Founder of The Uncultured Project with an impoverished Bangladeshi widow and her two children. Above photo and feature photo by Shawn.
For a novice fundraiser, even a raising 500 dollars can seem overwhelming. With the right mindset however, fundraising can be both easy and fun!
With volunteer tours growing in number, more and more tour operators are including fundraising minimums either within tour fees or as an additional requirement for tour participants. Learn the basics of how to raise funds for your cause, organization, or favorite volunteer program.
1. Start close to home.
The people who will inevitably be the most invested in your cause are those that know you and can see your passion.
Start with friends, family, and acquaintances. Speak to everyone you know about the cause and be specific about your needs. Don’t be afraid to ask for dollar amounts from those around you!
The best requests highlight your personal involvement and ask for specific amounts of money for specific goods. Write to your address book and don’t forget to include friends who have long since been out of touch. What better way to spread the word while getting in touch with old friends?
2. Utilize local and small businesses.
Often small businesses are happy to provide goods in exchange for getting the word out about their services. Try asking small restaurants to provide free or discounted food for a dinner and charge a small entrance fee.
Or throw a dinner party at your home and ask friends to donate potluck dishes. Getting publicity in local newspapers, company newsletters, on radio stations, etc., will introduce you to a wealth of possibilities for gaining both corporate and individual sponsorship.
Photo by Maryann
3. Find a common interest.
Though your cause might be across the ocean from your home, there are always local networks that share similar goals and are great avenues to access funding.
Is your cause education related? Tap into local high schools or universities. Is it sports related? See if teams in your area would be willing to provide sponsorship or in-kind donations. Raising money for a particular country or group? See if there are locals from that country who can mobilize their networks. Check online groups, such as MeetUp.com to find people who are passionate about the same cause.
4. Be a social butterfly.
Organize a karaoke night, pub quiz, or concert with local musicians willing to share their talent. Better yet, do a clothing or book auction with your friends. Everyone brings a few items and you can buy items back for a set donation. You refresh your wardrobe/bookshelf and recycling is good for the earth!
Make sure that any event has minimal costs to you and as many costs as possible are donated in-kind.
5. Share your talents.
What is your skill? Yoga, surfing, karate, tennis, cooking lessons? Raise money by offering to share your talent with others!
Additional Tips
Know your cause.
The easiest way to put off potential donors is to not have answers to basic questions:
Any responsible voluntourism operator or NGO should be able to answer these questions. If you aren’t sure yet where the money will go, try to be as specific as possible with friends, family, and potential donors about how you will make decisions about putting the money to work.
Find a responsible charity/NGO.
As a fundraiser it is your responsibility to make sure your donors are putting their money into a sustainable and responsible project. Consider:
Match.
Be sure to also ask donors to check with their employers. Their donations might be easily doubled with company matching plans!
Say thank you.
Be sure to acknowledge donations and follow up after your trip or once the funds are spent.
Community Connection
For an extensive list of great orgs to support or research, please reference the Organizations Page at Matador.
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8 Comments... join the discussion!
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6. Get a job?
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6. Get a job?
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Maryann, great article, excellent advice! Having seen how you and the team at PEPY have used these techniques to great (http://www.pepyride.org)success, we know you speak from experience. Thanks for the article.
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1. If you play an instrument (or if you know people who do), organize a charity concert at a local bar. The bar will be happy because you will get people there, and your friends will gladly pay a $10 – $15 cover for an excuse to get together. My friends and I did that in Osaka, Japan, and raised $1,000 for PEPY in one night. We had 4 bands, and tons of people showed up. We also did something similar in a more rural setting in Japan, including taiko groups, and raised about $2,000 there. 2. Print t-shirts and sell them for ten or fifteen dollars. Everyone loves a t-shirt! 3. Ask for any birthday or holiday gifts to be shifted towards your fundraising goal.
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Very interesting
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Really great article Maryann, and amazing work you are doing in Cambodia. With the examples you gave, I feel like you were at the fundraiser I organized to help support my volunteer work abroad. People do really want to help other in their community, you just can't be afraid to ask – that was the hardest thing for me to overcome at first. All I can do is emphasize your points: know what your cause very well, and reach out to everyone you know (especially with with a individualized touch, like a personal note in their invite to your fundraiser). Again, great post and keep on volunteering!
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I was involved with a UN agency for Refugees project where we had to come up with a fundraising idea.. I came up with wii tennis! You can read about how to throw a wii tennis party here: http://virtualtennis.wordpress.com/ for UNHCR or your own cause.
We are throwing a bigger event for the public in May which is made me a bit nervous – explaining the plight of refugees to shop keepers to get prizes etc… so we made a short video which shows us playing the game, as well as the conditions of the refugees. Maybe that would work for your project? Videos can be so easily made these days thanks to flip and imovie.
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