A Beginner’s Guide to Organizing a Church Fundraising Event Successfully

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Organizing a church fundraising event can be very rewarding indeed provided everything is planned carefully and maximum people participate at the event, making liberal contributions both monetarily and in kind. However, given the scale of a normal fundraiser under a church’s banner it is in no way possible for a single person or a group of people to organize it without taking the help of a comprehensive tech solution. A software application such as the event registration software automates all the back-end procedures of event management making the fundraiser a huge success.

How to organize a church fundraising event using the event registration software?

Create an online event registration form:

A fundraiser gives everyone the opportunity to donate handsomely for the church; the funds eventually are given back to the society. So, everyone who is a member of a church or even those from outside try to attend it in order to make meaningful contributions from their end. To get so many people registered manually for the event is not at all an easy task. It is better handled online via an event registration form.

The members of the fundraising committee can create an online registration form using the templates of the software application and make it available on the internet immediately. Then, everyone can access it 24/7 and sign up through it whenever it is convenient for them.

Provide online payment options:

Payment collection is the most important part of a church fundraising event. To make it systematic and thoroughly secure, organizers can take the help of the online payment management solution. The system supports many secure online and offline payment gateways via which attendees can send in their registration fees using their credit cards. To help them through a smooth monetary transaction, the software enables the organizers to monitor the process in real-time. This level of facilitation further enhances participation of people from all quarters.

Promote the church fundraising event across social media:

To get maximum response for the fundraiser and increase online registrations, organizers can promote it across popular social networking sites. The event registration software provides a powerful social media connector through which they can publish fundraiser related news from the event dashboard directly to the social media sites. The connector comes at a nominal fee.

Raise funds online:

The software provides many innovative donation collection tools that can be used by church authorities to raise funds online. They can launch silent auctions within a convenient web interface, upload video clippings of previous charity events, or share their campaigns on third party sites to reach out to a wider target audience. Online charity auctions have been found to be highly effective in raising considerable funds towards social causes.

To analyze the overall effectiveness of the fundraiser it is important to conduct real-time or post-event surveys. The event registration software provides a survey generation tool to do that easily. Once that is done, reports can be created using the custom reporting tool of the event registration software.

Jonathan is a professional event planner. Event professionals worldwide are increasingly relying on automated software to streamline the church fundraising event, payment management, and attendee relationship management. Acteva is the market leader in providing church online fundraising solutions at competitive price.

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How to Hold a Fundraising Raffle – “Impact a Life” College Scholarship Entry

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Many thanks to Darlene Foley for a fine “Impact a Life” college scholarship essay. If you are considering holding a raffle fundraiser, take a look at some of the tips and strategies Darlene outlines.

If you or someone you know is interested in submitting an essay, the details can be found by clicking here.

Holding a raffle to raise funds is not only one of the easiest ways to do this but is also one of the most profitable.

The first thing you do is get items to raffle off. I don’t believe in spending the organization’s money unless absolutely necessary. Start by making a list of businesses in the community where the group you are fundraising for resides. This list would include restaurants, department stores, specialty stores and fast food franchises to mention just a few. The majority of these businesses are happy to help you out with a donation. All they ask is that you provide proof that your organization is actually non-profit.

Then the begging begins! The best way to convince a business to help with your fundraising efforts is to win them over to your cause. A lot of people like to just appear at a business and hand them a letter or to mail it in with no introduction. The few times I attempted this, I found that the donations were noticeably smaller, if I got one at all. It only takes a few minutes to call ahead, explain your project and get them to commit to helping out. Just tell them what you are doing and why and most businesses will jump right on board. You will also do better if you solicit donations from businesses where you are a customer. Remember, these businesses are open to make a profit and, when they know you are helping them to do this; they will do their best to help you.

Once you feel you have enough prizes, start promoting the raffle. Signage is very important. If the raffle will take place in the workplace, put flyers EVERYWHERE! Put them on the front and back of all internal doors to enable employees to see them on their way in and out of work, by the time clock, and in the areas where people eat. If the raffle takes place in your community, use the same practice. Ask local shopkeepers to put a flyer in their window, and put them up everywhere you can. Be creative. Put them, literally, everywhere there are people. Another tool to use is e-mail. Sending out regular e-mails is very important. These e-mails should not only promote your fundraiser but also report on its’ progress. People love to feel involved and will, actually, be more generous if you keep them updated and give them a goal to reach. If e-mails are not available make a chart showing your progress and make sure it is available to anyone interested in viewing it.

The best prizes to stimulate ticket sales are containers filled with donations. Go to the local craft store and solicit a donation for the containers, bows, fill and wrap. Once you have this, start to fill them. This is the fun part. Try to have all your prizes have approximately the same value. I never ask for anything specific when soliciting donations. People have really surprised me with their generosity and that way, I always have a good selection of items to put in the baskets. Try to have a theme and name for each basket. Some suggestions are: Be Good to Yourself which could include free pizzas, free dinners, bath and body items, comfy socks, a book and book light, and any other item a person might use to pamper themselves. Another suggestion that works well is a Picnic Basket. For this basket, you could use a cooler as the container and include a bottle of wine, two wine glasses, a nice blanket, silverware, bags of chips or Fritos, a Frisbee, and don’t forget the free pizzas, dinners, fast food, etc. These are just a few suggestions that work well but feel free to experiment and have fun with it. Also make sure to include a list with the name of the prize along with each item in the basket and the approximate value. Make sure to total the worth of the basket. You’ll be surprised how much these baskets can be worth and people need to see this because the higher the value of your prize, the more money people will spend to win it. Also, please be sure to promote who donated the prizes. This is very important.

The final and most valuable tool available to you is your fundraising team. It is very important to constantly talk about the fundraiser among the team and with everyone you meet. Get the word out! If you are excited and involved, others will feel the same way! Remember, excitement is catching.

One of my favorite methods for maximizing ticket sales is to give the team members something for their efforts. Get a donation specifically for the team members (depending on their ages, it might be a dinner, movie or gift certificate or even a nice bottle of wine) to let them know they are appreciated and motivate them to put as much effort into the fundraiser as possible. They receive one raffle ticket for a certain amount of tickets sold. It is totally up to you to decide how many tickets they need to sell to earn a ticket for this free drawing. A suggestion would be to use the price of the ticket as an indicator. The more the raffle tickets costs, the less the team members would have to sell to earn their ticket for the free drawing. These tickets won’t cost team members a dime and are only earned when they sell raffle tickets. If the prize you are raffling off is a good one, people will get really excited and it’s a great incentive to get your team members actively involved. People love getting something for free and a chance to win a really nice prize for doing something they were doing anyway makes it even better.

Fundraising can be a really satisfying and fun adventure and I suggest that everyone give it a try at least once.

How To Hold A Successful Basket Bingo Fundraiser

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Bingo fundraising events have been around for decades. That’s because people love to play bingo and charities can earn several thousand dollars in just one evening of bingo. Many nonprofit organizations, clubs and schools have annual basket bingo events. There are some organizations whose basket bingo fundraisers have become so popular and lucrative that they hold basket bingo’s two and three times a year.

While your organization can earn as much as $5,000 for an evening of basket bingo, it does take quite a lot work and preparation behind the scenes to put on one of these fundraisers.

So what is a basket bingo fundraiser?

Basket Bingo is like regular bingo except that the prizes are all baskets. Most often the baskets are Longaberger baskets. The baskets are filled with products such as Longaberger accessories, gift certificates, candles, scrapbooking supplies, beauty products, gourmet foods, etc. Each filled basket can be worth several hundred dollars. This is a big draw for your fundraiser.

The typical basket bingo fundraiser lasts from three to four hours. Holding them on a Saturday afternoon or evening are good times.

The elements of a typical Basket Bingo Fundraiser are:

Admission Tickets

Admission tickets are usually sold for $20.00 at the door or $18.00 in advance. For this price each participant receives a book of Bingo sheets good for 20 games of Bingo. You an sell extra game books for $5.00 each. Some people will buy extra sheets to increase the odds of winning in each bingo game. You can also have a couple of special bingo games that people pay extra for. You should aim to sell between 100 and 200 admission tickets. If you sell 125 tickets for $20.00 a piece that will bring in $2,500. By holding raffles and selling food during the event you can bring in more money for your organization.

Raffle Prizes

In addition to prizes for each bingo game, you can also hold a raffle of a special prize. You can pre-sell the raffle tickets and sell more during the event for an amount such as $1.00 or $5.00 per ticket. To maximize your earnings you should advertise the prize and presell tickets. Do not require that the winner be present during the drawing. The raffle prize doesn’t have to be a basket but should be a nice prize with a high dollar value. Longaberger wrought iron tables and accessories are good for raffle prizes.

Raffles for monetary prizes. 50/50 raffles are also a good way to raise more money during a basket bingo fundraiser. With a 50/50 raffle, tickets are usually sold for $1.00. At the end of the raffle one ticket is drawn and the winner receives fifty percent of the total amount raised by the sale of the tickets. The other fifty percent of the pot is kept by your organization.

Door Prizes

You can also have door prizes that you hold drawings for during the event. Give everyone who purchases a ticket to the event one raffle ticket for each prize. The door prizes are usually small items.

Food and Refreshments

Snack Bars and Concessions. Since the event will last for three to four hours you should have refreshments available for purchase. At some basket bingo events a buffet luncheon is served that attendees pay extra for. You can raise more money by having food donated. You may want to provide one free drink to everyone who purchased a ticket. Bake sales are also good earners during bingo fundraisers.

Professional Bingo Caller and Bingo supplies

A professional bingo caller is recommended because it takes a person with experience and bingo equipment to run a night of bingo. You will also need a master of ceremonies to be in charge of making announcements and keeping the activities moving.

The Prize Baskets

You will need to have a unique gift basket as a prize for each game of bingo. Longaberger baskets are good to use because they are collectible. There are a lot Longaberger basket collectors who might not otherwise be bingo players but will come to your event for a chance at winning a basket. Many Longaberger baskets are also created with a purpose so filling them with items based on a theme is easy. In order to make money on your fundraiser the baskets and prizes should be donated. YOu can contact a local Longaberger sales representative who can sell you the baskets and give you advice on how to fill them. Raising the money to buy the baskets, or getting them donated, and filling them will take time and money. If your organization is a school you can assign each class a basket theme and ask the families of the students to send in items to fill the baskets.

Realistically it will take a couple of months of work in order to hold a basket bingo fundraiser. You first need to decide if you will be able to assemble of team of volunteers willing and able to do it. After you have assembled your team then you have to get the word out that you need donations of baskets, money, and prizes. You also need to select the venue and date for the fundraiser. Then you will be well on your way to a successful basket bingo fundraiser.

Article by Amy Passmore of DIYFundraising.com.

Are in charge of your organization’s next fundraiser? Are you looking for ideas on how to raise money for your school, charity or nonprofit organization?

Visit http://www.diyfundraising.com for more great tips and resources from an experienced fundraiser.

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“Impact a Life” Scholarship Student Entry

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Hats off to University of Houston student, Henderson M. Jones for an excellent college scholarship essay entry sponsored by raffleticket.com. Thanks Henderson for the awesome graphic format and your insightful tips.

If you, or a student you know are interested in submitting an essay for the “Impact a Life” College Scholarship, you can find the details by clicking here.

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I Love Raffles! – Impact a Life Scholarship Entry

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Thank you and good luck to Jesica Thurmond for her “Impact a Life” college scholarship essay entry. Over the past six years Jesica has raised over $10,000.00 for Relay for Life using raffles as the main fundraising vehicle. There’s lots of good advice for those planning a fundraising raffle to glean from her experience.

“I love raffles! I think they are the best way to raise money for a charity. I use raffles as the major source of fundraising for my Relay for Life team every year. Raffles are so easy to customize to your needs. You can adjust ticket prices and colors to fit your needs. If you have more than one prize you can use a different color for each prize. You can use double tickets when winners need to be present and single tickets if they do not need to be there.

I use raffles because the tickets can be sold for a small amount like $.50 or $1.00 each. People are more likely to buy more if they think they are cheap. If you sell tickets for $.50 each you can also offer a deal like 3 tickets for $1.00. If the price is $1.00 per ticket you can offer 6 tickets for $5.00. This makes people feel like they are getting something for free and they will usually buy more.

I have found that the best way to increase ticket sales is to take pictures of the prize and make a flyer to post wherever you want to sell the tickets. For example a school or office building. Include details about the prize and who donated it on the flyer. Also, starting early is a great way to raise more money. I usually set the deadline for my raffle as the event date and start selling tickets 3 months in advance. Having the item on site at the actual raffle so people can look at it and be tempted by it works wonders as well.

In my experience the best way to profit is to have the prizes donated by companies. The best prizes are always big or expensive but you can do just as well with small prizes. I have had the most success with items such as a 1 hour helicopter ride donated by a local flight school and a large bbq grill donated by a local department store. I have had a lot of success with gift baskets too. You just take some of the smaller items that are donated and pair them with one or two purchased items if needed and arrange them in a basket. For example a date night basket could be theater gift cards or DVD’s that have been donated and a gift certificate donated by a local restaurant and pair them with purchased candy and popcorn. For a spa basket pair donated items such as gift certificates for massage or beauty treatment with purchased items such as candles, bubble baths, lotions or shower gels. For kids I like to get tickets donated from a local amusement park or mini golf and pair them with sodas and snacks.

You can raffle off just about anything. In the past I have had homemade baked goods, services for housekeeping and window washing, gift certificates for local restaurants and hotel rooms, tickets for local events, boat rentals at the local marina and car accessories as prizes. My current prizes are three handmade quilts donated by local quilt artists and they are doing great!

The best way to motivate people to sell tickets is to get them excited about it. If they are excited about the charity or the prizes it always helps but a little competition never hurts either. I usually tell my team members that whoever sells the most tickets will receive a prize themselves. Those prizes range from small items to their choice of duties at the charity event. This has been a great motivator!

Over the past six years I have raised over $10,000.00 for Relay for Life using raffles as my main fundraiser. I will definitely continue using raffles for all my fundraising needs.”

Impact a Life Scholarship Essay Entry – April 18, 2013

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Thanks to Ugochi Ananaba for entering a fine essay to the raffleticket.com sponsored “Impact a Life” College Scholarship. If you, or someone you know is going to college, or planning on attending, you can find the details of the scholarship requirements by clicking here.

“The truth is everyone loves free stuff. And not only that, everyone likes surprises. So logically, the two of those together would basically be heaven on earth. This essentially has to be the mentality when fundraising using an almost full-proof method, raffle tickets. Raffle tickets are not only timeless but it’s also a method that is used by almost any sort of organization or institution. Name any sort of organization in regards to fundraising, and I can almost guarantee that raffle tickets have been used. Why is that? Well, raffle tickets are quite inexpensive for the cost of the consumer. Basically, it’s like the lottery, you put a little in and have the chance of having an outcome greater than what you initially started with. With that being said, there are some drawbacks, since a lot of people enter raffles that diminishes the chance you have for winning which is why people usually enter more than once. Overall, however, the pros outweigh the cons.

Now the question being proposed is how businesses can utilize raffle tickets for their benefit. Benefit here means increasing not only the amount of customers but the amount of customers who will continually shop from their business. Obviously, the first step would be to have raffles, but I think what businesses are missing is on having raffles regularly. This doesn’t mean having a raffle every week but just having them consistently enough so that way consumers can become more interested in not only the raffle but hopefully the business or retailer as well. With that being said, every prize for the raffle does not have to be the biggest and most expensive but just something that will peak the consumer’s interest.

Next step in the key to success on raffles is after having consistent raffles, have one grand prize raffle once in a while. Now for retailers and business that may have a lot of revenue this could be something as big as an all paid-for vacation or for smaller businesses this could be one of the more expensive items that you sell or one that a lot of customers tend to buy or even a gift card to the store. Another option would be to hold raffles that will benefit the community, a community raffle would get people, i.e. consumers, involved and talking. Although the initial input may seem great on the part of the business the amount of revenue that will be generated by such raffles will far outweigh the costs because a lot more people will become interested. By doing this, not too often so as not to go bankrupt, you increase the amount of consumer interest in both the company and products being sold.

Finally, once the above steps are done everything will just start to work itself out. When consumers start to see the thought that retailers and businesses put into customer satisfaction and service they will start to come more and more. And when that happens, they will begin to tell others about the company and all the great things they are doing. Thus, more and more people will start to flock to the business and it will continue to grow and grow. And imagine, this all started from just a raffle ticket drawing!”

Raffle Tickets Printed for Free?

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Are you planning on holding a raffle for your organization’s next fundraising event?

That’s fantastic. A raffle is a wicked simple way to raise money for your organization’s cause without a lot of fuss.

One of the few expenses of holding a raffle is the price of professionally printing your raffle tickets. Why not turn that “expense” into an opportunity by simply asking potential donors if they would help out by covering the cost of printing the tickets?

Sometimes donors that can’t make a large prize donation will be more than willing to donate the cost of raffle ticket printing in exchange for promotional consideration printed on the ticket.

A lot of small business owners such as insurance agencies, lawyers, and medical professionals such as chiropractors will often have a budget for such promotions even though they may not able to donate actual prizes. These businesses will gain exposure in the community as a supporter of a worthwhile local organization.

When contacting the donor, have the details of the ticket printing on hand. Include the name or website of the printer so that you can show the potential donor just what they will be paying for. If you are meeting in person, bring an order form with you and have the donor write the check on the spot. Or, even simpler, simply direct them to your printer online, and order on the spot using the donor’s credit card.

Now how easy was that?

A Beginner’s Guide to Organizing a Church Fundraising Event Successfully

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However, given the scale of a normal fundraiser under a church’s banner it is in no way possible for a single person or a group of people to organize it without taking the help of a comprehensive tech solution. A software application such as the event registration software automates all the back-end procedures of event management making the fundraiser a huge success.

How to organize a church fundraising event using the event registration software?

Create an online event registration form:

Provide online payment options:

Promote the church fundraising event across social media:

Raise funds online:

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Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jonathan_Reynold

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7472360

Prizes Do Not Sell Raffle Tickets

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The reason that raffles make such simple, easy, and profitable fundraisers for charitable organizations is that there are only three elements needed to getting started:

1) Custom printed raffle tickets

2) A prize, or prizes

3) Sales!

Sometimes an organization will get too hung up on having “the perfect” prize offer before attempting to hold a raffle, but in reality, prizes don’t sell raffle tickets – people do!

While not everyone is a born salesperson, if your cause is worthy and the price of a chance is realistic, you should find very little resistance to selling your organization’s raffle tickets.

Focus on these three target markets when planning your sales strategy:

1) Family and friends

2) Your neighbors and co-workers

3) The general public

Family and friends are very easy to sell to for obvious reasons. If you state the problem you are solving (need for a new church piano) and ask directly for their help – you will sell tickets.

The important thing is to get your volunteers out in the community and you’ll be amazed at how many tickets will be sold. That means going around your neighborhood and asking neighbors.

Wherever people shop or congregate you will find a willing market for your raffle draw. Ask local big box merchants and grocers if you can set up a table to sell your tickets. They are often very happy to help your organization out in exchange for the good will it promotes.

The lesson here is; prizes don’t sell raffle tickets – people do

Good luck!

Sell Raffle Tickets for Youth Baseball Leagues

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Spring is in the air, and with that all thoughts turn to our great American pastime – baseball.

That means kids from across the U.S. and Canada will be trying out to play in a youth baseball or softball team. It’s certainly a lot of fun being involved in a youth baseball team, but it also involves uniforms and equipment, diamond fees, and even travel expenses.

And that means money!

How will you raise the needed funds to support these requirements? You can have a car wash, a bake sale, sell candy, or sell any number of over-priced fundraising merchandise.

But the easiest, and potentially most profitable fundraiser to hold is the humble raffle.

First, line up some cool prizes. You can always solicit prize donations from local merchants and professionals. This would eliminate any major expenses to holding a raffle and would certainly bump your final net profit.

The next things you will need are some custom printed raffle tickets. You can easily and inexpensively order them online. Have the team name, prize(s), date and place of drawing custom printed on your raffle tickets.

Now get the whole team together and sell those tickets!

Could there be anything simpler?

Good luck with your fundraising endeavors and we hope you hit it out of the park!