Fueling Change

Category: Raising Funds to End Charcoal | Date: Mar 16 2008 | By: admin

Having only held two fundraisers, this is really more of a guide written by an idiot for an audience of non-idiots. What follows are the lessons that I learned putting together the Boulder and Denver events.

1. Get help ASAP. These events take a lot of work and you will stack the odds against yourself if you try to go it alone. For example, in Boulder, I had help from Douglas Scheffer of the Highland City Club. He invited me to several lunches to speak to members about the mountain gorillas and the alternative fuels project. He also convinced the owner to put up the $260.00 for the venue, the Boulder Public Library auditorium. They also paid for the Boulder poster printing. My good friend Lisa Busch, an amazing graphic designer, designed the poster (which you can use for your fundraisers). Another friend, John Turkle, a production guy, helped me put the presentation together (also available). Another friend, Pippa, had worked with the Boulder Camera and knew a reporter that was interested in environmental issues. She gave me the person’s name, I contacted her, and the next thing I knew, I was doing a phone interview (I’m available for this, if you would rather not) — and that Sunday, we made the front page. Another friend is a photographer for the Denver Post. She gave me a name, I called and got an interview, and we were in the online edition the next day. During the event itself, my community of friends helped with the setup, charging for tickets, selling t-shirts, etc. So, as you can see, it “takes a village”.

2. Make sure your volunteers are committed. People won’t want to disappoint you, so you need to make sure that they understand what they are committing to. In Denver, a seemingly committed person took on much of the responsibility of promoting the event, such as putting up posters, speaking with professors at the University of Denver, creating a public service announcement for radio stations, and networking via email. Two days before the event, this person told me that they “just didn’t get to it”. By that time, it was too late for me to remedy the situation. As a result, we had only 19 people in attendance. Luckily, they were a very generous group. The lesson here is not only that you need to be sure of a person’s commitment, but you also have to put some kind of feedback mechanism in place so you can monitor their progress and effectiveness. I was naive to just assume that it was all getting done.

3. Choose your venue wisely. It’s tempting to want to pick the most glamorous venue, but only do so if it is affordable (donated or given at a reduced rate). You don’t want to have a big nut to crack when trying to break even with the take at the door. Remember, people know that they aren’t coming to the Academy Awards. Having said that, though, I wouldn’t hold an event in a school cafeteria. You really want to hit the right balance between cost and quality.

4. Make the price of admission reasonable. In Boulder and Denver, we set the ticket price at $5.00 and we all agreed that this was too low. Given that movies cost at least $10.00 these days, we figure we should have set the price at around $12.00. At anything below $15.00, we felt people would still be willing to make a donation above and beyond the price of admission. And, at only $5.00, it may have implied that it was going to be a bush-league presentation, which it was not.

5. Choose your approach for newspapers, radio, and TV. It’s a good idea to have your message well-crafted before approaching the media. My approach was to pitch the story as a local effort that was having a significant impact on a major international crisis. Aside from talking about the inevitable extinction of the mountain gorilla if something wasn’t (isn’t) done immediately — by ordinary citizens, I also talked about how the alternative fuels project would get at the root cause of the crisis and how it could be THE key to saving the gorillas. Whatever your pitch, you’ll want to be concise and make sure to cover the who, what, why, where, and when. Also, leverage the coverage that WildlifeDirect and the mountain gorillas have already received in the international press: Christian Science Monitor, National Geographic, Newsweek, Smithsonian, US News & World Report, CNN, 60 Minutes… With this kind of coverage and a local angle, the story places well. Be careful not to try placing the story too far in advance. I started working on the media coverage two weeks prior to the event. You can, however, start doing the legwork of finding out the names and numbers of the various editors and features writers well in advance of that. In addition, craft a public service announcement. Newspapers and radio stations will often place these for free. These are bare bones blurbs that give just enough information about the event. Lastly, don’t be afraid to follow-up on your contacts. If they don’t call you back, call them back.

6. No need to reinvent the wheel when it comes to print materials. I have all the digital files for the poster and donation letter. These can be customized for any fundraiser. And, when it comes to printing, go to Fedex-Kinkos and ask for their “non-profit” 25% discount.

7. Check up on your poster placements regularly. Don’t put up your posters and forget about them. Check every few days to make sure they are still up

8. Work email promotion. This may be the best way to get people to your event. Try to get each of your friends to bring five of their friends. Also, follow up with reminder emails as the event draws near.

I hope this helps. I’ll think about this some more, and add to it as ideas come up. Feel free to raise more questions and remember, I’m still learning, too!