Next Monday I have a board meeting to go to where we are going to need to come up with some very creative fundraising. We need to raise money not just to grow our organization (which is my ultimate goal) but to also keep our current office. I happen to love our office so this is of course very important to me.
Over the past few months we have seen our program go through hoops of fire and grow to a much more functional organization. We have a clear goal, we are all on the same page, and I am happy to see we are moving forward. But now we need money.

So…how do you raise a lot of money in a horrible economy? Better yet, how do you throw a fundraiser in this economy that hasn’t been done a million times or that people won’t roll their eyes at? That’s my goal with this post. Come up with a few awesome fundraising ideas and look at some of the old tried and true fundraising methods that I have seen work.

1) The heartfelt letter that you send to everyone and anyone you know relatively well.  
Just don’t be a complete tool when you do this and you shouldn’t run into any trouble getting something for your organization. Honestly it’s not even about the letter, it’s about the heart or passion you have for what you’re looking to do. Just think ”Hi, I work with blah and they need money” or something just as smooth isn’t going to get you anything. Talking honestly while not going on and on is what will get me to give you money. I wish the annoying organizations that e-mail me monthly asking for a donation got that. Keep on focus and don’t go on for pages.

2) COOK OFF! This is the one that I have my heart set on. I plan on suggesting that we close our back parking lot, set up several “chef stations” and have several cooks come in and cook up their best dishes…just mini samples. This is a huge opportunity for local small catering companies and Chefs to gain some attention as well as a great way for us to raise funds. The event would be closed, tickets would be sold in advance, and a great day of fun will be had by all. – If we do this I will write about it…a lot. If we do not do this. I will write my full concept out in the hopes someone else does.

3) Go girl scout and sell some cookies! I know I make a mean chocolate chip cookie, and that we have a ton of people who can cook and a few professional kitchens that we can probably sneak our way into one way or another (and by that I mean use the network of friends and fellow fundraisers I know to see who can help us out) I’ve seen cookies raise a ton of funds for a few amazing non profit groups before. Trust me, this is not at all a bad idea. Some suggestions though are to a) have an event to sell the cookies at, usually this isn’t that hard to find. Just make sure you get permission from the correct people and then set up a booth. This is also another instance where you want to take advantage of your networks, both real world and social. Think about it, posting pictures of someone covered in baking flower from a “break” from baking is a great way to get someone’s attention. And then you let the cookies do the rest.

Of course there will be more things for me to submit, but for now I leave you with these three. Let me know if you have any questions, if you try any of these and they work that’d be awesome. If they don’t…well let me know and maybe we can figure out what happened.  I have a ton of things I can think of for small groups to do to try to raise money (non profits I mean) So the meeting could be a long one Wish me luck!