Fund Raising Opportunity

From LoveToKnow Charity

There is a fund raising opportunity out there for almost any group with any sort of interest. Fund raising doesn't have to be an elaborate event; it can be as simple as selling doughnuts or setting up a raffle.

Fundraising Ideas

Find a Fund Raising Opportunity

There is an abundance of fund raising opportunities out there. Consider:

Selling food, such as pies or dinners
Selling greeting cards
Selling magazine subscriptions or coupon booklets featuring local businesses
Conducting a raffle or auction

Selling Food and Other Goods

Selling food through bake sales, catalogs, coupon booklets, or tickets is perhaps one of the most common ways to conduct a fund raiser. The way it usually works is the participants go out into the community with a brochure or an order form for the goods they are selling. They either collect the money on the spot with the order or they tell the buyers that they will collect the money upon delivery of the products.

In the case of the coupon booklets and tickets, the participants carry those around while they're trying to make the sales, and they collect the money on the spot. The buyer then uses the coupons at their leisure or shows up at a designated spot and time for the dinner, ticket in hand.

This type of opportunity is usually best for very large groups, such as schools. That's because when selling goods through a fundraising program, not all (or in some cases, even most) of the money collected belongs to the organization. You may have to pay a fundraising company $6.00 for a pie that you sold for $8.00, for example, leaving you with a profit of $2.00. With a huge force at an organization's disposal, that isn't a big deal, but with only a handful of participants, it could amount to a less than ideal gain for the cause.

Fund Raising Raffles and Auctions

Raffles and auctions are another great way to make money for your cause or organization without spending much at all. These are great for smaller groups of participants because so much of the profit belongs to the organization when it's over.

Raffles

Raffles are one of the absolute best fund raising opportunities because there is so little cost involved. You may even be able to get the prizes and ticket printing donated, which means that all of the money from the ticket sales go into the organization's collective pocket. You won't have to spend money on advertising or organizing an event for a whole group of people. It's all done on a very individual basis—one-on-one ticket sales and nothing more.

Once you have done some research to determine the legal guidelines for conducting raffles in your state, you will need a prize or multiple prizes that will inspire others to buy tickets—sometimes multiple tickets! Whether it's a car, a television, or a trip to a spa, if you can get it donated, it's even better for your group. Then you decide on your raffle ticket price. The price of the ticket should reflect what the prize is worth. If the grand prize is a car, you can charge more for that ticket than if it's a television or a $500 gift card.

Have a definite deadline for ending ticket sales and a predetermined time for drawing the winning tickets. Give out the prizes accordingly.

Auctions

Auctions are a bit more involved because you'll need to do some advertising and arrange an event where lots of people will be present. What you auction off is up to you. You could even auction off the time of members of your organization in the form of yard work, babysitting, lessons, and so on. Another option is to see if you can get local businesses to donate items to be auctioned off.

If you want to do a live auction, you'll need someone blessed with the "gift of gab" to be the auctioneer. They'll need to be able to create a fun atmosphere but also introduce the items in a way that makes others want to place bids. A silent auction won't need an auctioneer because bidders will just use a pencil and piece of paper to place their bids rather than calling them out.

A Final Word

There's a fund raising opportunity out there for every group. Before deciding which fundraising idea is best, be sure to analyze the community where the fundraiser will take place; what type is most likely to pique the interest of those people? Also, don't neglect to do any prior research necessary to find out if there are legal guidelines for your state that you'll need to abide by.