Step-by-Step how to promote your Ornament Fundraiser for a maximum success!
- Have members of your community and organization participate in the ornament design. Here is an article on how a Chamber of Commerce announces a contest every year so the community members submit a their photo of the local landmarks for the annual custom ornament. Click to read the whole article here.
- Work with local newspapers to help you spread the word. Reporters are looking for community stories and events and if you write a nice article and submit it to local newspapers you will most likely get it published!
- Publish a write up on your website - then you can refer to the news media reporters to the website write up because it will function as a press release. For inspiration take a look at this case study - click here - on how University wrote up the introduction of their anniversary ornament customized with their oldest building.
- Distribute your Fundraising Flyer Everywhere - post it on the windows of the local shops and gas stations with the shop owner's permission. Post it on the local bulletin boards in your supermarket, community centers, public offices, schools, churches, frequented walkways (if your town permits it), give some flyers to each student to bring home to their parents so they can post them at their workplaces. Also send out letters to the area churches, synagogues, and community groups to post the flyer on their bulletin boards. If you need help with creating your fundraiser flyer, we have additional tips on our fundraising ideas page.
- Setup a booth at local sports events, town and community events and fairs. You can either sell your fundraising products there ((( make sure to bring your large banner and decorate your booth with it to stand out ))) or you can promote your event there as well.
- Make the largest banner you can make and post it on the fence or a wall where the even will take place (with the owner's / management permission). You can make a home made banner, especially if you are a student organization. If you wanted to try for a free vinyl banner for your fund raiser, we hear that you can contact Coca-Cola or Pepsi (Pepsi Representative at 1-800-932-0966) and find out if they can print you a free banner for your event. These companies have been doing so for non profit and student organizations, they just add their logo as a sponsor. The free banner needs to be arranged for well in advance (3 weeks? ) so make sure to contact them as soon as you know your event scope and date. If you do not have the ability to to make your own banner and no time to try for a free Pepsi/Coke sponsored banner, you can order a Personalized banner though our online event store.
- If you also ordered our custom printed ornaments, please let us know and we will REBATE you 20% of the banner purchase price, if you purchased the banner from our store in a form of a special discount/refund on your custom printed ornaments order. To get the rest of the funds for the banner, go to local banks, insurance companies, restaurants or other businesses and ask for a $10 donation to print your banner for a Charity cause, most businesses will have no problem donating$10 to become co-sponsor of your banner for the fundraising event, you can even pick our a banner design that will display your sponsors' names.
- Contact your local radio stations and ask them if you can send them a public service announcement about your fundraising event. If they allow you to do so, write up a short press release talking about your event that could be read by the radio show host or a news anchor. Try the same with local cable TV stations. Write an interesting press release for the editors and news stations. Come up with a catchy headline. Is the fundraiser going to benefit community? Remember it's always about the group, not you. Make sure the press release informs the readers and listeners about where, when, and how they can participate in helping your cause and clearly explain the cause. You can talk about your group and how the money will be spent, but make sure you show it as positive accomplishments rather than "We want, we need." If you already have your ornament for Christmas fund raising on hand, send a volunteer to the radio station with the press release or announcement and a sample of your fundraiser ornament as a gift, the station will love it! (We have many radio and TV stations ordering these ornaments from us)
- Send announcements for the community events calendars to your local news papers.
- If your town permits it, you can make A-Frame lawn/street/roadside signs announcing your event and set them up about week before the event, just make sure you remove them promptly after the event. Some cities require a bond to do this, but the fee is refunded when all the signs are removed after the fundraising event.
- Tell the members to email their friends and family about the fundraiser or the fundraising event. This is very effective and it does not cost anything. you can also ask the recipient of the email to forward this email on to their friends to help spread the word about the fundraiser.
- Do you have a blog? A website? A web forum you post to often? Post information about the fundraiser on your website, blog or friendly related websites and forums online. Many members of your organization have their own Twitter, Facebook, MySpace or LinkedIn page: ask them to post the info about your fundraiser on their pages and blogs and favorite forums. You can also post the information about the fundraiser or fundraising even on your local craigslist, it's free.
- If you have a list of folks who donated or participated in a fundraising event before, send them a letter. If you are a school, see if there is a list of past graduates: send them a letter or a flyer.
- Submit to social bookmarking / recommendation it websites. StumbleUpon Reddit Buzz! DeliciousSubmit your fundraiser to each of these social bookmarking sites. But you need to prepare for this, get all your friends to become members (create a profile on these sites and then get all of your friends to bookmark your link at the same time you do! This can make your submission popular enough to reach other members of these sites… which will drive traffic (and dollars!) to your fundrasier. To do this, save the URL on the social bookmarking site that shows your first vote. Then share this URL with friends who can vote for the same submission. This will maximize the value of your submission and give your friends who can’t give money another way to contribute to your success. You can coordinate this campaign via email.
- On the day of the event, you can also spend a good part of the day waving at traffic, dressed in a costume to drive additional traffic to your fundraising event. If it is a fundraiser close to Christmas, have a suitable volunteer rent a Santa Costume. The Santa can then have an Elf helper waiving the sign pointing to the event, or better yet, setup Santa with a painted back drop of winter scene and have folks bring their own camera to take free pictures with Santa.... oh wait, this could be a fundraiser on it's own, if you ask for a voluntary donation to the cause (then you would probably need a polariod camera a give out picture with Santa for a donation).
- Go to the local Mall or a shopping center parking lot and hand out flyers.
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Glass Ornaments $3.95 to $5.95 | Acrylic Ornaments $2.25 to $3.50 |