To raise funds for your non profit, you may have to think farther than just relying on ordinary fundraising activities like raffles and selling campaigns. There are several secrets to your fundraising campaigns, which are not available anywhere in many of the books and online resources.
1. Real-time Advertising: This is a surefire method that can project your fundraising idea to potential donors. You can advertise your non profit over internet, radio, print media and television.
2. Letters: Well written and professional letters will carry your ideas across to those donors in beautiful words. You will need to include plenty of evidences and supporting materials like annexure, pictures and tables.
3. Internet Communication: It is quicker to communicate through internet. Also you can direct your donors to glance through your website.
4. Telephone: The oldest method of communication apart from letters. Though it is very difficult to project your image across the telephone line, it can still be used to your advantage.
5. Mutual Dialogues: Face to face conversations bring instant and quick results. You'll need to learn the tricks of personal communication to be able to project your idea.
6. Grant Proposals: These are very formal in nature and possibly the most efficient method of projecting your fundraising ideas. You may also need to be thoroughly professional in writing a scientific project proposal.
7. Referrals: If you have good contact, which can carry across your messages and ideas, you have probably hit a goldmine. Unsolicited and non-referred proposals do not really carry much weight with donors.
These are some of the most common ways by which you can create fundraising opportunities. This not all, there is more to it! I have several other innovative secrets in my book. Here are some of them:
1. Project fairs and notifications by corporate giving bodies are possibly most viable ways of projecting your ideas.
2. Seeking donations and funds from NGO's like Rotary International and Lions also work to your advantage.
These practical ways did prove very beneficial to us, during our fundraising exercises and to our pleasant surprise, we could discover their magical properties, only after we started collecting some meaningful non profit funds.