Panhandling Vs. Online Fundraising? Nothing drives me more crazy than every weekend, going to my same local grocery store, and on the way out being hit up by a cute child for fundraising dollars. The local grocery store feels they are supporting youth sports and other local organizations to allow kids to crowd the exit door and make you feel incredibly guilty, because of course the organization puts the cutest kid in the front.
The kids stand in front, while parents stand behind them looking proud of little Johnny for asking a stranger for money or a store receipt that can be converted to cash, or hey why not a hot dog and pop. My view, this is totally panhandling by kids. And I am not the only one who is feeling this. Is it safe? No! Especially, when we say don’t talk to strangers. And guess what, people out of guilt may throw a couple of dollars there way, in fear they may be followed to their car.
I recently as a test asked those donors that I witnessed donating, who was the organization that they had just donated to? They had no idea, so the organization failed and did not gain any new following or recognition to their organization. You then ask, was the organization successful? Perhaps for immediate, but not for any sort of long term engagement relationship.
Absolutely, I recognize, that all sports and organizations that kids are involved in, need to fundraise to try to keep the registration fees down for parents so that kids can engage in activities. But there are other ways.
Let’s evaluate the effectiveness with respect to the dollars raised. 4 kids standing outside of the door – no cost there. Now how much do they collect over 4 hour time period? On average, based on my research, $40/hour per kid. This equals $640 for the morning. Is that successful? I guess it depends on what is successful. We know the engagement value is not there.
Now let’s review the online pledge fundraising solution Raise-A-Thon. The charge for building a site is $200-$400 depending on your needs which can be easily determined. You write about your cause and tell people what you will use the money for. Determine the activity i.e. Skate-A-Thon, Walk-A-Thon, Jump-A-Thon, Swim-A-Thon, Flip-A-Thon, etc Engage the kids/parents in your organization who will build their own profile and goal. The kids/parents will Email, utilize Facebook, Twitter, etc to pass on to family and friends to donate to your cause. People will feel better about donating to a cause that they can read about, and know the child who is participating.
Time and time again, we can share successful results. If you have 100 kids, and each raises $100 (which is low) that’s $10,000.
We DON’T charge a %, so the more you raise you are not penalized like some of the other online fundraising tools.
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