Booker T. Washington once said, “Those who are the happiest are those who do the most for others.” Giving can easily be defined as doing the most, and years later, science proved Mr. Washington right. Giving has been shown to help the human race receive the one thing more valuable than money, time or material possessions… happiness.

In fact, psychologists from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management conducted experiments to test this theory. Participants were given $5 every day for five days. They were then randomly assigned to spend the money on themselves or on someone else. The average study showed that the participants who gave away their $5 were happier than the ones who spent it on themselves.

Isn’t it amazing that when we give cheerfully on the outside, we gain something beautiful from within? Simply seeing a smile on someone’s face, makes us smile. It’s a win-win scenario. If you don’t believe us, give it a try! You might just change the world.

1. Host a Silent or Live Auction

Charity auctions are a classic way to raise money for almost all fundraising events. This timeless format creates a fun and exciting component for your attendees and donors. Picture this: A crowd is drawing and people are competing left and right to see who can outbid whom! People appreciate unique auction items, especially when they can successfully fundraise with them. You can offer interesting artwork, once-in-a-lifetime travel and experience packages, entertainment, music and sports memorabilia, and so much more. Organizations, sponsors and donors can provide the auction items that best fit your audience. For example, sports memorabilia would be perfect for a sport-oriented event!

2. Create an Early-Bird Discount Incentive

Filling up Google calendars has never been so easy! Your supporters’ schedules are crammed with work events, family affairs and social gatherings. Have you ever heard someone say, “Hold on, let me check my schedule first?” It’s as though whoever schedules something with you first wins! A profitable fundraising event needs a healthy attendance. This means you need to get the attendees to mark their calendars ahead of time. One way to do this is by creating an early-bird incentive.

Try offering ticket discounts for the first 50 people to sign up or perhaps five free raffle tickets to the first five registrants. Have fun with it — be creative!

3. Use Social Media as a Marketing Tool

There are millions and, on some platforms, billions of people using social media every day. Social networking has become a powerful tool for obtaining news and information. Many people find things out through Facebook or Instagram before they even flip on the news. This powerful resource could help you produce more awareness and a higher attendance that brings a greater profit for your fundraising efforts. In order for this strategy to work, it’s important to know the age range of the people you are trying to reach. The majority of people using social media today fall within the millennial and gen X populations. If this is your target audience, consider using these photo and video-friendly platforms as a way to get the word out. 

Create colorful imagery and videos with minimal text to grab the attention of your viewers. Network giants like Facebook have made it easy to advertise and promote events by allowing you to create free event pages. You can also purchase ads or boost posts on Instagram, so more people see your promotion. Once you’ve done the work on social media, you’ll have a place for people to refer to and find out more information. The best part is that social media is easily shareable and can spread like wildfire. 

What are you waiting for? Give it a try!

4. Connect with Sponsors

Making real connections with people is so important. It’s when the real self of one person meets the real self of another. What better way to raise more money for your fundraising event than by making genuine connections with people who can help? Meeting new sponsors will not only give them the opportunity to support a local cause, but it will also boost your credibility. It can increase marketing possibilities and open the door for other sponsors to take notice. It is also important to continue the relationship with sponsors that you have already worked with.

Focusing on relationships with care and effort could be the difference between a good event or a great one!

5. Email, Email, Email!

Emailing can go a long way with little to no cost. It’s important to compile emails from interested fundraiser attendees, as well as previous attendees. This will make it easy to blast out an email campaign when you’re ready to start marketing your event. Emailing is a great opportunity to also reinforce the mission of your charity and the specific event you’re putting together. 

Be authentic in your email outreach! Think of it as a simple heads up or a reminder for people.

Your charity fundraising initiatives are incomplete without considering the growing influence and opportunity afforded by millennials, both today and into the near future. Millennials are defined as individuals born after 1980 who came of age in the early 2000s, and contrary to popular belief, this younger generation is positively increasing the charity donation scale and sharing their wealth.

Today, there are two primary contributions millennials make: The first is by impulse, for example checking out at a grocery store counter and being asked to donate a dollar to a cause. The second is by focusing on domestic and local issues. The big question is how do you engage millennials to donate to your nonprofit now and for years to come?

1. Focus on your cause instead of your organization. Millennials tend to care more about specific causes than organizations’ defined brands. If your organization raises funds for children, focus on that service when communicating with the younger generation, not only the details about your organization.
2. Be flexible with your opportunities to contribute. Encourage millennials to donate and volunteer on their own terms. You don’t need to eliminate your entire established framework for accepting volunteers and donations, but loosen the reins a little. Millennials respond better to flexibility than they do to forcibility.
3. Maintain an active and engaging social media presence. Millennials tweet, post and snap their entire lives. Increase your social media clout, and your millennial supporters will be more likely to share information regarding your good work with their social networks. Highly engaged millennials can be marketing machines for your fundraising ideas!
4. Encourage volunteering. This may be the best way to attract millennials and hold onto them for the long term. Millennials often prefer getting involved to simply donating money – so accept the donation of their time! This may be the most effective way to reel in their support for the next 10, 20, 30 years.
5. Millennials are impulsive buyers and donors. They donate quickly when they feel inspired or when they gravitate toward a cause. Try and vamp up your inspiration, by posting pictures and videos of the work you do – make it motivational and inspirational to potential donors and volunteers.
6. Stay in touch. This goes for all donors, but especially for the younger generations. Millennials want you to remain in contact with them, and that means more than once a year. Think about a monthly e-newsletter that keeps supporters informed and up to date on all the work your organization has been doing.

As millennials grow their influence and financial security, it’s critical charity fundraisers invest the time to develop and implement strategies to engage them for the long term. With a little extra work and some social media, you can tap into this blooming generation. Be creative, be innovative, and last but not least, be focused!

Thousands of charities, schools and other nonprofits are raking in millions in additional fundraising revenue with the help of Charity Grow’s free online auction platform and charity event planning system.

Charity Grow has revolutionized auction fundraising yet again. The organization best known for its diverse offering of charity auction items has entered a new age with its entry into the fundraising technology space. In addition to the organization’s current offerings, Charity Grow now offers online auctions and mobile bidding, as well as turnkey online event planning. What makes these additions truly unique is that the company offers them to all its charity partners as a value-added services. That means Charity Grow’s comprehensive online toolkit is 100% free — no setup fees, no contracts, no commissions.

“The positive response from our charity partners has been overwhelming,” said Charity Grow’s Marian Amo. “The two things I hear most from the event planners we work with are, one, ‘it worked just how you said it was going to,’ and two, ‘I can’t believe this service is free!’ People have a hard time believing we’re giving this technology away, but it’s about giving something back in a realm where many tech-focused companies are charging huge commissions just for passively running an auction. We’re not a tech company, we’re a fundraising company, and we want to change the current model.”

Charity Grow’s exclusive online auction platform gives charity event planners the ability to host their virtual auctions via a simple interface with the assistance of in-house technical and marketing teams. Many early-adopting charities have integrated Charity Grow’s online auction technology with their in-person auctions, utilizing the company’s mobile bidding engine as a tool at their live events, rather than antiquated bidding with paper and pens.

“Not only do the nonprofits we work with get the full benefit of displaying their auction items on a custom, branded domain, they also get the convenience of having the entire site designed and managed for them — all completely free,” Amo said. “That way, planners can shift their focus toward bringing in more donations and making their supporters aware of their online auction. Charity Grow also helps create compelling, response-driven marketing materials for every auction we host. That’s just another thing we hope to take off their plates, so they can focus on engaging their audiences.”

Managing a charity event is made simple with the help of Charity Grow’s online event planning system. Event organizers can book, manage and close out their auction fundraisers all via one user-friendly, web-based system.

“Accessibility is everything in the online and mobile space,” said Charity Grow’s Sean Gallagher. “To develop solutions that truly cater to what our charity partners need — not just now, but in the next five, 10, 15 years — we have to be focused on accessibility, and that’s what we’ve done with these latest technology projects. We’ve built systems that are both easy to use and scalable, while vast in their breadth and speed. Charity Grow’s online auction platform was the first step in our larger strategy to deliver technology-driven fundraising solutions to our charity partners for many years to come. Our next step has been the online event planner, but we have much more on the horizon.”

Find out more about Charity Grow at CharityGrow.com or contact a charity fundraising specialist at (888) 232-2500 to learn how this cutting-edge organization can help your charity grow.

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Winter fundraising events are a challenge to plan and execute effectively, as the temperatures dip throughout much of the country. The experts at Charity Grow have compiled a brief list of fundraising ideas and tips for hosting events during these long, cold days of winter.

Especially during the holiday season, make your events fun for the whole family. If your event is family-oriented, the natural inclination many of your donors have to be family-focused themselves will lead to much more success for your fundraising.

1. Throw a Winter Carnival! Who said carnivals can only be in the summer months? Host a winter carnival indoors that will be fun for all ages. You can have games and face painting for the little ones and some great local foods for the adults.
2. Host an Ice Skating Party! Rent out your local rink for the evening and host a skating party. To keep your guests warm in the rink, serve hot cocoa and coffee, plus other holiday goodies. You can also hold a small silent auction for the grownups while the kids are skating!
3. Put on a Bake Sale or Cookie Party! Around the holidays, so many of your potential donors are already baking, so why not make it baking for a cause? There are two ways you can accomplish this, either a bake sale, where volunteers sell their baked goods, or a cookie party! Everyone must bring a platter of cookies with them and then charge a small cover ($5-$10). Then, guests can mingle, taste cookies, and at the end, make their own plates of everyone’s cookies to bring home and enjoy.
4. Organize a Holiday-themed Sale! These include wrapping paper sales, candle sales or poinsettia sales. During the holidays everyone is looking for wrapping paper to wrap presents, candles to give as gifts or poinsettias for their homes, so have a sale of these things to raise money for your organization while also providing supporters with holiday items they already need.

Don’t let the cold weather negatively affect your organization’s fundraising efforts. Know your target community and then cater to some warming events for them. It gives people a reason to get up and out of the house and all for a good cause.