After a mild but busy winter in Vermont, it's time to get to work for event season! I am happily settled into my new job, which provides financial security, but also the flexibility to continue to build my business. I look forward to a great spring of relationship building and event execution!
I recently attended the Emerging Issues Conference at UNC's School of Government, where master's students presented their capstone research projects. One capstone of particular salience was Ann Roper's, a second year student with extensive non-profit experience, which focused on the efficacy (or lack thereof) of e-Philanthropy. Ann looked at Goodsearch.com, a web browser powered by Yahoo, that donates 1 cent to a self-designated non-profit for every search. While this is ostensibly a creative way to micro-fundraise, Ann found that for most non-profits, Goodsearch.com yielded little to no revenue. With 90,000 non-profits registered at Goodsearch.com and the option to only choose one, it's no surprise that the benefits are diffuse. However, Ann's findings raise an interesting question about benefit-cost analysis for free fundraising services. Is it worth it to take the time to set up these free profiles, on the off chance they yield $50 dollars, or are we better served focusing on more time consuming and more lucrative fundraisers?
This is an issue that Beca at Hands On (www.hodr.org) and I have also touched on over the past few months. The nature of Hands On's volunteer base necessitates some creative fundraising efforts. Because the volunteer base is both geographically and demographically diverse, standard approaches to fundraising don't always work. Beca and I have toyed with different ideas for micro-fundraisers that volunteers can execute in their home areas. Coming up with a model for this, however, has been difficult. First, the diffuse nature of the organization often suffers a name recognition problem. While most people have heard of United Way or the Red Cross and will give without much hesitation in a time of disaster, spreading the word about Hands On can be more difficult. Second, like most efforts at outsourcing, setting up a model and sending it to volunteers is not the end of Beca or Andrew's job. They still have to provide oversight and management, and like Goodsearch.com, the revenue may not warrant the effort.
Still, I see creative attempts at microfundraising abounding. Last night, Magic Hat Brewing Company (www.magichat.net) in Burlington, VT held a "twitter-crawl," where teams followed clues to complete a bar crawl in downtown Burlington. The fundraiser raised money for COTS (http://www.cotsonline.org). While shopping in Greenwich earlier in the week, I picked up a flyer at Lilly Pullizer (http://www.lillypulitzer.com) to shop for a cause. Lilly is offering to donate a percentage of sales from private fundraising parties. These efforts may not supplant the need for larger fundraisers, but raise some money and awareness for the many non-profits in our communities that provide much-needed support.
What other creative micro-fundraising ideas have you seen? How successful have they been for your organization?
Event and party planning can be a lucrative business. It can also drown you in details about details about details. In the past year, I have balanced a full time job with starting my own business, Greater Good Events. Unlike traditional events companies, which do all kinds of events from weddings to meetings, GGE focuses solely on philanthropic events. Throughout this journey, I keep learning lessons that I wish I'd known before. This blog is a partial capture of those lessons.
