| Charities and other nonprofit organizations have | | | | exchange them at every opportunity. |
| recently fallen on hard financial times. The dwindling | | | | 2. Look into affinity-type programs |
| economy has led to more need for services provided | | | | Affinity programs create a mutually beneficial |
| by charities while making it more difficult to raise the | | | | relationship between a for profit company and a |
| funding required to stay afloat, much less to enable a | | | | nonprofit organization. These programs provide |
| ramp up to meet increasing demand. Fundraising | | | | discounted services and products to contributors, |
| events, which have historically been the financial pillar | | | | income to nonprofits, and more customers to the for |
| holding up an organization, are becoming less and less | | | | profit company. Products available for this type of |
| effective as major revenue generators. This is | | | | program range from telecommunications services |
| primarily due to the reluctance of more and more | | | | (home phone, cell phones, satellite tv, etc.) to credit |
| people to spend money on things viewed as luxury | | | | cards to car rentals and more. (The author is directly |
| items. Charity banquets, golf tournaments, and the like | | | | affiliated with a telecom provider that offers an affinity |
| are producing lackluster profits at best and revenue | | | | program.) |
| losses at worst. As people continue to be reluctant to | | | | 3. Update your website |
| buy, nonprofit groups are forced to become more | | | | Make sure that your website is geared for Web 2.0. |
| creative in their fundraising methods. There are, | | | | This means taking advantage of video clips, lead |
| however, good answers available when looking for | | | | capture pages, "Donate Now" buttons along with other |
| ways to effectively generate revenue in these tough | | | | website optimization techniques. Start a Facebook or |
| financial times. | | | | other social networking page and link it to your current |
| 1. Build up your donor list | | | | website. Use Twitter to create a buzz online about |
| This can be done, in many cases relatively easily by | | | | your cause and any charitable activities you are |
| employing a few basic networking strategies. Ask | | | | currently involved in. |
| your board members for a list of people that they | | | | The bottom line when looking for creative ways to |
| know. ( You may even wish to start a motivational | | | | diminish the effect of the down economy on your |
| program to help board members expand their | | | | fundraising efforts is to diversify your efforts so that |
| networks.) Ask those that have benefited from your | | | | your organization is not reliant upon a single large |
| organization's activities in the past for a list of their | | | | fundraising event just to stay afloat. |
| contacts. Finally, ALWAYS carry business cards and | | | | |