Jason Dick

Recently I had a friend ask me for help raising money with his workplace. And I thought I’d share some of the ideas here. I was really encouraged to hear from a business leader who is looking for proactive and creative ways to raise money in his office. Here are a few examples of things you can do with your workplace campaign. Anything you want to add?

• Get a nonprofit representative to speak to a group of staff about how their money can make a difference.
• Promote monthly giving and how a small portion of your paycheck can make a big difference.
• Break the office into teams or groups and have them compete.
• Hold a creative event to generate enthusiasm. An organization I use to work with does a dunk tank event every year. Employees would talk with some of the Senior Managers and Vice Presidents and ask them if they would be willing to go on the dunk tank if their staff raised a certain amount of money.
• Combine your campaign with something online and offline. Have a fundraising page and send it in an email around the office. This can help everyone see how much they are raising as a group.
• Set a reasonable target and push to try and increase it every year.

Sometimes we don’t clean up our database because we do not know how it works. It is important to have one person in your organization that is your database person. This person is often the individual that inputs your checks and cash into the system. Start your clean up by asking this individual to train you and others in the office about how to input information and keep things up-to-date.

Everyone at your organization should be trained to know how to use your database, because everyone is hearing different information about your donors all of the time. Your receptionist might hear about a donor being sick (great opportunity to grow the relationship with a get well card). Or another employee might see a donor arrive in an expensive new car or hear about a summer cabin (great information to have regarding their net worth). You might learn from a conversation with them that they have a strong interest in giving to a specific program (allows you to focus & segment your appeals).

Create a culture that values data. If you do not use the database or are not a champion for accurate data then your staff and co-workers will not be either. It does not take a lot of work to properly use your database in fact sometimes it just feels easier to use a spreadsheet because you do not know how to put it in your database. Feel free to ask your database person questions they will be thrilled that you are trying to keep donor information accurate.

Over the month of March I ran an online fundraising campaign to benefit and organization I do some volunteer work with and really believe in (Wellspring Foundation). I was a little surprised at how hard it was to get people to give online.

I thought that because I was asking my friends to do something little it would be easy. But this was not the case. It takes a lot of work to teach your traditional networks to give and communicate online. The internet has created a lot of opportunities for nonprofits to reach a new audience but we are still learning how to maximize online fundraising.

As a blogger I’ve found that for every one hundred people that reads a post you get about a comment (sometimes more sometimes less). The rule is much the same with a new online direct mail campaign. You can train your donors and get better about segmenting your lists but your first campaign is not going to raise a lot of money.

When starting to promote your organization online be patient and persistent. Try and make your messages short and to the point, have a picture and personalize your communications. You can email more frequently if you are very concise and to the point.

This is a joint post on Sandy Rees blog, Get Fully Funded.  She asked me to say a few words about how to get the word out and I thought I’d share it here as well.  I’m always open to joint posting let me know if you’d like me to guest post for you.

Getting the message about your nonprofit out is one of the most important things you can do for your organization.  Here are a few things you can do to enhance what your nonprofit is doing.

Getting Started- Approach a local chamber of commerce and ask if you can present to them about your nonprofit.  Get to know the businesses in your community by co-hosting a networking event with the chamber at your building.  If you are a faith-based organization (or even if you’re not) talk to the pastor at a couple of local churches and ask if you can present to their congregation.

Growing the Relationship- Use the relationships you’ve built and keep track of them.  Ask new donors to come for a tour or a special event you are having.  Your volunteers are one of the best groups to advocate for your mission.  Ask your volunteers & board members to invite their friends to connect to your organization.

The Technological Advantage- There are countless ways to spread the message about your good work using the Internet.  Don’t try and do everything just do one or two things well.  Start a Facebook page or use the Causes application.  Go to Razoo.org and start a fundraising page.  Start a blog, this is a great way to regularly communicate and interact with those that want to remain close to your organization.

There are a lot of great causes.  Don’t be afraid to get creative be a little competitive.