Have Realistic Goals for Your Fundraiser
-Know your Breakeven point; Have a plan on how to achieve your Fundraising Goals. Have Realistic Goals for you Fundraiser.
It is important to have realistic goals for your fundraiser. You will need to do a little math and possibly familiarize yourself with an accounting term called the breakeven point.
Know your Breakeven point; Have a plan on how to achieve your Fundraising Goals.
The breakeven point, as you might guess, is when your cost of conducting the event is equal to your contributions. You need to know your breakeven point for a couple of reasons.
Knowing your breakeven point will help you determine your fundraising goal. Let’s say you are planning to have a rubber duck race. Your costs will include posters for advertising, costs for other kinds of advertising, paper for signup sheets and rubber ducks to be used in the race. Let’s say the total cost is $200.
Your fundraising goal might be $1000. In order to meet that goal, you will need to collect a total of $1200 from participants. If you expect to sign up 200 participants, you should charge $6 each. So, knowing your breakeven point can also help you determine what kind of fees to charge.
Planning will help you achieve your goals, whatever they may be. Remember the old saying, “No one plans to fail but many people fail to plan.” It’s true. Most failed fundraisers can be blamed on a failure to plan.
In addition to making estimates of your costs, you want to start thinking about how to advertise, where to purchase the needed materials, when to start advertising and who you can ask for help. This is all a part of the planning process. If you can’t answer all of those questions, you are not done planning.
Fundraiser costs are often very low. It all depends on the type of fundraising event you want to have. Fundraisers that rely solely on donations may be cost-free. Planning ahead can help you keep your costs down, no matter what kind of event you would like to have.
Realistic goals are often based on the amount earned during previous fundraising events of a similar kind. If you are trying to raise a large amount, you may need to have several events before you reach your goal. You can plan them far in advance. For example, you might start planning for a spring, summer, fall and winter event during the previous winter.
Success is a big motivator. One of the important reasons for setting realistic goals is that you are more likely to reach the goal and be successful. When you are successful, you will be more inclined to organize future fundraising events to help your charity or organization.
Category: Fundraising Tips, Ideas and Strategies
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