Category: Charities

Strategic Philanthropy

Article Written by : Credit Card Processing Blog

Strategic Philanthropy is a unique way to incorporate your company’s marketing goals with the well being of mankind. Many organizations already engage in the basic form of philanthropy. These include schemes such as donating gift certificates to churches’ silent auction, allowing a high school club to set up car wash in the company parking lot, contributing coffee to an event, buying a school a year book or sponsoring a children’s sports team.

Strategic philanthropy incorporates your organization’s marketing goals as well. Here are a few ways to achieve this.

– Introduce a new product that community groups can use to sell to their community and provide them with a good commission on each sale.

– Create coupons that people can distribute within their communities and the group can get a percentage of each sale.

– Invite groups to organize fundraisers within your stores increasing awareness for your store and providing the group with much needed funds.

– Provide groups who address important community issues gift certificates that they can give to their hardworking volunteers

– Partner with a important social action group to host a lunch workshop or community dialog sessions about local needs and issues.

Engaging in strategic philanthropy can be useful in distinguishing your organization from your competitors. It can also help you to boost your product awareness and gain favor among the community you operate in over your competitors.

Stress Relief through Charity

Article Written  by : Boston Buyers Club

One of the best stress relievers is through charity. Helping others takes the focus off you and your problems. Here are a few ways you can volunteer in charity events and projects, and helop yourself in the process:

Walkathons – these charity walks only require determination and good walking shoes. Contact a charity of your choice and register for the walk. You might have to help with getting sponsors to donate money on behalf f you walking, and they can be anyone from a family member, co-worker, friends, etc. Donations can start from $1 up to as much as your sponsor is willing to donate.

Local Nursing Home – residents at nursing homes sometimes have no one to visit them. Take an hour or two of your time per week, and visit an elderly resident. They would love and appreciate a visit from a warm, friendly person. Contact your local nursing home to find out how their volunteer scheme works.

Youth Clubs – youth clubs provide sports and fun activities for children in the area. These clubs are always in need of responsible, patient adults willing to help.

Local Church Ministries – join your local church ministry and put your spiritual gifts to good use. There are many areas you can help out with, which include: youth ministry, usher board ministry, missions ministry, prison ministry, music ministry, etc.

Local Food Bank – join this charity to help people in your community get the food they need. Call them up, register and get started.
Homeless Shelter – get involved with the homeless shelter in your area. You need to invest just a few hours of your time every week, to make a difference in the lives of the needy.

Pies Fundraising

A fun way of raising money for nonprofit organizations is having a sale of pies. While bake sales have always been popular fundraising ideas, you do not always have to be the one to do the baking. Here are a few options worth exploring:

The Pie Shoppe

They claim to have the ‘recipe for cash’. How do they do it? By sending out homemade pies and rolls to your bake sale. All you need to do is reserve pies for your fundraising date which cannot be on a Sunday or Monday. The best way to get about it is take in orders and then reserve the pies; and on delivery you will receive an invoice.
Profits vary on what you decide as a markup on the selling price. A recommended price is $8.00, as The Pie Shoppe charges $6.00 per pie, dozen cinnamon rolls and pumpkin roll. Visit their fundraising items page for a selection of pies.

Watts Fundraising

Take a look at Ovens for Ashley for ready-to-serve pies such as Banana Cream Pie, Apple, Medley of Fruit, Peach Praline, French Silk, Pumpkin, Caramel Apple Walnut and Pecan, Simple Pleasures and Gourmet Creations-Frozen. To motivate participants, Watts Fundraising offers prizes ranging from a subscription to Texas Cheerleader magazine to cash.

Achatz Handmade Pie Co.

If you live in Michigan, this is one option to consider for your pies fundraising initiative. Along with ready-to-bake pies you can also sell cookies, brownies, soups, jams, salad dressings, and teas. Another option is to sell booklets of coupons for the Achatz Handmade Pie Co. locations.

Fundraising Ideas – Church Fund Raising

Article Written by : Refinery News

Church fundraising events can be a tiresome affair although the outcomes of the ministries and projects can be rewarding. Following are a few regular ideas as well as a few novel ideas that you can use the next time you need to organize a fundraiser.

– Organize a benefit walk or run and have local companies and organizations sponsor the event. You could also ask the participants to purchase a ticket for a small price or pay a registration fee that would go in the contribution.

– A fun event that you could organize is a “Mystery Dinner”. Couple this with a young team of talented individuals who can be the entertainment for the evening. The “Mystery” portion of the dinner is the menu. Include forks, knives, spoons and napkins also as part of the menu and give the items interesting names and limit the number of items that guests can order. Once you’ve organized it all, sit back and watch as your guests trade knives for a slice of bread or a spoon for a couple of meatballs.

– Drive a nail project. Purchase a bunch of nails and stick them to a postcard. Have church goers purchase the nails and have them sign the postcards with their names and addresses. This way once you have completed the project you can write a thank you note to all your contributors.

– Buy a piece of a puzzle – ask a few volunteers from the church youth or the Sunday school to create a poster and cut it in to pieces of a puzzle. You can ask the church congregation or people you meet on the street to buy pieces of the puzzle.
As with any fundraising campaign you should make sure you have a talented team of volunteers who can get the work done. Also make sure you don’t organize too many fundraising events closer together.

Fundraising Ideas: Church Event Organization

Like any fund raising event, a church fund raising event requires careful planning and organization to ensure everything runs smoothly and remains stress-free. Basic steps to keep in mind:

Goals and objectives – set realistic expectations that you know are achievable, both in terms of the capacity of the event and your expectations.

Resources – find resources that are available, use what the church already has. There is no point in spending money and time outsourcing resources, or purchasing items.

Timeline – create a realistic timeline and make sure you stick to it.

Committee – put together a committee made up of responsible and hardworking volunteers who you can rely upon.

Meetings – frequent meetings can help to keep things in perspective and make sure everything is on track, they also bring out hidden issues that you did not realize existed.

The Committee

A solid committee can make or break any fund raising event. If you do not already have one, ask members of the congregation to volunteer. Next, assign specific tasks to each person. Utilize each committee members’ skills well. You will need people to handle the finances, secure donations, handle the advertising and marketing of the event and duties on the day of the event.

Church Event Ideas

When it comes to the actual event itself, there are so many choices when putting together a church fund raiser. Some of the ideas include a bake sale, silent auction, car wash, picnic, benefit walk, rummage sale, etc.

Stay Organized

Keep things well organized during the planning and execution phases. Make sure the church congregation is kept informed of the event. Note-taking during meetings will help you stay organized in order to review progress and ensure everything is running according to your timeline.

Do not take on too much. Having volunteers involved not only divides up the work load but also keeps you organized.