Collaborative content
We may think of charities as large institutions but really, anyone can be charitable and anyone can divert funds to causes they find important. That said, the difference between charitable acts as an individual and raising money as a non-profit entity are quite different. It’s the difference between raising funds as part of running a marathon for breast cancer, and becoming an institution that focuses on raising awareness, contributing to the cause, and raising funds for particular action.
The latter, clearly, involves much more than you might imagine. That’s not to say the ambition isn’t worth it. Charities, foundations and even public spokespeople and campaigns can help push laws and litigation for the better, such as Megan’s Law in 1997. In some cases, families establish foundations in memory of relatives they may have lost to illnesses or social causes.
As a humble charity, it’s important to know where to begin, and what principles to abide by. It’s also important to note the value of optics. In this post, we’ll give advice to fledgling startup charities, aiming to help them move forward with care:
State Your Ambitions Clearly
It’s essential to state your ambitions clearly as a new initiative. You need to have very clear goals. Perhaps you’re raising money and awareness for bone cancer, and you wish to do that by raising money for a range of marathon runners each year, using your marketing know how and sponsorship might to get people out there and raising funds from willing donators. Or, perhaps thanks to a relative struggling from a very rare condition, you hope to raise awareness of the issue so that the minor charities that exist in this space are able to raise more donations. Perhaps you hope to achieve 10,000 donators by the end of the year. Very clear goals will allow you to measure your progress and stay productive.
Cultivate The Power Of Social Media
Cultivating the power of social media is an important task for modern charities, as more and more people live online, and visibility and donation drives can exponentially increase, sometimes worldwide, given the right cause. Look at the hilarity and ultimate good done by the ALS ice-bucket challenge, a charity managed to make a fun social media challenge into a worldwide event. ALS is now known by many households across the world, increasing attention and donations to that worthy cause more than ever.
Audit Yourselves Thoroughly
Unfortunately, many startup charities are considered with suspicion, because pedigree, credibility and results are often that which people consider important when making a donation. This is understandable. For instance, some charity indexes show that a shockingly limited amount of money goes to the purported cause after all of the overheads have been paid. Non-profit doesn’t imply that a charity cannot set high wages or pay for their fundraising staff well, it just means that don’t make a profit. For this reason, making sure we avoid any and all issues by undergoing a voluntary, private and highly professional charity audit can help you steer yourself in the right direction.
No Comments