Module 1: Awareness and Your Call To Action
The Importance of Donations
"Awareness-raising is a worthy activity unto itself, but the reality is that awareness without action results in little change. After all, awareness is supposed to inspire people to act!"(1)
Committed people bring change to the world. Fundraising is a vitally important part of any service activity because organizations and institutions that seek to help those in need simply cannot function without funding and can make a much greater impact with increased funding. For example, $50 can restore a patient's sight through Unite For Sight. Unite For Sight's volunteers raise funds by sharing their passion about Unite For Sight with their family and friends.
Tips for Fundraising
Make it personal: Tell your story and why fundraising for Unite For Sight is important to you. People respond much better to a personal commitment than to broad claims and big statistics.
Concretely explain how the donations are used and will tangibly help. Be specific: $50 can restore a patient's sight. $250 can restore sight for five people. Explaining exactly what the money accomplishes can help donors understand that they are not just throwing their funds into a big pot that siphons it off to intangible things. Every donor's funds have a real, life-changing and direct impact on individuals.
Do not be intimidated by high goals: Jim Berigan reminds us in an article in "Step By Step Fundraising" that the Obama campaign raised $150 million in one month alone with an average gift of under $100. The Obama campaign worked by making their case one donor at a time. Most people are willing to donate $50 or $100 to a good cause, but it's up to you to make that cause personal and relevant to them.(2)
Build relationships with donors. Most of the time, you will be asking family and friends, but even in these instances you should keep them updated and involved in your activities with Unite For Sight. If a donor feels that he or she is really becoming part of a movement, he or she will be more likely to support you and your efforts with that organization in the future.
In any conversation about fundraising, focus on the work that you will be doing with Unite For Sight and how it will be good for the community you will serve. Focusing the conversation around your vision for improved global health is much more productive than simply discussing money. Use the conversation as an opportunity to share your passion with a potential donor and to get them excited about the great work that you will be doing abroad.(3)
While you are fundraising to eliminate preventable blindness worldwide, you are also raising awareness about how others can become involved as well. People respond very well to passion and commitment on an individual level, so go out there with confidence and tell your story!
You have a large network of supporters that includes many people in your life. You can communicate your call to action to everyone in your network of supporters, and also ask everyone who donated to ask at least one of their own friends or supporters to also donate.
Footnotes
(1) "Awareness + Action = Effective!" The Online Fundraising Blog. http://www.onlinefundraisingblog.com/2008/07/awareness-action-effective/.
(2) Berigan, J. "What Non-Profits Can Learn from the Obama Fundraising Campaign" Step By Step Fundraising: Practical Resources to Help You Raise Funds for Non Profit Causes. http://stepbystepfundraising.com/non-profits-can-learn-from-obama-fundraising/.
(3) Perry, Gail. "Five Fundraising Mistakes We Make With Our Boards." Fired Up Fundraising. http://www.guidestar.org/news/features/board_fundraising.jsp.
Module 2: Why Do People Give?
The Ubiquity of Charitable Giving
Fundraising may initially seem like a daunting task because we operate under the assumption that people generally do not like to give away money. However, as an example, citizens in the U.S. give 1.7% of its entire GDP to charity. Also, 65% of households that earn less than $100,000 a year give to charity.(1) More than half of the people who give money to charitable causes do not receive tax benefits from their gift because they file short tax forms, and 70% of all adults in the U.S. donate money.(2) More than just knowing that people can be generous, it is very important to understand why people give.
Common Reasons for Giving
A personal relationship between the donor and the fundraiser.
A personal affinity for a charity or cause.
Sadness or concern over a difficult situation that can be addressed by supporting a cause dedicated to alleviating it.
Knowledge that a donation will directly make a difference.
The desire to take a stand on a particular issue.
Giving is an intrinsically good thing to do. It makes people feel good about themselves and makes them feel like they are connected to a greater cause that does good things in the world.(3)(4)
As a volunteer involved in fundraising, it is important for you to understand these motives so that you can better respond to your donor's needs. In fact, your work with Unite For Sight can directly address all of these reasons, depending on what aspects of your involvement you wish to emphasize. Be creative and personable with your fundraising; most people are willing to have a conversation about why you think they should donate money to your cause. You would also be surprised at how much some people are willing to give:
“Younger donors give about as much as older donors. According to a recent study by Campbell & Company at the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, donors across all generations give roughly the same amount to charity even when controlled for factors such as income, education, and religiosity...Young people are willing to give larger amounts, but they won’t if they’re under-asked. A lot of Millennials can easily give $100, but in our experience, organizations are only asking them for $25 or $50 gifts”(5)
Footnotes
(1) America the Generous. http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3314/3294530593_97127f919e.jpg.
(2) Sims, S. “Why Do People Donate to Charitable Causes?” Step By Step Fundraising: Practical Resources to Help You Raise Funds for Non Profit Causes. http://stepbystepfundraising.com/why-do-people-donate-to-charitable-causes/.
(3) Lingard, B. “Marathons – Raise More Money for Your Non-Profit” The Online Fundraising Blog. http://www.onlinefundraisingblog.com/2008/12/marathons-raise-more-money-for-your-nonprofit/.
(4) “9 Reasons People Give Charity, and 1 More” Fundraising Seeds: The Non-Profit Resource. http://www.fundraisingseeds.com/?p=32.
(5) Fritz, J. “Young vs. Older Donors: Who Is More Generous? Are You Asking Enough?” About.com: Non-Profits. http://nonprofit.about.com/od/donorrelations/a/youngdonors.htm.
Module 3: Online Fundraising
How To Fundraise Using Online Donation Pages
To help with fundraising efforts, Unite For Sight creates a personal donation fundraising page for all of its volunteers. As a volunteer's network of supporters donate, Unite For Sight automatically records the donations and sends an email to the volunteer as each donation arrives. All donors also receive a receipt for tax purposes, and the donations are tax-deductible to the full extent provided by U.S. law.
Think of everyone in your network as an investor in your volunteer experience with Unite For Sight.
Email your fundraising webpage link to all of your friends and family to encourage them to donate on your behalf. Write personal emails to each person in your network of supporters.
Personalize your email message. Tell your friends and family about your excitement to volunteer with Unite For Sight to eliminate preventable blindness and restore the sight of patients living in extreme poverty. Also send them some links to videos about Unite For Sight, and tell them about the impact that your volunteering and fundraising will have on the community. Speak from the heart. Remind your donors also that 100% of their donation provides eye care to patients living in extreme poverty. Your email should communicate your passion for your fundraising efforts and why it is important to you and to the patients abroad.
Do not underestimate the power of statistics and facts. 80% of all blindness is preventable or curable, which means that 36 million people are needlessly blind. Everyone in your network of supporters has the power to restore a person's sight.
Send a reminder email to your network of supporters about 1-2 weeks after your first email, and another reminder email a few weeks after that.
After a friend or family member donates, ask them to send your fundraising webpage link to their family and friends, and so on.
Think far and wide, and don't forget to tell everyone you know about your fundraising efforts.
Notify all of your friends on social media that you are fundraising, and send them a link to your fundraising page.
Contact local newspapers, notify them about your upcoming volunteer trip and your fundraising efforts, and ask that they write an article about your efforts. Be sure that the article also encourages the readers of the newspaper to donate through your fundraising page.
Remind supporters that they may want to donate to Unite For Sight on behalf of someone's birthday, wedding, anniversary, birth, etc. The donors may wish to submit a donation to Unite for Sight as a gift for one of their family or friends.
If your birthday is approaching, ask your family and friends to donate in honor of your birthday.
How To Use Social Media To Fundraise
Status Updates: Update your social media followers about your fundraising efforts three times per week, and include your fundraising page link each time.
Groups: Create a group for your fundraising. When people join the group, their friends will see the link to your group and may join, too. Encourage everyone in the group to donate at least $5.
Set High Fundraising Goals
In one month, the Obama campaign raised $150,000,000. Astonishingly, the average donation was under $100, which means that he had a huge number of donations of modest size. You, too, can raise a substantial amount from a lot of modest size gifts.
You can hope that everyone in your network of supporters will donate at least $50. Multiply $50 by the total number in your network of supporters in order to reach your fundraising goal. You will likely find that some in your network will donate $100 or $200, while others may donate $10 or $20. You can hope for a minimum of at least $50 from everyone in your network.
Get Your Network of Supporters To Encourage Their Network of Supporters To Give
Each of your donors have their own network of supporters. If you have twenty in your network of supporters, and they each have twenty in theirs, you have increased your network by 400.
If you convey your passion for volunteering and fundraising for Unite For Sight to your network of supporters, you can engage them in also working to fundraise for your cause.
Make your network of supporters feel that they are part of your team and part of the global team to eliminate preventable blindness. Remember to thank everyone in your network who becomes part of your fundraising team.
Module 5: Offline Fundraising Ideas
Remember that the fundraising page is the only pre-approved fundraising method, and any other fundraising plans (including the ideas below) need to first be submitted to Unite For Sight for review and approval.
Test Prep Course Auction: Kaplan, Princeton Review and Examkrackers will often donate vouchers for test-prep courses (MCAT, GRE, GMAT, LSAT and/or OAT) for student volunteers to auction off. While the vouchers are worth about $2000, the winning bidder usually pays $1250-1500, 100% of which supports Unite For Sight.
When approaching Kaplan, Princeton Review or Examkrackers, it works well to describe this as a great opportunity for the company to advertise on your campus. One student will receive the course voucher through the auction, but many other students will likely learn about the course and therefore enroll with the company on their own.
You may share information about the event on your social media and you may want to create a Facebook event page with information about the voucher. What classes can it be used for? Does the voucher expire? Where can it be used? It’s also important to set a minimum bid of $1000. Otherwise, you risk receiving much less money than the voucher is actually worth. If someone were purchasing this course directly from the company, they would pay $2,000. The minimum bid should therefore be at least 50% of $2,000, or $1,000. Volunteers frequently get the bidding up to $1500, which means that the winning bidder pays $1500 to support cataract surgeries for patients in Ghana, and the winning bidder has also saved $500 on the course.
All bids should be multiples of $10 or $20. This way, bidders don’t increase their bids by mere pennies or dollars.
Publicity is key to the success of these auctions. Volunteers have had success distributing flyers outside classes with lots of pre-medical or pre-law students and emailing health- and law-related email listervs. Be sure to emphasize that this is a great deal for students. They only pay if they win, and the winner pays much less than they would otherwise.
This type of fundraiser works well for undergraduate, graduate, and professional students who are fundraising for Unite For Sight. Those enrolled as an undergraduate, for example, can auction the course voucher among their classmates, while medical students can auction an MCAT course voucher among the undergraduates at their university.
Textbook Collection: Collecting and reselling used textbooks is a great fundraiser, especially at the end of the semester. Many students don’t bother selling their used books, and are happy to donate them to a Unite For Sight volunteer. You can then resell them to other students on campus or online. This event has raised over $300 for volunteers in the past.
Penny Wars: Penny Wars relies on students’ competitive instincts to raise money in the form of spare change. This relatively simple fundraiser can be adapted to fit all kinds of campuses; Penny Wars can take place between floors within a dorm, between study groups, or between fraternities and sororities. Each team is assigned a large jar or jug, and earns points based on the coins that they deposit.
There are a variety of scoring systems, but it seems to work well to assign points based simply on the value of the coin. Pennies and silver coins add points, whereas dollar bills subtract points. For example, Team A increases their own score by depositing coins in their jar, and decreases Team B’s score by adding a dollar bill to Team B’s jar. The contents should be emptied and counted daily, and the totals for each group should be posted to encourage friendly competition.
Bake Sale: This is a reliable fundraiser that consistently earns $50-$150. Baked goods or ingredients can easily be purchased using personal funds. When this funding isn’t available, it works well to ask local restaurants (Dunkin Donuts, Tim Horton’s, Panera, etc.) to donate day-old baked goods. Past volunteers have recommended holding holiday-themed bake sales and offering to delivery treats to the library during exams.
Movie Night: Movie nights are relatively easy to coordinate: volunteers simply reserve a room, invite students, and project a movie. Attendance seems to be particularly high for holiday movies (a scary movie for Halloween, a Christmas movie in December, a romantic comedy for Valentine’s Day, etc.). To maximize revenue, sell refreshments such as drinks and popcorn. This event has raised as much as $100 in the past.
Holiday-Grams: In exchange for a donation to Unite For Sight, students can surprise their unsuspecting friends with a holiday gift or message. This fundraiser can be easily modified to fit nearly any holiday. Sell “scare-grams” and arrange to spook people for Halloween. Deliver candy canes with holiday messages during December. Recruit the help of an a cappella group to surprise people with love songs on Valentine’s Day.
Sports or Videogame Tournament: Students form teams and pay an entry fee to prove their athletic or gaming prowess. It works well to have local businesses donate prizes such as gift cards for the winners. To increase buzz on campus, invite popular professors and staff members to compete.
Benefit Concert: Invite campus musicians (bands, choirs, orchestras, etc.) to perform at a concert that will benefit Unite For Sight. Admission might include dinner or refreshments donated by a local restaurant as a way to boost attendance.
Dance Marathon: Organize a full day or night of dancing in which participants pledge to dance for a certain amount of time or compete to see who can remain standing longest. Participants pay to participate, or they can collect sponsorships from their friends and family members.
Date Auction: In this traditional fundraiser, students bid to go out with volunteers. This works particularly well before formal university events or dances.
Service Auction: Volunteers donate their time and talents in order to raise money for Unite For Sight. Popular donations include tutoring, cleaning, cooking or fitness training.
Dinner Event: Invite students to attend a dinner to benefit Unite For Sight. Food can be prepared by volunteers, or donated by campus dining or a local restaurant. Some volunteers have had success with “Dine in the Dark” events, wherein attendees experience dining as a blind person would. To increase interest, feature a keynote speaker or a musical group.
Benefit Run: Have students make a donation or find sponsors in order to participate in a race across campus. To drive turnout, add gimmicks such as holding the run at midnight or placing creative obstacles on the course. It also works well to invite fraternities and sororities, as well as different athletic teams, to participate
Trivia Night: Teams of students pay $10 or $20 to compete in a trivia night modeled after a traditional pub quiz. To increase interest, provide snacks or have a local business donate a prize for the winners. Volunteers have similarly held team spelling bees or name-that-tune nights.
Party: Throw a themed party with a small cover charge that benefits Unite For Sight. Ask a student DJ to donate his or her time, and borrow decorations from a fraternity or sorority on campus.
Fitness Class: Coordinate with the campus rec center to organize a yoga, Pilates, kickboxing or spinning class led by a professional instructor. Rather than benefitting the gym, a small participation fee would support Unite For Sight.
Give the Gift of Sight: Sell Unite For Sight gift cards to students to give as gifts during the holidays. Rather than buying Dad another necktie or Mom a sweater, they can honor their loved ones with a donation to Unite For Sight. For sample cards, please see Unite For Sight Gift Cards.
Half-time Competitions: Host a center-stage competition during a university athletic event. For an entrance fee, attendees can try to score from half-court or participate in an elaborate obstacle course. Feature a prize donated by a local business. This is a great event that not only raises money for Unite For Sight, but also raises awareness about the organization on campus.
Networking Mixer: Ask graduate students and professionals in health-related fields to attend a mixer with undergraduates. For a small cover charge, undergrads have the opportunity to learn from people who have navigated the process of applying for and succeeding in graduate or medical school.
Rummage Sale: At the end of the year, ask students to donate furniture, appliances, and other items that they’ll no longer need. You can then resell these items to underclassmen, with all proceeds benefiting Unite For Sight. If storage space is available during the summer, it works well to collect items in the spring and then sell them to incoming freshmen in the fall.
Restaurant Percent Night: Restaurant percent nights are a great way to raise money for Unite For Sight while spreading awareness about the organization. Local restaurants donate a percentage of their profits on specified days in exchange for the extra business you bring to the restaurant. This kind of event often raises more than $100.
Chain restaurants that have held restaurant percent nights in the past include: California Pizza Kitchen, Panera, Panda Express, Uno Chicago Grill, BD’s Mongolian Grill, CiCi’s Pizza, Friendly’s, Max & Erma’s, Noodles & Co., Chipotle, Portillo's, and Buffalo Wild Wings. Family-owned restaurants are also very supportive of this kind of event. For the best results, choose restaurants that don’t require customers to present a flyer or mention Unite For Sight. This way, all purchases contribute towards the Unite For Sight’s proceeds. Volunteers have also increased revenue by placing a donation jar at the cash registers so that customers can donate above and beyond the restaurant’s contribution.
Advertising strategies include distributing flyers in from of the restaurant and making announcements in class on the day of the event. It also helps to encourage students to attend in groups (i.e. with their entire sports team after practice, with their class after a big exam, with their families, etc.).
Bar Night: There are several different ways to structure a bar night. The bar could donate a percentage of their profits to Unite For Sight, they could donate part or all of a cover charge to Unite For Sight, or you could sell wristbands that entitle customers to discounted drinks. All of these options have raised several hundred dollars for volunteers in the past.
Amusement Park or Sports Venue Volunteering: Local parks will often make donations to non-profit organizations in exchange for help selling concessions, directing traffic or cleaning up after event. This can be done on- or off-campus.
Dress-Down Day: Ask local businesses to allow employees to wear casual clothes to work in exchange for a donation to Unite For Sight. Banks and university offices have typically been very supportive of this kind of fundraiser. It also works well to coordinate a dress-down day with local schools that require students to wear uniforms.
Car Wash: Coordinate resources with campus facilities or a nearby gas station to hold a car wash. Advertise by distributing flyers in the campus parking lot.
Reverse Trick-or-Treat: Go trick-or-treating with friends, but instead of requesting candy, pass out treats in exchange for a donation to Unite For Sight. Volunteers have held this fundraiser both in dorms and in surrounding neighborhoods. This event has raised over $100 in a single night
Seasonal Chores: Go door to door in nearby neighborhoods offering to help residents with seasonal chores such as raking leaves and shoveling snow. Campus facilities are usually able to loan volunteers necessary supplies for yard work.
Gift-Wrapping: Many department stores and shopping malls host non-profit organizations during the holidays to wrap gifts for customers.
Grocery-Bagging: Supermarkets often allow students to assist customers with their groceries in order to earn tips for Unite For Sight. This works especially well before Thanksgiving and the Super Bowl.
Module 6: Practical Advice From Alumni Volunteers
The Impact of Fundraising on the Unite For Sight Volunteer Experience
"How To Fundraise More Than $5,000" By Christine Yeung
Fundraising was a little daunting at first because I had never fundraised before. You should prioritize your list of donors based on how well you know the person and how much you think they can afford. The people who I found, as a student, were able to donate the most in descending order were nuclear family, close relatives, extended family, teachers, parents’ friends, and then my own friends. Another thing that definitely helped was having a pledge form handy with me so that wherever I went, I could give them out if it came up in conversation. I also took the opportunity to make a short 5 minute speech at my parents’ alumni gathering in Toronto. Another thing I found useful was to have an amount in mind that you wanted your donors to donate. It’s easy and polite to say “I’d be happy to accept anything you can afford,” but it generates much better results when you give people a suggested donation (and you should ask close friends and family to figure out what are reasonable amounts to suggest), because it gives them an idea of what to give, and also helps you to achieve your goal of reaching your fundraising target. So what I told my friends and relatives is that, “My goal is to raise $3,000 US for Unite for Sight. I’m asking people to donate about $50, but I’d be happy to accept anything you can give.” In the end, I raised $5,241.
"The Key to Successful Fundraising for Unite for Sight" By Brian Fowler
Unite for Sight requires fundraising in the form of eyeglasses and money in order to volunteer abroad. In retrospect, I have realized my fundraising efforts were equally as important to my work in Africa as being in Africa itself. In fact, when I left my two week stint in Africa to return home to Virginia, I realized the money I raised and the glasses I brought with me would be donated and utilized in Africa for at least another month. In essence, my fundraising efforts far outlasted my trip to Africa in regards to time. I cannot express enough the importance of Unite for Sight's fundraising efforts and what they mean to those without access to regular eye care throughout the world. The caring act of connecting people across the world through simple donations should not be underappreciated. One donation that I received was particularly special. A close family friend donated her husband Roger's eyeglasses. Roger had recently passed away from Cancer and she was excited that something of his would help someone halfway across the world. I brought these glasses with me to each village outreach. On my third outreach, one woman told me while crying that she could no longer read the bible. She was truly distraught. She needed the exact prescription of Roger's glasses. After giving her his old reading glasses and realizing she could read, she literally rolled on the floor with laughter and happiness. I was able to take a picture of her in these glasses and send it back to Roger's wife. She printed the picture and keeps it in her office at work. Another man couldn't see because of dense cataracts. Luckily, I saw him after Dr. Clarke surgically removed his cataract. He was truly overjoyed because he could now see with 20/60 vision. The numerous joyful stories I have from my experience in Ghana will be with me forever. Importantly, without Unite for Sight volunteer donations, these stories would not have the same happy ending.
There are several important steps I followed when I went about fundraising.
I set a goal for myself so I had something to strive for.
I wrote a letter asking friends and families for donations. In this letter, I included Unite for Sight's role in the world, what my function would be as a volunteer, and how important their financial and eyeglass donations are for those who do not have access to eye care. I also outlined in this letter exactly how people could donate to make it as easy as possible for them. Unfortunately, if donating takes a lot of effort on someone's part, they will often not do it.
The next and most important step for me was including several people I knew would work hard on fundraising with me. I spent time teaching my mom, my wife, and my brother about the efforts of Unite for Sight and how important these donations would be. Then, I gave each of them my letter I'd written and asked them to fundraise with me. First, I asked them to email the fundraising letter to everyone they knew. Second, we made a list of everyone we emailed. We then called every single person who did not respond to the email to request their help. Sometimes this took several phone calls, but in the end most people donated what they could.
Next, we began contacting businesses. We started with local optometrists and ophthalmologists. They are often a great source of eyeglasses. We then contacted local restaurants. One restaurant agreed to do a fundraising dinner where 20% of the proceeds went to Unite For Sight.
Next we each spoke with our local churches. Sure enough they put out boxes for eyeglass donations and one went as far to take an offering for Unite For Sight.
In thinking about all of this, these are my key aspects to fundraising:
Be methodical about it.
Expect to have to talk to some people many times.
Expect to hear no's which often can be converted to yes' by explaining to people how even one pair of eyeglasses or $5 can make a difference.
Make the sale- People want to be educated about something first to fully understand the importance of donating. You may feel awkward in doing this sometimes, but the donations raised in the end for people who truly need help far outweighs a temporary feeling.
Use this fundraising project as a means to bring joy to those who are donating in addition to those receiving the donations throughout the world- I created an email grouping of all those who donated and sent them my personal journal and all my pictures from my experience. Many said reading the journal and seeing the pictures of Africa had an impact on the way they view the world.
Last and most important- Involve several friends or family. A committed group can reach far more people than you can by yourself.
Module 7: Thanking Donors
Thanking your donors is a very important part of fundraising.
You should thank each donor with a personalized email or hand-written note, as well as with a phone call.
While you're abroad and when you return home, share stories and photos with your donors.