Missing Spoke Fundraising - www.BWUnlimited.com

When you were a kid, do you remember riding your bike or even jumping ramps?  I can remember when I was a child, looking at the “Spokes” and wondering what they were for.  Then one day, I had the bright idea that I wanted my bike to look “Cooler” then the other kids, so I decided to get my father’s wire cutters and cut a bunch of the spokes off.  Bad move.  As soon as I started to ride, my bike came crashing down with me smacking the pavement hard.  I can still remember it to this day – Bad Idea.  I found out, obviously, that all the spokes held the wheel together.

On a daily basis, I see people hosting endless fundraisers all across North America.  In fact, because I am in the industry on a national level, I can’t seem to get away from seeing it.  I have seen everything…every little way that charities and people attempt to fundraise – it’s amazing what people will do to fundraise $1.00.

What happens more time then not is, people will see charity or group “A” doing a fundraiser.  Or they will attend a fundraising event that charity or group “A” is doing and get ideas from them for their own fundraiser.  They will then go back and begin to plan their fundraising event (which we will call event “B”) based on what they saw at the “A” event.  But what they don’t realize is, that the “A” was not successful.  Plus in turn, when they take ideas from the “A” event, they will miss a few important details and fundraising event “B” will be even more unsuccessful.

For instance, a common fundraising event in and around Baltimore is called a “Bull Roast.”  In Delaware and Pennsylvania, they call them “Beef & Beer” events.  It’s basically an event that is relaxed and they cook beef over fire, commonly referred to as “Pit Beef” – it’s great, believe me.

These events over done over and over and over again.  A very common theme is that they utilize “Old & Tired” unsuccessful raffles.  These raffles are done over and over and over again, they are – 50/50’s, Plants Wheels, Money Wheels, Money Boards etc.

I want you to ask yourself this – if you are trying to fundraise, why then would you give money away as a prize?  I have heard all the excuses “People love it” or “They always give the money back.”  True, everybody loves to win money.  False, 83% of the time people DO NOT give the money back.  These raffle’s are extremely inefficient and are not profitable.  Yes you do make some money, but again, what are you trying to do?  Raise money? 

Plus, another common thing people do is only utilize donated products - Tons of Gift Baskets & Gift Certificates etc.  In fact, they will even look to see what donations were donated by who and they will then approach the same people!  It’s Reality!  They don’t realize that the items there didn’t do well.  Plus they didn’t get all the information on how the raffle works, how you sell it, etc.

The problem is, after the fundraising event, charities never go back to analyze the profitability of what they did!  They just keeping repeating the “Same Old Style” fundraisers year after year after year.

In regard to fundraising raffles, remember the simple fact that people “Like to Win”!  It doesn’t matter what they win, as long as they have a chance to win something.  Smaller is always better, give out a bunch of prizes instead of one (1).  Donated items such as Gift Certificates and Gift Baskets are fantastic as raffle prizes.  Plus instead of bringing 1/2 of their retail value, it will bring 10 times the retail in a raffle. 

Or another thing that drives me nuts is when we consult a charity on raffle's that truly work and are highly successful, then they change it to something else and it's a disaster.  Why?  Because they missed a few spokes!  It happens all the time.

So, like me when I was a child, they are missing a “Bunch of Missing Spokes.”  You have to look at everything on it’s own, ask questions and educate yourself.  You have to ask yourself “Would you give the money back?”  Doubt it. 

Remember this – everything has a shelf life.  In order to be a highly successful fundraiser, you must be different and unique.  But more importantly, you have to be smart.  Think through things, talk it over…but make sure you are not missing a few spokes.

If you would like our help, contact us today at www.BWUnlimited.com.

BW Unlimited Charity Fundraising is a North American Charity Fundraising leader in a “One Stop Shop” convenient setting.  The fundraising experts at BW Unlimited Charity Fundraising can help guide both you and your staff through the myriad of fundraising pitfalls toward an extremely successful fundraising event.  Contact us today at www.BWUnlimited.com – we look forward to hearing from you.