Fundraising

Definitions

Charitable status - a status granted by the government that allows a community group to give out tax receipts. People who donate to this group can get some of their money back through a tax refund on the amount they donated.
Donor - a person or organization that gives your group money.
Funding base - how many places you are getting money from.
Funding strategy - how you plan to get money
Honorarium - a nominal cash amount paid to someone for a task, usually not worth the full value of the labour, but as an added bonus. Honorariums are usually small amounts for short-term work.
Infrastructure - the internal structure that is needed to make all other activities possible. For example, having phones is necessary to offering phone counselling, so the phone equipment and phone costs are part of the core structure needed to support the group's activities.
Operating costs - ongoing, basic costs of just keeping a group going, like office space, bookkeeping, having a phone and other costs that will exist regardless of what projects you do.
Project costs - costs associated with a specific activity, such as ads, staff people, photocopying flyers.
Recognition needs - used in this article to mean what level of knowledge people need to have of your organization in order to make your event a success. For example, will people only support your fundraising if they know you're a great group (high recognition needs) or will they attend an event even if they've never heard of you (low recognition needs).
Sponsors - the organizations that are giving money, time or other support to a project or your group. Any group that is involved in supporting a project should be credited or somehow mentioned on written materials, ads and announcements about the project.

There are many different approaches to fundraising. It isn't just a hit or miss activity. Like any other skill, it takes time to develop. The bulk of this time is spent building an established funding base.

Different non-profit groups may have radically different approaches to fundraising; their activities may involve finding a consistent group of people to pay to support it (like an arts centre), or searching for people who support their activity despite the fact they will never benefit directly from their service (for example, the Hospital for Sick Children doesn't ask the kids for a donation, although the families certainly make donations).
 
 

Basic Considerations

Do you have charitable status? If you do, you can issue a tax receipts, which makes private donations more attractive and is required for applying to certain granting foundations.

Do you have a clearly defined community? Do they have enough money to give some to your group?

Do you have administrative costs? Few people get excited about fundraising to cover office supplies - it can be hard to rely on donors or campaigns to raise these costs. Project-oriented campaigns stir people's imaginations more easily. Writing grants can be a better source of funding for operational costs.

Do you have the resources (staff, office, financial reports, structure) to apply for and receive large grants?

How much money do you need? You won't meet a $50,000 budget doing bake sales. You might want to assess a number of different funding sources to make up your total budget.

How defined and easy-to-contact is your community? If your members move frequently, the possibility of a long-term funding base becomes very difficult. Many organizations rely on a small group of 10 to 100 donors who contribute every year. Is this strategy possible for you?

How much time do you really want to spend fundraising? Grant writing can take months, and some groups spend a lot of time just raising their minimal budget. Assess your resources in terms of potential labour, skills and enthusiasm for fundraising.

Can your goals be met by having more money? Before you go off after money, really think about ways to try and accomplish what you need with less funds. Don't spend time raising money you don't need. That may sound obvious, but sometimes organizations apply for grants just because they're there, not because anyone has thought through what they really need the money for.
 
 

Charitable donations

When you ask individuals and companies for donations, they like to receive a tax receipt for their donation. For example, the Community Bicycle Network is charitable and can write tax receipts through the Christian Resource Centre.

You can try to set up a charitable fund as an aspect of your organization, however, there are restrictions. Charities can only engage in non-political activities. "Education work" is the most likely category to get an application for charitable status approved. Sometimes you can set up a sub-fund for your group, for example, a trust fund for a scholarship for students working on bicycling issues and so on. The main drawback is that charities have to have their own board, and you need to be organized enough to fill out forms and reports on time (charities are closely supervised by the government).
 
 

Project funding

Most of your fundraising should come under the category of project funding - it's much easier to get than funds for general administration. Don't think of core staff or expenses as doing "administrative" work, but a series of projects. You can meet your overall operating costs by combining a number of project budgets.

Projects are good to fundraise around because it's self-explanatory why you need the money. You can think up many different kinds of projects, from events, publications, conferences, lobbying campaigns and so on, that you can raise money for by charging admission, grant writing, co-sponsorships, direct mail campaigns and so on. Even if you are fundraising to cover your basic operating costs, make it for something special - call it the buy a computer campaign.
 
 

Small is beautiful

You don't have to design big campaigns to raise a lot of money. Decide what you need and go after it. It is a disadvantage if you think "Oh, we could never raise enough to do that." Don't let yourself fall into that trap. Professional fundraisers can pull in millions of dollars with slick campaigns. However, they also spend hundreds of thousands of dollars and years of work getting the money. 
 
 

The best way to frame the problem of raising funds is define:
 

	why you need the money
	how much you need
	who you can ask for it.

Some general tips

Be consistent.

The best thing to do is to develop a specialty and stick with it year after year. After you've done it once, you already have some basic information about how to organize it and campaigns gain momentum over time.

Many organizations put on one or two events that keep them in money. For example, the AIDS Committee of Toronto puts on the Walk for Life that raises about a million dollars. A women's shelter sells a recipe book that nets about $50,000. A lesbian and gay university group puts on 4 dances a year and raises about $6000. The key to success in all these cases is that these groups improve on their strategy over several years. When you've done it before, you already have the contacts, know the location, where to take out an ad and send out the posters. The events are well attended too, because they develop a reputation.

The hardest part of fundraising is building up a group of people who like to give you money and a group of people who like to organize fundraising events for you. Every time you do it, you get better at it, you can expand the number of people who participate in it and make progressively more money. Changing strategies every year will just frustrate you.

This doesn't mean you have to stick with a bad idea, but don't have really high expectations for the first few years. It takes time to work out the bugs in the system. A good fundraising campaign comes naturally out of the purpose and structure of the organization; it's developed over the years because of its value in publicity, volunteer recruitment and educational purposes before it begins to make real money.
 
 

Pick what you know.

You need to have the skills to pull off the fundraising activity. If you have skills with artwork, don't try to make money by offering to repair computers. It makes it harder to try and learn how to do something at the same time you're trying to get it done. You also need to be organized enough to support fundraising activities. For some groups, have a canvassing campaign makes sense because they already have a newsletter (which they offer people who donate money), people who know how to organize canvassing efforts, people in the community who know who they are (the result of years of publicity) and so on. If you don't have that existing level of organization, canvassing would be a disaster. 
 
 

Pick who you know

People don't give money to organizations, they give it to other people. It's good if you represent a worthwhile organization, but they need to have a sense of "knowing" who you are. Try to get money from people who've come into contact with you before - past board members, volunteers, staff, community leaders, members of similar organizations, people who've benefitted from your work in some way. Also, you need publicity in general if you plan on a big fundraising campaign. Explaining what your group stands for, what kinds of work you do, how your operate and why you want their money is too long. Recognition value helps you focus more on the issue at hand without having to do all that background work.

Use the resources you already have to the fullest advantage.

If your group has staff people, skilled volunteers, office equipment and other resources that can be used in raising money - then do things that groups who don't have these resources can't take on, this reduces competition and makes use of your resources. A good example of this is selling products through an office, many groups can't provide the staff needed to keep an office open or can't even afford rent.

The special skills of your staff and volunteers should also be considered in fundraising.
 
 

Cover your costs

One of the best ways to raise funds is just to not spend anything up front. For example, you can put on a conference where the advertising is paid for by the campus radio station and newspaper (who are co-sponsoring it), the printing is donated by another campus group (they paid for the printing, your volunteers will be doing the postering), the speakers are sent by a local speaker's bureau, the event is organized by a grant staff person, the food organized by a catering service, and miscellaneous expenses are covered by passing a basket around after an enthusiastic speech during the conference. 

When people participate in something, the need for funding is obvious. Because they benefit directly, many are often willing to donate towards the cost of the event. Many of your programs can make back some of their costs.
 
 

Recognition

Develop a logo that people can quickly recognize. 

If your group isn't well-known, organize around a cause that is. If more people will come out for bicycle parts to Cuba or bicycles user groups, then organize your campaign around those issues. Tell them about your group's larger mandate after they arrive.
 
 

Fundraising Events

Move-a-thons

	Organizational status: nothing official needed
	Volunteer needs: high
	Infrastructure: contact phone, good community contacts
	Time: initially very high, possibly 3 months
	Fund use: unrestricted
	Expertise needs: high
	Recognition needs: high
	Financial gain: $2000 and way up

Move-a-thons are hard to organize the first time, but get a lot easier as you go along. It is especially useful if you have a lot of volunteers who can help out on special occasions. You need to get the permit to hold the walk, you can use a city street or make it a trek through a park or wildlands area (especially handy if you're trying to raise money to clean up the area). Contact your City Department of Public Works if you want to get a permit.

You can use a variety of locomotion in the move-a-thon. It could be a bike-a-thon (handy for raising money for a bike club), a walk-a-thon, run-a-thon (which attracts people who just like to run) and so on. A move-a-thon allows for people to use whatever mode of transportation they want to, including wheelchairs. You can attract people just for the sport of it, including biking, boating, swimming, skating, go-carting and so on. Be creative. People who are more sports-oriented are happy to pay a $5 or $10 registration fee for the chance to sweat and win prizes (for the top competitors). You can often get prizes donated by businesses.

You'll get more people each year. How popular the event becomes depends on how much fun it is - try and be creative.
 
 

Raffles

	Organizational status: charitable status legally needed
	Volunteer needs: low
	Infrastructure: venue to make sales, contacts with businesses to donate prizes
	Time: fairly low, mostly selling time
	Fund use: unrestricted
	Expertise needs: low
	Recognition needs: low, especially if you have good prizes
	Financial gain: $100 to $1000 average, very large draws possible

Raffles involve administration, ticket distribution and sales. You'll need at least one volunteer in charge of each aspect. The more ticket sellers and distributors you have, the more tickets you can sell.

Allow for enough time in planning your raffle. It takes time for tickets for the permit to be approved (usually a week or two, but up to 30 days if this is your first raffle), the tickets to be printed (3 to 4 days) and the sales to occur (2 to 3 weeks). You also need to search for donated prizes before you even get the permit.

You need to keep track of how many tickets were printed, who has taken tickets to sell, who has actually sold tickets and who bought which ticket and their phone number so you can contact them. Don't make the ticket stubs too long to fill out, especially if you want people to buy several. Their name and phone number is enough.

Permits

You need a permit to operate a raffle, obtainable from your City Hall Clerk's Office. It's not hard to fill out, but the need for charitable status is difficult. You may want to co-sponsor (officially) with a charitable group.

You need to know what the prizes are, how many tickets you'll print, how much you're selling them for and when the date of the draw will be before you get the permit. Once you've decided on this, you can't change it, so be sure to get a few extra tickets printed so you don't run out.

Don't start selling tickets before you get the permit, they must be printed with the permit number on them and sequentially numbered. The name of the printer must be on each ticket as well, which gives you a chance to ask the printer for giving you the job at cost, since they get advertising with every ticket you sell.

If any tickets or stubs go missing, your raffle is invalid and your licence will no longer apply. Keep good records of all the tickets. You'll need to send in a report after the raffle is over. The report form should come with the application.
 
  Prizes

Raffles and lotteries can vary from raffling off a bike to full-fledged casino nights. The latter I'd recommend only if you have some people skilled in running these events. In some towns you can hire companies that provide professional blackjack dealers and so on for a cut of the total.

Prizes don't have to be expensive to be valued. For example, you could make a package of a dinner at a restaurant and a limousine to an evening performance. The total cost is only about $120, but since so few people can afford to spend that much money in a single evening, it seems like a real luxury.

Other items that people value but don't spend money on are personal services, especially massages (it's not too hard to get a professional massage therapist to donate one free massage), having their apartment painted, body lotions and creams, entertainment, travel, books, good clothes, computers, camping gear and bikes. Remember, the sense of "luxurious" is what counts.

You can also raffle off "experiences", a dinner with a local author, a chance to meet someone famous and so on. People who are famous, semi-famous and otherwise notorious are usually happy to donate their time to a cause they believe in.

You can make political points with your prizes, for example, the first prize can be the Premier's salary for a day, the second prize a social worker's salary and the third prize the daily allowance of someone on welfare. Try and be creative with your prizes, it attracts interest.

Stores are usually willing to donate merchandise or gift certificates. Approach the businesses in your area, or that cater to your clientele.

When making the pitch, get right to the point. Introduce yourself and the group. Explain that you're organizing a raffle to raise funds for this registered, non-profit charity, ask if they can support your efforts by donating xx amount. Don't go into a long explanation about the group unless they ask questions, give them a pamphlet instead. Sometimes visiting stores can be good, because you can see their merchandise selection. Ask for gift baskets if they have them.

If they say yes, make arrangements to pick up the prize right then. Have someone go and collect it within a few days. If they say maybe, arrange to call them back on a specified date. If their prize is going to be first prize, say so. Remind them of the advertising value of their prize.
 
  Sales

The lower the price of your ticket, the more tickets you can sell. Compare it with other ticket prices. If they are selling for $1 and $2, your prize had better be substantial if you plan to charge more, especially when you compare it with some of the large, government-sponsored lotteries where you can win substantial amounts of money for a $2 or $5 ticket.

If your prizes are small and don't warrant a ticket price of $1, sell 2 or 3 for $1, but never 50 cents each. Avoid any ticket price that involves coins. You may want to group tickets into books of 6 and sell them for $1 each or 6 for $5. This makes your accounting a little more difficult, so add up the sales before you pull the ticket books apart for the draw. (Otherwise, put the tickets into books of 10 to make records easier).

Don't pressure people into taking more tickets than they can sell. If you give them 50 tickets and they only sell 10, they don't feel good returning 40 tickets. It makes them feel like they've failed, which isn't true. Since people feel bad about returning the unsold tickets, they won't give them to you until moments before the draw, or maybe after. All along, you might assume that they were able to sell 50 tickets, and overestimate the number of ticket sales.
 
  The draw

The draw should be at a public event, or for example, the culmination of an Open House day, an Annual General Meeting, a conference and so on. It's ideal if the winner is likely to be present at the draw. Send a press release after the draw announcing the winner. Always collect people's phone numbers on the ticket stub so you can call them to tell them they won.
 
 

Concerts and special events

	Organizational status: nothing official
	Volunteer needs: moderate to high
	Infrastructure: cash up front for booking venues etc., a well-organized volunteer base, contact phone, good advertising and places to sell tickets
	Time: moderate
	Fund use: unrestricted
	Expertise needs: moderate
	Recognition needs: low, especially if it's a fun event
	Financial gain: $400 to $3000 average

With some exceptions, special events are not large money raisers for the time involved. However, hosting special events is a way to give people something in exchange for their donation. Small businesses are usually more able to contribute in-kind donations for an event than make a cash donation. It's also much more fun for volunteers to work on organizing. Special events bring your publicity and community awareness, can help increase your volunteer base and otherwise introduce people to your organization. Carefully choose events that will be relatively easy to organize.
 
 

Selecting an event

Start up costs can affect the type of event you choose. Suppose you brought in a big speaker for $4000 and sold 100 seats at $10 each, that's a tidy profit for the evening. However, you need to have the $4000 up front, as well as investing money in advertising, booking the hall and other expenses. The gains are big, but the losses can be unmanageable if you don't sell enough tickets. If you plan on putting on a major event like this, be sure you also have enough money to properly advertise it and distribute the tickets. If you don't have experience organizing events of this size, stick to smaller events.

Put on events you'd actually like to go to yourself, not something you think people "should go to." If you think it's nice but wouldn't go if you weren't organizing it, chances are that other people feel the same way. Try to be creative; try a new approach. It should be fun to organize and fun to attend.

Make sure the date of your event doesn't conflict with other community events that would draw the same crowd. Call around different organizations and ask them what they're planning.

While estimating costs, assume that you'll have to pay for everything. If you get donations, that only increases your profit. When estimating revenue, lean on the conservative side to avoid unrealistic expectations.
 

Sales tips

Never just sell tickets at the door. Advance ticket sales are the bulk of most sales for large productions. If someone's already bought a ticket, they will make every effort to attend. Sometimes people will buy a ticket just to support the group, even if they don't plan on attending. To encourage advance sales, offer cheaper prices in advance, and higher cost at the door. 

Distributing advance tickets is essential. A ticket coordinator should make sure volunteers sell tickets and that they don't sit in people's cupboard at home. Also, tickets should be available through bookstores, your office and other places where people who might want to attend the event hang out. Unless you sell out, tickets should be available at the door.

Print up tickets with stubs or a detachable receipt. The stub can be used for auditing and record keeping, and can be used for fundraising or volunteer lists. A simple check off if people would like to volunteer with your group can recruit some volunteers.
 
 

Volunteers

Some events require more volunteers than others. Only take on events if you have enough volunteers or can easily recruit more. Some groups offer an honorarium to a volunteer who agrees to be responsible for the overall coordination of the event. Not everyone agrees with the concept of a paid volunteer, however the purpose is to ensure that someone has ultimate responsibility for the task, which increases their commitment and often makes other volunteers more responsible with their tasks. For some reason, this increased sense of responsibility doesn't come when a staff person is being paid to coordinate the event, mostly because volunteers figure the staff person can devote full-time hours to finishing last-minute tasks.

Try and sub-contract out where possible to simplify the event. Don't arrange food, sell a food booth to another community group for 10% of their profits. Don't organize liquor sales, try and get a bar to give you free space if they get the money from the bar. This simplifies your event a lot; you can take on more responsibility as you gain experience.
 
 

Advertising

Advertising is essential to a successful event. A general rule for advertising is that the less you think you can afford it, the more you're going to need it. Ideally, your event would be co-sponsored with a radio station and a newspaper, who would agree to carry a sizeable ad for you. Advance ticket sales also help bring publicity, and tables and posters can help raise awareness. Also, free listings are often read more thoroughly than the rest of the paper.

For major events, however, paid advertising is a must. Don't waste $78 dollars on an ad that's 2 inches tall. Waste $500 on a half page that will actually get someone's attention. At least you stand the chance of someone seeing it and buying a ticket.

Wherever possible, design the ad yourself, newspaper staff are often rushed and can't do the job just the way you want.

You can put on special events with other groups, in order to cut costs and share the labour of putting on the event. If you don't have the money, volunteers, experience or ticket distribution network to put on the kind of event you think would be good, approach another group. Learn as much as you can from groups that have experience with these kinds of events.
 
 

Parties and dances

	Organizational status: nothing official
	Volunteer needs: low to moderate
	Infrastructure: cash up front for booking venues etc., a well-organized volunteer base, contact phone, good advertising and places to sell tickets
	Time: moderate
	Fund use: unrestricted
	Expertise needs: moderate
	Recognition needs: the dance itself needs a good reputation
	Financial gain: $400 to $1500 average

The logistics of hosting a party or a dance are about the same, expect that a party is considered a private event (and you don't need a permit), while a dance will require a liquor permit.

Parties are smaller to organize and net less money. They are usually advertised through word of mouth (because other advertising makes it public and occasionally illegal, depending on whether you sell alcohol and so on). You make money by charging for drinks, or for admission. You can include food or snacks as part of the deal if you charge an admission fee. You can raise a fair amount of money by hosting a party/dinner for $50 a plate.

Dances are public events. The easiest way to organize a dance is to hold it in a bar. They provide the liquor and the liquor permit, and they keep the profit from the sale of alcohol. You can charge admission at the door, and through a coat check, raffle and food sales. Bars and pubs are usually amenable to this. Be sure to get a good night, Friday or Saturday, most bars like to have events on nights when no one comes anyway, so they don't lose anything. However, there are reasons people don't go to a bar on a Wednesday night, so it's safest to stick with the weekend.

Sometimes you need to arrange for the DJ or band, other times you need to hire someone yourself. The cost is usually about $400 or so. Ask another organization that's put on a dance who they got and what they paid. The music is very important, so you may even want to get two different DJs who will draw different crowds.

Dances can be time consuming at first, but you can spend less time and make more money as they go on. Once you pick a good venue, a good DJ and get a good reputation, dances and parties can be good return for your money. Unlike special events, they can be repeated fairly regularly.
 
 

Letter campaigns

	Organizational status: nothing official
	Volunteer needs: high set up, low thereafter
	Infrastructure: quite a bit, potential to lose money on initial costs
	Time: high set up, moderate thereafter
	Fund use: unrestricted
	Expertise needs: high, especially for set up
	Recognition needs: high
	Financial gain: $500 to $5000 average, more is possible

Also called direct mail, it can take several forms from a few handwritten notes to friends, a photocopied letter to several supporters or a several-piece mail-out to hundreds or thousands of people.
 
 

What you need:

A computer

Doing mailouts without them and it's impractical for more than 100 pieces of mail. You also need to have the database software to go with it (ideally). DBase is well known and hated, Microsoft Access is easier to learn. If you must, you can type up sheets with addresses on them that you photocopy onto labels, but you'll need to track who made a donation by hand.

A reliable mailing list

Having a good list of essential. That's why your name is sold on mailing lists, it's valuable. If you mail a request for donations to total strangers, you can expect that 2% of them will respond to your pitch. Some groups have mailing lists of previous donors where 75% of them donate each year. this vastly reduces your mailing costs. You need up to date addresses of likely donors.

If you want to begin a mailing list, try inserting a fundraising flyer with a related newsletter (it's cheaper than mailing on your own).
 

Tips

Tailor your appeal when speaking to different groups. Your organization means different things to different people, you can have several forms of letter that emphasize different aspects of your work.

Make it an occasion

It shouldn't be just another letter asking for money, call it the "Send a Bike to Cuba", "Annual Move-a-thon for Greener Cities" or "Environments without Borders." Give it a name that's written in capital letters so people know it's real.

Do follow up

The first few mailouts will be difficult and costly. Once you begin to narrow down you mailing list, you end up with a trim group of a 20 to 200 people (usually) who give regularly. Allow for follow up for people who don't donate at first, give them two tries and then cut them from the list. Some people will drop out over the years, they need to be replaced by new donors, usually acquired by exchanging mailing lists with another group.

Don't duplicate lists, it's wasteful.

Make sure you spell their name right and that the address is up to date.

Keep track of people who have given money from year to year. Record who donated how much and when. If someone has donated before, they should be kept on the list even if they didn't donate this year. Also track the type of donor - individuals, companies, university related people, community groups and so on. You may not want to start this process if you think that a large percentage of your donors will relocate each year, you be sending 10% or 20% of your mail to wrong addresses each year.

Don't do direct mailing for environmental causes. You may get some money, but you'll get more comments about how you're wasting paper. Unless you plan on printing on hemp paper, better stick to phone calls or some other method.

Piggyback your mailing, with another organization's newsletter or mailout, or with your own newsletter or regular publication. The costs of mailing are quite high, and many groups are willing to let your insert your flyer and/or fundraising letter as long as you help them with the work of stuffing and mailing.

Some things to include are:

	a brochure describing your work
	a return envelope (not stamped, you don't want people thinking you have money to waste)
	a donation card or clip-out section
	a financial report (especially when mailing to businesses).
	The fundraising letter should be short and positive. Don't beg or threaten extinction without their support. People don't want to donate only to watch you close down in 3 months.

Merchandise sales

	Organizational status: nothing official
	Volunteer needs: low
	Infrastructure: venue to make sales, cash up front
	Time: low
	Fund use: unrestricted
	Expertise needs: low
	Recognition needs: low
	Financial gain: $200 to $1500 average, more is possible

What to sell

You can sell practically anything. For example, string shopping bags, sweatshirts, T-shirts, hats, scarves, key chains, coffee, pens, postcards, bumper stickers, crafts, mugs, plants, mess kits and publications.

There are distributors for most of these items who sell mass quantities to groups. This way, you can get your name or logo and/or a message printed on the item for sale.

Don't sell items that have a limited selling season, such as Christmas cards and day books. Don't sell items that have stiff competition (especially from other non-profits) and avoid items that make more money for the distributor than you (such as chocolate bars, which rely mostly on the chocaholic volunteers breaking down and eating them, then having to pay you back for the boxes they took to sell).

Sell things that make sense, don't create waste. Your publications also serve an educational purpose. As a test, decide if you would personally pay money for this. Don't ask people to buy junk just to support your group.
 
 

Price

The price must be low enough to make the sale, especially if you're beginners at this. For examples, sweaters are nice to sell, but not many people walk around with $50 on hand. Stick to something cheap. Also, don't buy too much different merchandise, it's hard to keep track of it all. If you sell plants, just have 3 or 4 prices for a variety of plants, it's easier to track that way. Only have variety at a bazaar or table, where the variety will attract people.

Offer discounts for bulk sales. For example, sell greeting cards $1 each or 5 for $3. As they say in sales "a quick nickel is better than a slow dime."
 
 

How to sell

Don't count on selling everything to your membership's friends and relatives. It's a good market, but we tend to overuse it. Sell items at each event throughout the year. Ask other groups if you can set up a display to sell goods at their events, they'll agree if you allow other groups to do the same at your events.

Some stores (especially bookstores) will agree to sell your merchandise, but usually only on a consignment basis (which means that they don't owe you any money until the goods have been sold, and that they can return unsold merchandise to you). They also usually want a commission of 20% to 40%, so work that into your price. You must have accurate records and follow-up on sales to keep track of where your merchandise is stocked and how much has been sold.

You may decide that the publicity and educational objective is enough to give the item away. Buttons and pens are great to give away at speaking events. Usually asking for a donation for these items will more than repay the cost of producing them.

Before you begin, ask around to other organizations. How many copies of the book did they print? How many buttons do they sell, how many did they sell in their first year? They can tell you about their successes and failures.
 
 

Bake and garage sales

	Organizational status: nothing official
	Volunteer needs: moderate
	Infrastructure: venue to make sales
	Time: moderate
	Fund use: unrestricted
	Expertise needs: low
	Recognition needs: low
	Financial gain: $50 to $500 average, more is possible

The rules for merchandise sales apply here with one exception. Bake sales and garage sales usually ask the volunteers of the organization to subsidize it's activities. Think carefully about whether or not you want to do this, after all, fundraising is about taking from the rich to give to the poor, not the other way around. Unless a volunteer comes forward with a suggestion to raffle off their handmade quilt or sell their household items, it may be expecting too much for volunteers to donate so much, especially when the profits are so minimal. It isn't necessarily the best value you can get for your volunteer's labour, and nothing is more depressing than working for 4 hours to sell $10 of rice crispy squares. Always be sure to ask non-volunteers for donations. Ask bakeries to donate cakes and baked goods to the sale. For garages sales, advertise in the general community that you'll come and pick up donations people would like to make. Then, if your volunteers want to contribute something themselves, that's fine. A better way to use your volunteer's cooking skills is to host a full dinner, where people pay $10 - $20 a plate and can select from a variety of home-cooked dishes. 

by Regan McClure