I have never really thought too much about what goes into making a fundraiser possible. I have volunteered at plenty of fundraisers at school and at my church, but I have never had to deal with what goes on behind the scenes.
This semester, I had the pleasure of working with the McKeil School of Business Toy Drive and worked with my group to plan and execute a fundraiser. Having to plan and execute a fundraiser made me more appreciative of all the work that goes into fundraising. I would describe our fundraising planning as a trial and error process. After reflecting on the challenges and successes during this experience, here are five main things I have learned about fundraising during my fundraisers for the MSB Toy Drive
1. You should have a debit/credit method of donating
During each of the three fundraising events that my group executed, there was always one common issue that appeared. PEOPLE DON’T ALWAYS CARRY CASH. The number of times we heard “Sorry I don’t have any money on me” made us wonder how much money we could have raised if we had provided a way for students and faculty to donate through debit or credit. With methods such as tap and apple pay, more and more people are choosing not to carry cash on them. Setting up alternative ways for donations to be received will help with the success of your fundraising events and will give more people the opportunity to donate and participate.
2. Its all about the give and take
When fundraising to students, it became clear that we needed to use a give and take approach. In order to draw in more people to donate, we needed to supply students and faculty with something they would get in return for their donations. When we hosted a photo booth, not many people were drawn into the event and we weren’t able to capture a lot of attention. During our photo booth, we were offering a digital picture, which students were able to access through an online sharing website. Maybe if we were offering a physical copy of the photo such as a polaroid we would have had more of a success. Once we implemented a prize element in our other fundraisers, we were able to draw more students in.
3 3. High energy is key
When hosting fundraising events, you need to make sure that you are projecting a ton of energy. If you want people, especially students, to be engaged with your fundraiser, you need to make sure that you are having fun and have a lot of energy. While my group hosted our minute-to-win-it game tables, we had music blasting and were having fun playing the games with students and faculty. As people would participate in the challenges, we would cheer them on and be in high spirits, which helped draw in attention from other students passing by.
4. Competition gets people hyped
While my group and I hosted our minute-to-win-it activities, it was clear that the games that offered a challenge were more popular. One of our most popular activities was a cup rotating game which included a stack of about 20 cups with one special coloured cup. The goal was that participants had to place the bottom cup into the top and work their way through the cups until the special coloured cup was at the bottom again. Participants only had a minute to complete it and they had to go one at a time. This game was a huge success and started heating up once we told students the time they had to beat for the best time or when they were facing off against friends.
5 5. Beer Pong will always draw in students
The last thing that I have learned about fundraising (especially to college students) is that beer pong will always draw people in. If you set up a table with beer pong ready to play (minus the beer) you will turn a lot of heads. We put our own spin on beer pong and made it more school appropriate by turning it into chocolate pong. We set up the cups exactly like you would in beer pong and just put chocolates in the cups. Every time a student got a ball into the cup, they won the chocolate. Within minutes of setting up, we had students coming up wondering what we were doing. Students were more than willing to donate money to play some chocolate pong (I mean this is what they have been prepping for all through college).
I think after reflecting on everything from my fundraisers, one of the most important things to remember while fundraising is to have fun. You are raising money for a good cause, and the actual fundraiser is a time where you can see all your hard work come full circle and you should take the time to enjoy it!
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