Launching a successful fundraising campaign is much more 
complicated than it appears on the surface. On the surface it 
would seem that if you have a worthwhile non-profit cause that 
you are promoting, people would buy whatever you are selling 
because they want to help your organization. In reality, 
constructing a fundraising campaign is more like launching a 
small business. You must choose a product or service to sell, 
market that product or service, and keep tabs on customer 
satisfaction; all while making sure that you are generating the 
revenues that you need to accomplish your organization's goals. 

First, let's look at some examples of how not to do fundraising. 
I can clearly remember being practically held at gunpoint by a 
coworker, who said "You know, my daughter is selling girl scout 
cookies, I just wanted to know how many boxes of girl scout 
cookies can I put you down for?" My response would be "Uh, 
three?" She responded with "I will just put you down for five, 
they aren't expensive you know." Why does this tactic not work? 
Because it often leaves a bad taste in the customer's mouth and 
resulted in me hiding from other coworkers, whom I knew had 
daughters in girl scouts. 

Cookies seem to be a harmless product that appeals to everyone. 
Candy bars are much the same, since they typically have mass 
appeal. I remember my grade school sending us out to sell boxes 
of candy bars that usually ended up being bought by my parents. 
But not everyone likes cookies and candy bars. Why not actually 
market a product that people want or need? 

Much of your fundraising efforts and marketing strategy needs to 
focus on who your target market is. Who do you think will 
contribute to your charitable cause, and what product or service 
do those customers desire? Answering this question is where the 
fundraising planning should begin. 

Let's use an example of an international student group at a major 
university. While there are virtually dozens of individual 
international student groups, we will focus on the generic, 
overarching international student association. Now let's suppose 
that these students want to raise money so that they can bring in 
guest speakers or to display an information booth at a local 
event. Whatever their reason for needing a fundraiser, they will 
need to turn to those who are willing to support their cause. 

It is safe to assume that the target market of the international 
student association is other international students. Now that we 
have defined the target market we need to develop a product or 
service that the target market would find to be valuable; cookies 
and candy bars? Maybe. How about instead of the traditional 
methods, we look at something that these foreign-born students 
could actually use, an international telephone calling card. 
Doesn't this sound like a much better idea? Not only is it 
useful, but also it can save the students money when they phone 
home. As we know, college students are frequently short on money. 

This is an example of a fundraising campaign that put some 
thought into the target market and what product or service would 
match up with the needs of that target market. If you are in the 
international student association and trying to raise money from 
other international students, you understand that these other 
students want to contribute, but they live on a strict budget. 
Using international telephone calling cards will not only save 
them money when they call home, but it will also generate the 
needed revenue for the student association. 

There are companies who offer these international calling cards 
that offer huge savings over calling internationally using the 
traditional methods. These phone card companies offer the 
fundraising group a residual income of 15% on the web recharges 
sales. There is no actual selling involved, since you simply 
offer promotional codes for the student to use. These promotional 
codes give the students a couple of dollars of free airtime to 
try the service out. If the students like the product, and 
recharge the phone card, the student association receives a 15% 
commission off of that recharge. This commission does not just 
happen once either, it happens every time the customer buys a web 
recharge on the phone card. One such phone card company that 
offers this service is "Send Global". You can visit 
http://www.sendglobal.info to learn more about the affiliate 
program. 

This example, which happens to be a real life example, can 
generate big revenues for the international student association, 
while providing a needed service. No more do you have to pester 
coworkers or friends into donating money, only to have them 
resent you later. No more cookies or candy bars being sold to 
people who don't eat sweets. Now, you can actually help the 
members of your group and those interested in assisting your 
group. Fundraising campaigns are obviously much more complex than 
they first appear. A successful fundraising campaign requires 
a well thought out plan that identifies the target market and 
identifies an appropriate product or service that the target 
market will want to utilize.  

Jim Headley, (jheadley@telecents.com) VP of New Business 
Development, Telecents Communications Inc
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