Fundraising Year Around The Easy Way

Savvy Lessons: fund raising ideas, easy fund raising, school fund raising, nonprofit fund raising, fund raising programs, ideas for fund raising, fund raising auction, charities fund raising, free fund raising ideas, good fund raising, fund raising informatin, charity work, schools, fund raising basics.

Mr. Savvy Redhead June 2009

Fund raising season is around the corner, and you’re in charge!  With the current economic times, it is safe to assume that schools, non-profits, and other groups will be fundraising with a vengeance this fall as they scramble to meet the short falls in their budgets.  Such was the case for me last year when I became involved in the marching band program for my oldest son.  One thing that I quickly realized that all the efforts at raising money were widely varied, short term,  and organized by online auctiondifferent people with different levels of success.  I knew that there had to be a better long term self sustaining effort that could combine all the efforts of the parents and become very successful.  That’s when I discovered Onlineauction.com.  I will describe how I created the foundation for a year around fundraising program using the Online Auction internet site.

As I stated, I was looking for a new way to organize our fund raising efforts and hopefully simplify all the efforts and needs of parent volunteers.  We also needed a way to track everything and keep the information centralized.  We couldn’t afford to purchase custom software or reach any real measure of timely success trying to contact board members who had important information scribbled on sheets of paper somewhere in their home or office.  Driving along the highway one day, I saw a billboard advertising a newer online auction service similar to eBay only that was cheaper to use.  I had been jaded against eBay years ago as I watched most of my profits get eaten up in listing fees, selling fees, collection fees, etc.  While I am not against capitalism, I am more for capitalism when it profits me not someone else!  I checked out www.onlineauction.com and the first thing I noticed was the lack of fees.  While it is not totally free, the fees are standard per transaction, not commission based. As I began to surf around the site, it became apparent to me that this would be the perfect vehicle for our fund raising efforts.

I had some goals that I wanted to accomplish with this:

  1. Provide an avenue to sell items and collect money with minimal fees.

  2. List and organize volunteer positions needed for events.

  3. List and organize resources needed for the program.

  4. Provide a place for financial donations.

  5. Organization identity items.

Online Auction provided all this and more.  Everything was done in the form of an auction with a time limit on it.  The only confusing part that required a little bit of education for all involved was that the minimum listed price for an auction was $0.25.  So when we listed an item such as  a needed volunteer position, the auction said that it would cost $0.25 for a volunteer person to accept the position.  We simply just put in large letters on the auction description to ignore the cost.  Now, let me explain in further detail so that you can better grasp how this can help you.

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The most important things to remember in this whole process are:

It costs absolutely nothing for anyone to create an account to purchase items on this website.  No financial information is required unless they are actually buying a product or service.  So, a parent can create an account to "purchase" a volunteer position auction with no credit card information, checking account information, etc.

Each item listed is an auction.  As far as Online Auction is concerned, each item has to be purchased.  They don't care if you collect money or not.  So, each auction is listed as a "buy it now" type auction so there is bidding process, and each one is tagged as a "pay in person" option so it doesn't ask for any financial information.  Additionally, each one is listed with no shipping costs.

So, in this article, when I refer to "purchasing" an auction it means to literally click on the button to "buy" it.  However, it does not always mean that money will be involved.  As mentioned earlier, an auction listing the need for a parent to be a chaperone on the bus for the drive to a competition on Sept. 17 will not require any money for a parent to "purchase" the auction and thereby committing to that volunteer request.

SETUP

There are two choices that you can choose from to get started.  There is the basic membership where for under $10.00 per month you can sell up to 1,000 auctions.  You simply create an auction for each item and start selling.  We tried this at first trying to be clever in our auction titles as we had several categories of items to sell.  For example to sell a television that had been donated to us the auction title would be: “Thurston Band Electronics Television 27” Magnavox”.  This was would allow all of our auctions to be grouped alphabetically.  A person could simply type in “Thurston Band” in the search bar and see all of our auctions.  They would be arranged by all the electronics grouped together, all the food grouped together, and so on.  The only downside to this was that often the search results would not display the entire title, so the viewer might only see “Thurston Band Electron”, so it made it difficult for them to quickly scan the items.

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A better suggestion that cost approximately $200.00 for the first  year and $96 for each year after that was to create a “store”  or what Online Auction calls a "house" within the Online Auction site.  This allows you organize your auctions more like a website with links for categories, making it easier to navigate for the viewer.  I highly suggest this option.

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PROVIDE AN AVENUE TO SELL ITEMS AND COLLECT MONEY WITH MINIMAL FEES

For our particular situation, we had over 60 students that needed to earn their share of costs so this made car washes and bottle drives ineffectual for the masses.  After doing a car wash, the money earned for the day just did not go very far when divided amongst so many students.  So we had to develop other avenues on smaller scales that the students could earn more money per hour worked.  So we developed the following items to sell:

  1.  Anything that local businesses were willing to donate.  This could range fromblock buster gift certificates, televisions, clothing, food, sporting equipment, house wares, etc.  Sometimes a business couldn’t afford to donate the entire cost of a large ticket item, but would be willing to sell it to us at wholesale or less.  This was simple to work with as we could list andtv sell the auction, collect the money, and then purchase the item and make delivery arrangements.  I might mention that we restricted a majority of the sales to local buyers only to cut down on shipping and delivery issues.  However, for smaller easily shipped items, we would consider shipping items.

    1. Students and parents would be sent out to solicit donations from area businesses.  Some items would be brought back to a locked storage room and inventoried.  Other items would remain at the business until sold.

    2. Profits from these items would be directed to the student’s account that solicited the item less a small percentage that was added to the general fund.

  2. pianoAny item that a student or a student’s family wanted to sell as a used item.  This could be the family piano, dresser, tools, etc.  Anything in good condition. 

    1. The item could be stored at their home until sold.

    2. The money earned could be directed to the students account less a small percentage that was added to the general fund.

  3. Any service that a student or a student’s family wanted to offer. This could berake leaves raking leaves, washing windows, painting, cleaning, singing Christmas songs, etc.

    1. The auctions always stated that students would be accompanied by an adult to eliminate safety concerns.

    2.  The money earned could be directed to the students account less a small percentage that was added to the general fund.

  4.  Any item or service to donated by any community or alumni person.  Profitsphotographer would be directed to the general fund.

 

LIST AND ORGANIZE VOLUNTEER POSITIONS FOR NEEDED EVENTS

Just about any organization that needs to fundraise also needs volunteer positions filled.  For our specific needs we had many opportunities for volunteers to serve.  As a marching band, we routinely needed a small army of parent volunteers to help out with competition dates.  We would list every position that needed to be filled for every date at the beginning of the season.  By having all this done before the season started, we were able to direct all the parents at our first parent meeting to Online Auction to select where and when they would help out.  This is where we would we had to state in the auction text that even though it showed it would cost $0.25 to “purchase” the volunteer position auction, that no money would be collected.

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  1. Each position would be listed with date, time, location, and expected duties to perform.

  2. If we needed more than one person for the position, such as several cooks, we would adjust the quantity of the auction to reflect our need.  By doing this, we could take a glance at our remaining "unsold" auctions and know that we still needed 2 more cooks, or 1 more truck loader.  Online Auction organized our volunteer needs, provided us with all the contact information of the volunteer, and gave us snapshot glimpses of what needs still needed to be filled without having to track down a board member who would have normally monitored this effort.

  3. Online Auction allowed volunteers to accept positions on their time schedule.  In the morning, at night, or even at work they could simply log on and “purchase” a volunteer position auction.  They never had to try and connect with a board member, playing phone tag, getting frustrated, and giving up.

  4. As soon as an auction was purchased, an email was sent to key board members who logged it and recorded it.  The email contained all the relevant information such as the volunteers name, address, phone number, and email.  It also stated what event and time they were helping out with.  This allowed the board member who monitored the volunteer services to follow up with reminder calls via phone and email.

LIST AND ORGANIZE RESOURCES NEEDED

Much like listing volunteer positions, this focused on material goods needed.  Once again, we had all items listed at the beginning of the season.  Each auction was very specific in the item needed, date needed by, quantity, and delivery instructions.  We also had to list that no money would be collected for the $0.25 fee listed on the auction.  Additionally, just like the volunteer positions, a board member received an email with all the contact information of the person offering to help.

  1.  Predominately, this was food items for our competition dates.  When thecookies marching band traveled to another school to compete, we would be there for two meals.  In order to save money we would solicit food items to be donated before any food was purchased for the meals.  Menus were completed at the beginning of the season, complete with quantities needed of each ingredient or item.  All items were listed with their quantities on the auction site.  For example, if spaghetti was to be served then there would be auctions for pasta, sauce, bread, salad, fruit, cookies, brownies, etc. with appropriate quantities. If we needed say 15lbs of hamburger, we would list the auction as needing 3lbs of hamburger, but show a qty of 5 in the auction.  This way 5 people could buy 3lbs each or two people could split it 9lbs and 6lbs or any combination.  We could glance at the remaining auction at any time and see what we needed to purchase that had not been volunteered.  Directions would specify when and where the food needed to be delivered according to the head cook.  Sometimes food was prepared the day before or onsite.  Then a couple of days before the event, the head cook could look at the auctions and see what had not been donated already and knew what had to still be purchased.

  2. We also used this for general items.  We wanted a generator to run electronic band instruments, so it was put on the auction.  We wanted folding tents, tables, chairs, cooking equipment, and so on.  All this was put on the auction as a wish list per say.  Some items were donated as used and some as new.

 

PROVIDE A METHOD FOR DONATIONS

DOLLARWe also wanted a way that alumni and community members could make financial donations.  We listed auctions for $10.00 Bronze, $25.00 Silver, $100.00 Gold, and $500.00 Platinum donations.  This allowed anyone to choose one or more of these auctions to make a donation. 

 

ORGANIZATION IDENTITY ITEMS

tshirtThis where we could sell t-shirts, hats, sweatshirts and other items that identified us with the organization.  Just like other items to be sold, this allowed us to keep orders and transactions organized. 

 

FINAL SUGGESTIONS

Listed below are few more items to consider making this a successful  process:

  1. When listing the auctions in the "store", create categories such volunteers, items to sell, services, etc.  Then create the title of each item in categorical decending order to keep things grouped.

    1. For example: if I needed to list volunteer positions for two different events I might create the titles below:

      "Portland October 10-Bus Chaperone"
      "Portland October 10-Cook"
      "Salem November 5-Bus Chaperone"
      "Salem November 5-Cook"

      You can see how things are kept listed in categorical decending order.  So when someone clicks on the Volunteer section, everything will list by whatever way I want to have them organized.  Of course, you could type in any portion of the title in the main search bar and see simular results.

  2. Marketing:  once you adopt the use of Online Auction, then you will always be marketing your auction site. 

    1. All printed material has a reference to your auction site.  All event programs, event literature, and media sources list the auction site and its purpose.

    2. You may even choose to have volunteers’ staff booths or tables at various non-related events to market it.  For example, it would be very profitable for us to have a table with literature all the school sporting games and meets.  Additionally, to have it mentioned in all programs for plays, concerts, newsletters, and other events.

    3. Get creative in getting the word out.

  3. Dependable staff.  You will need at least 6-7 dependable people to make this work.  If you can’t get these positions filled with people to help them, then it is unlikely that you will have any success. You will need the following positions:

    1. Director-responsible for overseeing all aspects of the project.

    2. Volunteer & resources Director-responsible for all needed resources and volunteer  positions, reminder calls, and substitutes.

    3.  Products Director- responsible for overseeing efforts soliciting donations from area businesses and families. 

    4. Inventory Director-responsible for items to be sold kept in onsite inventory and responsible for shipping and delivery efforts.

    5. Marketing Director- responsible for all marketing efforts.

    6. Auction Director- responsible for posting all auctions and keeping listings uniform

  4.  One way to encourage businesses to donate items is to present it as  advertising and not a donation.  They are more apt to advertise than donate.  Tell a perspective donor that you will include a small advertisement of his business on the auction listing and a link to their website.  You may even include mention on the main pages of the store front of the auction site.

 

If you need to avoid the cost of expensive tracking software, why not use a readymade option that is both functional and inexpensive.  This method will allow you to have year around fundraising efforts and to better maximize your efforts. 


                                       savvy redhead


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