Featured Fundraiser: Roxbury Youthworks

Roxbury Youthworks Inc. is a non-profit organization located in Roxbury, MA serving the troubled youth of the community. Focusing on those within the justice or welfare system, the organization tries to help these individuals successfully transfer into adulthood after lives of violence, poverty, and victimization.

Fundraise.com spoke with Celenia from Roxbury Youthworks Inc. over email to find out more about how they got started and what keeps them going.

How did Roxbury Youthworks Inc. get its start? 

Roxbury Youthworks Inc. is one of the oldest minority-based organizations in the City of Boston. Conceptualized and then initiated by Justice Julian T. Houston in 1981, RYI first helped decrease recidivism among young men and women from the Roxbury District Court.

What motivates you in your fundraising efforts?

I am motivated to raise funds for RYI because the youth of Boston are in dire need of support. Their lives are gravely impacted by disparities in health, education, crime, and income that stem from the racial divides that exist in Metro Boston as documented below:

Boston’s income inequality has a strong racial/ethnic component. More than one third of families of color had annual incomes of less than $25,000—while almost half of Boston’s white families had annual incomes of $100,000 or more. With 42% of its children in poverty, the Roxbury /Dorchester/Mattapan area represents Massachusetts’ largest concentration of child poverty. In the Roxbury/Dorchester/Mattapan corridor, 85% of families are headed by a single parent, mainly mothers, & at least 20% of the adults have no high school diploma.”

Additionally, though only about a quarter of Boston’s population is Black, Blacks accounted for over half of all arrests made in 2008. Also, over 50% of all arrests for violent crimes in Boston in 2008 were in the Roxbury/Mattapan/Dorchester neighborhoods. In 2010, over 50% of aggravated assaults & over 75% of homicides in Boston took place in the Roxbury/Mattapan/Dorchester districts.

According to the Mayor’s Task Force and the Boston Public Health’s Commission’s  2005 Blueprint: A Plan to Eliminate Racial & Ethnic Disparities in Health report, lead poisoning & asthma are concentrated in the Boston neighborhoods that are predominantly communities of color:  including Dorchester, Mattapan, & Roxbury. Sadly, the death rate from all causes is 30% higher in the poor neighborhoods of Boston; residents are two & a half times as likely to die from diabetes, four times as likely to die of HIV/AIDS, & twice as likely to die from injuries. Alarmingly, of the 22 waste sites in Boston, half are in the predominantly Black & Latino neighborhood of Roxbury.

 In education the disparities are quite discouraging: On the 2007 Massachusetts comprehensive exam, 80 % of white BPS 8th grade students were proficient or advanced in reading, compared with only 48% of African American or Hispanic students. In math, 52% of white students were considered proficient or advanced, compared with 20% of Hispanic students & only 14% of African Americans.” The Boston Public Schools 2009-2010 Student Drop Out Rates report, found that 20.7% of the BPS class of ‘09 dropped out; which is one in five students and that Roxbury had the highest annual dropout rate among Boston neighborhoods. 

What is your favorite part of working with Roxbury Youthworks Inc?

Seeing how dedicated our Staff is to our youth and the youth themselves.

Who benefits from your fundraising efforts? 

Youth between the ages of 13 to 21 who live in the most economically depressed neighborhoods of Boston including; Roxbury, Dorchester, Mattapan, Roslindale, Hyde Park and Chelsea benefit from RYI’s fundraising efforts. Approximately 60% of our youth are Black, 25% are Latino/a, 12% are bi-racial or of other ethnicities, 2% are Caucasian and 1% are Asian and 15% are female and 85% are male. We operate three specialized programs that positively impact the youth that we serve as well as the communities in which they live and include:

District Offices (DOs): In collaboration with the Department of Youth Services (DYS) the RYI DO staff guide youth who are transitioning from DYS secure treatment facilities and residential placements back to their homes and communities. RYI staff utilize a proven and positive youth development approach to helping youth set life goals and to connect them with the resources that they need to meet their goals. The six DO centers are located in Dorchester, Roxbury, Chelsea, and Hyde Park and serve up to 150 youth per year. The success of this program depends upon five critical components: individualized service planning, consistent staff support, referrals to community resources, positive programming, and intensive supervision and monitoring.

Gaining Independence for Tomorrow (GIFT) Program: Since 2008, GIFT has served over 150 young girls that had been victimized or were deemed at high risk for commercial sexual exploitation. GIFT Program youth are between the ages of thirteen to twenty-two. Each youth is assigned a Life Coach who combines their professional skills with their often times first-hand knowledge of the neighborhoods, to provide the compassionate and intensive supports and referrals that the youth need throughout their recovery from commercial sexual exploitation. GIFT is funded by the Department of Children and Families (DCF) and is located in Dorchester, MA.

Roxbury Dimock Street Lead Agency - RYI manages services for youth and families involved with the Department of Children and Families, (DCF). We work closely with DCF to facilitate and monitor supportive stabilization and placement services to 250 youth and their families per year.

What advice do you have for aspiring fundraisers?

To stay creative and fresh.

What goals are you trying to reach by fundraising?

We need to raise at least $150,000 per in order to make sure that all of our programs are fully funded.

For more on Roxbury Youthworks Inc. and their community outreach please visit: Online Supportive Fundraising

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The Numbers are In and Branded is Up: Update Your Donate Form Today

Recently Network for Good released their latest version of the Digital Giving Index.  Among other things, the numbers revealed two very interesting findings: In Q1 of 2012 vs. Q1 of 2011, branded donations pages were up 36% whereas generic donation pages were only up 12%. 

What does this mean?

There are two types of charity website giving experiences:

1. A charity website with a generic giving page that does not visually match the charity’s website but goes to a multi-step checkout process featuring the charity’s name and address.
2. A charity website with a branded giving page that is integrated with the charity’s own website. Either by embedding a donate form directly onto the donate page or building out an integration, it is not evident that the donor has left the charity’s website to make a gift. 

Organizations who opt for a branded donation page vs. a generic experience on their website see a significant increase in donation dollars - The average gift through a branded donation page was $104; 20% larger than the average gift of $87 on generic donation pages. 

Branding builds a relationship with potential donors; it shows your organization cares enough to pay attention to the donation process and the donor experience - small steps that go a long way to increasing the probability of repeat support.

A branded donation page looks like an extension of your website – with the same look & feel, consistent messaging, and trust. A great example of a branded Fundraise.com donation page is the Boston Center for the Arts (pictured below). 

The donation form is embedded directly onto the BCA “Give” page. All of their donor data and analytics are directly linked to their Fundraise.com account, but their patrons never need to leave the BCA website, making the process quick, easy, and comfortable. 

Fundraise.com’s embeddable donate forms are free to set up and simple to install, and with the potential increase in donations your cause could see, we feel the switch to a branded donation form should be a no-brainer. 

Have questions? We’re happy to help. Email us at info@fundraise.com or give us a call at 857.445.4165.

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Featured Fundraiser: Boston Center for the Arts

                   (Photo courtesy of Craig Bailey/Perspective Photo)

The Boston Center for the Arts (BCA) is a non-profit performance and visual arts organization that encourages and supports working artists to create, perform, and even provide space for them to exhibit their works.  By connecting these artists and the beautiful work they are creating, they are forging a connection with the community in hopes to bring in new audiences for the arts.  For more than 40 years now, the BCA has been a meeting point of the surrounding South End of Boston and the emerging artists that occupy the area.

Fundraise.com spoke with Angela from the BCA over email to find out more about how they got started and what keeps them going.

How did the BCA get its start?

In a time when a building a day was being torn down in the South End, arts supporters had a vision. They took that vision to an auction and acquired the existing Cyclorama, Artist Studios Building (once named the Tremont Estates Building) as well as a privately owned small theatre over Emerson College to create an arts center. 

The vision was to create a home for artists and the community. Like the Latin Quarter of the 1890s, they saw a bohemian neighborhood with cultural and artistic diversity among the resident artists and community patrons.

Over 40 years later, the BCA is still a home for working artists to create, perform and exhibit.

What motivates you in your fundraising efforts?

Boston is thriving with innovative artists who need a place to exhibit their works and we strive to make that possible within our community. Being a part of an organization that sees innovation daily encourages us to seek funding to support local artists.

What is your favorite part of working with the BCA?

Our favorite part about working at the BCA is all the excitement that happens on campus. From dance workshops to visual art exhibitions to film competitions, we have it all in one location. Each year, more than 200,000 people visit the BCA. Located in Boston’s South End and occupying an historic city block bordered by Tremont Street, Clarendon Street, Warren Avenue and Berkeley Street, the BCA is a resource to Greater Boston providing a creative “home” for artists, a welcoming arts destination for audiences, and an art connection for individuals of all ages. 

Who benefits from your fundraising efforts?

“The dance residency at the BCA allowed us time, space, consistency and support… some of the most important factors needed to create high quality art,” said Courtney Peix, a recent dance resident at the BCA. Her company, Contrapose Dance presented their recent piece groundwork at the BCA in February 2012. Our fundraising efforts support working artists like Courtney to create, perform and exhibit across our campus.

What advice do you have for aspiring fundraisers?

Fundraising is rooted in relationships. For aspiring fundraisers, it is important to build relationships with people within your community and with funders that have a vested interest in your core mission. 

What goals are you trying to reach by fundraising?

The BCA’s mission is to support working artists in the creation, performance and exhibition of new works. Through fundraising, we hope to continue this support by providing a platform and community for working artists in Boston.

Do you have any additional notes or stories about your cause you would like to share?

You would be amazed at all that happens on the BCA campus in the South End. Behind many brick buildings emerging, established and seasoned artists are creating new works. From dance residency choreographers leading a troupe of local, regional and national dancers to a curator finding multi-disciplinary artists for an exhibition. The BCA is a campus filled with visual arts, performance and community!

For more about the Boston Center for the Arts please visit: Online Arts Fundraising

             (Photo courtesy of Silvia Lopez Chavez, BCA Studio Artist)

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Start Clearly Communicating Values: Attract More Positive Attention, More Passionate Donors & A Better Bottom-Line

Values are the principles a nonprofit organization or cause stands for, defends, and follows, no matter what the consequences. However, many nonprofits fall short when attempting to clearly communicate their values both internally with their team and externally with potential supporters. 

When an organization fails to communicate values, opportunities to gain traction through more involvement with people or more dollars donated can be missed. 

Here are 4 suggestions to help get you on the right path to communication: 

Communicate Authenticity. Many groups state the values they aspire to, not the ones that are part of everyday practice. Strive to communicate the list of values that everyone would say describe the organization and the people behind it, today.

Building a list of values or refreshing the existing ones together as a group can be a great team building experience. 

Communicate Usefulness. Nonprofits commonly make lists of values to share, but often neglect to include anything that really counts as a value.

For example, when a nonprofit says it puts its “focus on donors,” they’re talking about a strategy, not a value. Strategies don’t help much when it’s time to set priorities or make difficult compromises.  

Find ways to ensure that strategies and performance objectives are built on your true values but that you’re not substituting values for strategies.

Communicate Universality. Even when a nonprofit’s values are authentic and useful, many team members are unaware of them. They don’t hear organization heads talk about values. They don’t see values discussed in communications with members, donors, or others, and they aren’t asked to think about values as they design or evaluate programs.

Organizations need to make sure their values are visible, and they need and to realize that no value statement will make a difference unless it becomes embedded in the group’s culture.

Communicate Priority. A warning sign that an organization is not values-based is when it offers the public a list of eight to 10 “values,” or even more. Because values are supposed to show what a nonprofit cares most deeply about, it is realistic to have three to five of them, and the organization’s leaders should be able to rank them in importance.

Many organizations have not had the difficult discussions about what they really stand for, yet this is an essential conversation; and one that will make attracting new members, supporters, and donors a much more mapped road. 

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AFP Advises Professional Fundraisers to Look 2-5 Years Ahead; We Agree

Recently The Chronicle of Philanthropy posted a video on their website featuring Andrew Watt, president of the Association of Fundraising Professionals, in which he explains that the high turnover rate among professional fundraisers is the result of short-term thinking. 

According to research by Penelope Burk, President of Cygnus Applied Research, the average development professional remains at his or her job for 16 months before they are lured away by higher salaries. However, the direct and indirect costs of finding a replacement: $127,650.

In her presentation at the Association of Fundraising Professionals conference in Vancouver, Ms. Burk said findings from a survey she conducted of 1,700 fundraisers and 8,000 nonprofit chief executives, suggest that it would cost just $46,650 to keep a good fundraiser happy by providing better salaries and other benefits, such as additional vacation time.

Demand for good fundraisers is so high that it is vastly outstripping the supply, Ms. Burk said. Most good fundraisers are on the job just three to six months before they get recruited for a new role.

“Only one out of three fundraisers experience even a day without a job,” Ms. Burk said.

However, Andrew Watt urges fundraisers to take the long view on their careers, citing the fact that it takes more time in a job to master the skills professional fundraisers need. He encourages professional fundraisers to consider staying in their position for longer for personal development reasons, and not just a shiny new salary. 

We hope they agree. 

In the interim, Fundraise.com has built tools to help grow the overall picture of the nonprofit and the skills of the individuals in the development office. Highly focused on the social aspects of the fundraising business, we have made our process as easy as possible to ensure multiple members of the fundraising team are able to use the system without laborious training and so organizations don’t skip a beat when a prized fundraiser moves on to a new job. 

For organizations looking to retain their talent, Penelope Burk offers the following suggestions:

Promote internal talent. Adopt a succession plan and train employees to rise to the next level in the organization. “Your best hire already works for you,” Ms. Burk said.

Set aside training opportunities. Cutting money for professional development, as many organizations did during the economic downturn, will probably affect fundraisers’ performance. “The training budget is the one thing you should never allow to be cut,” she says.

Help ease workers’ schedules. According to Ms. Burk’s study, fundraisers most want help balancing the pressure of career and family duties. About 52 percent of fundraisers said they want the option to work from home, 51 percent want flexible hours, and 42 percent want additional vacation time.

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Featured Fundraiser: Lexington Center

Lexington Center is a private, non-profit organization based in Upstate New York and serves those with developmental and learning disabilities, autism, mental illness, cerebral palsy, physical disabilities, epilepsy and/or traumatic brain injuries.  The thoughtful and dedicated people that make up the organization provide a creative and nurturing environment for those they serve.  Whether they are creating beautiful works of art or supporting their own rock band, Flame, Lexington Center has been helping its community for almost 60 years now! 

Fundraise.com spoke with Tim from Lexington Center over email to find out more about how they got started and what keeps them going.

How did the Lexington Center get its start? 

Over 50 years ago a group of parents who had children with disabilities created a place where their children could go to learn, live and succeed.  

What motivates you in your fundraising efforts? 

Accomplishing a goal that for everyone else seems impossible in the beginning.  

What is your favorite part of working with the Lexington Center? 

Seeing the positive effect the fruits of our fundraising has for the people we support and their families. 

Who benefits from your fundraising efforts? 

Everyone from the community benefits from our fundraising.  Our current campaign is to create a community art center where people we support and everyone from the community can create works of art, cook masterful meals and make beautiful music.  This center will bring people together of all ages and backgrounds - where they can express themselves and connect with fellow artists, chefs and musicians.          

What advice do you have for aspiring fundraisers? 

Be organized, have a clear attainable goal, get as much volunteer help as possible, promote your cause in a way that captures people’s hearts and inspires them to act.   

What goals are you trying to reach by fundraising? 

We typically fundraise for specific campaigns - like a custom tour bus for our rock band Flame (the world renowned musical group of people with disabilities) or for a new Arts Center that will include a recording studio for Flame and the community.    

Do you have any additional notes or stories about your cause you would like to share? 

One of the best ways to change public perceptions about people with developmental disabilities is awareness and community inclusion - fundraising is a great way for the community to connect with your program and take ownership of your mission.  

For more information about Lexington Center please visit: Online Disability Fundraising

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Bake Sale Ban, Not All Bad

Yesterday in Boston, there was a story on front page of the Boston Herald titled “Food Fight” that had all the local media outlets including CBS, The Boston Channel, Fox News, NECN, and Jim & Margery abuzz. 

The Herald reported yesterday that in attempts to help curb the obesity epidemic, state education and public health officials are cracking down on school bake sales and on treats served and sold beyond school lunch programs. The ban is set to go into effect August 1^st and the legislative mandate bans offending foods consumed from 30 minutes before the school day until 30 minutes after. They can be replaced with fresh fruits and veggies, water, whole grains and fat-free milk.

Today, parents and teachers are expressing concern because bake sales are used to raise money for critical programs and they are community-building events. In another Boston Herald article yesterday titled, “Parents: Rule’s half-baked,” many parents expressed this concern.  

However, we at Fundraise.com feel there are two main positive aspects about this ban to highlight: 

#1: 1/3 of Massachusetts elementary school children are now obese – this is a major problem and one the ban might help fix. As long as we explain to kids about the importance of balanced nutrition and eating correctly, while consuming treats in moderate amounts, we may see a small change in the food behaviors of these children. 

Perhaps bringing the issue out into the open in schools and talking about it, will help children to recognize the difference between good and bad food choices and set them on a better health-path for life. 

#2: For parents and schools who are concerned about the money bake sales raise, we feel this is a great opportunity to start teaching kids about how fundraising actually works… People aren’t buying items off of the bake sale tables because they’re dying to eat them; they’re buying the bake sale items because they want to help the school, the children, and the programs that the money collected from the bake sale will be used to support. 

By explaining to children that the cupcakes, cookies, and sugary snacks are merely a vehicle to start a conversation with potential donors and a small way to say “thank you,” for their contribution, we can teach students that it’s the people selling the baked goods that raise the money, not the baked goods themselves.

Fundraise.com encourage teachers with computer-age students to set up a classroom fundraiser on our site, and award each student with their own fundraiser page under the main page. Kids can personalize their pages with hand-drawn and scanned pictures, photos, and a descriptive story about why they’re raising money and how awesome the supplies or enrichment programs will be after they’ve collected enough funds to support them…

“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” 

 We know we’re a glass-half-full kind of company, but we truly feel there are definite positives to be found in the “bake sale ban” and we’re happy to help with any questions. Email us at info@fundraise.com or give us a call at 857.445.4165.

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Talking Social - Facebook, Fundraise.com & You

According to the most recent Blackbaud 2012 Nonprofit Social Networking Benchmark Report, nonprofit survey respondents have been endorsing Facebook as their social network of choice with a steady increase in participation over the past 4 years. 

98% of survey respondents have a Facebook page with an average community size of over 8,000 fans. Perhaps more importantly, the study also shows that a Facebook Like is worth an estimated $214.82 over the 12 months following acquisition – a definite reason to pay more attention to community you’re growing online.   

Nonprofits are steadily increasing staff resources dedicated to maintaining social networking activities, though 79% still only have one person spending half (or less) of their time on social media tasks. 

As a whole, budgets are continuing to increase for social networking activities, yet 74% of respondents allocate fewer than $10,000 and 43% allocate zero dollars. Since a Facebook Like costs 71% more than a Twitter follower ($3.50 vs. $2.05), how can you look to expand your Facebook community without breaking the bank or going over budget?

Let’s break this into steps:

1. Leverage the voices of your strongest cause-enthusiasts: You know who your most passionate voices are within your organization – they could be board members, active donors, volunteers, or members of your staff. Make a short list of whom you plan to enlist for this project. 
2. Ask these voices to become “fundraisers” for your Fundraise.com campaign: One of the greatest features of Fundraise.com is that we allow individuals to fundraise on behalf of organizations and causes. By clicking the “join – become a fundraiser” button, individuals are given their very own Fundraise.com page, a unique link (that tracks and awards credit), and the ability to share information with all of their networks through email and social media without compromising the privacy of their personal data. 
3. Watch your social media stress decrease while your community awareness grows: By splitting the social media tasks among some of your strongest voices, you will not only offer more messages in volume across the social media spectrum but also provide a nice cross section of genuine passionate voices – different people have different reasons of why they are involved and why others should be too; using the “become a fundraiser” functionality will help you to spotlight these individuals and their personal motivations. At the core of fundraising, we all know that it’s not causes that raise money, it’s people who raise money. 
   Plus, if the average US Facebook user has approximately 234 friends and you activate 5 new fundraisers on your behalf, that’s 1,170 new people you could reach on Facebook and a potential $251,339.40 you could raise over 12  months if they were all converted into Likes. 

Short of the long – it’s work that potentially costs zero dollars and math that’s worth pondering. 

Have any questions? Give us a shout via email at info@fundraise.com or phone at 857.445.4165. Happy Fundraising! 

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Featured Fundraiser: Friends of the Sick and Poor

Friends of the Sick and Poor is a non-profit organization based in Dorchester, Mass., that seeks to meet the basic health and educational needs of the people living in the Bbanda village in Uganda. Their focus is on ensuring the people of the area have access to drinkable, non-contaminated water.

Fundraise.com spoke with Alyce from Friends of the Sick and Poor over email to find out more about how they got started and what keeps them going.

How did Friends of the Sick and Poor get its start?

The Friends of the Sick and Poor got started in one of those interesting moments when a chance conversation revealed some unbelievable information about some one we knew.  You know, one of those times when you hear something and think, “We should do something about that” and usually don’t.  This time we actually responded.   

A few years ago, I went to a special Mass at my church (it was its 100th anniversary).  During the service, a child ran from the chapel behind the altar clear across the altar and down the aisle.  Afterwards a small group was talking about how strange that situation seemed.  We learned that the boy was the nephew of the Pastor.  In any case, present for the discussion was a priest from Uganda.  His name is Father Emmanuel Mwerekande. He was in Boston studying at Boston College and stationed in Dorchester during his stay.  Father Emmanuel mentioned that where he is from it is not strange for a cow or a chicken to walk in front of the altar.  As you likely imagine, we all wanted to understand where he was from and how such a situation could exist.  If you look at picture all bbanda 040.  I took that picture myself in 2009 when I went to see for myself what this village of Bbanda is like.  This is a pic of a church outpost.  The people are villagers and engineers from Northeastern University’s Engineers without Borders.  Animals are close by and it is easy to imagine one walking in from time to time.

Up until that time many of us were contributing money to help Father Emmanuel raise money to buy rain barrels, ARV medicines for women living with AIDS and to pay tuition’s for some of the orphans to go to boarding schools. We were already helping (2005) this village but we didn’t really understand the magnitude of the need until that service when we couldn’t understand how a chicken could walk across the altar.  On a subsequent trip back to Uganda (while on vacation from BC) Father Emmanuel reported that a woman taking ARV treatment was consuming contaminated water.  We all realized and Father asked us to think about how the water access situation might be solved.  And at that moment in time our efforts for Bbanda increased.  We decided that we had to focus on the water situation first because it leads to so many problems for people in the village.  A group of people from St. Mark parish in Dorchester and others started to meet to determine if we could be helpful.   With pro bono assistance from downtown law firm Wilmer Hale we attained 501c3 tax status allowing donors to receive tax benefits when they give to Friends of the Sick and Poor.

In Bbanda, children carry water for their families, cooking takes place outdoors in fire pits, the health center did not have any electricity until last August when the engineers were able to install a solar panel, a few light bulbs and a small refrigerator so that the health center can now have antibiotics and other meds that need to be refrigerated.

The well as it turns out, is a place in the earth where the people have dug until water springs up.  Uganda has plenty of water, it is just all underground.  They collect water by walking a mile or more filling plastic jugs and carrying it home.  Mostly children carry water and sometimes women.  If you look at the all bbanda header, you will see a pic of children collecting water from the well.

What motivates you in your fundraising efforts?

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Build a Better Fundraising Page with our New In-Page Editor

Three weeks ago we re-launched Fundraise.com as completely re-designed, fully responsive website. As part of our new site, we built an in-page editor using backbone.js that allows dynamic content (aka fundraising information uploaded/entered by our users) to function responsively. 

What does this mean for everyone using our site? It means that we’re putting the f-u-n back in fundraising by letting the excitement start as soon as you begin dragging and dropping images to build your fundraising page. 

Let’s explore the new editor: 

Step 1: Upload an image or just drag and drop one: Fundraisers with images raise more money, statistically, than those that do not. Pictures make your page visually appealing, but they also allow your potential donors to connect with you and your cause on a more personal level. By starting with a banner photo for your page, your setting yourself up for a beautiful finished product. 

Step 2: Click to give your fundraiser a name: Think of a great name for your fundraiser that relates to either what you’re doing or the cause. Take a few moments to pick a name that sounds like something that would interest you and motivate you to help – “Backyard BBQ,” “Race for a Cure,” “Miles for Myles,” “Send Jessica to Camp,” etc. 

The name doesn’t have to be super original; it just need to connect with your donors in a personalized way.  

Step 3: Add a description explaining your fundraiser: Adding a description for your fundraiser is your chance to elaborate on your title – tell everyone what you’re up to, when it’s happening, why it’s something that requires their attention, and where the money that’s donated is headed. Last but not least, if you’re hosting an event, don’t forget to remind everyone of all the fun you’ll have together. 

Step 4: Set a goal for your fundraiser: Setting a goal is an important part of every fundraiser for 2 reasons: 1) It gives you [and your team] something to strive for and 2) As you start to get closer and closer to your goal, it motivates potential donors to help put you over the top – everyone likes to feel helpful; especially when money being raised is headed to a great cause. 

Step 5: Add a catchy headline telling why to give: A catchy headline is a great place to advertise for your cause. Think about headlines you read on your favorite news websites and write a similar one of your own to encourage potential donors to check out your page and get involved.  

Step 6: Add an encouraging message: Your encouraging messaging could also be referred to as your “call to action.” Lines like “Help us send Jessie to Camp,” “Come run with us,” or “Get Involved” are good examples. Give people one action item you’d like them to take to help you in your fundraising quest. 

Step 7: Add an end date for the fundraiser: When is your fundraiser over? If it’s an event you’re hosting, that’s an easier answer. If it’s a giving campaign, it might be best to set a beginning and an end, as well. Some fundraisers will be open ended, and that’s okay, too. An end date simply gives donors a sense of urgency attached to their potential gift. 

Step 8: Add some gallery images: Have some images that didn’t make the banner cut but were a close 2^nd or 3^rd? Display them in your gallery! Again, the gallery is a great place to connect with potential donors in a visually engaging way. Look to highlight some of the people, programs, and emotions that make your cause so worthy. 

If you have any questions, feel free to email: info@fundraise.com or give us a call at 857.445.4165. Happy Fundraising!

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