Fundraising for a Great Cause

There are so many reasons as to why fundraising is either needed or necessary.  Schools fund raise to help offset the costs of field trips, class trips, etc.  The Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts have fund raised long before many of us were thought of.

Though, back in the day, fundraising was a lot harder for one to achieve their monetary goals.  Students went from door-to-door selling chocolates, candles, seeds, and more.  Girl Scouts sold cookies – they still do.  Schools held bake sales.  Churches raised funds through bake sales and dinners.  Individuals would raise funds by teaming up with a non-profit organization.  Even children would set up a lemonade stand at the end of their drive’s to raise funds for something they wanted.

Today fundraising for a great cause has become much easier to do.  This isn’t to say it doesn’t take work – it still does, but having the WWW at one’s fingertips makes the fundraising so much easier.  One simply chooses a fundraising site like the new website Donasity for online fundraising.  From there, the word of the fundraiser gets spread through friends and family – mainly via social media these days and the chosen fundraising site.  Word of mouth still happens; though with social media – the word gets around much faster.

And sometimes it just behooves one to do additional fundraising like holding dinners, auctions, dances, etc. and to not rely completely on the chosen fundraising site for raising the funds needed.

Recently a woman we know needed to find a way to obtain an wheelchair accessible van for her 15 year-old daughter.  Mom’s back just couldn’t handle lifting her daughter into her vehicle and then the wheelchair into the back end of the vehicle – only to have to do this all over again when they landed at their destination and then again to get back home.

Mom set up an online fundraising campaign as well as getting friends of hers together to put on a Spaghetti Dinner with a Silent Auction.  They sold t-shirts and wristbands.  A local musician met with the family and set up a fundraising even on behalf of the cause.  It truly was beautiful to see everyone pull together to get this family the much needed wheelchair accessible van.  They needed to raise nearly $50,000 (for a used vehicle) to make this happen and in less than 4 months – the goal was achieved just before Christmas.  The whole story was heartwarming.

Many start fundraisers for the death of a loved one’s funeral expenses – usually a child.  Some want their beloved to have a headstone.  Other fundraisers are to help animals.  The reasons to hold a fundraising event are endless.  With access to the WWW and social media – fundraising can be done in a flash compared to yester-years.