How to market your fundraising program

6 December 2009 | 62 Comments » | admin

There are many components involved to successfully administer a fundraising program. First of all, the money that is going to be raised needs to be used for a cause that people can get behind. Secondly, the fundraising effort needs to utilize as many volunteers as possible to successfully raise the fundraising goal. In addition, those volunteers that are recruited need to be effectively trained. Thirdly, a fundraising plan needs to be developed. This could entail a selection of a product that will be sold, conducting a special event, or simply asking people for money.


With all of these components in place there is one missing emphasis. That emphasis is a strategy on how to market your fundraising program.


In fact, it can be argued that before beginning your fundraising program, it is important to have a foundational plan in place to market your fundraising program. Therefore, before beginning your fundraising effort it is important to know what is marketing, gathering a marketing team together and discussing strategies.


What Is Marketing?


Marketing is a communication process that is centered on a product, event or service in which the intent is to increase the awareness of the audience towards that product in hopes that they will eventually purchase that item. Therefore, it can be clearly seen that it is paramount to market your fundraising program.


Within the marketing tool box there are many tools that can be utilized to market your fundraising program. Some of those tools can be newsletters, use of television, radio, word of mouth, mailings, e-mail, etc. In addition, a plan to market your fundraising program should be concentrated in that all of these tools are used during a specific timeframe. This timeframe should be the leading edge into the fundraising effort as well as during the campaign.


Gathering A Team


As part of a plan to market your fundraising program it is important to recruit as much help as possible. The help that is recruited should be individuals who have knowledge about marketing or who may be part of the professional marketing world.


Examples of these types of individuals could include marketing directors from businesses and those affiliated with the public media. This public media could include newspapers, radio stations and television stations. Often, these individuals wish to give back as well as portray the company that they represent as community minded. Therefore, more often than not, these individuals wish to participate in such fundraising events.


Strategies


There are many strategies that can be utilized when beginning to market your fundraising program. First of all, it is important to note that many public media outlets will advertise your fundraising event at no cost. These are called public service announcements.


Also, many television and radio stations have morning programs in that they are always looking for guests to come on to their morning shows. It is important to ask well in advance and try to schedule a spokesperson’s appearance on one of the shows during the fundraising event.


Finally, businesses have marketing dollars. Often by submitting a proposal to a business you can tap into marketing dollars. This can be accomplished by asking the business to sponsor the event and provide appropriate advertising. This win-win situation allows for the company to advertise their name in the community as well as portray themselves as the sponsor of a good fundraising cause.

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