Setting Your Goal

This is the time when you decide the most crucial information for your fundraiser. Sit down by yourself or with a committee and ask yourself three very important questions: How much money do we need to raise? When are we going to start our fundraiser and how long will it run? How do we make a lasting impression with our fundraiser? These questions will continue to come up through the course of your planning and having the right answers will help make the planning a breeze.

Selecting Your Fundraiser

Thinking back to the last question in Step 1 - How do we make a lasting impression with our fundraiser? The product you are offering is undoubtedly the most important part of your fundraiser. There are many fundraisers that come to mind like car washes, candy sales, magazines and hundreds of other ideas. While these are all great ideas they do not leave a lasting impression from your fundraiser. Your efforts will be forgotten as soon as the candy wrapper hits the trashcan or the first rainstorm washes away the shine of a freshly washed car. Furthermore, fundraisers such as candy sales isolate members of your church who are diabetic, dieting or allergic to popular ingredients like nuts or chocolates.

Ministry Fundraisers can provide your group with a long lasting impression that can be enjoyed by ALL members of your church and community. Our Christian T-shirts will remind the members of your church about your groups last fundraiser each time they put it on for years to come. Also, keeping in mind that these Christian T-shirts will get alot of wear to church based activities, you will be receiving free promotion to your next fundraiser each time the person wearing the shirt is complimented or asked " I LOVE that shirt, where did you get it"? This only adds to the anticipation and success of your next Christian T-shirt fundraiser.

What Are Your Resources?

How are you going to get the word out about your fundraiser? Do you have enough members in your group to reach the goal and if not can you solicit more volunteers?

Promoting your fundraiser is often the most overlooked aspect and can be the most devastating. Consider the best way to get the word out about your fundraiser. There are many ways to do this which include getting it placed in the church bulletin, asking your minister, reverend or priest to mention it during the announcements in the church service, using posters, printing flyers, and the list goes on and on. It is best to start promoting your fundraiser at least 2 weeks before your launch date.

Now that you have the word out you need to be able to provide the members of your church and community with a properly staffed fundraiser. It is always better to have a large crew of volunteers and members from your group to deal with the demand of your fundraiser. Think of it in these terms, you go to the food court at your local mall and you are really craving a certain dish from your favorite restaurant, you stroll up to the counter only to find that the line to order is about 15 people long and the restaurant seems to be short staffed. How long would you wait? Most of us would walk away and choose an alternate dish at another eatery that seems to be well staffed and moving people through the line efficiently. The same is true with your fundraiser, if you are setting up display tables after service many people are in a rush to get home and though they have the desire to help your group they do not have the time to wait.

Planning Your Fundraiser

Going back to Step 1, use the information you gathered to create your plan of action for the fundraiser. This includes setting the goal of the fundraiser which should include your financial figure along with your goal. For example; Our group needs to raise $1,750 for our mission trip to Haiti. When planning the timeframe that your fundraiser will run it is best to stay within a 2-3 week timeframe. This allows ample opportunity for the members of your church and community to visit your fundraising area and it is also short enough to keep the enthusiasm of your group on the goal of your fundraiser.

One of the most succesful fundraisers that we have seen was a Youth Group who purchased about 100 shirts in advance through our wholesale site. They selected 10 shirt designs and bought them in a variety of sizes. They scheduled a "Fashion Show" to be held after service. Ten youth each paraded around the church, each wearing a different shirt. Then they had a table outside of the church where the shirts were available for sale. They ended up selling out of the shirts they had purchased in advance and took orders for 200 more shirts. They waited a few weeks, picked another 10 designs and repeated the process. By the end of their fundraisers they had sold over 500 shirts in two weekends. Think of some ways that you can add a new approach to your fundraiser.

Holding a Pre-Fundraiser Kick Off Meeting

Holding a Kick-Off celebration with your group before the fundraiser begins is a great idea. Things to cover in this meeting are the goals, times and dates the fundraiser will run. Discuss in-depth the goal of the fundraiser, many members of your church and community will ask the question "What are you raising money for"?

This question needs to be answered in the same manner by all members of your group. For this reason it is best to have a one sentence response. One suggestion is:

"Hello my name is ___________ and as part of the _________ group we are raising money for __________, would you be willing to help us in achieving our goals by purchasing _________?

Ministry Fundraisers will provide you with all the supplies for your fundraiser that will come in your fundraising kit, this kit will include sample Christian T-shirts, color catalogs and order forms. The Kick-Off meeting is a perfect time to pass around the shirts, catalogs and explain the correct way to fill out an order form. This allows your group to touch and see the quality and design of the product they will be offering.

The last part of your Kick-Off meeting can be focussed on asking the members of your group to make a list of 10-15 potential customers to approach before the fundraiser begins. Start with family and friends and then move to neighbors, co-workers and others who they feel would be interested in supporting your cause. Remember this is your sales force and having them start with family and friends will make them more comfortable when it comes to discussing the fundraiser with members of your church and community who they might not be as familiar with.

Once you have put the ball into motion it is important that you properly manage the fundraiser. This includes not only the obvious financial management, but also keeping your group motivated throughout the fundraiser. If you maintain constant encouragement, communication and feedback with your group about your fundraiser you will be keeping the enthusiasm level up and their eye on the goal.

Ask questions of your group constantly, see what techniques are working best for others and try to apply those to the rest of the group.

During the course of your fundraiser it is beneficial to have several sidebar meetings with the group to discuss the fundraiser. Some ideas for these meetings include a pizza party, pot-luck meal or other theme event. While you might need to spend a little money to pull off these meetings, the enthusiasm of keeping your group motivated will outweigh the cost of the meeting by increasing fundraising sales.

Incentives, Incentives, Incentives! Anybody who has run a successful fundraiser will tell you that incentives play a big part in the outcome of a fundraiser. Try things such as raffle drawings for a certain amount of Christian T-shirts sold, in addition to the incentives you come up with Ministry Fundraisers will provide your group with a customized incentive program to meet your goal. These incentive plans range from top seller awards to an all around group award for when your goal has been surpassed. The incentive plans offered by Ministry Fundraisers are just our way of saying Thank You, any item(s) awarded to your group by Ministry Fundraisers will not be deducted from your profits.