Mended Little Hearts - We are here to help

Recently, we met several members of “Mended Little Hearts” – Mended Little Hearts is a support program for parents of children with heart defects and heart disease, is dedicated to inspiring hope in those who care for the littlest heart patients of all. Mended Little Hearts offers resources and a caring support network as families find answers and move forward to find healing and hope.  For families with children who live with heart defects and disease, Mended Little Hearts is a support network providing education, advocacy, awareness, and outreach.

While speaking with them, I learned just how they are doing to help these beautiful angels and their families.  However, it was surprising to learn just how hard of a time they are having successfully fundraising.  That is why we, BW Unlimited Charity Fundraising, threw our collective hats in the ring.

This portion is directly to those who are involved with Mended Little Hearts:

I would like to introduce myself and my company.  My name is George Wooden, President/Founder & Owner of BW Unlimited Charity Fundraising.  We are proudly a North American Charity Fundraising leader in a convenient “One Stop Shop” setting.  We help well over 1,400 charities each year by either providing them auction items and with a select few, we help them plan, manage and host large scale, charity fundraising events which are “EXTREMELY” successful – not only financially but by growing support.

After meeting with several people involved, I realize that you may be nervous about stepping out of your comfort zone and allowing us to help you.  It’s scary, we understand…however without risk, there is no reward.  We have never hosted an event which has failed.  At this point, we pick and choose who we help.

In terms of reality, you are being asked to fundraise without any training, education or a background on how to properly fundraise.  You are unaware of the national fundraising trends, you are unaware of why people donate or how to attract large sponsors.

You are living full time lives, with full time commitments, a full time job with a full time family – then you are a fundraiser.  With that being said, if you are untrained, could you also be a doctor, lawyer, home builder?  In a time when successful fundraising is vital to your overall success, shouldn’t you have help?

We would be lying if we said the economy is great once again.  Charities are unaware of the challenges they phase when it comes to fundraising.  Competition for the “Almighty Dollar” is stiff – there are currently 104 Million U.S. Non Profits all fighting over exact same dollar!!! 

Fundraising today is strategic and sadly said, successful fundraising today has little to do with the actual charity trying to raise funds.  It’s about the package, the event and what you are going to provide the donor.  With so many charities screaming “Please donate to me”, how do you get above the crowd noise and attract large scale donors or host large scale events? 

Most of the largest fundraising events across North America is actually our company.  We have raised Millions across the United States for Charities and are growing each year. 

Ask yourself this simple question – what did you last fundraising event profit?  Profit, not Gross, actual profit?  How long did it take you to plan that event?  How many people were involved in the planning?  Then take that number, divide it by the months it took to plan it, then divide again by the amount of people, then again by the number of months….would you work for that? 

The facts are this:  The beginning of successful fundraising across North America is $100.00 a head, Net.  That means if you had 300 people at your event or participating, you should have made at the very least $30,000.00.  BW Unlimited Charity Fundraising normally does 1.8 to 2.5 times the national norm. 

We will help you plan an incredible event, be there through it all.  Help you completely sell out a venue for your event, teach you how to get large scale financial sponsors and grow your charity.  We will be on site for your event to manage and run it.  At the end of the day, you will profit more than you could possibly dream of.  We have proven this time and time again with our 100’s of clients – go to our website “Testimonials” page and watch the video testimonials. 

We help you every step of the way, taking away 95% of the work while guiding you around the pitfalls.  During the planning stage, we are available to you 24/7.  We will attend meetings while giving you guidance.  We provide everything for the event itself.  We will train you on how to sell a massive amount of tickets and get donations.  We will help you get major financial sponsors and then, plan and put on an event that everyone will rave about.

A person with no background in fundraising should not be expected to know how to fundraise – we are the experts in this field. 

We understand you may be scared, because in the end, you represent children.  I understand because my very own son was born with numerous birth defects.  I spent 20 years of my life as a Maryland State Trooper with Integrity being the cornerstone of my life.

If you would like to witness what we do first hand, please come to Jennifer Miller’s Benefit Fundraising event on November 10^th in Baltimore, Maryland.  Jennifer’s son Luc was born with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome.  Her event is called “Luc’s Mega Minion Bash.”  100% of the proceeds go to the Miller family to help them with their medical expenses. If you have any questions whatsoever or would like more information about this event, please contact Esther Miecznikoski at (410) 688-6498 or by email at lgsapr11182@aol.com.  There will be well over 500 people there.

After Jennifer asked for our help, she became so impressed, she asked to join our team so that she can help Mended Little Hearts as well as charities across North America.

Again, in closing, successful fundraising is strategic and is centered on understanding business.   We would love the chance to help you and your charity blow away your fundraising goals so that you can do more.  If you have any questions, please contact Jennifer Miller at Jennifer@bwunlimited.com or call her (410) 920-1432.

Remember, we understand it’s scary – we are here for you….without risk, you will never know what the reward that is waiting for you just around the bend.

Respectfully,

George Wooden

President

BW Unlimited Charity Fundraising

www.BWUnlimited.com

Fundraising 101: Successful Fundraising is like Chess, not Checkers.

Yesterday, I was on the phone with a client who is now more of a friend.  We were discussing his problems with his charity coming to decision about their fundraising efforts.  During the conversation, I told him that people just don’t understand it.  They come and experience one of the events which we produce and say to themselves “Oh I can do what they do” and the following year they start off on their own trying to duplicate what we do.  They have no idea what they have got themselves into.

You see, people come to our fundraising events all across the country and they see it and think “hmmm, so they put items out on tables and people bid on them or buy raffle tickets, that’s easy.”  Then, they think they have it figured out and start thinking well, we really don’t need a Live Auction because that takes too long and not many people in the crowd bid on the items.  Then, they think about raffles…well we really don’t need all those raffles that they do in fact, I know, we should do a 50/50 raffle and just a couple of other ones.”   Then, here is when it really goes off the tracks “We shouldn’t hold it in a high end, expensive place.   We need to find a place that is cheaper and maybe we could get the food donated.”  As the train starts plummeting off the bridge down to the river below, they say this “Well, they put all of that consignment stuff in the silent auction that we have to pay for, donations are free and we keep 100% of the profit especially because the retail value of the items which he used in raffles is a lot.  They don’t know what they’re doing….we can do it better, cheaper and make much more money doing it our way.”  Just before the train hits the water in an explosive fire ball, they say “We need more entertainment, a band possibly and give people more time to dance.”  Then as the train is burning up, they decide “Lets save money and have a Cash Bar so we don’t have to pay for the alcohol too” and that’s when Taps starts playing.

Seriously that’s what happens….How do I know, because I see it time and time again.  So while I was talking to my friend, he said “the way you do your fundraising events is more like Chess instead of checkers” and he’s absolutely right!!!  Successful fundraising is EXTREMELY strategic.  There are reasons why we do what we do.  There are reasons why we promote having our events at higher end venues with great food.  There are reasons why we have a Live Auction, a silent auction and tons of raffles.  And there is definitely a reason why we promote the use of a DJ and not a band and definitely not a lot of “Dancing” time.  There are reasons why we don’t do 50/50 raffles and there are also HUGE reasons why we use consignment items over donated items all day and all night in Silent and Live Auctions and utilize the donations in raffles.

A very long time ago, we did several events which were in competition with other charities in the area which did something similar.  Those charities actually sent people to our events and they took video of our entire Silent Auction, Live Auction and Raffles.  They wrote down each and every item and where it was in the event.   Why?  Because they believed they could duplicate it – nope.  They tried and their events were disasters.

So….he’s 100% right!!!  Highly successful fundraising is exactly like Chess – it’s extremely strategic. You have to study it, study people and how they respond.  Talk to businesses and try different things year after year, time after time to figure out what works and what don’t.  There are reasons for everything – from the biggest things down to the tiny details that no one notices.  The logistics of our events are ridiculous.  You really have no idea what goes into something like what we do – but then again, that’s why we are a North American Charity Fundraising Leader. 

So before you launch off into what you think is going to be a highly successful fundraising event, stop and think – should I call them or not?  Then there are those charities out there who will hire a “FREE” Auctioneer or go after a “FREE” venue with “FREE” food and so on.

Then the stress, oh my god, the stress of putting something like this together is daunting.  Do you know how to promote your event?  Do you know what to tell your committee?  Do you have a committee?  Do you know all the equipment and paperwork needed for your “FREE” Event?

Your FREE event is going to cost you more than you could possibly imagine and then, you will lose more money than you could dream of, hoping to just break even. 

That is what playing fundraising checkers is all about – but we are the champions at fundraising chess.  If you would like our help, contact us at www.BWUnlimited.com, we would love to help.

BW Unlimited Charity Fundraising is a North American Charity Fundraising leader in a convenient “One Stop Shop” setting.  We can help guide you, your committee and your charity around the myriad of fundraising event pitfalls toward an incredibly successful fundraising event that will make a huge impression on your guests and raise you more money than you could ever dream of.  Many of our clients started out nervous, scared and skeptical but when it was all over, they couldn’t wait to start planning their next event.  Contact us at www.BWUnlimited.com.