Ideas and Tips for Successful Personal Fundraising

How to Make your Fundraising Campaign a HUGE Success!

Refugees of the Haitian earthquake take shelter at the Church of Latter Day Saints in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

1. Set a fundraising goal and keep everyone posted on how close you are to reaching it.
   • Keep in mind that your friends and family want to see you succeed. In fact, some may donate again if they know you’re close to reaching your goal.
   • Share updates on the status of your goal.
   • If you set up a http://www.firstgiving.com/make_a_difference fundraising page, use it to keep everyone up to date on your progress.
   • Increase your goal once you reach it. Then update your donors and challenge them to help you reach the next level.
2. Tell your story.
   • If you’ve chosen to ask for donations via email, one way to start is with our downloadable, prewritten email, accessible at www.savethechildren.org/mad. Be sure to fill in your fundraising goal and, if you wish, customize your message to share the reasons you’re participating.
   • If you set up a personal fundraising page, use it to tell friends and family why Save the Children’s mission is important to you.
3. Keep sharing. Send out updates on your fundraising achievements. Sharing stories makes donors feel a part of your efforts. You may even inspire some of your friends to join you as a volunteer or to advocate for your campaign. Share on the Save the Children Facebook page, too — and think how excited your friends will be to see you there.
4. Be creative! Here are just a few fundraising campaign ideas. Any of these ideas can be run through a www.FirstGiving.com personal fundraising page where people can RSVP by making donations. When you invite friends and family to participate, be sure to underscore the value of each person's involvement.
   • In Loving Memory: It’s difficult to lose someone you love. Use the Make a Difference Campaign as a way to honor the life of someone special.
   • Enlist the Gang: If you work in an office, live in a dorm, participate in a club or play on a team, convince the whole group to raise funds to make even more of a difference. When you reach out to your separate social networks, the possibilities are endless!
   • Make Birthdays More Meaningful: Are you or someone you know about to celebrate a milestone birthday? Ask your friends to donate the amount of the age instead of a gift.
   • Recognize Special Events: Ask for donations in lieu of gifts for an upcoming wedding, anniversary, retirement or other special day
   • Party with a Purpose: Get together with friends and family! Share a meal, attend a concert, have a game night, organize a high-stakes poker, bowling or bridge tournament. However you like to have fun, use the event to raise funds for Save the Children.
   • Be a Sport: Do you play sports? Get a game going and ask for a donation as the entry fee. Four golf foursomes at $25 for each person would raise $400 for Save the Children! Four basketball teams with five players on each would provide $500 for Save the Children programs!
   • Play the Wii: Ask friends to participate in a competition with the entrance fee going to Save the Children.
   • Lose to Gain: On a diet? Ask friends to sponsor each pound lost.
   • Garage Sales: Host a garage sale with your neighbors and donate a portion of each person's proceeds towards your fundraising goal.
5. Use social media sites including Facebook and Twitter.
   • On Facebook, MySpace or LinkedIn? Talk about your campaign and goals and include a link to the Make a Difference donation page www.savethechildren.org/makeadifference1
   • On Twitter? Tweet about your fundraising and use #MAD4kids to connect with other volunteers
6. Blog about your fundraising efforts. If you have a blog, it’s the perfect place to update donors on your progress and tell visitors you’re accepting donations for a great cause. If you don’t have a blog, send your story to make-a-difference@savechildren.org and we’ll post it on our own blog.
7. Say thanks!

If you’ve created a www.FirstGiving.com fundraising page…

Smiling student from the Goine School, a Save the Children sponsored school.

In addition to the tips above, here are some things you might want to consider if you set up a FirstGiving fundraising page at http://www.firstgiving.com/make_a_difference.

1. Be sure to set a fundraising goal on your page.
2. Get personal. Use the personal message on your page to explain why the Make a Difference Campaign matters to you.
3. Share. Sharing stories about your fundraising challenges and the milestones you’ve achieved makes donors feel a part of your fundraising efforts.
4. Use your page to invite people to events and to collect donations from those who participate.
5. Add a picture to your page. Images that underscore Save the Children’s mission can be selected on the FirstGiving site and added to your page.
6. Promote your page. Share the web address of your fundraising page with family, friends, colleagues and others. Your FirstGiving account provides templates that make it easy.
7. Add a link to your fundraising page to all your outgoing emails.
8. Link to or add your page to your blog and to social media sites including Facebook and Twitter. FirstGiving.com provides specific instructions for doing that.
9. Thank your friends and family. Thank you emails are automatically sent to your donors. When setting up your fundraising page, personalize these messages. Tell donors what their contributions mean to you — and to Save the Children.