If you’ve landed on this blog, you probably have some fundraising to do. This is the right place to start. If you’re at the beginning of your fundraising efforts, then you have a few things you need to figure out. You’ll need to choose between the different types of fundraising strategies available to you. It’s almost always a good policy to narrow down to a few possibilities and then focus your efforts. Spreading your energy across a lot of different fundraising ideas reduces your odds of a successful fundraiser.
Let’s talk for a bit about the types of fundraising you can do. Then you can make a more informed decision. With a good grasp on the realities, you will improve your chances of a successful fundraising campaign.
There are a handful of things to consider when choosing a fundraising strategy. For example:
- The demographics of your expected backers.
- The goal of your funds.
- How much money you need to raise.
- You also have to consider your brand and the image your organization has. (DonorBox)
Fortunately, fundraising is flexible. There are as many solutions as there are challenges! Here are some of the types of fundraisers to raise money, and the reasons why you might use each.
Fundraising Strategies for Every Situation
Fundraising strategies fall into three basic categories. Within those categories, your fundraising can follow a lot of different paths.
Here are the four basic types of fundraising.
Crowdfunding
If you are an individual wanting to raise money, you may turn to crowdfunding. This is where you rely solely on the generosity of others. Whether you are raising money for a good cause, or wanting to get an idea off the ground, crowdfunding can be an effective way to raise quick funds.
Investors
Raising funds through investors isn’t appropriate or necessary for all fundraising efforts. It’s a good tool to know about, though. In some cases, raising funds through investors is a great way to get a for-profit venture started.
A fundraising campaign like this is often referred to as a Capital Campaign.
It gets its own category because you don’t necessarily approach it with the same strategy as other kinds of fundraising campaigns.
Other fundraising strategies rely more on marketing and advertising efforts.
With a Capital Campaign, because you are trying to attract larger contributions from fewer backers, you’ll find your efforts more directed toward developing relationships.
Capital Campaigns are important fundraising strategies if your project requires a substantial upfront investment.
In-person Fundraising
For a lot of people, the most familiar type of fundraising campaigns are in-person fundraisers.
In-person fundraising can include:
- Silent auctions
- Fundraising events with ticket sales
- Direct mail fundraising
- Direct donations
- And product fundraising
In-person fundraising has a lot of advantages. It’s familiar to a lot of people, for example. It can also be exciting since it often involves people doing stuff with other people.
On the other hand, in-person fundraising efforts require more organization. They require more people, more planning, and more initial set-up.
They’re more complicated, in short. Depending on the fundraising needs of your project, in-person fundraising might be the way to go. For some fundraising strategies, in-person fundraising may be unsustainable and less profitable than the last type of fundraising.
Online Fundraising
When you want to raise more money with smaller teams and less effort, online fundraising might be the way to go.
As a fundraising option, online fundraising has a lot of advantages.
A fundraising strategy based on an online fundraising campaign can have a much lower startup cost. It can make a big difference in overall profits to keep startup costs as low as possible.
Online fundraising also has the advantage of reach. In-person fundraising limits you to the people you can physically interact with. You turn the entire world into potential backers when you take your fundraising online. Therefore, a well-run online fundraiser will typically help you raise more.
You can run product fundraisers online where your supporters shop with a click of a button. As a fundraising strategy, online product fundraising suits a lot of needs from sports leagues, to schools, to social clubs. You can also run donation drives. Depending on your fundraising platform, you’ll be able to easily launch your fundraising page and start tracking your revenue goals.
farmRaiser, myRaiserHQ, and friendRaiser
If you are in a position where you need to run a fundraiser, but you’re struggling to find tools that work for you, don’t worry. Online fundraising may be your solution.
If you are a school, sports team, or non-profit, consider farmRaiser which is an online platform that helps you raise money by selling healthy, sustainable, locally-sourced products such as artisan foods, seeds for gardens, pet supplies, and more.
Tailor your online fundraiser to the particular needs of your project. If you’re a charitable organization needing donations, use myRaiserHQ to collect items such as blankets, school supplies, hygiene products, and more. (coming soon)
If you are looking for a crowdfunding platform we are designing friendRaiser just for you, stay tuned!
Whether you’re a non-profit or for-profit organization, we can help match you with an easy online fundraising strategy. Contact us today.
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