What is your Fundraising Goal?
If you don’t know what you’re raising funds for or how much you want to raise how will you ever know if your campaign was a success? Just knowing what organization you’re trying to help isn’t enough either. Knowing you’re fundraising for the drama club or soccer team is better than nothing I suppose, but far better to know you’re fundraising to build the set for this year’s play or to send the kids to a weekend tournament. We have a model in NLP for goal setting, and I think you’ll find using it effective to target your fundraising efforts:
1. State what you want specifically in a positive way. It seems obvious, but saying that you don’t want your choir to have mismatching uniforms at a recital isn’t nearly as easy to achieve as saying you want to have the funds to order each choir member a matching uniform from the same distributor.
2. State the goal in as much detail as possible. To continue with our example, determine what the benefits of the new uniforms will be, pick out the specific uniform you want to purchase, determine how many members will need to be fitted, get a firm price quote on the quantity from the distributor, and now you have your firm, quantified goal.
3. Check that the outcome is within your control, or if others are involved get their agreement and support. The Choir Director may have to collaborate with the Treasurer and the Head of Music, but when everyone who needs to approve is in agreement the idea starts gaining momentum.
4. Clarify the context, including date, location, and who will be involved when the goal is accomplished. Knowing you need uniforms for a recital at the end of the year isn’t enough if it takes 2 months for them to be made. If you need to get your order in by February 8th to give the manufacturer enough notice then everyone should be delivering their fitting measurements the week before. This means you need to know that the money is there at the same time you hand out measurement forms. Probably in this example the choir should complete their fundraising effort 2 weeks before the measurements are due at your supplier.
5. Consider the ecology of the goal (who else will be affected?). If the school band is going to resent the choir getting new uniforms then is the fundraising effort worth it? Should they also be included? Will the parents like the uniform or complain that it makes their child in particular unattractive (and do you care?).
Using this simple framework will do wonders in terms of focusing your fundraising effort. Best of all you’ll know in the end whether all your hard work has been worth it or if there are things about your approach that you need to change.
Copyright 2006 by Andrew Harris
Fundraising is a daunting task, and without expert help it can quickly become a royal mess. Andrew Harris is a Stage Hypnotist who specializes in helping schools and charities hold successful fundraising events. To learn more, and for valuable articles & worksheets, visit http://www.goldenegg.ca.
