Fundraising / Charity Ideas Blog

  We have an affiliate program associated with http://www.justfundraising.com The program will help any schools, churches, sports teams or charitable organization find support for their fundraising. We will supply you with a code to put on the front page of your website, so we are asking for a prominant link on your website.  In return we will give a portion of sales to you as a referral.

This helps people generate money for their causes, generates residual income for you and helps us. In return we can help causes such as  the Nargis Cyclone and Haiti victims. Everybody wins, making this a good deal.

 If you are interested in getting residual sales with our products please contact us at:

fundraisingmike at gmail.com.

Don’t forget to replace the word at with @.

I came up with an idea for a contest to spark more involvement from you guys. We’ll run a competition for the best comments on our posts and the winner gets to have a post on their favourite cause or what they are involved in. All activities have to fit within the boundaries of this blog.

To qualify you have to make 3 comments. That means you have to leave at least 3 comments on our previous posts. For your part the posts have to be legitimate and add to the conversation and no advertisements.

For our part we’ll contact you and let you pick what cause or organization you would like to see get some press. So you can determine who gets the fortune and fame.

Our little contest will run for two weeks starting March 8 and running until March 19.

On Your Mark, Get Set……

March is :

American Red Cross Month
National Nutrition Month

Daily Observances:

March 1 – Peace Corp Birthday
March 15 -Napping Day
(Tell your boss, today it’s legal!)
March 17 -St. Patrick’s Day
March 19 – Swallows Return to San Juan Capistrano Day
March 20 – Spring
March 21 -International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

I saw this little video and thought it was a great idea for our audience. A Sports Fundraiser like this could be put on by almost anyone in whatever country your from. It also helps people keep active and get involved.

We work with sports teams, state and provincial, school or university to help athletes. If you need help raising money for uniforms, equipment, travel or training programs look us up at justfundraising.com and maybe we can help you out.

A couple of posts back I mentioned a fundraising campaign in Detroit or Boston that asked for a dollar contribution to their organization for children. They ran a few commercials about this a couple of weeks ago.

Is this wringing some bells of anybody? Sorry guys I can’t remember any other info about this campaign. I wanted to follow up and see how that fundraising campaign worked for them.

If you think you might know what I’m rambling about drop me a comment. I’d like to find out.

In the meantime tell me what’s working in your fundraising efforts in your part of the world.

Well that’s funny isn’t it? No sooner do I do a post about Cate Blanchett’s SolarAid charity and mention that I’m a big Indiana Jones fan, then he’s in the news.

Harrison Ford combined his fascination for flying and a willingness to help out by personally flying out medical volunteers and supplies to Haiti from the Dominican Republic for the charity Operation Smile.
The organization provides reconstructive surgery for children born with facial deformities such as cleft lip and cleft palate. I didn’t know that the severity of the condition can leave some kids unable to even eat. For a more in depth look at the oranization check out this page

I’m not trying to take away the spotlight on Haiti nor the hard work and little publicity that the doctors and volunteers get who are already there, but I am happy to show people I’m interested in do help out.

I have chosen…..wisely.

I was looking around at the next Charity idea to write about. There are plenty out there but nothing was really standing out for me.

I then came across an idea that I’m LOVING! It covers so much territory with it’s idea. It has renewable energy ( I’m fascinated with that and I’d love to learn more about it this year, If you have ideas let me know.) Health, Education and Job Creation. It accomplishes this mainly in Africa but also in certain locations in South America as well.

solar-aid.org teaches Africans how to employ solar power to generate electricity and fully take advantage of something that has opressed them up until now.

I generally don’t think of them cosuming electricity like I do but come to think of it solar power can help them on so many levels. They light fires in their homes to cook and have no light to read or study by. There’s a video on the front page that says indoor air pollution kills 1.6 million people. That’s 1 death every 20 seconds! Solar power helps give them healthier homes to live in. Add to this their school systems, medical and community centres, you can see where a need comes in.

SolarAid teaches Africans to build solar lanterns, solar cookers, solar radios etc so they can earn a living selling the products plus it’s a step forward for their neighboors too. SolarAid gives education for the community by not only powering schools but by teaching finance, marketing and installation to the community.

SolarAid breaks down it’s projects and lets you make monthly or one off donations in your own currency. I did some poking around and found out that Cate Blanchett is on the board for this Charity. Yup the same chick that played the Russian bad guy in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull ( besides a music nut Indy is my other obsession.)

You really should check SolarAid out and donate if you can. Good things will come of this project.

If you would like some ideas on how to fundraise for this project or your personal favourite check us out for more ideas.

How do you prepare for your fundraising this year? Will the tentative recovery lighten the mood with donors? Regardless of what may come organizations and charities still have to raise money. No choice about the matter but what’s the correct route to take?

Take a Little from a Lot of People
I recently saw an ad for a Charity in Detroit (can’t remember the name) that is sending out envelopes and asking you for $1 for children with medical needs. This is a brilliant idea! How many times have you thought you would give to a couldn’t seem to part with the money. Everyone can spare $1 and they even provide the envelope. Brilliant!

Online Giving
You might want to find a way to aline your cause with online giving. Incorporate website donations that are simple to use. In just five days, the Red Cross has raised more than $21 million for the relief effort in Haiti through text messages. Mobile marketing is huge and donors appreciate is simplicity. Might want to get your organization on board with that.

Loyal Followers
You’ve got to reward recurring donors. Those people who are regular and repeat givers. Send out a flyer, give them a call, just make sure they feel appreciated for their help. At the same time make it easy for first time donors to sign up as montly contributors. You want to make sure there’s a stable repeat donor base.

What’s working for your Organization? What does your youth group, sports team, school have planned for fundraising this year?

Comment with ideas you’ve come up that are working for you

Did I mention that justfundraising.com works with schools and their sports and music groups to help raise money for their funding?

We help raise money for new equipment, uniforms, transportation, training and other expenses. If your university or school needs a hand raising money this year we might be able to help you out.

In the meantime check out some great drumming from the Hampton University Drumline!

See … again I’ve worked music into the blog.
My powers are uncanny!

Do you think you’ve got a good idea for Charity? Do you have something in mind that has potential that you would like to get in front of somebody with money. What if it wasn’t even one person or company that judged you, but an honest assesment from an audience?

I came across this site yesterday and wanted to share this with you. Before we go much further this is only open to the US and to implement for the benfit of US citizens. I’m mentioning this to our audience that the idea can be copied and used in other countries.

The Pepsi Refresh Project takes 1,000 submissions for charitable projects a month from individuals, organizations and businesses. They award 32 prizes a month ranging from 5k to 250k. No matter what your idea targets, The Pepsi Refresh Project has a category that it can be submitted to ; Health, Arts and Culture, Food and Shelter, The Planet, Neighborhoods and Education.

The idea is put up on their website and once their audience registers they can have 10 chances a day to vote for the best idea. Ideas like this level the playing field. You can get noticed and get funded all you need is a solid idea.

The Pepsi Refresh Project even has a blog that keeps you up to date on good ideas and funded ideas that are coming to fruition.

I gotta say this is a great way for a business to become socially responsible and step up to the plate.

Nicely done Pesi.

If you have a similar project like this running in your country then drop a comment and we’ll talk about yours as well.