How to Guides:

As seen on TV1's Fair Go

We were contacted by Fair Go to provide our Top Tips for Fundraisers for their show, airing on Wed 14th October.

It’s easy for Fundraising to go wrong if you don’t plan.

So at the very least, follow this:

1.  Start Early: Or earlier if possible. The greater your target, the more people and the longer you’ll need. One person can raise a few hundred dollars in

a couple of weeks by selling cookies or chocolate. To raise $30,000 for a hall takes a lot more planning and effort.

2. Plan your fundraiser:  This may sound obvious but it is surprising how few people (or organisations) plan their fundraising calendar. “Last minute” fundraisers are more likely to be less profitable or fail due to unforeseen circumstances due to a lack of planning. The more money you need, or the more complex your fundraiser, the more planning required.

3. Set financial goals: Have a clear end goal. Make it realistic based on your resources. If you are renovating a hall, it might be $30,000 over 3 years. If you are fundraising for a trip overseas, it might be $5,000 in 6 months.

4. Map critical time points: Have a set end date for your fundraising, and milestone dates along the way. What date is your point of no return for financial commitments?

5. Understand your contractual obligations: If you are buying a product, service, or hiring anything – ensure that you read and understand the contract details. If you aren’t supplied a contract, then at the very least, get the key terms and conditions of sale/hire etc in writing – even if you have to write them yourself.

6. Recruit two types of people – Planners & Doers: Get together a small team of planners ideally with a range of skills eg: a detail person, a numbers person, a wheeler and dealer. Then, when you’ve decided what you are going to do, and how you are going to do it, hand over to a larger team of ‘doers’.

7. Give your sales force clear goals and deadlines: If your fundraiser is sales focussed, ideally a short sales period of 2-3 weeks works best. It keeps motivation up and provides urgency. For an event (eg ticket sales) start at least 4-6 weeks prior prior to the event.

8. Get your fundraisers/supporters to pay up front:  It’s the simplest and most effective way to get money in from supporters. For example if you’ve got people selling cookies, they’ll be more motivated if they have to recoup their own money. Similarly with sponsors – get them to pay up front, it reduces defaults. (Oxfam Trailwalker does this)

9. Keep everyone informed of progress: This keeps people motivated. It might be through a web page, via emails, school notices etc. Oxfam’s Trailwalker (www.oxfamtrailwalker.org.nz) is a great example of this.

10. Seek the help of professionals – especially for larger projects: The Fundraising Institute of New Zealand (www.finz.org.nz) is the professional body for fundraising, and has a list of service providers.

11.  The two most important words in Fundraising: “Thank you”. Use liberally.

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