Okay, so lets start with why $10 raffle tickets or $10 donations is the most effect way to fundraise.

The first thing to understand is that about 70% of all money raised comes from the lower income people of Australia. So every time you hear of a corporate organization kind enough to give a million dollars, low income Australians just gave more than 2 million. So in other words small amounts from lots of people has always been a more effective, easier and faster way of fundrasing.

We have this law in the fundraising world that states, THE LARGER THE DONATION THE LONGER IT TAKES.

The next thing to understand is why $10. Why not $2 or $20.
This question comes up alot. Basically we needed an amount that wasn't to much that it would be painful for a person to give and an amount that wasn't to small that you had to sell thousands of tickets taking hundreds of hours to raise your target. Experience has shown us that $10 is the easiest number to get donated that will give you the best results.

The average Australian gives over $200 each year $10 is nothing.

Why are getting donations and selling raffle tickets better and easier than doing events?
Big events have hundreds of hours behind the scenes with lots of risk and expensive overheads. There have been so many events that have made a loss or very little profit that only ended up stressing and losing volunteers. Events are a very good thing to do if you have an important message to put into the community as we do at the refugee ball. It is also a very good way to engage corporate involvement. But make no mistake. The big events you heard on TV that make more than $100,000 took many hours and in most cases years to build the support network to get people to this event.
The rule is simple. IF ALL YOU NEED IS MONEY THEN JUST ASK.

Okay by now you should feel a little more relaxed about selling $10 raffle tickets. So why do some people get nervous about the idea of selling tickets or asking for donations? This comes down to one basic communication skill. If you are nervous about selling tickets you will almost always struggle in this area. The skill is iniciating communication. And why are they afraid to iniciate communication? Its because of the fear of being attacked or being made to look stupid. (However you want to word it.) Many People are affraid to ask their friends because they are afraid of their friendship being weakened. Now i'm only talking here of peoples fears. If done correctly then these fears almost never happen. Be a selfish manipulative salesman and these fears most likely will come true. And in my opinion you deserve to be attacked. We get into charity work to help people and make them feel better. Manipulating people and making them feel guilty so you can help others or in other words making some feel bad so others can feel good is the stupidest thing in the world. It is the very thing we as charity workers are fighing against. Make no mistake being forceful and making others feel guilty is very very profitable. We will make less money (But only in the short term). But thats okay because we will make more friends and we will be lifting more people as we do it. This is a lesson the DOOR TO DOOR SALESMAN learned the hard way. There was a time where they were loved because house wives didn't need to leave the house and the kids to do what they loved most. Then they got pushy and now they are very much hated in the community. The more charity pushes to get money the harder it will get.

So whats the solution then. Rule If you can make the relationship better with a YES or NO then you will enjoy this process alot. Step 1 just ask a lot of people. Step 2 Be okay with them saying no and make it easy for them to do so. In other words leave the pressure at home. Step 3 Let them know how to get involved later if they change their mind. Step 4 After they say no stop selling and continue building the friendship where you left off. (Or maybe you where just starting) If you want to just sell people then but up your advertisment and those that are interested in your sales pitch will turn up. You don't need to trick people. If you like shopping centers then put up your poster and attract people so they come to you. But keep in mind it's a numbers games. Just ask lots of people and you will acheive your goal with ease. Get over the fear of iniciating conversation and you will raise more then you ever thought you could.

I am a pretty confident kind of a guy. So I would would simply ring a mate up or text him and say I need $10 for a charity program I am raising money for, can you help me out? If he wants to know more I would tell him and then say that he had 2 choices. He can donate the $10 and get a tax deduction or he could buy a raffle ticket and possibly win lots of cool prizes. If things go well I would tell him that I need to get as many $10 donations as I can and if he could spread the word that would be great.

Now this next point is extremely important and I urge you to not use it the wrong way. Use it in a very real and genuine way or once again it will get a lot harder to use. Every continent has a very different way of being dealt with. For Australians it is this. We don't like to be told what to do & We will do anything we can to help someone especially our mates. So what this means is that you should tell your friends that you need their help to raise money to help this charity. If they say no then just keep having fun with them and enjoying their time.

Now that you have overcome your fear to ask people to give you money Let's talk strategy. People you know are easier to ask than people you don't. It's also faster. So my strategy is about asking those that you know. If you are asking people you don't know then it is extremely important to find people with a common goal. In other words find those that also want to see human rights abuses reduced or stopped. Find those that need a tax deduction. Find those that feel pleasure helping people.

The next task is to think big. Now what I mean here isn't I'm going to imagine getting donated 1 million dollars and do it. What I am talking about is that you will most certainly have people not do what they said and plans that don't work. So if you have to sell 25 tickets and your plan will have you sell 25 tickets exactly and one of your friends let you down then you will miss your target and most likely be upset with your friends which would be silly. But instead if you work out how to sell 50 tickets and then heaps of things go wrong you will most likely sell 30+ and look good because you sold more than you should have.

So how do you sell 50 tickets then? Lets look at how to sell 100. The rule I use is very simple. Find 10 people to sell 10 tickets. Just keep breaking things down into small pieces. If they have problems selling 10 tickets then get them to find 3 people to sell 3 tickets, and if they sell 1 that makes 10.

I have done this method so many times and I can't tell you how many people were scared out of their brain at the thought of asking anyone anything. Then later they reported how easy it was when they just started iniciating communication. It's really not that hard. Just ask, you'll be fine.

Another method lots of volunteers are having success with is parties where everyone comes and donates $10 or more each instead of bringing a present. Make the parties as crazy and fun as you want. Parties can take a lot of time but they still work if you get the numbers there.

Thanks for helping and if you have any questions please don't hesitate to contact us at refugeeball@friendsofstartts.org.

Don't forget to check out the section on how to check if we are a legal charity and if you have any questions please don't hesitate to contact us at president@friendsofstartts.org

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