Guide to fundraisers

Overview

• What are fundraisers?
• Why have fundraisers?
• How to help?
• Recruiting fundraisers
• Third-Party fundraisers
• Supporter-led fundraisers
• Charity-led fundraisers
• Getting the best from fundraisers
• How do I go about fundraising for a charity?
• Resources

What are fundraisers?

Fundraisers are individuals who undertake to raise money on behalf of an organisation or in support of a good cause. Fundraisers can also be a motivated group of individuals, joining together their efforts to make a bigger impact with their fundraising and raise a larger sum of money. 

Fundraisers can be a formal part of an organisation, or they can be individuals taking on a fundraising challenge. Organisations might have their own processes for ensuring that those fundraising on their behalf adhere to certain agreed approaches or individuals might create their own online page to attract donations and keep donors updated on their efforts.

Why have fundraisers?

Fundraisers can also be ambassadors and can help recruit new donors to build the charity’s donor base and reach new social networks through their personal contacts. They also add capacity to your fundraising team/resources. Not all fundraisers will be as proactive, some may just want to donate through money raised from donations given as a birthday request.

You can also have paid fundraisers, individuals who will organise and run events on your behalf but charge a fee and/or percentage of income generated. This can significantly reduce the burden on the organisation, but you must also ensure the fundraiser adheres to your policies/practices and promotes your organisation as you want.  Without such controls you risk potential damage to the organisations reputation if they go off message and/or the event goes wrong.

How to help?

Provide a toolkit with your logos, promotional materials, text, mission statements, and suggested social media posts. 

You can support your fundraisers in a number of ways to become more effective and have a positive experience. Making regular contact with them and linking them up with other fundraisers can help keep them motivated and make it easier for them to ask for advice or ideas along their fundraising journey.

Most fundraisers will use some form of online fundraising page, such as those offered by JustGiving or GoFundMe. Encourage fundraisers to personalise their page with photos and updates as their campaign progresses. Provide a toolkit with your logos, promotional materials, text, mission statements, and suggested social media posts. 

You can also celebrate their milestones, thanking fundraisers and their donors on your own website/social media to further promote their efforts.

Recruiting fundraisers

Invite internal and external fundraisers, including volunteers, beneficiaries and their families. Group fundraisers allow a joint challenge, lessening the pressure and bring together multiple networks. Fundraisers allow people to thank charities for their help. Suggest meaningful fundraising targets that equate to tangible outcomes for the cause, to strengthen.

Third-party fundraisers

This typically refers to existing annual challenge events that individuals can independently sign up for, such as runs. Charities may signpost, encourage or buy sponsored places for fundraisers that commit to raising a minimum target. Some larger events (such as the London Marathon and Great North Run) have long waiting lists for people to participate, so it can be better to direct people to more local events.

Supporter-led fundraisers

Individuals come up with their own fundraising idea that interests them and is entirely organised by them. They choose the focus, scale and capacity. They can be as local and cheap as required, with the fundraiser making the call to action.  However, to be most effective some input from your charity as identified above will be a great help.

Charity-led fundraisers

The charity itself can run a fundraising event for others to join. These must be time-efficient and get supporters to vote on their favourite idea, ensuring there is interest. (See Fundraising Event information )

You may also find that people will fundraise for you without your knowledge. In some instances, this can be fraud, where an individual is pretending to raise money on your behalf, but keeps the funds themselves. However, it is more likely that they want to do something positive for you and undertake the fundraising independently. Whilst this is a good thing, you also need to ensure any messages they are promoting are a true reflection of your work. If you find people undertaking such activities on your behalf, you do not want to discourage them but should provide them with accurate material and resources to support their efforts.

Getting the best from fundraisers

To make the best out of your fundraisers, think about the networks they have and/or give you access to. How can you utilise these to the best effect? This could be through new donors, sponsors of activities or volunteers to participate in a task. Learn about their motives for supporting you, is there anything that fundraising for you can do to help with their interests; for example, do they want to learn how to run/manage events?

And don’t forget to thank your fundraisers for all their efforts; this could be a personal letter for the Chair or public callout on social media. Failing to appropriately thank them is a sure way to lose their support.

How do I go about fundraising for a charity?

If you would like to fundraise on behalf of a charity or organisation, then your first step would be to contact them to explain your plans/ideas. Let them know why you want to support them and if you have a target of how much you think you will raise.

They will want to know what you are planning, and when, this is to ensure your activity is in keeping with the organisation’s practices, and to ensure it does not clash with other events or fundraising activities they are planning.

They may have suggested publicity materials, wording that you can use to publicise your efforts and some of the larger charities have fundraising packs that they issue to individuals fundraising on their behalf.

Resources

JustGiving

Free downloads of resources to help and support fundraisers
https://www.justgiving.com/for-charities/resources

Chartered Institute of Fundraisers

Lots of free resources and tools are available
https://ciof.org.uk

British Heart Foundation

Whist geared to their own fundraisers, the site offers free resources and ideas suitable for most organisation to adopt or use.
https://www.bhf.org.uk/how-you-can-help/fundraise

Cancer Research UK

Cancer Research UK (as with many other large charities) have fundraising packs available online that can help inspire your supporters.

https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/get-involved/do-your-own-fundraising