She can’t cook. It’s humiliating to her. Baking powder does not rise in her kitchen. She has been getting looks since 1984. While she loves being the mother of a seven-year-old, when it comes to her baking, her child’s not forgiving. She won’t eat her mom’s cookies. So, today’s the day that this mom decided to call it quits. She swears that if she’s ever within 12 feet of another bake sale, she’s going to wrap up the best bakery’s worst looking cookies in some homemade Ziploc bags and pretend. Or, skip out altogether, toss some money at it so the school can raise money for charity, and let the other people bake.
But she didn’t feel good about it. I told her that she’s great at so many things, but no one can be great at everything, right? Her daughter, however, didn’t understand our logic – her daughter still wanted to show off mommy’s crappy cookies and raise money for charity like all of her friends. So, mom decided, even though she can’t cook, she can definitely whip it up for charity. She works as a high-powered attorney for a high-powered firm. She knows about clients, computers, codes, numbers, money, getting it, giving it, being in the office and being out of town. Don’t judge.
Always on her computer and pretty savvy at it, she set up an online fundraiser, It’s a ‘virtual bake sale’ and mom’s selling ‘internet cookies’ to raise money to help save the art programs at her daughter’s school. This is her first online fundraiser, and while it won’t smell good coming out of the oven, her ‘cookies’ will still pull in some money for the school. She said that it took her about twelve seconds to set up the online fundraiser. Using www.crowdrise.com, she created her own online fundraising page and wrote something fun and fast about her virtual bake sale / online fundraiser. She posted a photo of my amazing oatmeal chocolate chip cookies to draw attention, emailed all of her friends, family, and the other mom’s at the school to ask them to support her online fundraiser. Using the online donation tools to create her own kind of bake sale, she could be herself – the working, contributing, non-baking mom.
The mom’s loved it and the donations poured in! Her daughter and she raised more money through her online fundraiser than they did at the entire bake sale at the school this year! I think the school is considering more online fundraisers. And this time, she doesn’t mind if they call her – she can do it at work!
Friday, December 30, 2011
Friday, April 29, 2011
Online Fundraising - Ideas for Successful Online Fundraisers
So Much Time, Too Much Online Fundraising? Think it Through.
I work but I don’t have a husband or kids. I have time to fundraise. The best platform I’ve found so far for online fundraising is Crowdrise.com because it’s easy, hip, fun and cool. Mostly, easy. You can set up your online fundraising page in a second. Well, maybe thirty seconds, but it’s super easy and efficient. Not just to set up, but to keep going, and going, and going. Ok, that’s the last time I’ll say going.
But when do you stop.
I started with one major online fundraising project and in two weeks, the online fundraising donations piled in, earning more than $3,000 for the charity. I was amazed. I was hardly working now, because I was non-stop checking on my online fundraising page on Crowdrise. It was no work, no play, all Crowdrise, all fundraising.
When we hit our goal and started to put the fundraising dollars to real use, I wanted to do more. I started another online fundraising page. But I hit a road block. Could I ask again? With my first online fundraiser, I asked all my friends, family, and co-workers. Most of them made donations, ranging from $10 to $100. I was thanking them for their donations like crazy. But what I found so interesting was that they were doing most of the thanking. They felt so great about being able to contribute to an amazing cause.
While I felt equally passionate about my second online fundraiser, I felt reluctant to do a second “ask.” I emailed Crowdrise. They were so helpful in answering my questions honestly. No auto-replies. It was a live person from Crowdrise talking to me real time about how soon I could do another online fundraiser, asking the very same people for donations.
They made me think about whether I had another select set of people to ask for donations for this online fundraiser. Maybe the first time I could have stuck to family and friends and the second fundraiser, I could have stuck to co-workers, depending on the cause. Maybe I could wait four months. Maybe I could hit up the bigger donors. Maybe family wouldn’t care. Maybe the people who were thanking me would feel like I was on an online fundraising war path and I was doing another good deed.
The moral is that if you’re going to be passionate about online fundraising, you have to stop and think about whether you’re going to do one bold fundraiser, or whether you’re going to be relentless about it. The person who contributes to a project to kids in Africa who need desks might just give a little donation one time and give another if you’re running another fundraiser for a marathon. They’ll see you’re getting out, doing good. But be careful about the over ask and think it through. And email Crowdrise, they’ll know what to do. They’re online fundraising guru’s.
I work but I don’t have a husband or kids. I have time to fundraise. The best platform I’ve found so far for online fundraising is Crowdrise.com because it’s easy, hip, fun and cool. Mostly, easy. You can set up your online fundraising page in a second. Well, maybe thirty seconds, but it’s super easy and efficient. Not just to set up, but to keep going, and going, and going. Ok, that’s the last time I’ll say going.
But when do you stop.
I started with one major online fundraising project and in two weeks, the online fundraising donations piled in, earning more than $3,000 for the charity. I was amazed. I was hardly working now, because I was non-stop checking on my online fundraising page on Crowdrise. It was no work, no play, all Crowdrise, all fundraising.
When we hit our goal and started to put the fundraising dollars to real use, I wanted to do more. I started another online fundraising page. But I hit a road block. Could I ask again? With my first online fundraiser, I asked all my friends, family, and co-workers. Most of them made donations, ranging from $10 to $100. I was thanking them for their donations like crazy. But what I found so interesting was that they were doing most of the thanking. They felt so great about being able to contribute to an amazing cause.
While I felt equally passionate about my second online fundraiser, I felt reluctant to do a second “ask.” I emailed Crowdrise. They were so helpful in answering my questions honestly. No auto-replies. It was a live person from Crowdrise talking to me real time about how soon I could do another online fundraiser, asking the very same people for donations.
They made me think about whether I had another select set of people to ask for donations for this online fundraiser. Maybe the first time I could have stuck to family and friends and the second fundraiser, I could have stuck to co-workers, depending on the cause. Maybe I could wait four months. Maybe I could hit up the bigger donors. Maybe family wouldn’t care. Maybe the people who were thanking me would feel like I was on an online fundraising war path and I was doing another good deed.
The moral is that if you’re going to be passionate about online fundraising, you have to stop and think about whether you’re going to do one bold fundraiser, or whether you’re going to be relentless about it. The person who contributes to a project to kids in Africa who need desks might just give a little donation one time and give another if you’re running another fundraiser for a marathon. They’ll see you’re getting out, doing good. But be careful about the over ask and think it through. And email Crowdrise, they’ll know what to do. They’re online fundraising guru’s.
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