Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Recruiting and Training Fundraiser Volunteers

Volunteers are an essential part of your fundraising group. They should help you motivate and inspire people to participate in your cause and help you organize your event. But how do you approach a new volunteer and convince them to become involved with your group and selflessly give their time and effort? Below we have some tips that will help you recruit new fundraising volunteers.

Where to Recruit Fundraiser Volunteers

There are a few tactics and different places to check out for recruiting fundraiser volunteers. You can advertise in your local newspaper or simply by using word of mouth. An essential part of all fundraisers is networking and talking to people - you can use this same tactic when recruiting volunteers. Talk to supporters at your events and ask them if they've ever thought about supporting the cause with time instead of money. Talk with current volunteers and see if they have friends or family who would also like to get involved.

You can also advertise at places like high schools and colleges. Most students are very eager to have volunteer work on their resumes - it's a win-win situation for both of you. Some cities have volunteer bureaus that match up volunteers with volunteer opportunities. This is a great way to find potential fundraiser volunteer recruits.

After You Have a Few Interested Volunteers

After you have met with a individuals that are interested in volunteering, it is important to explain to them exactly what they can expect from your group. You should explain your fundraising plans and how volunteers are essential to your fundraising success. Ask for their feedback - it will help you learn more about what participation level they would like to have and their knowledge about fundraisers in general. Volunteers should be energetic, motivating and full of useful information.

Training Fundraising Volunteers

Training your new fundraiser volunteers doesn't have to be hard, but they should be on the same page with you. Start by showing them your fundraising plan so they can see the big picture. Then allow them to ask questions and fully understand how they fit into your fundraising expectations. Tell them about your past fundraisers and what your new goals are for this fundraiser. All volunteers should have a specific task they are assigned but it would be a good idea to train volunteers to do all tasks so jobs can be switched and backed up if needed. Remember most importantly to praise and thank your volunteers for a job well done. They need your appreciation and thanks as much as you need their help and support.

Internet Fundraising
: At Crowdrise.com, we offer internet fundraising pages. Create your compelling project pages and share them with your friends to raise funds online.

Fundraiser Planning Guide

All fundraisers need to have a firm plan set in place before the fundraising begins. By following this fundraiser planning guide your fundraiser will have a higher successes rate.

First thing to set is the dates for your fundraiser. Your fundraiser must have a beginning, middle and an end. If you find that your fundraiser has not made the money you were hoping for do not extend the end date. Your donor pool needs to know when the end is and what to expect.

Second is to plan your ending. If you are to hold an event to culminate the end of your fundraiser plan in advance. You want to ensure that no other organization is holding an event on the same day.

Third is to keep your budget in mind. You must have a clear cut budget in mind for your fundraiser. You can hold successful fundraisers with a limited budget you simply must plan for this and stick to your budget.

Forth is to set up a fundraising committee. You must have people that are in charge of organizing, running and managing your fundraiser. Committees work best when they are limited to 4 to 8 people.

Fifth is to create a timeline. By setting up a timeline you will be ensured that your fundraiser will run smoothly and on time.

Sixth check on a regular basis that all is running smoothly. You want your volunteers to stay on task and to get there assigned task accomplished in a timely manner.

Seventh be prepared to offer help to your volunteers. This can be a tricky task if your volunteer is not performing properly. You do not want to offend a volunteer but you do need to make sure that your fundraising work is getting done.

Eighth is to advertise your fundraiser. Let the community know that you are planning a fundraiser. Give them all the details they need such as date, time and duration.

Ninth after your fundraiser is over conduct an evaluation of the fundraiser. You will want to know if it worked, did it raise money and how did your volunteers feel about the fundraiser?

Now is the time to start thinking about your next fundraiser. While all these tips are fresh in your mind start looking into your next event and remember to always have fun with your fundraiser.

Social Networking for Online Promotion

Social networking is increasingly popular, and have become wildly popular with a varied demographic. The birth of the social networking phenomenon has seen a shift in the way that many people browse the web, and especially in the way that people interact socially. Bebo, Facebook, Flickr, Friendster, LinkedIn, MySpace and Twitter are among other plethora of social networking sites out there on the net. They seem to have become unavoidable, and spring up wherever you go.

Everything about social networking is based on the profile. People spend hours updating their profiles just to let the world know whatever they happen to be doing. It seems that everyone is trying to live as their own mini celebrity, and suddenly everyone want to know your intimate details on everything from your address and date of birth to your musical tastes. The desire to have the most friends, or the most hits, makes people scramble to get as many friends as they can, even if they've never met the person. They add a vast swathe of plugins while bloggers and YouTube video makers are all trying to score as many hits as possible.

Each month there are billions of page views of 'Web 2.0' websites as people return time and time again to Social Networking Sites (SNS) like Facebook and MySpace, Social Media sites like YouTube and Blogger and Social Information sites like Wikipedia and Delicious. Cagora has recently launched the first Global Community Network consisting of more than 20,000 local and special interest communities that appeal to all generations. Cagora goes beyond Social Networking, Social Media and Social Information to provide Community Networking, Community Media and Community Information where Individuals , Businesses and Community Groups are all part of the same network.

The popularity of social networks has spurred many website owners to develop their own social networking website or to integrate social networking into their existing website. There are many reasons why you would want to build a social networking website or add one to your existing website. You may want to integrate social networking into your existing website to drive more traffic and expand your user base. Or if you have a company or group, you may want to benefit from a virtual pace to hangout, communicate, and share ideas, content, and files.

Whatever your reason, there are many social networking software platforms that offer distinct features to create your own social networking website, either independently or in conjunction with an existing website. Some are incredibly easy to use but offer limited customization while others require extensive technical knowledge but can run seamlessly with your website. With a little technical knowledge it is relatively easy to fully customize your own social network and even integrate it into your existing website. You also have the option to pay designers to create the perfect social networking add-on for your website. Most will also offer just about every imaginable feature you could want for your social network, making sure you do not loose out on functionality.

Some remotely hosted solutions give you the ability to customize your network's URL so visitors to your existing site get a sense of congruence as they navigate from your main site to your social networking platform. They give webmasters more intricate control over layout by allowing webmasters to manipulate HTML headers, footers, and CSS styling. Although they take more skill to use, once developed they give your social networking site a more seamless and professional look. Some also offer unlimited storage for pictures, videos, audio, and videos for free. With this, your members will not have to worry about running out of space when sharing content. Others, however, have limits on storage capacity depending on the plan you purchase.


GoingOn is one such social networking software platform that webmasters who are looking for an innovative solution to their social networking needs can use. GoingOn is relatively new, and still in BETA status, which means that not all the modules are currently performing to their potential, but it will be the most feature rich platform among its competitors. GoingOn is easy to set up and requires little technical knowledge. It is also built using open source software which means that it will have even more potential for features and add-ons over time. Like its competitors GoingOn offers a selection of membership options. The paid packages allow webmasters to control advertising while the free packages are controlled by GoingOn.

However, if you need a perfectly functioning platform now, Ning or Kickapps are better options. They are also easier to set up than GoingOn and offer different pricing plans, and have more advanced functionality that can be used as an add on to an existing website.

Advertising on a social networking website created with a remotely hosted platform can very easy to set up and use, while some require more technological skill to set up but the results are worth it if you have the skill or can afford a web designer that does. Some platforms offer innovative advertising programs, while others don't offer much advertising flexibility. Creators can get total control over advertising including collecting revenue, wile some platforms offer no control at all. Some offer innovative widgets that make promoting your social network easy even on a viral level, others are limited in functionality. So be sure to compare features.

With this free willed disclosure of all kinds of personal information and the ability to so easily carve out your own webspace has really opened up the Internet to the masses and released it from the grip of the computer geek, thus become a hacker's paradise. Your name, address, date of birth and in fact just about everything about you could become available to hackers to use as they please. Sites such as Facebook and MySpace could become platforms for more serious Trojan attacks. So far social network sites have been hit by relatively harmless worms, adware and phishing attacks. However, with the amount of personal data so readily available it is certainly feasible that online banking data and other sensitive information could become compromised.