Ongoing fundraisers – those that can be run with little administrative effort required – can add up to big fundraising dollars over time, and often with very little expense. Be sure to continually promote these fundraisers in your newsletters and on your group’s website, and you’ll always be able to count on an additional stream of income for your cause.
Ongoing fundraisers are designed so that they virtually run themselves. Registration and information sharing are all it takes to get this kind of fundraiser going.
Beyond that, all that is required is an organized effort to collect and/or redeem or claim your group’s funds. Sometimes, though, sponsors even take care of that for you and simply put the check in the mail.
Ideas For Ongoing Fundraisers
There are a number of nationally available, well organized ongoing fundraising programs. There are even a few you can set up yourself and maintain on a smaller, local scale. Following are some ideas and providers of easy ongoing fundraising programs:
National Brand Fundraisers
Several national product manufacturers and large companies are teaming up and offering ongoing fundraisers. Most of these programs consist of a process of collecting and redeeming coupons from product packages in exchange for goods or cash.
General Mill’s Box Tops for Education Program is a very popular example; you’ll receive 10 cents per label. (Read more about Box Tops For Education.)
The makers of Campbell’s Soup have offered an ongoing fundraiser based on label collection for many years and will pay your group in the form of educational materials and playground equipment. (This program has been discontinued.)
Tyson’s Project A+ pays 24 cents for each label turned in. (This program has been discontinued.)
Also, check your local dairy, or pizza restaurant for similar offers.
Ink Cartridge and Cell Phone Recycling
There are several companies who will pay fundraising groups for collected ink cartridges and cell phones that meet their acceptance standards. These companies in turn refurbish and recycle the still useful cartridges and parts. This easy ongoing fundraiser is a simple matter of collecting and mailing in ink cartridges and cell phones. This easy ongoing fundraiser is great for the environment, too.
Read more about Recycling Ink Jet Cartridges.
Loyalty Programs
Some retailers (like Target) and service providers are willing to kick back a percentage of profits to groups whose supporters patronize them. Often a card or registration of some kind is needed to identify supporters and designate the recipient program. When these patrons make a purchase or hire the services of the partner company, they earn cash or redeemable bonus points. The company benefits from more business, the group benefits from easy money, and the program runs itself until ended by one or the other party.
Homegrown Ongoing Fundraisers
There are other programs groups can set up and manage themselves on an ongoing basis. Bottle and can collections and spare-a-penny tip jars are two fairly easy ongoing fundraisers that don’t cost a lot but can return pretty well on the low investment.
The potential to profit from ongoing fundraisers is significant, but it does take a concerted effort to get supporters to participate continually. The effort is small, so most do not mind it, but it is easy for busy donors to forget, so periodic reminding is a must to succeed with an ongoing fundraiser. Most groups find that ongoing fundraisers are better when run as supplemental income of sorts, with two or three larger efforts being run for the bulk of their funds. Either way, there is virtually free money out there to be taken in ongoing fundraisers; you need only to tap the source!