The Art of Fundraising and Community Involvement
“Impact a Life†ÑÂþllõgõ scholarship essayist Derek Yang takes ðn Ñ–ntõrõѕtÑ–ng and Ñ–nfþrmðtÑ–võ lþþk at the fþllþwÑ–ng essay topic:
“Chronicle a successful raffle fundraising campaign you or a family member has been a part of. What results were achieved? How did it help the organization and/or the community it was meant to benefit? How did the experience enrich you?â€Â
Derek is working on a Pre-Bio program UC Santa Barbara. Thanks Derek and best of luck with your studies!
“Impact a Life†Scholarship contributor: Derek Yang
Yþu ÑÂðn hõlÑ€ Derek Yang’s pursuit þf a scholarship award bу ÑÂlÑ–ÑÂkÑ–ng the “sharing Ñ–Ñ• ÑÂðrÑ–ng†buttþnÑ• bõlþw.
Fundraising can be fun or a complicated mess of sorts. People don’t like solicitors but so many organizations depend on fundraising to help them stay afloat. Fundraising can help create a much tighter community and support for the organization. I’ve participated in about fifteen fundraisers. There were the successful ones that were organized well and the not so successful ones that was due to either organization or something that’s difficult to fundraise. The most successful fundraising campaign that I’ve seen was done by my little brother.
Joining the youth soccer league for our city, my little brother was required to buy $20 worth of raffle tickets of $2 each. Each ticket had a coupon for $2 off any order at our local Boston’s House of Pizza. The pizza chain is pretty popular around the area and buying a raffle ticket not only gives you your money back, it also enters you into a raffle for $500. My little brother went outside for ten minutes before he was done. All ten were sold to just two people! Also if your family goes a lot, there’s no point in selling them in the first place. The fact that you don’t lose money in buying one, unless you don’t go of course, made the fundraiser really popular. Almost every child that tried just a little bit to sell them made back the money they put into it.
The youth soccer league made $20 from every child of course which helped them a lot in maintaining all the soccer fields that they played on which included lawn care, goal posts, and lines for the fields. It allowed them to hire enough refs for every game and also good ones at that. It’s always the worst when you’re playing a game that have not so great refs. It also made the community tighter. Not in the sense that everyone knew each other but more of in the sense that people thought that it was a great fundraiser and were willing to pitch in because it heled the kids and they didn’t lose anything. On the other side, the kids were able to sell quickly and consistently which gave them all a confidence boost that can help them a lot in future fundraisers. It also made people more likely to go to Boston’s House of Pizza. After all, they have coupons to use. It puts the pizzeria in a good light because they were so willing to give out such a large promotion that would surely promote customer retention.
Seeing my little brother so happy from quick sales after kicking him out of the house to sell them made me realize how easy it was to fundraise if you put the right tactics together and are organized about it. They put together a mandatory $20 fundraiser that forces parents to buy them in order to sign their child up. This relieves a lot of stress on the organization as they wouldn’t have to worry about kids not selling any tickets or losing them and the money. The soccer league knew how to make a good deal with Boston’s House of Pizza that would benefit them both in a good way. Not only did it encourage customer retention, it also encouraged already loyal customers to have more reason to go, and it brought in new customers who thought the coupon was a fair deal. I learned that fundraising can be a quick and easy way to raise money for a cause and promote community involvement. I’ve been through some tough fundraisers and those majorly due to not so great items we were trying to fundraise with. Although the intent was to make money for the youth soccer league, I learned a lot of sales tactics and saw how well a community can band together for a cause as simple as kid’s soccer. Fundraising is a far out form of art in what it can do to the human spirit. I witnessed this first hand from the joy in my brother, his story of how willing people were to help him out with it, and the way it led to the art of sales.