Operation Wallacea Fundraising Advice Overview of fundraising Successful fundraising requires a genuine and enthusiastic commitment to the project, such that people are infected by your enthusiasm and cause and will therefore consider supporting you in some way. You must be clear from the start on your aims and objectives not just those of Operation Wallacea, but those of you as an individual. This applies to why you are joining the project. Fundraising is an integral part of any non-profit work and it may appear to be the most difficult challenge you will face. Remember that the contributions are going towards a worthwhile cause, and that you will benefit from the experience during the process. We also encourage you to see fundraising as an opportunity to educate people around you about conservation issues in your destination country, and how their support contributes to lives of local people and the success of conservation initiatives. In our experience, there are three main ways to raise the funds: Grants and Fundraising Working for it Scholarships activities Applying for grants and/or scholarships, local companies and old elementary/ middle schools for funding. Organizations and groups such as Lions International & Rotary club are usually only too happy to help. These events include sports events, garage sales, bake sales, car washes, bottle drives, costume party, themed parties, raffles etc. Extra shifts and holiday jobs even a few hours a week will make an impact on your expedition fund and make those targets even more achievable. Most importantly, utilize yours and friends work contacts! Combine all three, work hard and your goal won t seem as daunting anymore! For information, help and advice contact us at the office: (973) 920 0487 Fundraising Coordinator ellen.fluharty@opwall.com
Fundraising Targets First things first know your goal! Operation Wallacea s expedition price doesn t include all of your costs so you will need to estimate these in order to get the most accurate figure. Use the checklist below to help. Search the website: research assistants>location>information>kitlist/travel advice. Many grants/scholarships will ask for a budget summary so having the below information is always useful. Your cost checklist: Operation Wallacea expedition fee International flight cost and Internal travel Equipment (sleeping bag, back pack, head lamp, hiking boots etc.) Diving costs if required (PADI dive training manual, PIC card, equipment rentals etc.) Insurance (additional cover for personal items, flight delays and cancellation) Entrance fees/costs (check the country details for VISA, taxes & fees) Miscellaneous expenses (spending money, vaccination, batteries, sun lotion etc.) Fundraising Plan Total expenditure - amount from savings, working & parents / to get your monthly total / to get your weekly target Knowing how much you aim to raise each month and week will make the target amount more achievable. Below we have created a fundraising plan with the weekly efforts you might use. Try making your own plan, adding in monthly and annual sources of income depending on how much your targets are! Final Target Monthly Target Weekly Target Weekly fundraising method Working Bake sale Benefit party Donations Distribution of Volunteer Income Ways to cut equipment costs Borrow-off family and friends Rent/buy second hand-for expensive equipment Order online-easy to compare deals Employee discounts-get a job at an outdoor store Birthday/Christmas ask for items for presents Shop sales! On the back page we provide tips on places to buy!
Where to go from here... You know where you want to go, you know how much you need to raise, but now you need to work out how to pull it all together and get started as soon as possible. One of the biggest problems we have to work out is where to get started, who to contact and how they can help. Speak to everyone you know: parents, aunts, uncles, siblings, professors, old schools, employers, university clubs and societies. Explain what you are doing and how they may be able to help. Many will be able to help you directly or put you in the direction of others, even if it s just that they can spare some time to help out at an event you are holding or provide some ideas. Fundraising from Institutions Family Will they be able to help? What ideas do they have? Where do they work? would they be able to donate a prize? Parents Will their friends, work colleagues help? Could they donate prizes for a raffle or prize? Sponsored t-shirt? Old Schools Could you visit your old school and give them a presentation about conservation issues or about your expedition? Friends Where do they work? Could they help plan a party night? Sponsored event? Garage sale? Local Clubs and Societies Its just like an extended group of friends who have probably done fundraising in the past. Talk to supervisors and see if they have ideas or suggestions or if they could lend you a hand. Fraternities and sororities are often willing to help as part of their community service. Old schools Schools are one of the best bets in terms of a personal contact that may be able to raise a fairly substantial amount of money. By offering to give a talk to your old high school, you will be doing them a favor by helping promote science, inspiring the students and showing what opportunities are available after they leave don t forget to contact your old elementary school too. Many will make a small donation or even run an event for you. University Most universities have funds available to support you. Many of our volunteers raise at least $200 from their departments alone and if you have a college system then you can apply there as well! It may be that your university offers some sort of scholarship, another area to look into. Always ask what funding is available within 1) your department 2) study abroad 3) students services and 4) careers services. It is very important to ask what funding is available and then tailor your applications to match. Remember travel grants will only cover your travel costs, not Opwall expedition fees. Fundraising from Organizations Why would an organization support you coming on an Opwall expedition. Through joining us you are gaining a great experience which will enhance job applications and your resume, you are contributing to your education by getting hands on experience of research skills and assisting in real life research, and you are contributing to the conservation of some of the worlds most biodiversity rich areas. You are also getting an insight into cultures very different to our own and broadening your horizons. External Grants Certain grants were set up specifically for the purpose of donating money to various causes and it is worth researching them in some depth. It is important to remember to read the criteria carefully before sending off an application. Ensure that you tailor your application to match their criteria. Have someone at Operation Wallacea edit your application before you submit it. Organizations e.g. The Round Table, Rotary Club, Lions International, Freemasonry, The Women Institute, local councils and The Explorers Club Organizations like these are usually only too happy to help out a good cause. Your local Round Table, Lions International and Freemasons regularly have funding available, whilst the Rotary Club and Women s Institute will often want you to give a talk at a selected elementary school, write an article about your trip on their behalf, or help out at one of their events. Below are some websites that specialize in locating grants and scholarships for students: www.grantwatch.com https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/scholarship-search www.conservationleadershipprogramme.org/grants/other-fundingsources/ Companies Do not rule out all companies but there are 3 key considerations prior to writing to anyone on this: Do I have a contact? Are they local to my home/university? And would they be interested in me? If the answer to the above questions is no, then it is often best to avoid writing to these companies. If you do have a contact, excellent! Remember, some companies would rather give things you need rather than cash ask for their products, gift vouchers, t-shirts even signed items from sports teams or celebrities to help with fundraising events.
Grant Applications and Writing a Letter for Support Grants Companies and organizations Applying for grants can be a fantastic way of raising serious cash, but there is a skill to writing a successful grant letter. The 3 rules of success are: Understand the grants priorities and criteria Be clear on your objectives Send a personalized letter (cover letter) with each application Letter writing to companies and organizations is when you can write a more generic letter, however always be sure to get a contact name! Call them before you apply With companies you don t just have to ask for money, gifts in kind e.g. equipment, raffle prizes etc. would still be very useful and many companies may be more inclined to give this rather than a cash donation. Tell them what you are doing, this way you can check your eligibility for the grant and find out how much to apply for. This is also a great way of getting your application noticed. Try and include some extra information about Operation Wallacea for them to read i.e. make a leaflet or pop in an Opwall brochure. Contact the office and we will be happy to send you some. Research every grant thoroughly Offer publicity in return Could you write an article? Put a logo on T-shirts or brochures you make? This works especially well with small independent companies. Do not just rely on the information we provide you, and ensure to tailor your application to match the criteria of each grant. Look at applying for a grant like applying for a job explain how you fit what they are looking to support! Top Tip! Make sure you include both your university logo and Opwall s in the letter. Email the fundraising team for a copy of our logo. General letter writing rules Contact Name Always make sure you address your letter to the correct person. Identification of need People are not just going to give you money because you don t have any, they need to feel their money will be helping to achieve something and is making a real difference Short and Sweet Make sure your application is no longer than 1 page for companies and 1-2 pages (max) for grants. You want to keep it short and to the point, but without being sparse with your information. Presentation is Key Don t be afraid to use bullet points, sub-headings or even pictures and figures. Enthusiasm If you can get them excited about what you re doing they are much more likely to want to support you. The Personal Touch Personalize your letters by printing and hand signing them. THANK YOUR DONORS! Send us a copy of your letter or grant application, we would be happy to check it over for you Alfred Russel Wallace Grants for Outstanding Field Ecologists There are 5 grants: 1 grant of $1500, 1 grant of $750, and 3 grants of $500 available to any student booked onto an Opwall project who is currently enrolled as an undergraduate at a US academic institution. More information at http://opwall.com/about-us/alfred-russel-wallace-grants/. Deadline: 21st February 2018
Publicity To gather funds, you must promote yourself and this page is all about maximizing your support. Publicity should always be incorporated into your events! The more people that know about them, the better turn out you are going to get. Use Facebook and Instagram to your advantage! Create events and/or groups to spread the word. Invite all of your friends and family. Also, remember the real world, advertise events around your university and in all buildings using posters and flyers. Contact university media (newsletters, radio stations), local media, etc. Try get an article in your local newspaper, you never know who will support you! If you are running a sponsored event, publicize it across Facebook, invite everyone you know, not just close friends, you might get donations that surprise you! Set up a donation page link to it from Facebook/Twitter so that people can donate online, this will always increase your support. Feel free to use images from the website (www.opwall.com) to add visuals to your publicity material. Success with digital media These days everyone has a computer and you can really get your fundraising efforts known through using the internet. Get other people interested in you! Try and get contacts in the wider community such as local businesses and organizations. At the very least you should An inactive account is probably worse than no account, but definitely have a Facebook page, but consider a Blogger account, your page shouldn t be restricted to your Opwall fundraising. twitter account, Instagram etc. Post links to relevant interests (conservation news articles, Attenborough clips, Opwall news, travel ideas, etc.) to have On average from USA fundraising efforts, each friend to friend share people pause on your page. Update your progress and write on Facebook equates to a $5 donation! about your preparation in the run up to your trip. Facebook Page First task is to set up a Facebook page for your fundraising efforts, it is a great way to keep people informed and up to date. Check out the Operation Wallacea fundraising Facebook page to share ideas: www.facebook.com/opwallfundraisinguk. Top Tips #Trending Check out what is currently popular on social media and take full advantage of it. Adopt challenges to your own fundraising cause! Leaflets Past volunteers have found success with local business sponsorship by having their own leaflet to pop in support letters. This gives you an opportunity to offer (in return for support) their company logo on your leaflet, some low-cost advertising for a small business! Just put in a brief description of the project or country and pictures that will photocopy well! Posters, etc. We have lots of lovely posters, leaflets and postcards at Opwall US office, if you would like any marketing materials for your fundraising events, get in touch!
Events Planning Now, we are not going to lie to you, whilst there are loads of events you can do to raise money, the likelihood of earning a fortune at just your university is slim without careful planning. Think of events people will want to come along to or those that utilize your local area; who is your target audience and what will they want to come to? Below are some of the ideas we think are worth thinking about and you will also receive a big A -Z of events as an attachment when you book on. By all means come up with your own ideas but please think about the time you have available and how much money it will generate in the end. Let us know how it is coming along and send through photos, we love to hear your stories! Think of your fundraising as a social CALENDAR of events rather than a constant stream of fundraisers. Utilise events throughout the year such as Valentines day, Christmas, Halloween etc. We will provide a calendar in your fundraising email with suggestions of key times you should plan events. Make sure you get a CALENDAR for your university and consult what University events are going on when. Tie your fundraising in with these: open days, sports matches, student union events, end of semester parties take advantage of these days as there are more people on the University campus! Fundraising Starter Ideas Weekly/Ongoing Garage Sale Organize your own garage sale at home or at university, these are perfect for what we suggest about frequent events people want rather than a constant stream of fundraisers. Refreshment / Cake stands Think about holding a weekly stand, or you could add it to an event already at the university or add it to any event you decide to organize, it s a great extra money maker. Something a bit different to a normal bake sale is selling Krispy Kreme: www.krispykreme.com/fundraising/home Car Wash See if a local hardware shop would donate some car cleaning supplies, even use your high school as a venue. Tailgating See if you can hold a regular refreshment stand at a local sports stadium. Have some party games organized, offer face painting and sell some cheap gimmicks i.e. pompoms, horns, beads etc. Monthly/Repeatable Social/Event Nights Use a venue, bar, anything on a night that isn t usually busy. Get your friends involved if you know a DJ or band then ask them to support your cause and play for free, charge for tickets at the door and you have an easy no cost event! Battle of the Bands/Gig night Everyone in university thinks they re a rock star! Put up posters to advertise to local bands and have a great night of live music. Get local bands to enter a competition with others, this offers them publicity and provides you with an evening of entertainment. Charge the bands to enter and a ticket price on the door, this can be a great little money maker. Themed Dinner/Restaurant Night Invite your university friends to dinner and drinks for $15 each. Buy everything for the meal at discount price and make a nice little profit! Or get a restaurant to give you a discount price for a meal, then you can charge a ticket price adding something on top for you. They will receive a boost in sales on a quiet evening and you can earn some cash. A win-win for the restaurant and you! Make sure you sell to everyone you know! Special Events Valentines Events Target this special occasion and do candy grams, carnation sales, personalized cupcakes and card delivery services. For the ambitious why not organise a valentines ball or party! Raffle Get local companies or contacts to donate prizes for a raffle or sell tickets for a raffle in 50% of the total does to your expedition and 50% to the winner. Race Night Get a free venue, lots of horse racing video clips and a good host. This event appeals to all ages and therefore is always a winner. Christmas Card Trivia Quiz Make up a postal quiz where entrants pay $10 and send the answers back to you to enter. Use your friends and family contacts and send it out to as many people as possible inside their Christmas cards. Make sure you get some great prizes donated and watch the money fly in! Sports tournament Whether you organize a full blow sporting tournament or just do a basket shoot out, everyone likes the opportunity to bring out their competitive side.
Events continued... Selling and recycling old goods Pampered Chef Party Opwall and pampered chef have teamed up! Here s how it works. First off you contact Nancy Junger (pampered chef contact), who can discuss the best party method for you i.e. in person or via Facebook. You will need to consider how many contacts you have, how hard you can promote the party, and where you will host it if in person. As long as you get the Pampered salesperson an audience they will be able to sell. The more they sell, the bigger cut you get. Sell off all your old things, unwanted Christmas presents, or anything that might generate a bit more cash for your fund! Ways to sell: ebay Recycling-there are loads of companies that will pay for you to recycle old clothing, phones, DVDs, ink cartridges and much more. Craigslist can be a great alternative to ebay and costs nothing to list your items. http://www.bag2school.com/usa/about_us/ money for old clothing paid by weight! http://www.buybackworld.com/sell/cell-phone money for old mobile phones http://www.tonerbuyer.com/ -Money for empty printer cartridges Sponsored Events Nancy Junger: jungos4@aol.com 516-466-2213 Sponsored events are great for bringing in donations as long as you follow some key points, this should definitely be included in your repertoire: Individual vs. Group fundraising Be proactive! You can t expect donations to come flooding in if you don t go out and get Do something attention grabbing Think of a good event that will impress people. Don t get too ambitious events like skydiving are impressive but have big costs associated. Keep your costs low. Use a combination of group and individual fundraising for the best success! Group fundraising keeps you motivated and the momentum going. Share useful contacts and ideas. Share roles and responsibilities for larger events. Individual efforts are where you can make some serious cash! Utilize your time away from university for individual fundraising e.g. Christmas Individual Group Events Sponsored event, holiday seasons, ebay / garage sale Social events, sports tournaments, car washing, bake sales Other Grants, organizations, companies, old school funding Group grants, organizations. them. Always keep your sponsor form on you, ask all of your friends, relatives, colleagues, friends of friends and can your parents take your form into work? And make sure you publicize, splash it over your social networks. Donor fatigue! You can t keep asking the same people for money over and over, so you need one big one and go for it. Don t publicize too early either! You don t want to bore your supporters! Could also be old fashioned and use a sponsorship form and collect money in hand. Sponsorship pages! There are some easy to use donation websites these days, set up to make support nice and straight forward for you. Having the option of online donations will see your support increase massively! Splash it all over your social media and you will have all sorts of people donating. Plus, without having to part with their hard cash, online donations tend to be more generous! Please note that most of these charge a percentage to process your payments (YOUCARING.com has the lowest rates at 3%) so when taking donations from friends family, probably only use online sites for people you wouldn t necessarily see to get the cash.
Top Equipment Tips Don t be afraid to ask for a discount at equipment shops, if you take along a brochure or a leaflet and talk about what you are doing they are often only to happy to help: remember to smile and be enthusiastic! REI- www.rei.com Get a lifetime membership for a one time fee of $20. to access better deals in the "REI garage" and you will get 10% of all non-sale purchases back in dividends at the end of the year. Used Equipment @: www.geartrade.com www.backpacker.com Contact us Don t get disheartened. If you feel lost get in touch, let us support you as much as we can. Send us copies of your letters, it is so important to get them right. If you want pictures or logos please use the website or contact us. There will always be someone able to help you: Eastern Mountain Sports Oriental Trading Company Phone: 973 920 0487 Great for outdoor and camping equipment. This store is great for cheap decorations, games and prizes: ellen.fluharty@opwall.com www.ems.com www.orientaltrading.com Movie night: find a free venue or persuade your local cinema to allow you to host a movie showing and split the proceeds. Think of classic or best seller movie and sell popcorn, hotdogs and soda to make some extra cash. Are you artsy? Sell your goods! Find out what your group members talents are. It could be photography, painting, jewellerymaking, craft-making, etc. Make your goods and have an art sale! If you know any local artists, see if they would like to include their art here as well. Benefit evening: Whether it be an evening of entertainment or selling crafts, think carefully about the venue, ticket price, how you publicise and what extra s you can do on the side. Hosting a bowling tournament is an easy event to organize. Talk to the manager at the alley about allowing you to use a few lanes, ask for a discount on rentals and charge people an entry fee. Collecting donations: Used themed outfits to draw in attention and increase donations. Think about where is an appropriate place to hold a collection bucket, will your work place allow it or your local grocery store, sports events, street musician or shopping mall. Make sure to get permission first! Host a tournament: between bands (Battle of the Bands), ultimate Frisbee, soccer, basketball, or even video games or board games. Charge each player/team a fee to enter and offer a prize for the winner. Sell burgers, hot dogs and pop, play some music, make it a fun day!