Top 10 Tips For Fundraising Beginners (And Reminders For Seasoned Pros!)
Are you getting started with your first fundraiser? Do you feel a little unsure on where to begin?
You can get started with just a few easy tips that will set your fundraiser up for success. Whether you’re planning a school fundraiser, a sports team campaign, or a community project, our top 10 tips will help you keep your fundraiser on track.
These tips aren’t only for beginners. Whether you’re running your first or hundredth fundraiser, these tips are for everyone.
1. Keep it simple.
When we start fundraising, we often feel like we need to do absolutely everything. We think that to have a successful fundraiser, we need to offer every product, plan for every eventuality, and try to please everybody.
That’s not true. Our first step to stress-free fundraising is to keep it simple. Fundraise with only one or two products. Plan your fundraising calendar to only include dates and deadlines that are important to you and your group. Aim your fundraiser at your specific audience rather than everyone in general.
Keeping it simple will allow you to focus on the important things and make your fundraiser as successful as possible.
2. Choose products that work for you.
What products will you be fundraising with? Think about your audience and try to select products that will appeal to them.
At Indeygo Fundraising, we curate our product catalog to only include select, high-quality Canadian products. Scoop and Bake Cookie Dough is one of the easiest, most profitable fundraising products. Our cookie dough comes in 11 delicious flavours (including doggie dough for dogs!) and lets your supporters bake cookies fresh from the oven whenever they want.
If cookie dough doesn’t work for your fundraiser, there are a variety of other products you can choose from, including 100% natural Soap, Chocolate, locally roasted Coffee, and Tea.
3. Plan your timeline.
Having a clear timeline sets your fundraiser up for success. We suggest 4 weeks as the ideal timeline for fundraising. It gives you 2‑3 weeks of fundraising time, plus 7‑10 days* for delivery (*Delivery times may vary by location).
Your timeline should include important dates, like sign-up dates, order deadlines, and holidays.
(Did you know..? You can Sign Up for an Indeygo Account whenever you want! Signing up early allows you to iron out the details of future fundraisers with us, so we can help you find the products that work best for you and make your campaign as successful as possible.)
4. Set clear and achievable goals.
A fundraiser can seem like a daunting task when you view it as one big, overwhelming task. Breaking it down into smaller pieces will make it much more achievable. Some of your goals might include:
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Selecting products
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Rallying volunteers
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Assigning tasks
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Finalizing orders
You can also use your timeline to help set deadlines for goals. When do you need volunteers to have signed up? When do you need orders finalized by? Start with the end in mind!
5. Get organized.
At Indeygo, we know how important it is to organize everything clearly and consistently, so when you sign up with us, we provide checklists, templates, and paper order forms. These will help you keep track of what you need to do and when you need to do it.
Organization also gives you the satisfaction of checking things off your list. You achieved a goal? Check it off the list! A task was completed? Check it off the list! Seeing these achievements happen in real time helps you and your team stay motivated. A fundraiser is so much more than the end goal—it’s all the little wins along the way.
6. Communicate with your team.
Clear communication is essential to a fundraiser. Let your team know what your goals are, how close you are to achieving them, and where you need help. Group chats, email lists, or meetings work well to keep everyone on the same page.
You can add a communications schedule to your timeline. A weekly email or meeting is a good way to make sure everyone knows what’s happening and where you are in the fundraising process.
7. Use online platforms.
Sometimes, when we think about fundraising, we still think about going door to door to sell cookies. That can work, but you can leverage online platforms to make it easier than ever for people to support your fundraiser. Using online platforms reduce errors, and makes collecting payment easier than ever.
Indeygo provides a customizable online storefront for your fundraiser that allows people to place an order in just a few clicks. Everyone—friends, family, community members—can support you from the comfort of their own homes.
Indeygo also gives you an online dashboard that lets you manage every aspect of your fundraiser from one place. You can add participants to the account and organize them by classroom names, team divisions, or any other group name you’d like. Share updates, monitor sales reports in real time, and create leaderboards to celebrate your top sellers.
8. Promote your fundraiser.
People can and will support your fundraiser if they know about it. You can use social media, emails, posters, and word of mouth to let people know about your fundraiser. Indeygo provides ready-to-use social media assets for you to advertise what you have to offer. Post photos and videos (they don’t need to be perfect!). Tell people how the fundraiser is going. Share your success stories and celebrate when you hit a milestone.
(Pro tip: Make sure that you’re always linking to your online store so people can support you!)
9. Tell your story.
An essential part of making your fundraising shine is sharing what makes it unique. Tell people know what you’re doing and why. Be specific! Instead of saying, “We’re raising money for a sports team”, you can give details like, “We’re raising $3000 in 3 weeks to fund new uniforms and travel expenses for our hockey team.” People are more likely to support you when they know exactly what their money is going towards. Details about your specific story and goals makes them care about your success.
(Pro tip: you can check out our success stories to see some of the many different fundraisers we’ve supported over the years.)
10. Ask for support.
This one could have been part of Tip #6, but it’s so important, we wanted to give it its own place on this list. When you’re running a fundraiser, it’s easy to feel like you have to handle everything on your own. You don’t! It’s important to take care of yourself and that includes stepping back and taking breaks. You have a team, you have a support system, and everyone is willing to help. All you have to do is ask.
Are you ready to put these tips into action? You can sign up with Indeygo today and get started on your fundraiser. We’ll be here to support you every step of the way.
