My name is Jim Berigan. My website is called EverybodyHatesFundraising.com. The good folks here at VolunteerSpot have asked me to write an article that gets directly to the heart of my sites mission- which is to demonstrate the inherent superiority of community-style fundraising over so-called product sales, such as cookie dough, wrapping paper, candles, and popcorn.
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Part 1 of 2: Community Fundraisers Superior to Product Sales
A community-style fundraiser is any event that brings people together to celebrate their organization, to strengthen the bonds of their relationships, and to raise money for their mission. A school carnival, a charity walk-a-thon, a golf outing, a spaghetti dinner, or a silent auction are all examples of this kind of fundraising strategy.
A Chance to Show Off Your True Colors
One of the most attractive qualities of a community-style event is that it is organic in nature. The people inside the actual organization are the ones designing, planning, and running the occasion. Therefore, it reflects the unique personality of the group. No two spaghetti dinners are ever the same, as long as the people putting it on use their creativity, honor the people they serve, and put their organizations best foot forward.
A Missed Opportunity
On the other hand, if a school or a non-profit elects to go with a product sale, whether it be from a catalog or an individual item, like chocolate bars, they are admitting that they lack the creativity, the desire, and the ability to put on a more complicated, but ultimately more rewarding fundraising event.
At the end of a product sale, the only question to ask is, "did they buy or didnt they?" There is no other valuable information to be gleaned. From a community-building event, however, there are all sorts of questions to be asked. In fact, due to the fluid nature of human interaction at a carnival or an auction, entire surveys and questionnaires are created to gather the valuable information. The data collected by a nonprofit after one of these outings is so rich that it can take months to fully digest and act upon.
Putting the People You Serve First
The main defense of the product sale fundraiser is that it is easy on the organization. The company has taken away all of the administrative headaches. For example, the company creates the catalog and publishes all of the fundraising literature. It also manages the inventory, the shipping, and the quality control. All the people in the non-profit have to do is sell, sell, sell.
If proponents of the product sale actually think that selling is easy, they are not communicating with the people they are claiming to serve. Many families have multiple children, most of whom are involved in various organizations, such as sports, church youth groups, and service organizations, like Scouts. All of these groups require their participants to sell stuff to raise money. After a while, a family runs out of friends, relatives, and co-workers to harass for money. Suddenly, selling isn't so easy.
Coping with Troubling Realities
I do understand that there are great pressures on nonprofits to raise money to fund their good work. I know that employees at these organizations are way over-worked and stressed out with the demands of trying to fundraise in a bad economy. I am fully aware of how hard it has become to recruit quality volunteers to carry out large-scale events. And, I have heard many non-profit workers say that they have become full-time fundraisers and are able to devote only a part-time effort to the actual business they were originally hired for.
Unfortunately, there is no easy answer to any of these challenges. The good news is, however, that if an organization commits to the hard work of putting on these community-building events, it will eventually be rewarded with more money, more friendships, better public relations, and more forward momentum. All this is way better than a $6.95 tub of oatmeal cookie dough, huh?
Coming Soon...
In part 2 of this article, I will dig into a few excellent suggestions for community-style fundraisers that have proven to be very successful, including a relatively new event I really like, called Touch-a-Truck.
Stay tuned.
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Jim Berigan publishes the new blog, EverybodyHatesFundraising.com. He is a former elementary school administrator and has worked in the non-profit industry for over 20 years. He has a passion for helping schools and other nonprofits learn how to raise lots of money, but in a way that doesn't frustrate or enrage the very people they are trying to serve. He has recently written a comprehensive eBook called "The 2009-2010 School Carnival Money Making Guide." Please check it out - a portion of the sale of his eBook helps support VolunteerSpot.
