Have you
ever been to a stadium with screaming fans, a packed restaurant where you can
barely hear or a concert with extremely loud music? I’m sure you have. You can’t even hear yourself talk and
definitely can’t hear the person next to you.
Well, what
do you think is going on in the charity world?
Now imagine this – can you imagine being at a stadium filled to the top
with standing room only and even people in the parking lot, the hallways etc.
and all of them add up to 104 million people in one place. Can you imagine that. Now add this in – all of them are screaming
at the top of the lungs – their screaming would drown out all the other screams
until its an unrecognizable roar. Now,
add this, there is some Rockstar standing on the field, surrounded by millions
of people and everyone is trying to get his or her attention, it would be
impossible to pick out one voice. But
what does that have to do with fundraising?
These are
the current statistics of the “Crowd Count” or how many charities there
currently are in the United States:
Current registered U.S. Non Profits: 104 Million
Many charities have chapters: 50 Million chapters (*sub charities)
Benefit Fundraising Events: 50 Million (**non charities)
Total rounded evenly: 200
Million charities – This ladies and gentlemen is your competition.
(* Sub charity means an entity raising
money separately to give to the mother charity – NAACP, Ducks Unlimited,
Chamber of Commerce etc.)
( ** Benefit Events are events held for
a cause such as someone is sick and family and friends are raising money to pay
hospital expenses, a house burns down, a storm hits and cause damages)
If there
were 10 people involved in each charity, there would be:
2,000,000,000
= 2 Billion people
With all of
these charities screaming to potential donors while other charities use their
donor money to produce TV Commercials, Ads, in store donation drives etc., how
in the world do you get your charity even noticed “Above the Crowd Noise”?
How to get heard above the Crowd
Noise
With 200
million charities fighting to get potential donors or supporters attention,
many of which are the same fighting to get the same dollar – how do you get
noticed?
This is a
very real life story and a charity client of ours asked. So here is the answer whether you like it or
not.
The reality
of it is this. People have become “numb”
to being asked to donate or hearing this charity and that charity. So now, they drown them out. Every single person has their “Pet Charity”
or the one they like and support and then they don’t care about the others no
matter how hard you try to get their attention.
They just don’t care.
The Solution
About 50% of
our clients listen to us in regard to this approach and the other half, well
they don’t and their event fails because simply put – they put themselves back
in the crowd noise.
You have to
accept the fact that there are other charities out there that are exactly like
yours, your forcing people to pick.
So how do
you get heard above the crowd noise? You
don’t get in the crowd!!! You take a
completely different approach and here it is.
What do we
all have in common? We all like to eat,
well we have to, but we all like to eat, drink and have a great time with our
family and friends. We all like to go to
nice places and either win stuff or just relax and have fun.
When you are
advertising or talking about your “Fundraiser”….you DO NOT refer to it as a “Fundraiser.” When you are posting information about on
the Social Networks, you DO NOT talk about your charity!!! Now I understand that you absolutely love
your charity and you do have your supporters, but the goal here is to attract
NEW supporters and guests right?
In order to
get above the crowd noise, you come at them from the angle of this incredible
event with awesome food at a fantastic place, with great items to win, how fun
its’ going to be, the live and silent auction and raffles if you plan to do
them. You take that approach. Everyone loves a great party right? Well, tell them about this great party you
are having…not the charity.
You may
disagree but the events we plan, manage and host that our clients do exactly
what we tell them routinely have over 500 people there. It’s all about building excitement, building “Hype.”
You have to
use a very descriptive “WOW Factor” description when talking about your event
in order to gain their attention.
Furthermore, you need to post and repost and repost over and over
again. Albert Einstein proved that
people need to see something seven (7) times before they react.
Be excited,
give them the WOW factor and not “It’s going to be great, good food, drinks
etc. Wanna buy a ticket?”
Follow my
advise and watch what happens…success!!!
BW Unlimited
Charity Fundraising would love to help you plan, manage and host your next
event and give it the “WOW Factor” it deserves.
Contact us at
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