How Do I Raise Money?

Tips for Successful Fundraising

People give to people they know. So, don?t be afraid to ask. The Arthritis Foundation is a great cause. We are raising money to prevent, control and cure one of the nation?s leading causes of disability.

• There are three ways in which you can raise money:
1. Individual Fundraising
2. Team Fundraising    
3. Online Fundraising
• To be the most effective in reaching your fundraising goal, you should try to use all of these methods. And remember to start as early as you can!
• Start with a letter writing campaign.  There is a link to sample letters on the homepage. 
• It is best to spread the fundraising activities over a period of time.  Developing a plan that includes events throughout the year is a great way to keep the excitement going and raise a tremendous amount of money along the way!
• Dedicate your personal or team fundraising effort to an individual living with arthritis. Walk and raise funds in their honor. Your honoree can be a co-worker, friend or family member with arthritis. Putting a face with the cause helps donors realize the impact of the disease.
• Arm yourself with facts about arthritis and the Arthritis Foundation (Link to Arthritis Fact Sheet found on homepage).  Let donors know that their donations will help further the mission to prevent, control and cure arthritis. You can also visit www.arthritis.org to learn more about what we do and how you can help.
• Be enthusiastic about your participation. Whether asking for a donation or for someone to join your team, your enthusiasm will be contagious and others will want to support you.
• Remember to ask your donors if their companies have a matching gifts program. You can easily double your fund-raising through matching plans!
• Once fundraising begins, remember to say ?Thank You!? You may choose to write peronal notes, send a standard letter, write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper or company newsletter, use e-mail or a big poster in the company break room to thank your donors for their support.
• Be sure to develop a fundraising plan with your team. Encourage them to:

               1. Start early and set a goal

               2. Use a variety of fundraising activities to keep interest and to exceed your team goal

               3. Publicize their fundraising activities

               4. Encourage and applaud each other

               5. Fundraise throughout the year

               6. Report their successes

Individual Fundraising Ideas

Try a letter writing campaign: Whether you send e-mails or mail letters with your personal goals, a letter writing campaign has proven to be the most effective form of fund raising. Some participants choose to enclose a self-addressed envelope to make it easier for donors to mail back. 

 Hold an auction: Auction a prime parking space at work, a half or whole day off or yourself to work a day for someone.

A little change makes a lot of cents:  Ask your bank to post this message at the teller line, "donate the cents from your deposit to help fight arthritis.?

Use your green thumb: Sell corsages, your extra houseplants, or bouquets from your garden.

Schedule a game night: Host a Monopoly, poker, bingo or other game night and charge admission.

Cut out arthritis:  Ask your hair salon or barber shop if they will donate $2 of each hair cut over a weekend to you.

Organize a pretty baby contest: Gather employee baby pictures, have donation jars set up as votes - the jar with the most donations wins. Get prizes donated for the winners.

Sell your career skill: For example, if you?re a CPA, offer to do your friends? taxes for a fee that goes toward your goal.

Schedule a share-the-profit event: Many local restaurants will give a portion of a day?s profits to a specific cause. Set this up with restaurant management and notify your friends, family, etc. to visit the establishment on the scheduled day. 

Host a spring cleaning yard sale:  Sell your unwanted items and put the profit towards your goal. If family/friends don?t want to give money, suggest that you sell their unwanted items and keep the profit. 

Turn a gift to you into a gift to the Foundation: Ask family/friends to donate money on your behalf to the Arthritis Foundation instead of giving you presents at your upcoming birthday or anniversary.

Present an instructional class: Invite possible donors to participate in a how-to class and charge a fee that goes toward your goal. For example, if you?re a great dancer, offer to conduct classes for your friends with the proceeds benefiting the Foundation.

Host a party: Throw a great party and charge admission! Have the party at your house or partner with a local bar that gives you a portion of the evening?s cover charge.

Host a block party: Invite your neighbors to a neighborhood block party. Sell food and charge admission.

Approach your company: Many companies will give a flat donation and many others have a matching gift program. These gift programs usually match donations given by employees. Be sure to approach your Human Resources department to learn the details.

Team Fund-Raising Ideas

Dress Down Days: Ask your company and other companies to conduct a ?Dress Down Day? for their employees. Designate a day, series of days or a week and charge to dress casual for the day. Give discounts if people wish to buy more than one day. Example: one day for $5, or three days for $10.   Employees purchase a button/sticker that gives them the privilege of going to work dressed casually on a designated day.

Bake Sale: Hold a bake sale at work, church, or school or sell donuts, bagels and coffee in the morning.

Book Smart: Dust those bookshelves and have a book sale.

Snack Bar: Set up an inexpensive snack bar. Every day employees purchase snacks ?

sandwiches, chips, cookies, juices and soft drinks, with all the proceeds going toward your fundraising goal.

Coin Saving: Ask five to ten people to save their change for you for a month. Give them buckets decorated. At the month?s end, invite them to your home for a ?counting party.?

Meals on Wheels: Have a meal day where you will cook and deliver breakfast, lunch or dinner to other businesses in town.   Fax them a few days ahead of time to inform them of the menu, cost and how to order.

Garage Sale: Have a garage sale in your company parking lot or at your home and have all your friends, co-workers, and team members bring items from their homes to sell. 

Car Wash: Get your team together on a weekend to hold a car wash. Some good places to have a car wash are parking lots of fast food restaurants, grocery stores and churches. Be sure to check with the owners before setting up!

Raffles: Ask a local merchant to donate a prize (restaurant gift certificate, TV/DVD player, hotel weekend getaway, airline tickets, etc.) to be raffled.   Make tickets and start selling.

Yard Displays: Place plastic pink flamingos, wooden cows, or whirly birds in the front yard of unsuspecting donors...request a donation for them to be removed, an additional donation for the homeowner to pick whose yard they are to be placed next, and another donation as "insurance" that they don't wind up back in their yard again.

Promote Yourselves: Call your local newspaper and let them know what your team is doing. Send a letter or press release about your team with a photo. (Sample materials are available from the Arthritis Walk Publicity Chair.) Your company can also write a newsletter article about you and other employees involved in the Arthritis Walk. Publicity helps generate donations.

Brown Bag Lunch Day: Encourage employees to bring their lunch to work and hold a brown bag party. Ask them to donate their lunch money to you. The money saved from not going out that day can be contributed to the Arthritis Foundation.

Fundraising Parties: Schedule a fundraising party to benefit the Arthritis Foundation. You can have it at your home, office or partner with a local restaurant or bar to sponsor the event by donating food or the space. Promote the party to everyone you know and charge a cover. The restaurant/bar will benefit from the free publicity and the money you raise will go toward your goal, not to mention it?s a lot of fun!

Online Registration and Fundraising

With our FREE online fundraising participant and team website you get the ability to simply and easily use the Internet to manage your campaign and to gather pledges. It as easy as this:

1. Go to: WWW.ARTHRITIS.ORG

2. Find the ?Register Now? link and select your event.   Follow the instructions to sign up for your own Arthritis Foundation Participant Web Site. 

3. Follow the instructions to personalize your participant web page.

4. Use the ?Communication Center? to send e-mail invitations asking friends, family, and colleagues to visit your page.

5. Watch the donations come rolling in!!!

Each participant gets their own ?Personal Web Page? where you can easily edit the text and the photo on this page. Bring your enthusiasm to life by sharing your reasons for supporting the Arthritis Foundation with every site visitor.  

Send e-mail invitations to prospective donors. A link back to your personal web page will be automatically included in the outgoing e-mail. You can also view a report to see who has visited your web page how often they have visited, and whether or not they have donated. Get more insight into your donors than ever before.

Make it safe and convenient for donors by encouraging them to donate online. It?s fast and simple. None of their personal data will be shared and the donation process is secure. Most people will say ?yes? no matter where they are in the country. It just takes one ask. 

During the registration process you will be asked to identify your team. This will automatically link your page with your team?s page. Each team gets their own, customizable page where the team captain can set a team goal, track their progress against this goal, and link to all team members? pages.

Tell a Friend, Encourage your donors to tell their friends. There is a simple and easy form that they can use to spread the word. 

Donation Tracking, View a report that details all online pledges that you have collected.

Donor Appreciation, Donors see their name in lights! During the edit mode of your participant page be sure to leave the Donor Appreciation area on in order to show the list of donor names and to show their encouraging message. If they so choose, their donation amount can be kept private.

Goal Setting, Use the goal-o-meter to set a goal and to track your progress against this goal. While editing your participant page if you leave the goal-o-meter on your donors will be able to see how close you are to achieving your goal. This can inspire them to tell their friends to help you reach that goal or donate more!