Usually the only question about fundraising that comes up is "How much do we need?" There are several different considerations to streamlining a fundraising campaign. You don’t have to be intimidated though, a little thought into some of these key points will point you in the right direction.

The Basics

How much money will you need to support your organization? Figure out your operating costs, plus money needed to possibly add new services. If your fundraising campaign fails to meet the new numbers you will at least have a financial cushion to fall back on.

What will your target area support?

There are a lot of different styles of fundraising campaigns available. The trick is to match up your target audience with the best product. What are your donors made up of? How much will your potential donors give to your cause; are you better selling $1 items to them or higher price point items in the $10 to $20 dollar range? What is the age range you’ll be selling to? Are they kids who will enjoy chocolates or a more mature crowd that would appreciate skratch cards, faith candles and environmental grocery bags? A little thought into these points will give you the best product to raise your funds.

Timing Issues for Your Fundraiser

What season is it that you will be out with your sales drive? Depending on the time of the year a campaign centered on seasonal products like flower bulbs or batteries for camping. Flashlights might be a great idea for a spring campaign. During the fall or winter, ideas that lend themselves to the home or eating centered would appeal to people as they snuggle in for winter.

The other aspect of time issues for your fundraiser campaign would be how quickly you need to get money back. If you need to collect money quickly a sales campaign would work better for you. Aren’t they all sales campaigns you ask? The difference is some campaigns allow you to sell on the spot to the donor with such things as chocolate bars or lollipops. Other campaigns place you in the position of being the order taker. The totals for products like cookie dough, candles, or gourmet foods are sent to the fundraising company to ship back to you for order fulfillment.

Calculate the Fundraising Campaigns Hidden Costs

Don’t forget to tally into your figures the costs of shipping, prizes or for a final party for the volunteers. Of course these funds will come from your bottom line when the funds have been collected but the fundraising campaign will have to raise just that little bit extra to cover these expenses.