Online Fundraising

 
We’ve all been involved in some type of fundraising at some point in our lives. Up until now, fundraising was pretty much limited to large non-profit organizations that had their own infrastructures and substantial budgets to allow them to create their massive fundraising campaigns in order to promote their cause.

But what about our own personal reasons and causes for wanting to raise money? A sick relative who can no longer afford to pay for their medical bills… A close friend who lost everything in a fire… Raising money to support research for a rare disease… There is no shortage of accidents or personal crises that befall those who are close to us giving rise to a call for help.

 
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What’s amazing is how willing people are to help out, especially when you make it easy and convenient for them to do so. When you present your story, and you make giving easy, you encourage those in your life to offer a helping hand. So the question is, how do you make donating easy? Is there a way for you to easily accept donations online? Without it costing an arm and a leg? Without the backing of a huge organization? Without needing to be a bona fide computer geek? The answer is a resounding YES!

Thanks to the incredible technological advances in computers, the Internet and website builders like those at MyEvent.com, you can raise money online simply, securely, and for any reason that is meaningful to you. In a few simple steps you can create your very own fundraising website, share it with your friends and family, and start to watch as the money rolls in!
Building a website used to take a lot of time, cost a lot of money, and required the involvement of some highly technical people. At MyEvent.com, we’ve removed all of these limitations by taking care of the heavy-lifting for you so that you only need to worry about the fun stuff, like choosing a design and coming up with a name for your site!
 
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In literally less than a minute, your personal donation page will be up and running. You can include a compelling blurb on why you are trying to raise money, then share it with your social networks like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, or through email using MyEvent.com’s built-in social media tools. Instantly your family and friends will learn about your cause and can support you by conveniently making a donation with their credit card directly on your site.
 
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The beauty of raising money online is that it’s fast, easy, and incredibly effective (not to mention a lot less nerve-wracking than making cold calls or asking someone for a donation face-to-face). You whip up a website, send the link out to your online social networks, and then watch as your fundraising thermometer gauge rises towards your goal.

By providing visitors to your site with a convenient and secure way to donate by credit card, you propel them to make that donation. Imagine a $10 donation here, another $10 pledge there, and before you know it, each contribution really starts to add up!

 
 

Fundraising Ideas

 
Fundraising need not only arise from accidents, illness or natural disasters that devastate those close to us. We’d like to inspire you with some other unique ideas that are just as well-suited to online fundraising. When you think of raising money online, think milestone events, start-up projects, celebrations, essentially whatever is personally meaningful to you for which you would like to raise funds. Here are some examples to get your creative online fundraising juices flowing:

 
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  • Set up a honeymoon registry so that you can tactfully steer people towards giving you cash gifts instead of adding to your growing collection of crystal vases.

  • Your 5-year old son just informed you that his best friend won’t be able to play hockey with him this year. The reason is that his parents can’t afford to buy him the necessary equipment. Create a fundraising site to raise funds online so that all kids from your community can play.

  • Qualifying try-outs for the Winter Olympics are one year away… and more than one plane ticket away. You need to devote all of your time to studying and training so working a part-time job is not an option. Get your family, friends and supporters to help you reach your destination by raising money with your online fundraising site.

  • Your sister’s 40th birthday celebration is coming up and everyone wants to know what to get her. You know that she’s dying for a professional cake mixer but let’s face it – that is one pricey item. Get everyone on-board by contributing to her birthday fund online so you can make it a group purchase. You’ll be in her good books for awhile to come!

 
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Event Fundraisers

 
Traditionally, fundraising has been associated with an event. Guests purchase tickets to an event where they enjoy some form of entertainment. For example, a gala, fashion show, dinner, dance, themed night (casino night, murder mystery night), musical or theatrical performance, or some combination thereof.

Also quite popular are events that are centered around sports, like a golf tournament or baseball game. Large companies and associations that want to coordinate a fundraiser will often have a golf tournament since a golf game is easily scalable.

Given that four people are on a team it does not matter whether you have five teams or fifty. Usually golf clubs will be able to accommodate your group. It is also common for golf tournaments to span more than one day if there are many teams involved.

Baseball is great for a fundraiser that involves a smaller number of people. Baseball games also lend themselves well to additional fundraising activities that can be held at the game on the day of the event. For example, setting up a lemonade or refreshment stand, or having a bake sale. If you plan to have t-shirts printed up for each team, you can print your corporate sponsors’ logos on the front or back of the t-shirts.

Your corporate sponsors will enjoy the ease and convenience of being able to purchase ad space directly on your fundraising website, as well as being able to upload their artwork quickly and without any hassle. You will need to allow for sufficient time to have the t-shirts printed up and ready for game day so you will need to set a deadline for sponsors to submit their artwork. Then leverage this revenue opportunity by selling the t-shirts online straight from your website. Encourage people to attend the ball game to pick up their t-shirts instead of having them shipped. The more people attending the game, the more lemonade you’ll sell – especially if it’s a hot one out there.

Of course you’ll want to print some extra t-shirts so that you can bring them to the game and sell them there as well.

 
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Today the most prevalent type of fundraiser does not provide any entertainment at all. In addition, to be able to participate, you are often required to raise a minimum dollar amount. You might be wondering what the incentive is to participate in this type of fundraiser (besides raising money for a worthy cause of course…).

The incentive is personal achievement. The event offers the participant a chance to personally challenge themselves. For example events like running in a marathon or triathlon, cycling across the country, climbing expeditions, etc. The personal challenge gives people a chance to push themselves physically and mentally so that they can fulfill their ultimate goal of crossing that finish line or reaching that peak.

You might have guessed from our company name that we know a thing or two about events… in fact, it’s our specialty! MyEvent.com’s website builders provide you with an efficient, cost-effective and fully functional event website that will make planning and managing your event a breeze. Remember, no technical or computer-related skills are required!

In effect, you can match any event with any cause to raise funds. As we showed you at the beginning of this article, you don’t even have to hold an event to raise funds. However the more you put into your fundraising efforts, the more you will get out of them. With a MyEvent.com fundraising event website to facilitate so much of the planning and management of your event, you will be able to keep your overhead costs low thereby increasing your revenue, and ultimately increasing your fundraising profits.
 
 

Fundraising Case Studies

 
We’d like to show you what some of our existing customers have done with their fundraising sites to give you more inspiration.

 

Conclusion

 
There are so many ways to be creative with your fundraising website as you can see from the examples we’ve shown you. Start raising money online easily and without any hassle with a fundraising website from MyEvent.com. You can accept online donations by credit card, send automatic tax receipts to your donors, and fully manage your events from A to Z!

Your event fundraising website will handle registrations, RSVP management, online ticket sales, interactive online surveys, and so much more! Dare we say planning your next event might actually be blissful? Give us a try and let us know what you think!