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The Care and Feeding of Sponsors and Donors – Successful Fundraising

Alfredo — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 16:44:35 +0000

People are the life-blood of your business and talking to as many people as possible will keep your business dynamic and fresh. Fundraising events such as craft fairs, school fetes, office displays at lunchtime, Christmas bazaars, ladies pampering evenings and charity fund days are a fantastic opportunity to promote your business at a local level.

Cultural And Educational Programs

Organizing cultural programs is always a great idea to collect funds for the non-profit organizations. Involving the young generation in these events will always help. The scouting programs for boys and girls can be organized as many children and their parents will take interest in these activities. The educational programs are equally beneficial when it comes to accumulating funds. The clubs which organize sports and craft projects can be of great help in fundraising. The events and regular programs for language courses, chess and tennis tournaments and music bands are quite popular these days. They can be a real help in collecting money for the businesses.

* Make it clear up front what recognition each level of sponsorship will receive, in writing, so that no-one will feel slighted by the size of their logo in print ads or online. Make sure you deliver what you promised.

* Always follow up with a thank-you letter to sponsors/donors after the event or fundraising campaign. Let them know how it went and specifically, what exposure they got for their sponsorship. How big was the crowd, if it was an event?

Approach Individuals For Help

Apart from creating public awareness about the programs of the non-profit organizations, you can approach individuals for help. There are countless people in the society who are affluent and capable enough to financially support the non-profit groups. Many of them take interest in charity as a part of their philanthropic ventures. You can expect huge funds from these people. If people are interested in contributing stuffs like clothes, food items etc instead of the cash, you should accept it readily. The school and college students make great donors; so approaching them with a good cause for the non-profit organization is definitely a brilliant idea.

By attending a fundraising event you can raise the profile of your business locally, generate new customers, sales, leads and bookings. It really is a very cost-effective way of promoting your business at a grass-roots level in your local area, without paying for advertising. Try it! You’ll be amazed at the results

Resource Author Francisco Rodriguez Higueras
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How to Get the Most from Student Loan Forgiveness

Alfredo — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 16:44:31 +0000

The idea of student loan forgiveness is an attractive one. Lots of students take out loans in college. There are lots of reasons that they do so. For some this is the only way to fund college. Others simply did not realize what they were getting into by taking out student loans. Many are under the impression that a college education equals easy repayment.

But student loan debt can easily get out of hand. People actually live below the poverty line for years because of their student loan debt. This can happen even if they have a good job.

Clearly this is never the intent for student loans. To help the situation many lenders develop aid programs to help with student loan debt. There may be stringent requirements with these programs. If you meet them though, you may be eligible for student loan forgiveness.

Here are some likely requirements for student loan forgiveness programs:

* • Working in a job that qualifies as public service - Often jobs like teaching, community protection and non-profit work qualify. It is vital to document every year of your service.

* Getting a degree without value from a defunct college - Colleges that do not provide adequate education may be required to repay your loans for you. If your degree is invalid or you were unable to complete it because your college was unaccredited or lost accreditation you may have a shot at student loan forgiveness.

* Admission for which you did not qualify - If you were granted admission for which you did not qualify then the school may be responsible for your student loans. Of course you will have to prove that you were not qualified.

* Honest and dedicated participation in programs intended to help people in student loan debt - If you honestly try to make your payments and can document it, then you may qualify for additional aid.

Of course you should never take out loans you do not intend to repay. It has to be admitted though that sometimes unforeseen things happen. If your student loan debt is too much to handle you should definitely look into student loan forgiveness.

Repay Student Loans Quicker and More Easily

Alfredo — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 16:44:27 +0000

You probably think a lot about how to repay student loans. These types of loans are among the most pervasive types of debt. They create real and lasting issues for many people. After all, outstanding student loan debt can affect your credit score. You might not be able to buy a house or a car.

There are steps you can take now to repay student loans. You might need to make some lifestyle changes. Others simply require small alterations or substitutions. The work is definitely worth it though. You might repay student loans in just a few years. This will save you a great deal of interest on your loans and stress in your life.

Here are 3 methods that you can use to repay student loans ahead of schedule:

* Do not stick at the minimum - You do not have to pay the minimum payment. You can pay over the minimum and cut the amount of your balance. This will decrease your interest nearly immediately.

* Money can be rerouted - Take a close look at your budget. Look for money spent on non-essentials. This could be a purchase of clothing that is not necessary. Route that money to your student loan. Make it a direct correlation. If you give up something like pizza, send the exact amount of money previously spent on pizza toward your student loan.

* Consider loan consolidation - This can really help you save. If your monthly payment is lower then you can more easily pay on your principle. However, look out for closing fees. They can make the consolidation process too expensive.

All three of these methods can help you repay student loans faster than you anticipated. If you work hard you might only have a few years left to pay. Take steps now to repay student loans and start enjoying your new control over your life.

The Harsh Economy – Surviving Trough The Internet

atra — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 20:59:45 +0000

Ever since our economy started to go down, I seriously started thinking about doing something else for a living. I’m a computer programmer and I love it, but it seems like nowadays companies are not wiling to create new systems and want to stick to what they already have.

Leveraging my computer skills, I decided to turn to the Internet and look around for an online or home based business. After doing some research I found literally hundreds upon hundreds of offers and opportunities.

A lot of this offers got me really excited because they all promised me to make a millionaire in 72 hours!

I won’t lie to you, I fell for some of them only to find out that all the wanted me to do was buy their secret which is what makes them money in the first place. Since I’m being sincere here, I must tell you that I have spent around $7,000.00 in such Millionaire in a Day programs.

All this buying, trying to implement programs and reading all the secrets they offered did “make me a lot wiser”, I started to see a pattern in all of those programs, they all offered to make you thousands of dollars a day and millions within weeks.

One day, when i was trying to figure out why I wasn’t getting rich in 3 days it came to me:

What would happen if instead of trying to make thousands of dollars a day, I found a way to honestly and with a little effort strive to make from 30 to a 100 Dollars a day One Dollar at a time.

Well, guess what, It works! I joined a program called The Power of a $1 Dollar. When I read it, it made a lot of sense to me because it didn’t make any outrageous claims nor offer to make me $1000′s of dollars a day.

The premise was a very simple one. Invest 1 or 2 hours a day and make up to $100 a day, your effort is the limit of your earnings.

After spending thousands of dollars on a myriad of programs, I decided to give it a try, so last week on Wednesday I signed up and paid my $3.00 Dollars, $1.00 went to my sponsor and another dollar or so went to administrative expenses, I spent a total of $3.00 including Paypal fees.

To make a story short, it has been a week and 4 days, I’m writing this article on a nice Sunday afternoon and so far I have made about $375.00 far from the millions promised by other programs but I feel so happy to finally have my first real income from the internet that I feel Elated.

If you are lile me or feel somewhat like me, I really encourage you to follow this path, it really works, just think which would be easier to do?

1) Invite people to invest $3.00 dollars with the promise to earn between $30 – $100 per day

2) Convince someone to spend $97, $77, $197 or $1000 and a promise to be a millionaire in 73 hour?

I leave it up to you, but if you really want or need a steady down to earth income, give my plan a try, I assure you you won’t regret it, and if you have any questions or doubts, just leave me a comment and I will personally contact you and help you in any way I can.

If you want to learn more or just Sign up and Start making a steady income just CLICK HERE .

To stay updated about Home Business Tips sign up for my Newsletter.

Being Creative With Your Fundraising Ideas

atra — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 15:45:21 +0000

Have you realized just how much fundraising is going on these days? There is fundraising for little league, school fundraisers, and the college fundraiser, as well as church fundraisers. Day cares need more funds, hospitals need new equipment, and cheerleaders need to fundraise for their costumes. And to think up new fundraising ideas that will be successful is becoming more challenging every day.

On a good note, it shows that people do care how others live and cope with their lives. However, it also means that, because we are always being asked to donate to one good cause after another, we are not always able to help. Despite our best intentions, our own funds simply will not stretch that far.

However, if we request the donation of items instead of cash, that is often a relief to a potential donor. People will often gladly donate a can of food for a food drive, or a kitchen item they have never used for a sale, whereas they would not donate cash. And there are many kinds of fundraising ideas you can use to hold sales based on items collected.

For example, you could hold a toy drive that would give your organization toys to sell to support your work. Or what about a gardening sale? If you have some volunteers with green thumbs, they could easily grow some plant cuttings or start some seeds or bulbs growing ready for a plant sale in the spring or early summer, when the general public is looking to restock their garden after the winter.

Book sales are always well attended, but of course you will need to collect a lot of donated books to make this a success, as books do not generally sell for a high price. You could approach local publishers to see if they have any books that they could donate to support your cause. If they do give you some books, don’t forget to write them after your event to thank them and also to let them know how successful you were and how much their donation helped you. Donors like to be thanked, and they are more likely to support you in the future if they know their gift has been appreciated in the past.

Some groups like to ask for donated items and then they use these to make up some themed gift baskets which they then raffle, usually at another fundraising event. For example you may make up a bath basket containing some soap, hand towels and bath salts from your donated items. The trick here is to keep raffle tickets affordable, especially if you are expecting those that donated the items to be buying the raffle tickets!

You may find that some people are willing to volunteer their time rather than funds. For example an electrician may prefer to spend a half day checking the wiring in the new offices your non-profit group just moved into, rather than donate cash. As long as this benefits your non-profit organization, any donation is welcome, whether it is time or money, but make sure your donors know what the goal of your organization is, and how their assistance will help you. They may then mention it to their circle of friends, and this kind of promotion is very valuable.

Tips for Organizing Your Fundraiser

atra — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 23:26:14 +0000

1- Have a written project plan
Run your fundraiser like a small business. Have a written project plan that spells out all roles and responsibilities.
Slot motivated individuals into those roles and equip them with everything they need to do a great job.

2- Use your website
If you don’t have one, get one. Use it to communicate goals, thank your sponsors, highlight periodic offerings, recognize successes, honor individual contributors, etc. Promote your web site on all your materials.

3- Review previous records
See what’s been successful before. Look for ways to improve upon the past.
What items sold best? Get more of them.
Has your gift-wrap sale lost its luster with declining revenues?
Jazz it up with newer offerings.

4- Set a specific timeline
Make sure that your start date and end date are both firm.
The best selling period is 17 days, including 3 weekends.
Any longer and the drive runs out of gas; any shorter and you limit your prospects.
Avoid any scheduling conflicts.
Plan ahead to avoid overlapping other important community events, holidays, etc.

5- Actively recruit volunteers
Get more and better volunteers by going after them. Don’t wait for them to come to you.
Use a calling tree to root out prospects.
Ask for dads, older siblings, and grandparents to get involved.
Advertise for specific help via newsletters and word of mouth.

6- Identify needs and define roles
Do it ahead of time and match your group’s needs to each volunteer’s skills and availability by including it in each position’s description.

7- Use different people
Double up, particularly for key positions.
Fill organizational roles well ahead of time with different people than on the last fundraiser, unless there is a good reason not to switch.

8- Start early to broaden participation
Put the word out early and often about what volunteers you need.
Get plenty of them so no one feels overworked.
Offer a volunteer sign-up sheet for different events at every meeting.

9- Have a master sergeant

Use a strong communicator to help group and assign volunteers.
Some people are a natural for this key role.

10- Set small group goals
Break overall goal down into what’s needed from each sub-group.
Set up each unit with their own goal and translate that into what’s in it for them.
Reward each sub-group based on their own success. That will reinforce the correlation between funds raised and their own efforts.

An Action Plan For Raising Instant Cash

atra — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 19:04:50 +0000

Have you every been in the frustrating situation where you need to buy something for your business and don’t have the money?

Maybe one of the following techniques will be the answer you’re looking for.

You’re probably aware of the credit card industry for purchases. Did you know you can actually “buy money” with credit cards? You can withdraw the money no questions asked, assuming you have available credit of course.

Not only can you use your card, many credit card providers also can send checks that you can write against your credit limit.

If you have five credit cards you can cash a check or “draw money” (cash advance) of $1000. That makes $5000 if you use this method on all five cards. Cash the credit card check at the bank or institution that provides the credit card.

Many banks also offer overdraft protection these days. Using this method a check can be cashed for higher than the amount in the bank account. The check is processed even though the funds are there. The bank honors the check, therefore , as a benefit, no overdraft fees for you or the person whom you issued the check. This method is actually “revolving” credit.

Another method is using your home equity to borrow money. If you have $25000 equity in your home You could take out a loan using the equity in your home. Many astute people use this method in order to start or expand a business.

The next method, which has been used very frequently is borrowing from friends and family. For example if you have 10 friends that each loan $100, that’s $1000 right there. Imagine the possibilities if have hundreds.

Even though you don’t realize it you probably have cash laying around. I’m not talking about finding money in the pockets of old jackets. Old furniture, dolls, antique items can all be sold to raise funds. Almost anything in your bedroom, attic or basement stored away has the potential to generate funding. You could even have a yard or garage sale as a fund raiser.

There are many more methods that can be used. Use your imagination to see the endless possibilities. They are out there, spend a little bit of time contemplating and less time worrying. The world is full of endless opportunities for anything and everything. Be prepared to use any or all the methods when the need arises.

If any of these methods work for you, you’re well on your way.

By Farida Madre
Copyright 2006 GoldenStarEbooks.net

http://www.goldenstarebooks.net

Fundraising Fundamentals

atra — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 18:30:14 +0000

Successful fundraising requires following certain fundamental steps. Here are two things you have to do with every fundraiser:

1) Increase community awareness of your need

2) Increase community awareness of your offering

Everybody reading this instantly thinks, “Yep, we’ve got that covered. Everybody in our group knows what we’re doing.”

Let’s take a closer look and see, shall we?

Creating Awareness Of Your Fundraising Need:

1) Can your need be expressed in a single sentence?
2) Has everyone in your group memorized that sentence?
3) Is expressing your need a part of your approach to all supporters?

Test your group from top to bottom.

Randomly ask individuals to tell you why your group is raising money.

I absolutely guarantee you that you’ll be surprised at how weak the various answers are.

In many groups, more than 50% of those involved with the fundraiser will not be able to tell you in a single sentence the specific reasons why they are raising money.

What about outside your group?

Can you honestly say that you’ve exhausted every possible approach in getting the word out to the community about your fundraiser?

Does everybody know why you need money?

Have you done each of these?

Flyers
Posters
Press release
Roadside signs
Newspaper coverage
Public service radio announcements
Pre-kickoff letter, postcard, or email campaigns

Or, are you assuming that all you have to do is tell someone that you’re doing a fundraiser and that they’ll be glad to help?

Two problems with that approach. One is that most of your group can’t effectively communicate your need.

The second is that you are already assuming that your group has more than enough prospective supporters to meet your goal.

Both these problems limit your potential results.

Consider these three points:

One, if your need isn’t communicated clearly and concisely, it will not be understood and internalized as a deserving cause by your prospective supporters.

Two, if your sellers don’t really understand your group’s need, then they won’t push as hard to meet that need.

Three, if your need isn’t general knowledge in your community, then your fundraising job will be that much harder.

Think of “getting the word out” as being similar to softening up the beachhead during the Normandy invasion. If you don’t do the advance prep work, you’re much more likely to meet a hostile response.

Creating Awareness Of Your Fundraising Offering

The second fundraising fundamental goes hand-in-hand with creating an awareness of your need.

Creating an awareness of your offering is just as important as telling people why your group needs money.

Your fundraising need and your fundraising offering should be closely linked in all your communications.

At the same time you are getting the word out, you need to make sure the message gets through on exactly what your group is doing to raise funds.

Just as with expressing your need, everyone in your group should be able to sum up your fundraising offering in a single sentence.

That sentence should also reinforce the emotional foundation that is derived from recognition of your need.

So what in the heck does all that mean?

Put simply, if someone believes your need is real and agrees with the value proposition of your offering, they will help you.

And what’s your fundraising value proposition?

It’s a summation of your offering, combined with a reminder of your need, that’s expressed in a way that informs each prospective supporter of what’s in it for them.

In other words, your prospect needs to:

1 – Be aware of your need
2 – Be linked to it on an emotional level
3 – Be in agreement that your offer has real value in it for them

Getting your need and your offering across to as many potential supporters as possible is the essence of fundraising.

Take the time to develop single sentence statements for your fundraiser covering both of these fundraising fundamentals.

Teach everyone in your group how to communicate these basic value statements when they talk to prospective supporters.

Conclusion

Executing well on these fundraising fundamentals — communicating your need and communicating your offering — ensures that your fundraiser will be a smashing success.