Every non-government organisation (NGO), big or small, needs funds for its daily operations. Funds for NGOs can be earned by resorting to traditional means by going door to door for seeking donations or planning public relations (PR) activities as an essential element of seeking public support. Every NGO seeks to raise funds by using any of these methods or by ensuring a balance between the two. However, with growing needs, NGOs feel prompted to use methods that ensure a greater and pervasive impact and, thus, boost their fundraising opportunities.
Original ways to raise funds:
As more and more NGOs are coming to fill the gap that our social environment lacks or secure help where the government has been unable to reach, keeping in mind the following fundraising essentials can ensure regular inflow of charities or endowments to fund their activities. These include:
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Online fundraising: There are millions of followers out on social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and others ready to communicate with each other through the virtual network. This means that a message conveyed effectively could be seen, read and shared across millions of followers registered on these sites. A social media message embedded with a human story and a proper narrative could translate into donations worth millions of dollars enough to meet the essential needs of any community.
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Corporate donors: Corporate organisations donating in cash or kind have always been ranked foremost in the list of NGO funding agencies. Deemed as a major source of grants for NPOs seeking endowments for their daily operations, big organisations allocate a chunk of funds each year to tasks synonymous with corporate social responsibility (CSR). Through their team of experts who analyse each grant proposal or every NGO’s application for funds, the company donates towards causes they identify with or tie up with NGOs that leverage their proficiency in optimising fund use towards various social activities.
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Resale of items received in donations: Not all NPOs rely on donations alone for regular funding. To secure funds from other sources too, many of them approach online shopping portals to resale the goods and gifts they had received through donations. Though there are lots of NPO funding agencies that are willing to extend a helping hand towards myriad community causes, NGOs realise that reselling donated products ensures self-reliance, thus, relieving them from any kind of unwanted political or corporate influence.
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Rewards and testimonials: Everyone loves to be appreciated. This stands true for regular donors too. Giving due admiration to the donors for their deeds so that they may remain motivated to make regular donations, thus, helping your NGO progress smoothly and continue running its daily operations helps. Also, the donors must be kept informed about how the funds are being spent, the activities carried out by your NGO and the extent of their impact on the lives of communities that your NGO serves.
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Partnering with NGO funding agencies: Most NGO funding agencies are actually renowned corporate houses determined to leave behind an indelible impact on the society with their community-based activities as much as they are adamant to make profits and declare them among their shareholders. Partnering with such organisations helps as they not only are a regular source of funds, but because their astute business acumen and market foresight lend NGOs an opportunity to provide logical solutions to problems that had been ignored earlier.
