Fundraising Campaign On The Internet
Fundraising On The Internet
Part 23
In our last fundraising management discussion we focused on continuing a fundraising campaign engaging charitable foundations as a source of funding. Now we need to focus on using the Internet.
There is a plethora of information pertaining to fundraising for capital campaigns, fundraising for annual campaigns, hospital fundraising campaigns, youth fundraising programs, fundraising for churches, fundraising for seniors buildings, and fundraising management all found online somewhere on the Internet. Not all of the information is reliable or even good information.
While most fundraising and campaign management information found on the Internet is accurate some is outrageously misleading. One must be careful of the sources they use to gather fundraising information.
For example, consider a fund raising letter that is provided as a resource from a successful fundraising campaign. When was the letter written and how much money was raised? How many potential donors received the letter? How long did it take to raise the specific amount of money?
The truth is that this letter may or may not have raised the specific amount of money in the specific amount of time suggested. How would one know for sure? If, it is assumed that the letter did generate money for the charitable organization there is no guarantee that this letter would work well for your organization.
Also, this letter may have been sold to other charitable organizations that sent the letter to their donors asking for money. If your organization was to send the same letter to their donor base some donors may have already seen the letter causing the donor to wonder what is happening when 2 different organizations send the same letter.
A template letter or any other template used in charitable fund raising is to be altered to suit the particular needs of the organization seeking funding. A template is nothing more than a guide to jumpstart your creativity in writing your own letter or document.
When considering the source of your fundraising information on the Internet consider how long this company has been on the Internet. Fundraising companies, which have been on the Internet for 10 to 15 years are probably more reliable than those that were started last month.
Well, that’s the way I see it!
Monty McKinnon
Master Financial Planning Services Inc.
Services Inc.