Fundly Spotlight: Ailing Boy Helps Others Through Online Fundraising

While most 9-year-olds are enjoying their summer vacation by traveling with their families, running through sprinklers, and counting down the days until they have to return to school, young Jack Pullman is battling several rare interstitial lung diseases (chILD) and journeys to the UMass Pediatric Infusion Unit for treatments. On one of these many visits to the hospital, Jack realized that something had to be done to update the electronic games and movies there that were few and outdated for the patients to enjoy while they endured their long procedures. With determination and the help of social networking sites, Jack has created an online fundraising campaign using Fundly to garner funds for new PlayStation consoles, games, and movies and to travel to a conference in San Diego to meet other children who are in a similar battle with lung disease.

Jack’s mother Melissa thoughtfully created their page with the following in mind: “I included all about Jack and his condition. What he was trying to do and what our goals were. The most important part I thought were the pictures and how things are worded. You don’t want to say too much so that they won’t read it, but you want to include enough information to get them involved.”

They certainly were able to get people involved; so far Jack has increased his fundraising goal three times, from $5,000 to $10,000 to $15,000, and ultimately to $20,000. He has currently raised $16,623 of his $20,000 goal with 162 supporters following his progress and 168 donating to his cause. In May, he was at $7,757 with 69 supporters and 70 donors; what a difference two months has made!

What tips would Melissa give to other Fundly users?

• Clearly state your goal. “Fundly allowed us to be super successful; we changed our goal three times!!! People are more apt to donate if they are helping you reach your goal.”
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• Promote your Fundly page and ask others to help. Melissa credits her amazing results to her tenacity in getting the word out about her fundraising page. “I posted it on my own Facebook page. I asked many friends to post it on theirs. I emailed EVERYONE on my email list. I Facebook messaged every big organizations in our area including newspapers, etc. and anyone I could think of. I asked for it to be posted on a web site for where my husband works and where I did work. We work/worked for a police organization that has over 2000 employees. I then reached out to all the retired people.”

Celebrating Teacher Appreciation Week With Online Resources

 This week is Teacher Appreciation Week and these sacrificial saints are worthy of honor and acknowledgement. Other than moms (and don’t forget yours this Sunday on Mother’s Day), who else works for such  a small pittance,  gets hardly a thank you for the direction they give, and finds joy doing what most people dread? This week let’s give praise where praise is due and show the teachers in our lives how much we care.

According to Edutopia, 40% of the teachers they polled said that a gift card would be the most appropriate gift. While Starbucks is a common choice, many said that they would like cards to book stores, restaurants, or spas. Consider having the class donate to this fund; parents don’t have to wrack their brains trying to figure out what to get and the teacher can purchase a gift she really wants. Plus, there are tons of great sites out there where you can buy a gift card online (such as Gift Card Mall or iCARDS) and either print it out or e-mail it to the recipient; you never even have to leave home!

Facebook is obviously a great way to connect with past and present friends. Why not look up a former teacher? Tell that special person how they impacted your life. Maybe they helped you overcome an obstacle or taught you a great life lesson. Teacher appreciation week doesn’t just have to be about current students thanking the teacher they have now.

Another way to show that special teacher in your life how much you care is to send an e-mail to the various parents of students in your child’s class. Create a list of classroom items that your teacher may need and each family can bring an item to the teacher (e-mail sign-ups can prevent overlap). Consider gifting crayons, pens, a CD player, some educational DVDs, books, stickers, or wall décor to your educator. Many teachers lack the tools they need to help their students learn and this is one way to make his or her job easier.  You could also raise money online by creating a webpage on Fundly. In a few minutes you could set up a donation site for families at your school and relatives to donate funds for your school or classroom… no selling cookie dough and no expensive wrapping paper catalogues!

Novelist and historian Henry Brooks Adams once said “A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.” With such an important and demanding role in our society, shouldn’t we take the time to show our appreciation to these everyday heroes?

Non-Profits Balance Charity Work and Free Enterprise

Countless non-profits are facing the dilemma of a decrease in funds coming in and an increase in the needs of the people whom they serve. While new marketing approaches and rearranging budgets are usually at the top of the list for strategic planning, many charities are dabbling with new and creative ideas. Innovative business models are popping up with profitable results.

It’s not a new idea for non-profits to cross over into the for profit world. Goodwill and St. Vincent DePaul have managed thrift shops for decades. Junior Achievement has been producing handmade products to help high schools students learn the principles of business and many websites are hawking the crafts of third world countries to provide a better standard of living. And this holiday season, how many of your co-workers have brought in cookie, decoration or candy catalogues to help raise money for their children’s schools? However, more non-profits are looking to become self sufficient since donations have dwindled and government funding is shaky.

Columnist Michelle Singletary writes in the Washington Post that, “To help encourage more creativity, the Alliance for Global Good, a nonprofit group that promotes philanthropic efficiency and effectiveness, has established a fund to support charitable organizations that come up with new business models. The alliance’s Innovation Fund will initially have about $10 million.”

Singletary gives one such example. “The Chicago-based North Lawndale Employment Network inspired the idea for the innovation fund. The organization created a for-profit beekeeping enterprise, Sweet Beginnings, to help ex-offenders and other low-income residents of Chicago’s Westside neighborhoods get employment training.” Now their products can be found in local stores and even in airports!

Now I’m not saying that non-profits need to create a product to sell to stay afloat. I’m just suggesting that there are many options out there to help your non-profit succeed in a tough market. With social media making marketing and financial transactions easy and accessible, this low cost way to connect to donors and consumers can be a viable way to raise money.

If your non-profit is looking for new and innovative ways to raise funds, I encourage you to start an online non-profit fundraising campaign using Fundly’s leading social fundraising platform used by non-profits big and small to raise money online via social media.

Why Nonprofits Should Harness the Facebook Obsession

Last night my husband was watching television after dinner and the program captured my attention. While I was earnestly trying to work on my laptop, I kept hearing the words “Facebook,” “Mark Zuckerberg” and staggering numbers and statistics. I finally gave up what I was doing and plopped down on the couch next to him; as a member of the social media fundraising world, The Facebook Obsession on CNBC was like History of the World 101.

Everyone knows the product that is Facebook. Everyone knows that the Facebook god is Mark Zuckerberg. What astounded me was the snowball effect that Facebook has had growing from a small group of Harvard guys armed with laptops at a kitchen table to the mega machine that it is today. I was also blown away by the value of the company and Zuckerburg’s commitment to stay at the helm. Now with the company going public, many others have a chance to profit from this technological marvel.

What is it about this website that has millions addicted? (Even as I am writing this I decided to look up some facts on Facebook and was sidetracked for 15 minutes reading friends’ posts!) Is it that life is so busy that this is the only way to keep up with friends? Are we all so nosy that we want to know when people go to Starbucks or are up all night sick? Are my friends and contacts the only ones who write crazy or pointless posts? (I won’t even bring up how one dad posted a picture of his kid at the hospital with a big gash in his head….)

Anyway… all this got me thinking about how nonprofits can harness this power for good. If so many people have this crazy addiction, just think of the masses that can be reached using this online tool. At Fundly we’ve heard tons of stories about people using social media to raise money to help friends recover from an apartment fire, strangers donating funds to make a cancer patient’s final wishes come true and people uniting to bring attention to a plethora of passions and causes.

It seems like Facebook isn’t going anywhere and nonprofit organizations would be remiss not to jump on board. It is certainly worth the time and effort to post weekly updates and the needs of your charity. Just think what could happen!! Start up ourFacebook fundraising campaign today and raise money online quick and easy for your non-profit fundraisers.

Fundraising Online Increases Revenue more Successfully for Causes

Charities and organizations are beginning to catch on to the fact that raising donations online is quick, easy, and very profitable. Charities have discovered that it is very easy to raise money online using websites, social media, and ad campaigns. Donations are rolling in at rates they could never have imagined.

Ever since the recent economic downturn many charities have struggled with getting enough donations just to keep their doors open. Donors have become hard pressed for extra funds and in turn can’t pass on quite as much to the charities they have faithfully supported.

Fundraising online maximizes earning potential because you can reach more people. When people can’t donate as much at once you can still get more funds by getting smaller amounts from multiple donors. Many charities who’ve chosen to raise funds online have noticed massive increases in the amounts they receive even if the individual donation amounts have decreased. It truly is a win-win situation.

There are so many sites that offer valuable options for fundraising for charities. Facebook offers charities their cause pages a nifty way to reach potential donors by word of mouth or rather word of post advertising. Charities can track their donors; run advertising campaigns and more at very low rates. Fundraising options that used to only be available to larger organizations can now be used by smaller organizations with fewer resources.

Online fundraisers are becoming more and more popular as charities see the success stories other charities have shared. You can’t ignore many of the stories that are circulating as charities are even using YouTube videos and other similar media to spread the word. Videos are going viral and generating income from sources that they would have never dreamed were possible.

No charitable organization can afford not to maintain an online presence to generate funding. Without these resources now charities would lose a huge chunk of financing and those who have yet to avail themselves of these methods are missing out on so much. Ignoring this opportunity is extremely detrimental.

Churches and other entities are jumping on the bandwagon of online fundraising.  Nonprofit organizations are quickly learning that this is the next big thing in reaching potential donors. Businesses focused on assisting charities in maximization their online fundraising campaign efforts are popping up everywhere in response to the great need for this service.
Online fundraising is a veritable cornucopia of opportunities for charitable organizations, individuals and schools. Raising funds online has never been easier. You don’t even need a merchant account t anymore to accept donations. You can use services such as Fundly to collect donations for a fee.

It’s amazing how many look to raise money online and how it has evolved as the internet grows. Social media is having a huge impact on fundraising efforts and I foresee that many more interesting developments for online fundraising are on the horizon. People are innovative in getting much needed funds for organizations and causes they care about. You see interesting new methods in the news and online almost every day.

Fundraising is easy for Causes to Raise Money Online when using social networks to fundraise

There is not even a single organization without a website. Another thing is that they can take full advantage of specific applications. First, it is rare to find a design in which users can easily identify the objectives of the corporate website and they include fundraising in a prominent position. This means that the vast majority of websites are timid calls for economic cooperation, placing this option among many others and not in a very visible way. The same happens with social networks. Both are powerful weapons!

Conversely, nor are doing the exercise to define precisely who their audience is or which their priority is. In this way, they can modulate the content, architecture and design based on the needs of users. Sometimes they overstate the importance of graphic design on the contents and how to organize them. It can be a very flashy website and an original piece of art, made entirely with Flash programming, which provides very interesting elements to display the usual information. But the problem is this does not have the ability to help users find what they seek. By contrast, social networks are the perfect combination. In this sense, the many applications are grandiose to raise money online.

Another weakness in the use of the Internet for fundraising is that some people focus on the website and forget about interacting with users. It’s like having a nice shop running through vendors liabilities. The quality of the genre, the way it is presented and the ease of finding what clients are looking are basic qualities of a good shop. Social networks spread the word and can guide and encourage donors to give money to various fundraising campaigns. This metaphor summarizes the features of a website to showcase and e-mail as a tool drive donations as well.

It is imperative to dominate the Internet metric, i.e., tools and indicators to assess overall results and followers. You have to know what really gives you the measure of the effectiveness and efficiency in the use of the Internet to fundraise, and what practical implications can be drawn from reading the data.

For instance, a fundraising campaign illustrates the ability of Social networks to spread messages for specific causes. In short, the Internet is a great tool, but if you know how to use it for your own behalf. It’s not as simple as it seems at first sight. In addition, everything is evolving at a breakneck pace. It is not easy to keep abreast of all developments. But if you do not want to miss the future, have to get to it even though it is running. It’s not hard to start up your own fundraising campaign to raise money online when using a high quality online fundraising platform like what Fundly provides for non profits, schools, groups, and other fundraisers that need to raise money.

To make your next fundraising campaign a success, make sure to tell a short but engaging story that will touch people and hopefully prompt them to give to your fundraiser.

Raising Money Online: Little Tricks to Up the Ante

Ok, let’s give credit where it’s due. You’ve resisted the siren song of the fundraising tactics of yesteryear. Charity galas and bake sales SOUND really fun – for the people attending them. For the people running them, they’re the culmination of weeks or months of planning, logistics and hassles so that people can give you $1.50 for the banana bread you spent $10.00 on ingredients for.

Until recently, busting your butt in order to raise money for your cause was expected. And a lot of the time, when people hear the term fundraising they subconsciously feel the ‘raising’ efforts should be akin to raising a barn. Or one of those giant jugs upside-down onto the water cooler when no one’s around to help you, without spilling half of it onto the office carpet/the front of your pants (awkward). That is to say – pretty freakin’ tough. But raising money online means fundraising doesn’t have to be like that.

The arrival of online fundraising has made raising money so much easier. It almost feels criminal, posting bigger returns for less effort and, maybe, the fact that running it from a computer makes you feel a bit like you should be selling Nigerian investment scams. But that feeling quickly fades away when you realize that the easier it is for you to raise money online, the more your cause benefits.

Less time is wasted on the tedious elements of offline campaigns (there’s gotta be a pretty lopsided ratio between the amount of money raised and the amount of cut-eye from people who open their door to someone carrying a clipboard) and more people reached through the ever-growing tentacles of the world wide web (Twitter? Facebook? Anyone?). Along with the undeniable convenience of donating through the click of a mouse as opposed to the click of your high heels up the walkway to a dinner at the local community center, as they pinch your baby toes and you wish you’d just bought the ticket (it’s for charity, of course) and stayed home in your cozy, cozy slippers. All of this translates into a more efficient campaign and a bigger donor base full of happy people more likely to give their support and rally behind your cause.
So friend, good for you for realizing this, and readily embracing the world of fundraising online. Clap clap! Gold star! Smiley face! Whatever makes you feel best appreciated. But now that you’ve got your online fundraising campaign all set up and ready to go, there are a few tricks to take it from “what a success!” to “YEEEEAH BABY PEOPLE ARE ALL OVER THIS!!”

A Multiple Appeal Series: Send out several messages over the course of a period of time as a part of a cohesive campaign, as opposed to a standalone appeal. It not only serves as a reminder to people to give, but lets you approach them in a less aggressive way – you have more chances to talk to them, explain the cause, etc. It’s been shown that in a multi vs. standalone appeal, peoples’ response time was higher and average gift was greater. So give it some salad and boiled chicken and spread your message a little thinner.

Deadline-Driven Appeals: Tapping into peoples’ innate fear of due dates? Giving them a deadline for donations is more effective than open-ended appeals and reaps greater rewards. In fact, the average gift amount is almost double in some cases. So whether your deadline is tethered to an actual event for your cause or it’s the anniversary of that time your Chihuahua played with a rolled up potato bug for the whole afternoon (and you laughed and laughed), specific dates spark a bigger reaction when raising money online. Who knew?

Matching Gifts: We’ve all seen it before: “If we reach $2,000 for the One-Eyed Wallaby Foundation, the Two-Eyed Wallaby Foundation will match it to bring us to $4,000!” Maybe not that specific example, but promising a matching donation has been a proven motivator for both response rate and gift amount from donors. Most likely because it makes people feel like they’re doing more with what they give since anything they donate is literally doubled. This is also a great way to introduce deadlines into your online fundraising campaign. For example, “Whatever amount we reach by February 12 will be matched! We won’t stop until every wallaby gets an eye”.

Dollar Goals: This is the least effective out of all four on its own, but is great to use in combination with others as a solid goal for people to connect themselves to. For example, setting a deadline to reach a dollar goal and then sending out multiple appeals up until that deadline would be a tour de force of raising money online. Leave no tactic unturned!

The fact that you’re online in the first place is a great step in turning your fundraising campaign into a successful, ever-reaching Megalodon version of what it would be offline. Not only is online fundraising quicker, easier, and more expansive than its offline counterpart, but there are lots of ways to easily tweak your campaign to ensure more support and more donations from your growing donor base. So pat yourself on the back and throw out your comfortable “walking shoes” that you secretly know give you a bad case of the cankles. Your door-to-door days are over!

For free fundraising tools that will help you effectively raise money online for your online fundraisers, you can create, manage, and track the success of an unlimited amount of fundraising campaigns today by using a robust online fundraising platform. Fundraise with ease for your cause’s fundraiser now by using these free and easy to use, fundraising tools.

Fundly Provides Social Fundraising Tools and Support for Causes

Fundly is an online fundraising platform that helps causes raise money online and connect people with charitable organizations whom they wish to donate money to.

We all know that every year there are literally billions of dollars raised for many different causes both across the country and around the world. Fundly provides a whole range of highly valuable, yet free fundraising tools to assist both sides of this fundraising equation.

For those that wish to actually donate to causes, they can do this via the Fundly social giving platform that has a registry of featured causes and charities.

For those that wish to raise money online for charity, there are numerous tools that can be used to assist. Whether these fundraisers are for and with schools, with sports clubs or other popular collectives, there are separate, very useful areas of Fundly that can be used for free by these groups.

In fact, the site is so versatile there are areas for people that wish to raise money online and would like to get some great online fundraising ideas. There are numerous dedicated pages for assisting you with the ideas you might need to better raise money for your cause. In this case you can even get ideas for fundraising for political campaigns, non-profits, and a whole lot more.

The best part is that they provide free fundraising tools for all causes. Fundly only charges a small fee to cover credit card donation processing and their operating costs, there are no fees of any other kind.
Check out their social fundraising tools today.

Easy Fundraising For Your Cause

Gathering contributions in terms of money for a particular cause or event is called fundraising. In short, it is asking for donations by those interested. Fundraising is done by non-profit organizations, political parties, religious organizations, schools, clubs, sports, and public broadcasting companies to raise money for various reasons. Sometimes, it is lead by an effective individual while sometimes it is a corporation or a group of individuals.

Nowadays, fundraising can be organized and done in a very simple manner through online campaigning. Everyone from charity groups to schools is putting up websites to host money for a cause or an event. If it is not a special website for the purpose, it is a special page dedicated to the matter on an already existing website. Online fundraising is done by starting websites for the cause where people can become members and donate money, sending bulk mails, posting about the fundraising with a link on sites which are visited by many people, and many more.

There are special sites that assist in doing the job of fundraising online. These sites provide marketing and media fundraising tools and also give sound advice as to what all is needed to be covered in the matter.
These sites also have fundraising divided into different categories and the methodology is suggested as per the category it belongs to. For example, if it is a school fundraising through selling candy, the website helps in setting it up properly and also helps the school authorities by reducing many time consuming activities.
One of the main advantages when raising money online for a cause is immediate response both for the fundraiser and the donor. Another advantage is that it is possible to keep track of what a person looks into when they visit a fundraising site. This gives a good idea of what they are interested in and what should be emphasized more to reel in the funds. The possibilities are limitless to raise money online.

Other methods of fundraising, other than online, are holding events, shows, parties, distributing fliers, going for a campaign to certain locations, putting up booths in busy places like malls, etc. Most people advertise many of these fundraising tactics on the Internet as well as it has a far wider reach. In events and parties many times there are celebrities who perform free of charge to reel in more funds.

For the bigger events, most people arrange the services of a professional who takes care of all the arrangements, including media coverage. These professionals charge a big fee and a part of the money raised goes into their pocket. Hiring a professional consultant is a good idea for the large campaigns. The reach and scale of the campaign may be too big to be handled individually. The smaller campaigns can go in for booths, fliers, face-to-face marketing, etc.

An important aspect of fundraising is doing everything possible to make the message behind the fundraising known to the donors. Hence, the method being employed depends on the type of targeted donors. Generally, a mixture of methods is used and most of mixtures these days involve online marketing.

How To Raise Money Online For A Cause? Easy Fundraising Tips

t is now possible to raise money for a social or political cause without having to organize an event or advertising in newspapers. The Internet has come up with an easier solution where you can reach out to millions without incurring expenses. You can raise money online as there are many avenues that you can employ, including social networking sites.

Raise money by targeting your donor audience
If you want to raise money online then it will be a good idea if you target the audience that supports your cause. You can do that by assessing the popularity of your cause and promoting it across a number of social networks. You can start with Facebook and Twitter and later expand your footprint to other social networking sites. All it needs is a simple approach that can help you in expanding your outreach.

·      You can start with creating a page on Facebook. This will serve as the mainstay of your fundraising efforts.

·      You can then start the process of outreach by visiting pages supporting similar causes and encouraging people to join your page.

·      You will be able to reach maximum number of people if you promote your page on social networking sites. The greater the number of fans and friends, the more will be the money raised.

·      Twitter can serve as the secondary platform to raise money online. A single tweet can encourage many to donate towards your cause if you have significant number of followers.

·      Linked-in and other websites can also help you to raise money for your cause.

How to raise money in significant amounts?
While you may be able to find some donors on social networks, it is important to expand your footprint to raise significant amount of money. This will call for a streamlined approach where you can track analytics on every social networking site. It is also important to create a network of payment where people are able to donate without lengthy procedures or glitches. Credit cards, electronic checks, and other modes of payment should be enabled on your platform.

A single platform for making donations may increase the number of donations as people will find it easier to donate to your cause. You can use payment platforms that offer simple procedures of accepting donations from social networking sites. These platforms offer an application where you can post links to the payment module on social networking sites and people will be able to make donations by clicking on that link. Some donation platforms do not even need the posting of a link as you can directly embed the donation module on your Facebook or Twitter page. Visitors to your page can use this module to donate on the spot without being directed to an external site.

You will also be able to keep track of each donation through this arrangement. You can raise money online in substantial amounts by using donation platforms and applications. You will be surprised by the ease with which you will be able to raise money.