By the time you read this, assuming the airlines cooperate, I'll be out on the East Coast for the Taking Action for Animals Conference, which starts on the 24th. If you're attending, please do stop by our booth and say "hi."
In other news, I recently did a radio show with a person from a rescue out in California. After the show, we ended up talking about fundraising. I told her about my new book Funds to the Rescue, so that led into a rather long conversation about her struggles to raise money. It's a situation I know many of you are facing too, so I thought I'd share a few ideas that came out of our chat.
In this case, the rescue group is only two years old, but thanks to the efforts of just two or three people, they've saved more than 200 dogs. That's a huge accomplishment, but as she was telling me about all the stuff she's done, I felt like the words "Burnout Alert!!!" were flashing in front of my eyes.
As I've mentioned before, when you run a rescue, you can't do it all alone. This woman had put on a HUGE, expensive, "black-tie" fundraiser, along with doing all the work of running the rescue by herself. Even with all that effort, the fundraiser wasn't a financial success and she was disappointed.
When you're working with a new group or even an established group that doesn't have many volunteers, don't put on a grandiose fundraiser. Big black tie events with big-money silent auctions are a lot of work. Even if you really hustle and have a bunch of donations, if no one has heard of your group, you'll have trouble getting people to show up to bid on the items.
You have to crawl before you can walk, and walk before you can run. If you have a small group, stick with simple, easy fundraisers that have low overhead. During the call, I mentioned the PawPrint valentine fundraiser that's among the "Paws-i-tively EASY Fundraisers" PDF we give away when you sign up as a Helping Paw member. I pointed out that the only out-of-pocket cost is one ream of paper (about $10). Yet you can earn hundreds of dollars using this simple technique.
Before you put on a huge event, you first need to establish a community. Think of it as a "fan base." The Beatles didn't start playing stadiums immediately. First they played small local clubs. In much the same way, you need to do a bunch of smaller fundraisers to get your name out there and build a volunteer, adopter, and (potentially) membership base. Only your most ardent fans will attend the big "black tie" events, so you need to establish a broad base of support first.
Not every fundraising idea is going to be right for your group. Look at your situation and resources first, then decide. Don't jump into something huge before you're ready.
As always, thank you for all you do to help the animals ;-)
~ Susan Daffron
Founder & President, NAPRP
Technorati Tags:
animal,
animals,
pet,
pets,
pet shelter,
pet shelters,
animal shelter,
animal shelters,
naprp,
national association of pet rescue professionals,
susan daffron,
susan c daffron,
dog,
dogs,
cat,
cats,
humane,
humane society,
humane societies,
pet rescue,
pet rescues,
adopt,
adoption,
adoption agencies,
taking action for animals,
fundraising,
fund raising,
fund raiser,
fundraiser