We are often asked what steps non-profit organizations can take to establish a solid fundraising committee and volunteer team.
If financial resources are there, any cause has the opportunity to reach its mission. Being on a fundraising committee is a great volunteer effort. To become a fundraiser, you don’t have to know all about fundraising – the only requirement is to be ready to learn!
Here are a few ways to start a volunteer team to fulfill your organization’s fundraising mission.
Ways to Build a Sufficient Fundraising Committee
Get creative with your committee name
The words don’t exactly sound appealing; fundraising and committee. Matter of fact, it can scare some people.
Another possibility is to refer to your committee as a “resource team”. It sends a slightly different message: it is a steering group that not only allocates dollars, but also all kinds of resources for the mission and the cause.
Come up with a better committee role description
How can volunteers know what to do without a guide? Start with a committee description that includes as many details as possible, such as the committee’s activities, the length, and duration of the term, the desired skills and qualifications, and any other logistical aspects you would like to know when joining the committee.
Start a fundraiser and be transparent about your plan
Each organization should have a plan for its own resource development strategy, be it a simple or complex plan. Share this plan with your fundraising committee and ask them to give you feedback and implement specific projects.
Review the plan each year and find out what worked well, what goals need to be changed, and what is not realistic. The plan also helps with measurement and evaluation.
Provide further education
Another way to help your committee is to offer further education or regular training through other organizations, such as your local non-profit organization.
If you are investing small sums of money in training, these investments can have a high return on investment in terms of raising funds for board members. It also shows the value of your committee members and their appreciation for your voluntary work.
Appoint Board Leadership
One of the best management practices for NGOs is to ensure that your organization’s committees are managed by active board members. Board members act as ambassadors for your organization in internal and external networks.
The leadership of the committee members ensures constant communication between the board and committees with respect to face-to-face communication, activities, data-keeping etc.
Find the people with a willingness to learn
Don’t just look for specific skills or bank accounts of high assets. Often having volunteers interested in learning the skills or becoming an excellent team member is just as valuable, if not more so, than having someone who can sign a one-time check.
Over time, the long time volunteer will learn the position and become more invested in the role – and who knows – maybe you can make him or her a lifelong donor, ambassador, and leader.
Provide the man-power to support
Don’t expect your team to form a fundraising committee and magically raise millions of dollars. Very few people are experts at fundraising, so please understand that in many ways, your employees will be key to the success of the committee members.
Your staff will be on site and will work with stakeholders every day. Provide opportunities for your staff to share and support the committee’s efforts.
Teach your employees to manage the committee. Leaders create leaders – a great opportunity for the founders to support their volunteers is by providing enough help and actively looking for more.
Create accountability
Descriptions, assessments, and opinions from the committee help keep people informed. Participation in committees and events is also monitored and made sure that commitments are met.
If a committee member is unable to meet these commitments, you should contact them and discuss them. Often there is an external reason that prevents people from fulfilling their obligations. Approach the member with compassion and find out what is needed to succeed.
Quick Tips on Engaging Your Volunteer Team toward Fundraising
If your fundraising committee is critical to the success of your fundraising, so is a wider group of staff and volunteers. It is usually most effective to encourage volunteers to help with the following tasks:
Sponsorship
Selling sponsorship at your fundraising event is one of the best strategies to increase the size and global revenue of your organization. We suggest that a member with sales experience leads your sponsorship activities, but if your volunteers want to raise money for your sponsorship, they can only help your business.
Each person has a personal relationship that we hope will lead to more sponsors. We strongly encourage you to encourage your volunteers to help in this regard. This would be even more effective if the sponsorship team were led by an experienced volunteer or qualified representative.
Event Promotion
Often, the key to selling an event and increasing the number of participants is to disseminate information as effectively as possible. In this case you want as many people as possible to talk about your event in order to reach the widest possible network of participants.
By using your team’s collective networks of volunteers, your event will have a much greater impact, both online and in person. This increased advertising will attract more visitors to your event. The passion of your volunteers will be contagious, resulting in more involvement and participation.
Fundraiser Assistance
Don’t forget, volunteers can be very helpful in supporting local fundraising initiatives such as auctions, lotteries, or direct donations. We recommend hiring volunteers to help raise funds, as well as hiring volunteers to help the cashier during silent auctions and lotteries.
Forming an All-Star Fundraising Committee and Volunteer Team
When all is said and done, even if you don’t have the most ideal fundraising team, the most important thing is that you have a group of people willing to help you. That will be the most helpful of all.
Those are our top tips for building a fundraising committee and volunteer team that will help your organization thrive!
If you are interested in volunteering through the CreativeVolunteer program, please reach us at contact@volunteer-opportunities.org.
Alternatively, if you are an organization wishing to partner with us in order to receive one of our volunteers to tell an individual story within your organization, please contact us at partner@volunteer-opportunities.org.