Easy Non Profit Fundraising Is Here.
Welcome to Community Benefits – A Local Movement Program built for non-profits, by a non-profit.
If you are reading this, you already know the non-profit fundraising struggle is real. Each struggles with the same issues surrounding fundraising. How do we maintain and expand our outreach, mission, and goals to make more of a difference in the community while also worrying about and managing the efforts to have enough funds to continue and grow?
Constantly trying to come up with new ideas to raise funds that donors will embrace and share is tough enough. Oh, and once the Board has an idea they agree on, the hunt begins to find appropriate volunteers who need to be brought up to speed to help manage the planning, marketing, and execution of the effort. Then months go by as everyone scrambles to make it happen and make sure it’s a success! Usually it is! And when the dust settles, you realize you’ll be doing it again next year (maybe). You also realize a good portion of the organization’s volunteers and staff were working on it for months, instead of specifically on your organization’s outreach and purpose.
Let’s Run through some common fundraising options.
Grants are great, but very hard to get. Even when won, they create an immense amount of bookkeeping work and additional hoops to jump through, which is hard for most small to mid-sized non-profits to manage.
Events can be great for non-profits as they provide multiple important outcomes, such as cash donor funds, new audience awareness as volunteers and supporters invite others to attend and share their experiences. Yearly events also create reminders to your supporters who aren’t consistently involved to give what they can. Downside is that events can take months and strain an organization’s resources. Also, as one time or yearly events, it can be hard to determine and plan outgoing monthly resource allocation if this is the only source of fundraising.
Requesting Cash can be easy and is often the holy grail of traditional fundraising. The resources needed to do this are few, and the direct benefit can be transformative to an organization. The problem is, the great majority of those who support an organization’s efforts are usually low in discretionary income (cash). Saving big donors with lots of cash (yay!), we see many supporters who wish they could help, but just can’t afford to. How does an organization capitalize on supporters who care but have little cash?
Requesting Physical Donations has the upside of being achievable by almost all supporters! Most get new items for their home, new clothes, new toys, and are happy to give away slightly used goods if it can support what they care about (plus get a tax-deductible receipt). The downside of this scenario is that most organizations don’t have the vehicles to pick ‘stuff’ up, the storage to keep, the machines and labor to wash and clean up, and the retail outlets to sell these well-intentioned donated goods. In fact, a dirty little secret is that most organizations take those lightly used donated goods just to be appreciative of their supporters, but have no way to actually turn them into funds. Some orgs even lose money in the process of handling used goods. To be fair, not all organizations who take physical donations lose, some make small gains, some re-purpose goods into the community as part of their programs, and some (national donation center chains) gain big-time! But this is a challenging way to raise funds for most orgs.
Selling ‘stuff’ is a very common practice in fundraising. The benefits to the organization can be good exposure, renewed involvement of the volunteer or member base, and quick cash infusions- as these fundraisers usually only take a few months. Unfortunately, the downside to these can be big too. Volunteer burnout, volunteers spending lots of physical time and resources in gas and printing, etc., volunteers trying to ‘sell’ things like overpriced candles, cookie dough, cookies, candy, physical books of coupons… Often these items are not things that the supporters would normally purchase. Due to reasons such as cost, waste, or non-healthy choices, many of these fundraisers aren’t in the best interest of the organization’s supporters.
Although traditional fundraising options each have an upside, and many can be run successfully, none of them offer true outcomes where everyone participating wins.
Local Movement answers the call for alternative non profit fundraising solutions that offer win-win-win outcomes.
Welcome to the Community Benefits Program.
We offer a fresh and simple approach by helping non profit organizations utilize their member base and supporter base to create ongoing donations through fundraising opportunities which capitalize on the existing spending habits of their supporters.
In a real and meaningful way, we make sure everyone wins. The funding comes from for-profit companies who choose to give good deals to participants (win) while also giving back a % of their profits to non-profit participants, made as donations (win). By being exposed to a loyal new customer base, the company offering their products and services (you guessed it) also wins. We call these companies ‘Benefit Providers’. Our participating Benefit Providers may sell products, services, software, memberships, or provide consultancy. The Local Movement Board works with companies who wish to participate to negotiate winning scenarios for all parties.
We call the non-profit organizations who participate to receive donations ‘Non-Profit Beneficiaries’. Non-Profit Beneficiaries are identified through an application process. These are organizations such as schools, churches, missions, and charitable causes who are tax-exempt, who wish to participate in a fundraiser to gain donations. Once an organization is approved as a Non-Profit Beneficiary, they may participate in as many or as few Benefit Provider fundraiser offerings as they choose to or are available.
While every approved organization raising funds may not decide to participate in all Benefit Provider offerings, having options is good! Picking and choosing which fundraisers to participate in is one of the benefits of becoming a Non-Profit Beneficiary in our program. Supporters also pick and choose. There is no down side, as supporters aren’t being asked to buy or use things that aren’t a normal household spend.
When supporters can create donations from their normal spending habits, the organization they support wins. As supporters get great deals with reputable companies while supporting what they care about at the same time, they also win.
Because the fundraising efforts we facilitate are focused mostly in ongoing existing monthly spending habits, these fundraisers are automatically perpetual, creating residual funds for organizations that grow over time. Having residual donations coming in frees up valuable time and reduces the stress of monthly income/outgo woes. This new, additional fundraising path provides a great opportunity for growth for a non-profit.
How is this different than other fundraisers?
Instead of asking for cash donations from supporters (which are scarce), we create ways to fund non-profits through their supporters’ existing spending habits. Participation in this program should be in adjunct to, and not replace, existing fundraising efforts. This program offers an alternative to asking for direct cash donations. Supporters create donation funds for the cause they support through money they already spend on products and services they already use. This unique scenario creates small but residual benefits to organizations, does not take long-term planning to execute, is easy to share, and can grow over time.
A true win-win-win.
The supporters win by getting great deals while funding what they care about through items and services they already buy. The Non-Profit Beneficiary organization wins by receiving funds they would not receive on these products and services- from a larger base of supporters and on a more consistent basis. In addition, this easy non-profit fundraising effort provides residual donation income. The Benefit Providers win by being introduced to and selling their products and services to a loyal audience without a large marketing spend.
Ready for the organization you run to become a Non-Profit Beneficiary?
You can apply here: Apply to Become a Non-Profit Beneficiary
Potential Benefit Providers can submit a request for more information here: Benefit Providers
To find out how participation can help support your organization, submit the appropriate application to start a conversation. A Community Benefits Coordinator will answer all your questions and discuss the current fundraising options available. We look forward to meeting you and helping your organization reach its fundraising goals.
Welcome to Local Movement; Coordinated Efforts For Community Health