Sausage sizzles

New legislation around the health and safety of food sales has been on the cards for some time - obviously effecting the small scale sale of food, sausage sizzles, bake sales etc. It would appear that the legislation will move through the system this year. The new minister, Kate Wilkinson tells us that small fundraising activities will be exempt from the same requirements that will be placed on profit making ventures.

The thought of sausage sizzles and bake sales reminds me that selling something is an option for any charity fundraising. Although the public knows that they are buying in aid of a cause, some people want something in return, even if it is a humble sausage. The activity is a public event which provides some profile and it is an opportunity for some volunteers to provide their time.

However there is a warning here. Don't forget the purpose of the sale - it's to raise money! It's not an end in itself. I heard the story of a supportive husband who happily volunteered to cook the sausages on a Saturday afternoon. After several hours leaning over the hot coals he asked how much money had been made. Two hundred dollars was the answer.  "What" he answered with horror. "Why didn't you tell me you wanted two hundred dollars. If I'd known that was the objective I would have just given you two hundred dollars!"

So my top tips for the sausage sizzle are:

1. Plan, plan and execute well. You don't want to do this every week!
2. Make sure your volunteers are appropriately allocated according to their skills
3. Maximise profitability with everything donated or sponsored
4. Choose the best location or don't bother
5. Maximise effort by including other fundraising opportunities, raffles, donations, selling donated goods, car washing, gift wrapping, hot coffee or cold drinks, candy floss
6. Beware of hygiene
7. Exploit all the public relations opportunities
8. Make it fun
9. Do it once and do it well

The Habits of Successful Fundraisers

If you are looking for New Year fundraising resolutions that really make a difference here are some of my top recommendations:

1. phone 5 - 10 ten donors every day. Thank them for their support and check their details against your database
2. spend half an hour reviewing the database every day to check for duplications, spelling errors, incorrect or inadequate addresses. Familiarise yourself with your supporters. Every correction saves you money
3. post a tweet, a blog or facebook entry every day to keep your supporters active
4. run a telephone campaign with volunteers to thank all new donors (it will pay off next year)
5. establish or review your systems and processes (saving money by doing it right first time)
6. review and evaluate all fundraising activities. If it doesn't work, do something else

Easy peasy fundraising

If you have plenty of supporters with time and enthusiasm on their hands - then ask them to do what they love, in aid of your charity. For some people having fun and fundraising at the same time is more attractive than cooking sausages and baking brownies.

Anyone who is competing in some sort of personal challenge or a team event could fundraise on your behalf. It doesn't have to be a sports event. It could be some kind of marathon - singing for 24 hours, standing up for a month, travelling on a shoe string budget - anything that's relatively newsworthy and attracts an audience will do.

We used to do this sort of "athon" by knocking on doors and seeking support from neighbours. Now we do this through special fundraising websites where participants can write their own blogs, email their updates to friends around the world, and collect pledges and donations electronically via credit card.

Evidence tells us that if you ask someone to collect by door knocking during an appeal week you may get them to collect a few hundred dollars each. If you ask them to collect by what we call personal challenges then they could collect at least several thousand dollars each. And they will have more doing it, than knocking on the neighbours door.

To make this successful the charity itself needs to provide guidance and all the tools necessary to make it work. It's usually easy to subscribe to a fundraising site such as Everyday Hero. But you need to provide some communication training for your participants. They will need words to describe what you do, they will need to understand how to use the website and establish their own blog. They will need to know what works and how other people have done their challenges. They will need media support from you, at least for their local community newspaper. They will need encouragement and congratulations. They will need to be part of the team. They may need tangible stuff like t-shirts, banners, flags etc. They will need you on the finish line!

Make the most of the new supporters that your participants bring along. They are part of your acquisition strategy.  Make sure you have a communication strategy to enlist them into your supporter group (first and foremost they are supporting their friend, but you can convert them to your cause). Thank them directly and make sure they know how their support is making a difference.