Funds to the Rescue
101 Fundraising Ideas for Humane and Animal Rescue Groups
Susan C. Daffron
Logical Expressions, Inc.
Published by Logical Expressions at Smashwords
Copyright 2009 by Logical Expressions, Inc. and Susan C. Daffron.
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Warning and disclaimer: This book is designed to provide information about fundraising. Every effort has been made to make it as complete and accurate as possible, but no warranty or fitness is implied.
The information in this book is provided on an “as is” basis. Logical Expressions, Inc. and the author make no guarantees that you will make any money using the information in this book. The author and Logical Expressions, Inc. also shall have no responsibility to any person or entity with respect to loss or damages arising from information contained in this book or from any programs or documents that may accompany it.
Advance Praise for
Funds to the Rescue: 101
Fundraising Ideas
for Humane and Animal Rescue Groups
"Fund raising is
a challenge for those of us working to help the animals. Funds to
the Rescue is practical and creative. Susan has done all the work
letting the reader know what's involved with each idea—costs,
planning time and how many people it takes to get them done. This
book is a valuable resource for both start ups and established
groups. I am planning to recommend it to students who attend
workshops at Best Friends Animal Society and to the animal community
at large."
~
Faith Maloney
Animal Care Consultant,
Best
Friends Animal Society
www.BestFriends.org
"Just about
every non-profit rescue group understands the importance of
fundraising. But many books don't give you specific and
straight-forward ideas for pet-oriented fundraisers. With Funds to
the Rescue, Susan Daffron offers honest advice about fundraising
and then serves up 101 ideas that range from simple to complex
fundraisers."
~
Holly Sizemore
Executive Director,
No
More Homeless Pets in Utah
www.UtahPets.org
This is just a small sample of the praise I received for Funds to the Rescue. I know you want to get right to the fundraising ideas, so please see the More Advance Praise section at the end of the book for additional testimonials.
Contents
The Hows and Whys of Fundraising
More Advance Praise for Funds to the Rescue
About the National Association of Pet Rescue Professionals
The
Hows and Whys of Fundraising
[Contents]
As the founder of the National Association of Pet Rescue Professionals (NAPRP), almost every day I talk to people involved in helping homeless animals. Virtually every rescue group is started by people with the best intentions. Some organizations thrive and save literally thousands of homeless pets every year; however, many animal shelters, humane and rescue groups struggle to raise money. In some cases, they are actually just a few dollars away from folding. Often people seem to think that "if I only could get that grant" everything will be just perfect!
Rescue groups that continue to struggle year after year often treat their organization like a hobby. They may set up occasional, haphazard, or scattershot fundraising efforts and become frustrated with the results. Non-profit does not mean no money. You need money to survive. People often make excuses: "the economy stinks" or "I can't think of an easy fundraiser." In these cases, eventually the founders get burned out and the organization folds. But the real losers are the animals that are no longer being helped.
It doesn't have to be that way. Fundraising is not new and countless humane organizations have figured out ways to successfully raise money for the animals, no matter what economic indicators are doing. The reality is that even during the Great Depression, some people still had money and some businesses actually did quite well.
In my case, about eight years before I founded NAPRP, I was involved with a small, private, local humane society, first as a volunteer, then an employee, and finally as a member of the board of directors. As the head of public relations, I helped organize and produce fundraisers, dealt with media, and created countless designs and artwork.
Later I consulted with other groups somewhat informally. During that time, I kept seeing the same problems cropping up over and over again. I realized I could help more groups if I formed a national organization. Now the National Association of Pet Rescue Professionals offers tools and information to help rescue groups raise more money and save more lives. Naturally, successful fundraising is one of the things we discuss a lot.
When fundraising works, it's a whole lot of fun and incredibly satisfying. You can see your effort quickly produce tangible results for the animals. This book is designed to give you some of the basics on getting started with fundraising and then gives you 101 ideas for animal-related fundraisers. To find these ideas, I scoured magazines, news sites, and the Internet to locate the coolest ideas people have thought up to help raise money for the animals.
Among the fundraising ideas you'll find in this book:
* How one humane society laughed all the way to $43,000 with a fun comedy fundraiser.
* How working with restaurants can net big profits, like the shelter that told everyone to "Eat for Pete" (who is a very cute dog, by the way).
* How you can creatively ask for money using a simple letter-writing campaign instead of a bake sale, picnic, or dog walk. An SPCA made $980 the first day they used this tip.
* How to use the power of "small change" to your advantage. A few pennies can turn into a lot of dough!
* How to use nothing more than card stock and your printer for a super-quick and easy fundraiser.
* And 95 more. Armed with these 101, you'll never struggle to think up another fundraising idea again!
The introduction to fundraising at the beginning of this book and the 101 fundraising ideas give you a lot of food for thought, but I encourage you to learn more. The more complex the fundraiser, the more research you should do and the farther ahead you should plan. Don't be afraid to check out a lot of books from the library or even contact other charitable groups for advice. With a bit of extra research and advance planning, you may be able to avoid mistakes and earn more money!
Keys to Successful Fundraising
Fundraising doesn't have to be difficult; the key to successful fundraising is to raise money from a broad base of people. Although I mentioned that it seems like many organizations are stuck on getting grants, grants are not a long-term solution. Many grants are tied to one-time projects, such as improvements to a facility. Obviously grants are fantastic, but for basic day-to-day expenses you need to get a fundraising program in place.
In addition to the obvious advantage of bringing in more money, your fundraising efforts also have some side benefits. When you connect with people, you begin to establish a base of support for your organization—often more than financial—that you can draw upon for years to come. Donors may become members and often volunteers, as well. If there is a natural disaster or problem, your cadre of supporters will be the first people to come to your aid.
Don't underestimate the value of creating long-term relationships. In the "for-profit" business world, companies consider the "lifetime value" of a customer. The principles behind the lifetime value of a customer are actually quite simple and apply to connections in the non-profit world as well.
From a business standpoint, in order to calculate what a customer means to a business, time has to be included in the equation, because many customers will return. For example, suppose you own a hardware store. In 1999 a customer named Fred walks in and buys a $29 widget. Six months later in 2000, he sees an ad for your store, comes back in and purchases a mega-widget for $59. In 2001, he gets a postcard from you and buys a micro-widget for $109. Sometime in 2002, he moves out of state and you don't hear from him again (i.e. he's no longer a customer). Fred buys a total of $197 of merchandise from you over the course of three years. The average sale was $65 ($197 divided by 3). The key is that Fred's patronage is worth way more than that initial $29 sale.
In much the same way, many novice fundraisers focus so much on "getting more donations" that they don't consider what a simple contact can mean to the donor relationship over time. Perhaps you hold a fundraiser and it doesn't seem to do very well. You only get $100 in donations from 10 people. If you just grab the $10 and move on, you've missed a huge opportunity. What if you also take the time to ask each donor if you may add him or her to your newsletter list? Those people who donated $10 then receive a newsletter a week later asking people to sponsor a dog for $25/month for a year. If even one of those $10 donors signs up, you've now transformed that $10 contact into $300. If you follow up at the end of the year and the donor renews, the $10 that seemed like such a "failure" to begin with may have a tremendous "lifetime value" impact.
There's an old saying in business that it's always easier to sell to an existing customer. The same is true with donors. If you treat them well, past donors can be future donors.
In addition to helping you establish relationships, fundraising also gives you incredible opportunities for great publicity. Local media are dying for stories, so don't be lax about sending out a press release. Not every day is a "big" news day and people love human-interest stories. Puppies, kittens, bunnies, and other critters make for great TV. All this publicity increases community awareness of your organization and introduces you to other people who may want to help.
A recent ZooToo.com survey showed that 80% of people don't know where their local animal shelter is. Every community has animal lovers. It's vital to tell them where you are and what you're up to.
When you have fundraisers, you have an incredible opportunity to tell the media what you are doing. You have at least three (sometimes more) opportunities for publicity for everything you do:
Before the event: tell them what you are doing and when it's happening.
During the event: get someone to cover it. Or tell a story about someone affected by the fundraiser. ("Fido got adopted and a new Nylabone; we're thrilled!")
After the event: do a press release describing the results and thanking everyone involved.
When it comes to the media, an "event" doesn't necessarily mean something big at a particular time, like a dog walk. It can be something much simpler or smaller, such as a letter-writing campaign or product sales. The bottom line is to always tell the media what you are doing.
When it comes to fundraising, you should line up many different events to give potential donors multiple ways to get involved in your organization. For example, some donors are hands-off and just want to send money. Those people may respond to direct mail or an online donation opportunity. Other donors want to engage with your organization. They may get more excited about live events. Do both for the best results. Different people respond to different things.
Raising money for your organization is a big job, so don't try to take on every fundraising task yourself. Enlist other people to help and delegate tasks to them. Trying to do everything yourself is a sure-fire recipe for burnout.
Fundraising Statistics
When the economy goes downhill, there's a tendency to think, "nobody is donating" to anything. If you listen to the media, you might think nobody has any money to buy anything, much less donate. Even in a recession, people buy things and donate to causes they care about. Animal lovers don't suddenly not care about critters anymore.
In fact, the latest donor research from Campbell Rinker, a nonprofit marketing research firm in Santa Maria, California, shows that quite a bit of money is donated even during a recession.
According to the 2008 Campbell Rinker DonorPulse survey (http://www.afpnet.org/research_and_statistics/fundraising_research):
* Thirty-seven percent of charitable households gave more than $1,000 in 2007, including giving to places of worship.
* The average amount donated by charitable households in 2007 was $2,140, of which $940 went to places of worship.
* Donors are very likely (76%) to have given non-cash gifts of $25 or more to charity in the previous year.
* A majority (52%) have volunteered at least eight hours of time in the last year.
* A majority (56%) provided regular ongoing gifts to at least one charity in the last year.
* Only 10% of donors have a will, trust, or estate plan that includes a contribution to a non-profit organization.
That means that about half of the charitable money pool is available to you, as an animal organization. Religious organizations such as churches and other houses of worship always get the most donations; I'll talk more on what you can learn from religious organizations in another section. Also note that more than 50% of people volunteered their time. That's a big deal. After all, not all donations are financial. People will volunteer, even in a bad economy! The fact that only 10% of people have set up a will or estate plan is an opportunity for you as well. Don't forget that many baby boomers are animal lovers; encourage them to include your organization in their estate planning.
Donors were asked which type of contact prompted them to donate in 2007. Fundraising events and letters greatly surpassed other types of contact. Even with all the hoopla surrounding the Web and other media, these standbys still have an amazing ability to pull in donor dollars. So don't feel like a letter-writing campaign is too "boring." A simple letter can be incredibly effective.
Percentage of donors giving:
* Fundraising event 39%
* Letter 37%
* Telephone call 20%
* Workplace campaign 20%
* Something in a magazine, newspaper, or newsletter 13%
* Something on a Website 11%
* Something on television 11%
* Email 11%
* Something on the radio 9%
* None of the above 23%
Most business and non-profit experts seem to agree that the decisions organizations make during a recession actually have more influence on what happens than the recession itself. Right now, many businesses and non-profits are doing just fine. The key is to not panic but focus on the fundamentals of your business, such as marketing and fundraising. The dollars are out there and there's no reason they shouldn't go to you!
Keeping it Legal
Before I offer any more information on fundraising, I'd like to encourage you to research the laws in your area that relate to fundraising. As a non-profit organization, you need to consider the legal and tax implications of your activities. Most states regulate fundraising and you need to make sure that when people donate to your cause, they know what is and is not deductible.
When it comes to charitable contributions, cash, property and certain expenses can be deducted. But contributions that you receive in return for a service, product or other benefit, like a membership fee, are generally only partially deductible. On your fundraiser, you need to be very clear about how much of the donation is actually deductible. For example, if you put on a fundraising play for $20/seat, you have provided a service, so for donors it is only partially deductible. Talk to your accountant, and make sure your receipts clearly state in dollars how much the donor may use as a deduction on his tax return.
You also should check with your state about charitable solicitation laws. These laws are designed to protect donors from fraud. In most states, charities must register (see URS information below) and describe their fundraising activities. Generally they must file documents and pay an administrative fee.
This Web site:
http://www.multistatefiling.org/
includes the Unified Registration Statement (URS) and a lot of information about registration. The URS form is accepted in 35 states and the District of Columbia. A few states don't require registration at all and three require registration, but don't use the URS.
According to the site, "The URS is an alternative to filing all of the respective registration forms produced by each of the cooperating states. In those states, a registering non-profit may use either the state form or the URS. Thus, the URS proves most useful to non-profits soliciting regionally or nationally and, therefore, subject to the registration laws of multiple states. But the URS may be used by any non-profit that is registering in a state accepting it."
The bottom line is that before you go forth and fundraise, get all the legal stuff handled first.
Marketing
Basics
[Contents]
Honing Your Message
Successful fundraising involves getting your message out to the community and raising money so you can help animals. But in an increasingly cluttered and noisy world, you should make sure you have your message in place before you start.
In many communities, some groups struggle for donations simply because no one knows who they are, or because they are being confused with another animal-related organization. (This problem happens far more frequently than people think!)
Your job is to differentiate yourself and make your group memorable so people understand what you are doing to help animals. Remember the TV show "Cheers"? It was the bar you could go to where "everybody knows your name." In marketing circles, the "Cheers" secret to success is called "top-of-mind awareness." Getting donations is a lot easier if everybody in town already knows you!