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If you are planning to become a successful fundraiser, you need to understand that fundraising is more than just generating funds for your organization.
The key elements when it comes to fundrasing are energy and motivation. So, you have to know how to energize your staff on a regular basis – you need to motivate your team and generate a genuine awareness about what you are doing. Once you learn how to do this, you will become able to generate extra publicity for your fundraising campaigns and to gain new relationships with people who can become your long-term donors. So, keeping your fundraising efforts on the right track and preventing your future efforts from becoming notorious failures are the key aspects when trying to raise any amount of money. Just try and stay away from the following mistakes that can affect your fundraising efforts.
1. Not Having A Clear Plan - There are plenty of fundraising organizations that do not have a written plan for their future fundraising actions. A written plan is an important document that can show you the way you want to achieve your fundraising goals, provide you with clear objectives and set time-lines for every action you plan to take. This will prevent your fundraising organization from wasting precious time and resources. 2. Not Presenting A Clear Campaign Message - If you want people to participate and donate, you have to make them understand what your fundraising organization is doing and why donating and fundraising is so important. Therefore, you need to convince your potential donors that your mission is an important one and explain everything to them. 3. Not Communicating With Donors - Your fundraising campaign should be efficient enough when it comes to communicating the sense of urgency related to your campaign because people need to understand what needs are being met by your organization. You need to clearly state this particular need by using strong and well targeted messages. These messages should also be repeated to remind people why donating to your organization is so important. 4. Losing The Fun From Your Campaign - Keep in mind that fun must not be removed from the bigger picture. Once you learn how to make your donors have a really good time while donating to your organization, you will keep them coming back for good. 5. Leaving Planning To The Last Minute - Another thing you should try and do is to prevent yourself from leaving the fundraising planning to the last minute. This could mean people may already have their schedules booked and may not be able to attend your event. Make sure that everyone finds about your fundraising campaign well in advance so they will be able to make the necessary plans to attend your fundraising event. 6. Failing To Make A "Call To Action" - no fundraising letters or events are likely to be efficient if you fail to make the direct appeal to your potential donors. Keep in mind that it is extremely important to explain your fundraising mission and provide your potential donors with a positive and heart warming story about all the people who were helped by your organization. You need to underline the impact your organization has had on other people’s lives; leave aside the uncertain terms and be direct and sincere. Shying away from asking your audience to donate is fatal for any fundraising action – just tell your potential donors that you need them to donate today. Each of these possible fundraising failures is preventable. Just do your best and provide yourself with everything you need to know about the pitfalls of your fundraising actions. Plan your fundraising strategy in a careful manner and make every effort to meet your potential donors’ needs. After all, a happy donor is a generous donor.
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