Fundraising Ideas

This file outlines some thoughts regarding handling of donations and other income for the Inkscape Project.

More ideas: http://www.nonprofitalliance.org/system/res/25/original/Board_Member_Packet.pdf

Direct Asks

Donation solicitation

• We currently already provide a paypal link for visitors to donate to us.

• Ask five to ten people to save all their change for three to five months.

• Invite people to your birthday party and ask that in lieu of gifts they give money to your organization. Encourage members to request donations to their organization as Christmas presents.

• Find out which of your friends (perhaps this is true for you also) work in corporations with matching gift programs. Then ask them to donate and get their gift matched for your organization and ask them to ask their co-workers to donate and get their gifts matched.

• List all your friends who are interested in your organization or

similar organizations. Decide how much you want to ask each one for. If you are not sure of an amount, use a range. Write to them on your own stationery, include a brochure from the organization and a return envelope. Phone those people who don’t respond in two weeks. Some people will need 10 friends to give $100, and some people need 50 friends to give $20. Most people will need a combi nation of gifts of $100, $50 and $25.

• If you or someone you know owns a small business that has regular

customers who receive a catalog or announcements of sales, write them an appeal letter for the organization. Your letter can say something like, “You are one of my best customers. As such, I let you know about sales coming up and good things happening in my store. Today, I want to tell you about another good thing—what I do when I am not minding the store.” Then go on to describe the group and ask for a donation. Also post the letter on your website with a link to Inkscape's paypal page.

Challenge campaign

Set a challenge of raising $1000. Give part of the $1000. Then ask your friends to join you in giving $50, $100, or whatever amount you gave. This is most effective because you are not asking them to do anything you haven’t done.

Challenge gifts can be quite small. Tell people you’ll give $5 for every $25 they give, or will match every $50 gift up to ten gifts. For added suspense, make this challenge during a fundraising event. You or the host can announce, “We now have the Dave Buckstretch Challenge. For the next five minutes, Dave will give $5 for every new member that joins Worthy Cause.”

A very common strategy is to ask for money and give money yourself. These are the basic premises of fundraising - you must ask, you must give. Everything after that involves creativity, imagination and a sense of fun.

• Create a take-off on the “adopt-a-highway” technique by naming budget items of your group as available for adoption. You could develop a flyer that reads, “The following items

have been found near death from negligence and abuse. Won’t you help? $25 per month will ensure that our computer is maintained. $10 0 per month will release our photocopy machine from toiling with no toner and a dying motor. (We can lease a new one.)”

Ongoing subscriptions

• Pledge $28 (or whatever) a month, and get two others to do likewise.

Conference Booth

Print nice donation envelopes to include in our conference booths. Give some to conservancy to have at their booths.

Send people to events to man booths with the express aim of raising money and spreading awareness. Maybe do in conjunction with conservancy?

Fundraising Events

• Get a famous or popular person to do a special event. Watch the costs on this, or you may lose money.

Products

Sales of T-Shirts, Hats, Mugs, etc.

• cafepress.com?

• High quality clothing though. Maybe Susan Conklin

• Sell buttons, T-shirts, etc. Distribute to bookstores or novelty shops

• Raffle or contest items signed by inkscape devs at hackfests

Art auctions / sales

• Art donations from artists, sold, and proceeds split

• Ask artists to donate a work to the project, and then have a charity auction for the pieces (including the copyright??) Use the proceeds to fund development projects.

• Art prints auctions

CD's of Inkscape + Open Clip Art Library

Sell for $20, split 50/50 with OCAL

Digital

Affiliations

• Amazon 2.5-6.0% commission

• Think of stores or services related to your organization or where a lot of your members shop.

Ask the store to donate a percentage of profits for a certain day or week, or even forever. You can also explore this with mail-order firms. Then you advertise widely to friends, family and members that Joe’s Florist will give 2% of each sale during Valentine’s weekend to anyone identifying themselves with your group.

Services

Art services

• Logothon - we enlist our users in producing logos for other open source projects or companies. 50% goes to artist, 50% to Inkscape.

• Business Card Designs - Recruit our artists to do business card design services, with a portion of the proceeds returned to the project. Serve as a broker to match design needs with artists.

• If you have an artistic bent, offer to design greeting cards to specification for organizations or individuals for a fee. If you are good at calligraphy, sell your skills to schools

for graduation announcements, friends for classy but low-cost wedding invitations, or just fun certificates such as “World’s Greatest Dad” for Father’s Day or “Outstanding Friend.” Create unique Halloween costumes or masks. Donate the proceeds from your artistry.

Teaching Classes

• Teach a seminar on a topic you know: fundraising, knitting, organi cgardening, organizing, proposal writing, environmental im pact reports, gourmet cooking, dog grooming, starting your own business. Charge $50-75 per person, with a goal of 15 to 20 people. Either absorb the cost of promotion, or have enough participants to cover it.

• Fundathon - call for donations to increase the fund by $5k

Organize a service raffle.

Get four people (one can be you) to donate a simple but valuable service that many people could use and sell raffle tickets for $10-$20 each. Keep the price a little high so you don’t have to sell so many and so that the buyers have a higher chance of winning. Services can include childcare for a weekend or for any weekend night two weekends in a row; one day of housecleaning; yard work; house painting (interior or exterior), etc. Sell the tickets to neighbors, work mates and to other board members. Encourage people to buy several by offering discounts for multiple purchases, such as one for $10, 2 for $20, but 3 for $25, 4 for $35, 5 for $40. If you are really bold or live in a more affluent area, or have few friends, sell the tickets for $50 each. A full day of housecleaning for $50 is a real bargain, and buyers have a high chance of winning with fewer tickets sold

Hold an “I’m Not Afraid” Auction

You can do this with just a few friends or hundreds of people if you have enough items to auction. You survey a few people (and use your own common sense) about what things need to be done in their home or office that they are afraid of or would really rather not do. This is different from a service auction - there has to be an element of dread in the activity. For example, some people cannot wash their windows because their apartment is too high or the second story of their house is too high and they suffer from vertigo. If you are not afraid of heights, you can sell your window-washing service (bring a sturdy ladder). This goes for drain cleaning, minor roof repairs, antenna fixing, etc. Or, if you are unafraid of cockroaches or spiders, you can offer to clean out that dark corner or garage or basement for a small fee. Snakes can be found in gardens and woodsheds, but maybe that doesn’t bother you. The problem doesn’t need to be as serious as phobia. How about allergies to dust, pollen, weeds? If you don’t have them , you can mow, sweep, clean for a fee. By marketing it as an “I’m Not Afraid” Auction, you also have the option for people to name something they need done to a group of volunteers, and then have a volunteer say, “I’m not afraid to do that.” In that case , you will need a set fee for service.

Administrivia Auction

Similar to the suggestion above is the “Details Auction.” This is for all your friends whose desks are overflowing with papers or who can’t get their receipts in order to give to the tax preparer or who complain t hey can never find anything. If you are a well-organized person, offer to clean up their desk, get their Rolodex in order, file their papers, etc. If you like to shop, sell that to people who don’t and do their holiday shopping for them, or buy birthday, baby shower or niece/nephew presents for them. Anything that people feel they cannot control is the organized person’s fundraising dream come true.

Misc Other Ideas

• Investment pool funding

• Lead or get someone to lead a nature walk, an architectural tour, a

historic tour, a sailing trip, a rafting trip, or a horseback ride. Charge $15-$25 per person, or charge $35 and provide lunch. Advertise the event in the newspaper to draw in people from outside your organization.

• Sell your frequent flyer miles to friends or

donate them to the organization for a raffle. Watch the rules of the airline on this, but some airlines let you give away miles, and you may be able to sell your miles as long as you don’t go through a mileage broker.

• Get members and friends to include the group for bequests in their wills.

• Solicit small businesses, churches,

synagogues or service clubs for $1000. If you are active in a church or you own your own business and are involved in business organizations or service clubs, this can be very effective. You can often raise $200-$1000 with a simple proposal and oral presentation.