Fundraising Ideas

Most Outrageous Fundraiser

2007-08-01T08:58:00.000-07:00

OK, I have been in the fundraising business for quite a while and I have heard all types of stories about crazy fundraisers. I don't know whether or not it's right for me to share some of the disasters or stories I've heard.

So, I figured I would just ask all of you to please help me out and post your most outrageous fundraiser ever. Would you do that please?

I am looking for crazy fundraising ideas that no one would have ever thought of. I would prefer ones that made money but would be interested in hearing any most outrageous fundraiser story you have.

I will pick the most outrageous and make you temporarily famous by including you in our newsletter that currently goes to more than 80,000 people.

Visit Our Mall

2007-07-25T11:39:00.000-07:00

I wanted to take a few minutes to make sure you had heard about owning a free online fundraising mall from Visit Our Mall.

If you have a group that needs to raise money you should consider looking into this program.

You build a free online mall that has hundreds of stores. At last count there were more than 800 stores in these malls. Your group is paid cash back when people shop in your mall. The percentage of cash back varies but can reach as high as 30%. You tell everyone you know about your mall and get them to shop there.

They can buy anything from electronics, clothes, office supplies, shoes, sporting goods, computers and just about anything else imaginable. You are even given free materials to promote your mall with.

This is one of those no brainer fundraising ideas that everyone should take advantage of. No cost. Free materials. Earn residual income for years. It makes sense for everyone.

Simple Fundraising Ideas

2007-07-23T17:51:00.000-07:00

If you were going to search for a fundraising idea, what would you look for in a search engine:

1. Simple fundraising ideas
2. Easy fundraising ideas
3. Best fundraising ideas
4. Great fundraising ideas

I ask the question because we have researched this extensively.

People really like simplicity so choosing simple fundraising ideas makes sense. Easy fundraising ideas is really similar. We found slightly more people chose easy over simple but not by as much as we thought.

When we asked people about best and great fundraising ideas fewer people opted for these two choices. When asked why we were told that these adjectives are more objective. People were fairly unanimous about wanting something to be easy. No matter what the end result easy could still be easy. It was a statement about the process not the result.

Best and great were more descriptive of the end result. It did not make sense that the best fundraiser was an easy one that produced lousy results.

Our research continues though and we would love to hear your answer. If you were searching for a fundraising idea, which adjective would you tend to preface that phrase with?

Trusting a Fundraising Company

2007-07-19T08:03:00.000-07:00

OK, I struggled with whether to write about this in this blog or not but decided I should.

The question is how do you know whether you can trust the online fundraising company you have found. And it is not an easy question to answer. But here is my two cents.

There are a ton of fundraising companies online and most are legitimate. The interesting thing is that you can not tell legitimacy by the quality of the website although there are some tell tale signs you should look for when choosing a company.

The first is to look at the lines that they carry. If they are associated with national brands that is a good sign. Certainly national companies can make mistakes by associating with the wrong distirbutors but over time those relationships usually fall apart.

The second thing to look for is more difficult to spot. You want to see if the company is ethical in the way it presents its website. Here is the dead give away that someone is willing to cheat. Scroll to the very bottom of their home page. Make sure you get to the bottom. There are many unscrupulous sites that use what is called black hat seo tactics to get short term traffic to their site. When you scroll past the what you think is the footer and find a huge list of virtually meaningless links, that is a site that is cheating in the search engine game.

The search engines are designed to provide you with the best site based on the info you search for. You would hope the SE's would look deep into the actual content to see if the site really offers what you are looking for. These companies try to fool the search engines with those meaningless lists. If they had the info you needed they should be able to win with that info alone and not need the black hat tricks.

I have not hidden that fact that I am associated with Easy Fundraising Ideas. We strive to bring you the best legitimate content on the internet. Being a leader in online fundraising means we sometimes need to educate people on more than just fundraising products.

Hershey's Candy Fundraisers

2007-07-17T13:23:00.000-07:00

Hershey's fundraising candy is the most popular fundraising candy product available.

If you are wanting to sell candy for your next fundraiser you should take a look at Hershey's. They offer more variety packs than any other national brand. Variety is what drives strong candy sales because you have more choices available for a larger customer base.

You can choose from four different variety packs. You buy candy by the case and each case typically contains four handled carriers of candy. Hershey offers two different sized carriers.

While some people question whether candy is a good fundraising idea others are out there making a ton of money selling it still. And, if you decide to sell candy, be sure to consider Hershey's.

Planning a Fundraiser

2007-07-16T10:57:00.000-07:00

A lot of people do not plan a fundraiser from enough ahead and are scrambling when the time comes to pick from the available fundraising ideas.

We see it more with smaller groups, especially in November as they try to get their fundraiser started and completed so products can be delivered before winter breaks in school. As a business it hurts to turn those people away but Easy Fundraising Ideas is one of of the few companies that would rather turn people away rather than helping them start a project destined for failure.

So when is the best time to plan a fundraiser? You will hate the answer. But you should plan as far in advance as possible! Take your lead from some of the larger groups like PTA's who plan their fundraisers as much as a year in advance. When it comes time to start their fundraiser they can focus on execution instead of first choosing the program.

Of all the last minute fundraisers available a candy fundraiser might be the easiest, most stressless fundraiser for procrastinators. But even when choosing to sell candy you need to allow a week or two, which might be cutting it close in the busiest of the fundraising seasons.

Fundraising in the Summer Time

2007-07-11T08:07:00.000-07:00

If you are involved in the fundraising industry you know that the summer is the absolute slowest time of year. Schools are out, sports leagues have ended, church groups have already raised money for summer programs.

But some people still need to raise money and are looking for practical fundraising ideas.

The great news is that summer may really be the best time of year to be fundraising precisely because so few groups are holding fundraisers.

Candy may not be the best option because the summer heat will melt chocolate. Here are our three top summer fundraising ideas:

1. Build a free online fundraising mall with Visit Our Mall
2. Hold a flower bulb fundraiser
3. Go talk to a local restaurant and get them to advertise on a sandwich shop fundraising card.

Candy Fundraising Is Not Dead

2007-07-09T18:02:00.000-07:00

There is no question that candy fundraisers have been on the decline for years. One of the major national candy fundraising companies shared with me recently that sales are down more than 50% over the last six years in certain territories.

But it is certainly not dead.

I would suggest the fundraising groups reconsider candy since so many fewer groups are out selling it.

Two thing really killed the business. The first was the reduction in size of candy bars a couple of years ago. People just extremely angry and felt like they were being ripped off. But the shock of seeing candy bars is now behind us.

The other think that hurt sales was schools ruling that candy could no longer be sold on campus. That simply means people need to sell candy somewhere else.

The fact of the matter is that candy is the simpliest of fundraisers and people will typically be happy to spend a dollar for a candy bar to support your group. So do not assume candy fundraisers are dead before making up your mind on a particular fundraising campaign.

Best of the Best Fundraising Ideas

2007-07-08T08:16:00.000-07:00

Lots of people ask for the best of the best fundraising idea. When I tell them it is the group attitude that matters the most and not the product they press me for an answer. So I tell them if you want to know the product that was sold that produced the best results for any group that we have seen it was cookie dough.

I am not saying cookie dough is the best of the best fundraising idea for everyone. But for the following group a frozen cookie dough fundraiser certainly was.

The group I am talking about was 15 cheerleaders on a select team in the Northeast. They were a successful squad and competed locally and regionally in many competitions. Apparently they were successful at those competitions because when they called us to do a fundraiser they were raising money to go to a national competition.

When the mother called and said she wanted to sell cookie dough our first question was how many people would be selling. She told us only 15 and we tried to tell her that her group might be too small for a cookie dough sale. Her response was each girl could sell the minimum. They had voted and wanted to sell cookie dough.

We pulled the order forms and collection envelopes and sent them off to the group that day and really did not think about the group again. After all we provide fund raising material for thousands of groups each year.

About two weeks later the mother called and said she had her order ready. I remember the phone call. I asked what the first flavor on her program was and she told me chocolate chunk. I asked how many chocolate chunks she sold and she told be 50. I kind of smiled and continued to write down the numbers she told me. My first thought was the poor group did okay but not nearly enough to travel to their nationals.

Then she told me she was talking about cases not tubs. That meant I needed to multiply the numbers she had given times eight. When I totaled it the group had averaged more than 150 tubs per cheerleader. They made more than $5 profit on each tub so each girl had averaged raising more than $750 each.

So if you want to know the best of the best fundraising idea, I would have to say cookie dough.

Flamingo Fundraisers

2007-07-08T08:13:00.000-07:00

Have you driven around your neighborhood and nearly slammed on your brakes because one of your neighbors has some pink flamingos in their yard? Before you turn them in to the bad taste police, realize they may be an unwitting participant in a flamingo fundraiser!

How does a flamingo fundraiser work and how do you profit?

Members of a fundraiser group will purchase or rent some pink flamingos. They choose people to be honored by having the flamingos flock to their yard. Depending on the number of flamingos available, yards may find six, eight or even 10 flamingos in their yard.

Luckily you also leave a note that tells the lucky home owner that, for a small donation, you know a group that can remove the flamingos. On the note, you might even ask if they know someone else who would enjoy the flamingos as much as they had.

Once the flamingos are removed from the yard they somehow find their way into another unsuspecting yard and the process begins again.

All types of fundraising groups have reported interesting results from flamingo fundraisers. The great thing about them is that they are fun, unique and attention grabbing. Everyone who drives by a house infested with flamingos will smile and wonder who is raising money. It’s a great way to raise awareness for your groups other fundraising events.

Fundraising With the Entertainment Book

2007-07-08T08:00:00.000-07:00

There are two no brainer fundraiser ideas as far as I am concerned.

The first one that everyone raising money needs to look at is building a free online shopping mall at Visit Our Mall. It does not cost anything and you get a mall with more than 500 stores that all want to pay you a percentage of anything purchased when people shop in your mall. It's very cool and, with no risk whatsoever, it really is a no brainer.

The other great program is offered by Entertainment Pass Book. You get a book the size of a small phone book and it has so many local deals it pays for itself very quickly. I'd imagine is anyone used all the coupons and deals in these books they could save thousands of dollars. If you want more information on this fundraising idea click on the link below:

Frozen Cookie Dough Fundraisers

2007-07-07T18:18:00.001-07:00

Did you know that frozen cookie dough fundraisers are still one of the best fundraising ideas both for small and large groups? A lot of people are surprised when we tell them that. They think cookie dough is a fundraising idea of the past.

I can tell you first hand that the sale of cookie dough as a fundraising item has continued to increase and the quality of the programs has been perfected. Easy Fundraising Ideas now offers 5 different cookie dough programs.

For medium to large groups we suggest you review the frozen cookie dough programs at the website above. But for smaller groups wanting to sell cookie dough we suggest they look at a dry cookie dough mix program.

The great thing about selling dry mix is that there is no minimum order. That means anyone - even an individual - can sell cookie dough now and not worry about how much they sell. Of course the more you sell the higher your profit percentage on each tub sold.

The other great thing about dry mix is that you do not have to panic about delivering a frozen product before it defrosts.

I strongly suggest any looking at fundraising ideas consider frozen cookie dough before finalizing their decision.

A fundraising idea whose time has come

2007-07-05T16:57:00.001-07:00

As I have previously stated I am going to spend time sharing the experience I have now that I have spent many years in the fundraising industry. I will focus on fundraising ideas that require no upfront money.

The reason I am focusing on those types of fundraising ideas is that the majority of groups to contact fundraising companies do not have any money. I hear that time and time again. So I am committed to spending as much time as necessary until we exhaust a ton of fundraising ideas that can be started without laying out a single dime.

The greatest new fundraising idea to hit the industry lately is owning a free online fundraising mall. A company called Visit Our Mall will build a free shopping mall for any group needing to raise money. Here is a brief explanation of the benefits of owning an online fundraising mall:

1. Owning a fundraising mall makes you a landlord of sorts. Your mall will have more than 500 stores in it and each one will pay you "rent" in the form of cash back on each sale made in their stores. The rent or cash back ranges from store to store but each is happy to pay you for getting people to shop there.

2. It really does not take any knowledge or effort to build a mall. In fact you simply fill in a short form and your mall is built for you as soon as you click on submit.

3. You own your mall for as long as you like. We suggest you keep your mall forever. People will learn to shop in your mall and keep shopping there so you might as well keep getting money from purchases they make in your mall.

For lack of time right now I will add more details about online mall fundraising in future posts. But it is certainly a fundraising idea worth pursuing. If you want more information about fundraising malls I suggest you read about it on Easy Fundraising Ideas, a distributor for Visit Our Mall or go directly to http://www.visitourmall.com/.

Easy Fundraising Ideas

2007-07-05T16:50:00.000-07:00

I have been in the fundraising industry for more than 5 years (as of 2007) and I have learned a lot of lessons. I have started this blog with the intention of sharing some of the better fundraising ideas I have learned.

My expertise is in product and event fundraising ideas so I will do my best to limit my posts only to areas within the fundraising world that I am familar with.

The difficulty for most groups needing to raise money is that they do not have any money to get started. That is the paradox of fundraising. If you had the money to buy fundraising products to sell you might not need to be fundraising. At least that's the problem for many groups.

Since that seems to be the the major issue for many groups needing to raise money I will limit my first posts to only fundraisers that do not require money to get started. I hope you learn from this blog and I welcome any fundraising ideas or suggestions you have or would like for me to detail for you.