Fundraising is a crucial aspect of many organizations, including non-profits, charities, schools, and political campaigns. Fundraisers are events or campaigns that are designed to raise funds for a specific cause or organization. By understanding how the different types of fundraisers work, you can effectively select, plan, and execute the best fundraiser for your organization’s goals.
What is Fundraising?
Fundraising is the act of collecting money or other resources, such as goods or services, from individuals or organizations to support a specific cause or project. It is a critical activity for many types of organizations, including non-profits, charities, schools, sports teams, and more, as it provides necessary financial resources to carry out their missions.
Fundraising activities can take many forms, including hosting events, managing online campaigns, selling products, requesting donations, and more. Effective fundraising requires careful planning, communication, and relationship-building with potential donors or supporters. The ultimate goal of fundraising is to secure the necessary financial resources to achieve a specific goal or mission.
How Fundraisers Work
Fundraisers typically work by setting a fundraising goal and then developing a strategy to reach that goal. The strategy will vary depending on the type of fundraiser and the target audience. The success of a fundraiser depends on many factors, including the target audience, the fundraising goal, and the effectiveness of the fundraising strategy. Effective fundraising strategies will often involve a combination of marketing, personal outreach, and community engagement.
Put simply, fundraisers work by asking supporters to give money for a cause. While some fundraisers rely on powerful messaging to convince donors to support a cause, most offer supporters something in return for their donation. Most fundraising activities can be lumped into one of two primary categories: donations or exchanges.
Donation-Based Fundraisers
Donation-based fundraisers are some of the easiest to understand and organize, but may not be the most effective. In this type of fundraising, the organization simply asks people to donate money to their cause. This requires powerful and persistent messaging to convince people to become supporters, especially considering there are so many worthwhile causes competing for donations.
In donation-based fundraising, the actual fundraising process is relatively simple. Your organization recruits volunteers to help spread the message and request donations, and whatever money they collect goes directly to the cause. While a nonprofit organization may take a percentage of the donations to pay certain overhead costs, smaller groups, like schools and sports teams, generally put all of the proceeds toward their cause.
Exchange-Based Fundraisers
With an exchange-based fundraiser, a nonprofit organization provides supporters with goods or services in return for their donations. Some of the most common fundraising exchanges include: the opportunity to attend an event, like a formal gala, a race, or a talent show; a service, like a car wash, homework help, or sports lessons; or a product, like cookies, wrapping paper, or meat sticks.
When your fundraiser relies on providing supporters with goods or services in exchange for their donations, the cost associated with acquiring the goods or providing the services will significantly impact your success. Here is how some common fundraising activities work to raise money for a cause:
- Events: Fundraisers can organize events such as charity walks, galas, or concerts to raise funds. Participants or attendees pay a fee to participate or attend, and additional funds may be raised through sponsorships, auctions, raffles, and more. To host a successful fundraising event, you’ll need to maximize ticket sales or participation fees to offset the costs of hosting the event, including event space rentals, food and beverage costs, and more.
- Services: Fundraising services rely on service-providers donating their time and effort while supporters pay a fee for the services they provide. For example, with a car wash fundraiser, each car pays a fee for the service while volunteers take shifts washing vehicles. This type of fundraiser typically requires minimal costs because volunteers provide their time and services for free, helping to maximize the funds raised for their cause.
- Product Sales: Product-based fundraisers are among the most popular options for schools, sports teams, and other nonprofit organizations because they provide supporters with a tangible incentive. While you may be able to sell products and keep the entire profit for your cause, as with a bake sale where volunteers donate their goods to sell, most product-based fundraisers require organizations to pay a fee to acquire the product. For instance, when you participate in a food fundraiser selling meat sticks from Country Meats, your group pays just $0.75 for each meat stick that you sell for $1.50. This means that you keep half of each product sale price for your fundraising goals—a 50% profit margin! Payment terms may vary; for instance, with Country Meats you can choose to purchase the product up-front to sell in-person, or use order sheets to allow supporters to make their selections and pre-pay for their meat sticks, helping reduce your out-of-pocket expenses.
When choosing a product to sell for your fundraiser, consider whether your potential supporters will have a high demand for the product, how affordable it is, and whether the profit margin makes sense for your time and efforts.
Make Fundraising Work For Your Cause
Fundraisers are an important way for organizations to raise funds for a specific cause or project. By understanding how fundraisers work and the different types of fundraisers available, organizations can develop effective fundraising strategies that will help them reach their fundraising goals. Whether it’s a charity walk, a gala dinner, or selling meat sticks, the key to success is engaging supporters and building momentum towards the fundraising goal.
Country Meats is a leading fundraising partner for schools, sports teams, youth groups, scout troops, and other nonprofit organizations. We offer a healthy, convenient snack with mass appeal, flexible fundraising options, and high profit margins to help your group quickly and efficiently reach your fundraising goals. Request a free sample or start your fundraiser with Country Meats today.