Fund Raising
Take on Fundraising as a Professional Career Option
Fundraising is an effort made by non-profit organizations to collect money or any form of contribution by requesting charity from individuals, business companies, governmental organizations and others to support a cause. Through such fundraising programs these organizations can smoothly carry out their objectives. Their concerns may range from helping disaster-hit people or supporting human rights, political agendas, humanitarian causes, education and much more. Fundraising was recently in the spotlight when natural disasters hit places such as Haiti and Pakistan.
Most non-profit organizations appoint professional fundraisers to increase the funds that will help their causes. Professional fundraisers are compensated at two levels — either by a fixed amount or on percentage basis in accordance to the funds they help in raising. There is sometimes confusion between the terms “professional fundraisers” and “fundraising professionals”. The former is a third party person who helps in raising funds and who gets paid for the job. The latter is the person who works at non-profit organizations. So, if you are interested in the work of fundraising, all you need to do is to apply at a post-secondary institution that offers a recognized certificate or degree course and reputable training that can be used in the field.
Centennial College offers a part-time program in Fundraising that covers courses such as Entrepreneurship, Introduction to Fundraising, Methods of Fundraising, Strategic Management of Campaigns, Donor Relationships in Fundraising, Fundraising as Management Process and Volunteer Management. Training in all the above-mentioned courses not only provides a wide range of information on fundraising; it also guides you to develop and increases your business skills and capabilities.
The Key Elements of a Fundraising Calendar Page
A single page in fundraising calendars is very different from other commercial calendar layouts out there. The fact that it is for fundraising means that there are a few different and essential elements that will make it extra special and functional at doing its job. If you are printing fundraising calendars on your own as well, you might be interested to know the key elements that you should put into your own custom calendar page. So read on and discover what you may need to know.
a. The feature image – Let me give you one of the basic parts of course. Fundraising calendars, like other commercial calendars typically have a featured image for each calendar page. This is the image that will basically be displayed for each month of the year.
The important thing to know about these featured images, if you are printing calendars for fundraising, is that they must be deliberately chosen to attract people to buying the calendars. So all of those images must be chosen, based on the specific preferences of the market you are aiming for. If you are targeting more home makers for example, then those images must be pleasant ones that homemakers like to have in their homes. The more you target these images the more appeal they have for the market.
b. The modified month table – All calendar pages of course must have a “month” or calendar table. This is basically the calendar itself that has all the days of the month listed. For fundraising calendars, make sure that each page is modified with extra tidbits of information. Besides the addition of event labels for holidays, you may also want to add in spaces for custom notes plus other details such as the faces of the moon, solstices and equinoxes, season markers and even daylight savings time announcements. The more information your fundraising calendar contains the more useful it is and the better it gets picked up.
Start Your Fundraising Using Fundraising Calendars
While not all of the best fundraising ideas can be done fast, you should know that using fundraising calendars are different. With the effective use of fundraising calendars at the turn of the year, it is really quite easy to raise a significant amount of money fearlessly fast at the most opportune time. Let me show you how you can do this kind of fundraising fearlessly fast with the right weekly steps. Just go through the different steps below and see how you can easily and quickly raise the funds you need.
Week 1: Prep Work – The first week for your fundraising campaign with custom calendars is all about prep work. You will need to gather materials and information for your calendar design. Do your market research first and identify who you want to target to sell your custom calendars as well as the prime locations where you can market to them.
Next, try to gather all the images, software and other tools that you need to develop designs best suited to those target markets. Make sure that you also compose all the needed feature text, fundraising campaign information and contact details. Finally, try to acquire the tools and software that you are most comfortable in using, as well as any calendar templates that you might want to use. Once you have all of these materials setup, you should be ready to develop your design.
Benefits of Online Calendar Printing in Fundraising
All fundraising ideas need a little help from something. If you are using fundraising calendars as a means to get extra funds, your best partner is an online calendar printing company. Yes, you heard me right. Since you will be developing fundraising calendars, a good and effective calendar printer is the ideal partner to help you out. Many small businesses and special projects have hired online calendar printing companies to great effect for their fundraising ideas, so you should really consider it as well. Let me explain to you point by point why online calendar printing is good for you and your fundraising campaign.
a. Competitive pricing – When you do try to print your calendars online, you will see that most online calendar printers have competitive prices. With the online marketplace as vibrant and changing as it is, most firms offer competitive prices for most calendar printing orders. This means that you will experience generally cheaper and competitive printing quotations wherever you go in the Internet. This is great for your fundraising campaign with calendars of course, since you will want to minimize the printing price.
b. Detailed and customizable options – An added advantage in printing your custom calendars online is that you can actually choose all of your printing options. Most online printing companies will offer you detailed choices for your calendars. This includes what paper materials to use, the inks, the binding, the coatings etc. You can choose all the settings you want to create, for a truly customized fundraising calendar. You won’t get talked into anything you don’t want to use and of course get full control of the printing, including adjustments in price. This is great especially when you want your fundraising calendar to have that certain printing quality to it.
Facts About Fundraising Using Calendars
One of the lowest risk and low investment fundraising ideas that you can have are fundraising calendars. It might not sound as snazzy as a fundraising dinner, or a fundraising marathon but fundraising calendars can be a simple and easy way to get some extra funds for a good cause. Don’t believe me? Well, let me give you the easy facts that should convince you that custom calendar printing for a cause can be your key to extra funds for your project.
a. Low cost investment – If you look at the typical quotations for calendar printing, you will discover that it is pretty cheap. In fact it is remarkably cheap than setting up a whole big event with all the logistics and extra staff you need to hire. In most cases, a typical batch of calendar printing for fundraising should cost you only around 20%-30% of the budget for a big fundraising event depending on how many custom calendars you print. So this is perfect for projects who only have limited resources for investment.
b. Easy to create, even by yourself – Another great thing about using calendars for fundraising is that those custom calendars are very easy to create. You can even create the color calendars yourself to save on staff fees! With just a simple desktop publishing application, a digital camera, a calendar template, inspired imagination and some elbow grease you can have a decent looking calendar for fundraising in no time at all. With the tools today, you don’t really have to be an expert to do it!
Grading Fundraising Calendars Benefits
Want to know if fundraising calendars have the passing marks that match some of those other fundraising ideas out there? In this special article, we will tell you our different grade marks for fundraising calendars and the precise explanations why they are so. Hopefully this allows you to realize specifically the benefits that a fundraising calendar can provide you, giving you the best information available to compare this fundraising tool to others. So let me show you the exact fundraising calendars’ grades have according to experts.
Cost : A
When it comes to production and deployment costs, fundraising calendars get a perfect “A”. This is because fundraising calendars are basically cheap to produce and distribute. While other fundraising ideas will run into thousands of dollars, printing calendars will only cost you a few hundred. For small fundraising projects to just the opening salvo for a big fundraising campaign, custom calendars have the perfect costs for anyone. Even with limited resources, you should be able to manage creating a good custom calendar with free software, free design elements and cheap calendar printing, as long as you know where to look. So cost wise, fundraising calendars are perfect.
Effectiveness: B
In terms of effectiveness, using color calendars for fundraising is a decent “B”. We gave it a “B” because it is not always a sure fire way to get several times the returns, but it still gives you great returns on your investment. This is the case because with custom calendars, you do have competition from other commercial calendars. Your fundraising calendars will have to go head to head with professionally made calendars which can sell for cheaper prices if need be. . So you will have to work and be competitive with your fundraising calendars for them to be effective. If you really work hard though with the design and distribution, it should get you amazing results though, giving you a great fundraising boost, especially at the turn of each year.
Create Fundraising Calendars For Your Social Cause
Raising money for your social cause can be quite a challenge. It is not always easy to get people give you money for support and assistance. You need to be creative as well as be able to take risks in raising funds. Previously, you may have had experience raising funds through the traditional ways: conducting garage sales, hosting dinners. If you want a new idea, you may want to create fundraising calendars. Fundraising calendars are great way to generate money. Before the year ends, fundraising calendars can be a hit among everyone. These are great gift ideas as anyone who is looking forward for the New Year prefers the functionality of fundraising calendars. Before you go on designing and printing fundraising calendars, you may want to take a look at the following guidelines first:
1. Establish your cause.
On your fundraising calendars, always keep the pictures relevant. The pictures should say a great deal about what cause you are supporting. You do not just sell fundraising calendars without setting an identity for your organization. Check what are the images, whether they are illustrations or photographs, you can use. Make sure that the images are of high resolution. Otherwise, the appearance of your fundraising calendars can be pixilated.
2. Get the best calendar printers.
There are a lot of companies that offer printing services. Find one that can offer you quality prints. Check for discounts. These can make a big difference on your budget. See what your printing options are. Do not easily settle with a printing company for your fundraising calendars without checking your other possible choices. You may want to check the internet for printing services.