Raising big funds requires a different approach

If you are looking for new fundraising ideas to help your school or non-profit group raise much needed capital, perhaps it's time to rethink your approach.

Traditional fundraisers include selling chocolates, cookie dough or other undesirable items that put pressure on your supporters to part with their cash in order to channel a dollar or two to your group's fundraiser. The problem with these types of fundraisers is that they actually limit your potential. Take a box of chocolates for example, your supporters spend $2 and roughly $1 goes to your group. Even if they cough up for an entire case of chocolates, which is a tall order these days, the contribution will net $12 to your group. That's it! Multiply that figure by the total number of families in your group and you get a pretty good idea of the potential funds you can ever hope to raise with such a program. For even a moderate size school with 150 families, this can amount to roughly $1000 per year, but that's assuming everyone participates and buys (or sells) an entire case of chocolates.

So you invest all this energy and manpower into organizing and coordinating a fundraiser, only to yield $1000! And the reality is that most groups never actually achieve full potential, leaving supporters frustrated with having to spend the money themselves in order to achieve the quota imposed on their child to help meet the group's fundraising target. Once the campaign is over, there is a huge sigh of relief from everyone, tempered only by the fear that next year it's going to happen all over again.

Sound too familiar? Well perhaps it's time to break from routine and try something different; something new and innovative; something that will motivate your entire group to raise more than they've ever raised before. But what? What if instead of only raising $12 per family in one year by selling an entire case of chocolates, you could actually raise $12 or more each and every week from each and every family in your group? And what if you could tell each family that they could do this and it would never cost them a single cent? Does this sound too good to be true?

Well you can stop pinching yourself because you're not dreaming. It's completely possible! In fact, it's not only possible, you can actually raise up to $1000 per family each and every year with little to no effort on your part and absolutely no cost at all to your supporters. Multiply that by the number of families in your group and you could be raising significant funds. Welcome to Shop and Support Fundraising™!

From now on, your group can easily raise funds through your supporters' everyday shopping, budgeting and gift-giving at over 100 national brand name retailers with thousands of locations across Canada . We all need to shop anyway, and the Shop and Support™ Program is designed to help families budget and manage their shopping by using gift cards to pay for any item purchased in-store. The gift cards are identical to those sold at retailers, but when purchased through the Shop and Support™ Program groups are entitled to receive a discount which helps channel significant funds their way. Your supporters continue to shop at the stores they like for the items they need including groceries, gas, dining out, entertainment, fashion, furniture, computers, electronics, back-to-school shopping, gift-giving and more, and your group benefits with as much as 15% of each purchase being instantly contributed to help raise funds. It's almost magical!

PREFERRED ONE has designed the program to be completely turnkey, providing instant enrolment with customizable marketing materials and order forms to help groups launch the program quickly and effortlessly. Through the company's online fundraising portal www.shopandsupport.ca groups can manage a virtually ‘hands-free' year-round fundraising campaign, by inviting their supporters, friends and family to register online using a special tracking code unique to each group. Supporters can then place their weekly gift card orders online, pay online and receive direct-to-home delivery at no charge with a minimum order.