There are many reasons for holding a fundraising event:
- to raise your profile and awareness
- to attract new members
- to build team spirit among your group members
- to raise funds
BUT
asking directly for support via "Pledge Events" like this one
results in the most amount of money for the least effort.
Just look at Solidarity Cycle -- $350,000 for 7 cycle rides!
asking directly for support via "Pledge Events" like this one
results in the most amount of money for the least effort.
Just look at Solidarity Cycle -- $350,000 for 7 cycle rides!
We get it... most people feel awkward about asking directly for support and here are some tips to help you overcome your hesitancy:
- Make your appeal personal. Take time to modify the sample letter provided and make it personal to you. Touch your donors' hearts.
- Set an ambitious goal and try whole-heartedly to reach it. We find most people can raise $500 - $1500 just by asking. Overcome your shyness -- lives depend on it!
- Use email. You don't have to ask people face to face. If your donor does not wish to support you, they can just delete your request and move on. You don't have to ask again. Do, however, remind them if they promise and then forget.
- Reach out. Contact people locally but also your family, friends, colleagues who live anywhere in the world and don't have the opportunity to come to other fundraising events.
- They will thank YOU! Often people admire your efforts and will thank you for the opportunity to donate. Surprising eh?
- Thank them promptly for the donation and then after the event tell them how it went and thank them again. Send a photo!
- Here is a sample letter for you to personalize.
Maggy's experience
My FLOG experience
It was during one of our group’s monthly meetings that we were tossing around ideas for a fundraising campaign that could involve multiple Gogo groups when an idea popped out of my mouth — something to do with expanding the already highly successful Solidarity Cycle campaign to include other activities for less athletic Gogos.
Then our usual Gogo enthusiasm caught the drift, refined the idea into something workable, and then expanded into an actual campaign with a name and a website at one of the regional meetings, and FLOG was born thanks to Darcy and Janine and maybe some others.
I’m not athletic enough to take on any kind of physical challenge. My feet are unreliable. And ask people for donations? Are you kidding? That’s one of my biggest no-no’s. What if they’re offended and write me off altogether? There goes my entire circle of friends.
So, of course I took on a challenge. I was, after all, responsible for putting out this dumb idea in the first place so how could I not? I decided on walking virtually the distance, as the crow flies, between places I had lived along the B.C. coast from Vancouver to Victoria to Nanaimo to Powell River and back to Vancouver over a four-month period. I named my challenge “Grandmothers Walk On Water”. That was the fun part. Then came what I thought would be the hard parts. Here is where the delightful surprises started to happen.
First, going on the website to register my challenge. It’s possible that I find technology at least as daunting as asking my friends for money. But, no, the website was easy to use and entering my information, photo included, turned out to give me a feeling of having triumphed over impossible odds.
Then there was the Big Dangerous Ask. All I had to do now was touch my screen and out it would go to everyone who mattered to me. Well OK, deep breath, Click.
Within a few hours I began to get responses. Positive responses. With donations attached. And congratulations. And thanks for asking them to donate to such a great cause. And good for you to challenge yourself in this way. (My friends all know how I feel about physical activity). It was beginning to sound like I had done them a favour by asking for donations. Wow!
I was able to finish my walking challenge within three months and raised a good chunk of money for our partners in Africa. That I also felt more fit was a pleasant side effect. What a privilege it is for our friends and families to be able to donate on our behalf to the wonderful SLF projects that we are all so committed to. I encourage you to give FLOG a try! ~ Maggy Kaplan
It was during one of our group’s monthly meetings that we were tossing around ideas for a fundraising campaign that could involve multiple Gogo groups when an idea popped out of my mouth — something to do with expanding the already highly successful Solidarity Cycle campaign to include other activities for less athletic Gogos.
Then our usual Gogo enthusiasm caught the drift, refined the idea into something workable, and then expanded into an actual campaign with a name and a website at one of the regional meetings, and FLOG was born thanks to Darcy and Janine and maybe some others.
I’m not athletic enough to take on any kind of physical challenge. My feet are unreliable. And ask people for donations? Are you kidding? That’s one of my biggest no-no’s. What if they’re offended and write me off altogether? There goes my entire circle of friends.
So, of course I took on a challenge. I was, after all, responsible for putting out this dumb idea in the first place so how could I not? I decided on walking virtually the distance, as the crow flies, between places I had lived along the B.C. coast from Vancouver to Victoria to Nanaimo to Powell River and back to Vancouver over a four-month period. I named my challenge “Grandmothers Walk On Water”. That was the fun part. Then came what I thought would be the hard parts. Here is where the delightful surprises started to happen.
First, going on the website to register my challenge. It’s possible that I find technology at least as daunting as asking my friends for money. But, no, the website was easy to use and entering my information, photo included, turned out to give me a feeling of having triumphed over impossible odds.
Then there was the Big Dangerous Ask. All I had to do now was touch my screen and out it would go to everyone who mattered to me. Well OK, deep breath, Click.
Within a few hours I began to get responses. Positive responses. With donations attached. And congratulations. And thanks for asking them to donate to such a great cause. And good for you to challenge yourself in this way. (My friends all know how I feel about physical activity). It was beginning to sound like I had done them a favour by asking for donations. Wow!
I was able to finish my walking challenge within three months and raised a good chunk of money for our partners in Africa. That I also felt more fit was a pleasant side effect. What a privilege it is for our friends and families to be able to donate on our behalf to the wonderful SLF projects that we are all so committed to. I encourage you to give FLOG a try! ~ Maggy Kaplan