is a great development (I hope) - it means
that as a society we are becoming more aware of a need to give
to others. We even see that people are taking the necessary
steps to ensure that we help others. On the other hand, though,
the presence of so many non-profits creates a unique problem -
"donors burnout." 

In short, did you realised that there are more donation drive
running across your neighbourhoods, TVs and newspapers? 

The increased competitiveness of fundraising has created a whole
new business: The Fundraising Business. There are consulting
firms that will help you fundraise more effectively - for a
price, of course. There are also many companies that claim that
their fundraising efforts or products will make money for your
non-profit in exchange for a share in the profits.

Many people assume that fundraising is as simple as holding
garage sales or some other activities until enough money is
raised. If you only want to raise a small amount of money for a
specific purpose (eg. student's fund for college), this may be
fine, but for many groups using this approach is too uncertain
and too limited to be very effective. 

If your group will be around for a while because your
organisation runs on donar's support, then you will want to
raise money consistently in order to keep your group going. You
will need to learn many things in order to keep enough money
coming consistently: Fundraising is not an easy activity and it
does requires skills to achieve the best results.