The Long View

Sometimes the long view is the only view. 

If you don't have the time to articulate a mission statement then you may find that donor money is just not available to promote that mission.

Communication is the key to mission building. Talk it over with your friends, your spouse, your relatives, your kids.  Different people have different "takes".

We all think we can march to our own drummer, but you know what?  Votes count!

Here at PrintBox we have been fooled many times over the years when we went with an idea that one person loved -- but you know what?  That was the Only person!

So get your ballots out there in the form of notes you take (even if they are mental notes) -- get some email out there to acquaintences.  Sometimes if you don't get an answer, that tells you something too.  If it sounds good after doing those first steps, now it's time to make that first phone call, or ten, or one hundred ...

Now, you know if you are on a mission that other people share!

Tough Talk About Prizes...

Six Tickets For The Price of Five?

I don't think so .... reviewing recent successful raffles it looks like you can't there from here!  The successful raffles don't discount their tickets.  The big ones run for a year (and when one is complete the next one begins).

There can be many prizes awarded along the way, and they build interest in the whole raffle -- a recent one for Naperville Rotary Club gave away several $10,000 prizes "even though only 4,200 had been sold" at that point.  But the tickets were $100 apiece, and that meant they already had $420,000 in the bank at that time!  The main prize that year was a $250,000 home which you could have built anywhere in the U,.S. They report a healthy surplus for their charity year in and year out.

Perhaps the moral is -- if you have a big theme you can take in big dollars.

Instead of raising money for operating costs for the year, why not consider some larger goals?  Say, a building fund? Or a new emergency vehicle? One of our clients raffles off a new car every year, raising approx. $200,00 in the process.  And why not?  They have pledged to donate one million dollars to buy the local hospital a CAT scanner -- they have never failed to meet their promises over the years.

But remember, people buying tickets are not all motivated by your cause -- they are motivated by the hope that the prize money will end up in their wallet!  America's casinos produce billions of dollars each month, and the players are not really interested that all the profits supposedly goes to education!

Good Fundraising Never Quits!

We have been getting a lot of requests for multiple

events this year – Halloween Drawings, Xmas

Parties, Thanksgiving celebrations, Fall Balls, Ski

Sprees – looks like good fundraising never quits. 

And of course you

don’t need a drawing

to raise funds:

Chicken Dinners,

Pancake Breakfasts,

Fall Socials – they all

work, and sometimes

better than prizes because
you can presell tickets so

you always know how much money you have

available!  Musical events and drama performances

also work well.  One of the users of TM14

promotes musical events all over the southeast

States, and he has been printing his own tickets with

our software for years.

Tours and bus trips work the same way – presell the

tickets and know exactly how much money you have

to work with. You have zero risk, and you have the

money in the bank before you spend a dime!

So before you spend a lot of money in advance,

consider using TM14 this year.  Your ticket cost

can be as low as three cents, and rarely more than

five cents!  What’s the catch?  There really isn’t any.

You can even use our software free if you are a

registered non-profit organization.

Over 30,000 churches, schools and non-profits have

found it makes a lot of sense … take a look at

www.printbox.com or call our legendary tech support

staff to help you get started.

Happy Fundraising!

- The Ticket People at PrintBox:  1 773 734-6858

RESONANCE

Let's face it -- most of the people who feel as you do will never hear about your group ... there is just too much competition for their attention.

But just as charity begins at home, so must your message.   First, conduct a reality check amongst your core group -- ask each other 'why are we together?', 'what is our core message?',  'how will that appeal to others?'.

Like ripples in a pond, the closer you are to your core group, the more powerful will be the message.
Yet sympathetic vibrations can carry your message far beyond your geographical location ... if you are operating a shelter for stray animals, keep in mind that in 2007 US pet lovers spent $45.12 billion for cat and dog food. And for every pet owner, there are 100 pet lovers (that is why every child's bed is piled high with stuffed animals).

So your message can travel a long way -- even internationally -- based upon the principle of 'Resonance'.
To tap that resource, you need to apply the same merchandising techniques used by consumer marketing people -- strong graphics, simple message, repetition, repetition, repetition.

What bells does your message ring?

Crowd Funding - A New Tool for NPOs...

Crowd funding is the newest tool to encourage like-minded people to support a cause.   Although it relies mostly upon "conventional" methods of establishing a presence on the internet, supporters are encouraged to bring in their own circle of friends to donate.

Some of the names who provide software to get started in crowd funding include Razoo -- http://www.razoo.com/p/overview;  Nandanu (Take Your Giving Anywhere)  --  https://www.nadanu.com/products.php, GoFundMe -- http://www.gofundme.com/crowdfunding/; and CauseVox -- http://www.causevox.com/features. And there are many more to see by simply searching on Crowd funding.

We show the links for some of these sites because they couldn't be more different!  You are encouraged to browse through their demonstrations to actually see the diversity of approaches. Some are not even dedicated to fundraising per se -- if you are interested in raising money for a business product you can do that.  Others offer complete setups of your website ready to start accepting donations.  Several allow you to add a "gadget" to your own website or your Facebook page. On still another site, you can search for your favorite cause or charity by type or region or even zipcode.

Check out this technology -- a lot of research has gone into developing new tools to raise funds!