Fund-raising 101 (Part 2 of 4): Direct Fund-raising


February 21, 2008 at 11:34 PST
Sometimes the easiest way to make money is just asking for it.

And if you ask Cara Peacock, an 18-year-old full time student/part-time “world changer” of Orcas High in Washington state, she’ll tell you the same thing.

Peacock is in many ways your typical high school student. She plays basketball, she heads up student government, and she spends her days dreaming of a grandiose future.

But when she’s not doing those things, she’s also raising thousands – tens of thousands – of dollars for charity efforts simply by asking for the donations. It’s an unbelievable accomplishment, but as Peacock likes to say: “ ‘Ask and you shall receive’ is very true. If you are passionate about what you are doing, others get excited too.”

And they certainly do get excited.

Peacock, leveraging friend and family connections, the church-going crowd, and even local businesses, has raised a grand total of $56,000 this year alone for a project to benefit Africa. And she did it all by simply being excited about her cause and getting others excited about it.

“I wrote a pretty general letter of what I wanted to accomplish, and I sent it out to hundreds of people. I had a great response. People sent me checks left and right. Some for $50, some for up to $500. Then I talked in front of my church, and that same day people just started handing me checks.”

It just goes to show what the right fund-raising approach can accomplish. Peacock, a social maven and well-networked young lady, has substantially proven this.

By simply seeing who surrounded her, then approaching those people, she was able to sell her effort easily. And the fact is most of us could probably do the same thing. We have endless connections in our daily lives that we don’t see or consider. Cara Peacock just considered.

But others can do the same thing. It really is just a matter of asking. And Peacock is not the only example of direct fund-raising being a success.

Many off the wall fund-raising campaigns have worked wonders, and in the digital age it’s even easier than ever to get a message out to the community. Whether it’s posting a video on YouTube that explains your cause and what kind of support you’re looking for, utilizing a social networking site like MySpace, Facebook, or quarterlife to ask for donations, or even just e-mailing friends and family and co-workers. . . the results can be big.

$20 here or $10 there adds up. Add that in with some visits to community hot spots such as churches, local clubs, or the local newspaper to spread your word, and the successes begin to pile up even more.

Plus, it certainly helps to be honest and passionate. Most people are more than happy to help a young idealist with his or her dream if he or she seems legitimately passionate. But people also see through false pretenses. Believe in your cause and you can sell it to others simply by asking.

If Cara Peacock can raise $56,000 living in a remote island community in Washington state, there’s no limit to the kinds of money that can be raised in even bigger communities.

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Fund-raising 101 (Part 2 of 4): Direct Fund-raising

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February 21, 2008 - 7:57 PM PST
Deanflagel on
In an early part of my career I worked with educational program for Congress. Students had to pay quite a bit to attend, but we supplied a basic fundraising guide. It basically said - write a nice letter, explain why you're going, tell them why you're great, ask for money. Over half of the students got funding using this, nearly all that tried, and most had more than half their expenses covered. In general they had to send ten or fewer letters. This post is exactly right - if you have an idea, and you ask, you can make a substantial difference!
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