Everyone needs a little help every once in a while.  How to provide that help gets a little technical and may require a bit of IT knowledge or expertise, a whole lotta marketing, and last but certainly not least, a basic understanding of 501(c3) AKA the beneficiary.  Who’s getting the money at the end of the day?  The beneficiary…   The marketing a Fundraiser & Beneficiary Setup can be a serious challenge for the laymen not well versed in the field of charitable giving.  We break it down for you to make the barrier to entry not as difficult through providing a few method or sites for raising money, some marketing tip, and setting up a simple www.grabandgosandiego.org domain to redirect to your most ideal fundraising site.

Crowdfunding Sites

I used a few in my day, some are pickier than others as to whom they qualify who works for them.  For this exercise, I chose GoFundMe.

 

GoFundMe – https://gofundme.com

GoFundMe is pretty easy to work with.  They are some nominal fees to withdraw the money and there are simple or customizable URLs you can create for people to find.   The URL will be very important when you are trying to get the word out because a GoFundMe query will more than likely will not produce a result for your site.  The default GoFundMe site shortcomings will be on full display almost immediately if you are trying to establish a nonprofit for your cause.

GoFundMe Charity – https://charity.gofundme.com

Charities are great!!  Everyone is in the spirit of giving and there’s an incredibly friendly fee structure at most organizations proving the crowd funding.  Here are the pitfalls to a charity.

  • You need a beneficiary.
    • This means you need a 501(c)3 and requires a whole lot of time and an attorney to create.
  • Do I have to be a beneficiary?
    • Well, you do want the money at the end of the day but I see where you are going with this. You need to establish a trustworthy resource as the beneficiary to be the conduit between GoFundMe and the individual in need.
  • Who’s that trustworthy conduit?
    • We established a relationship with Helping Hands Ministries Inc. They will now be the beneficiary.
  • Who is Helping Hands?
    • They help people in need. Whether funding someone’s drug rehabilitation or helping a business whether the Covid-19 storm by paying it bills.  Ie Payroll, it’s vendors, etc.  They make payment direct to avoid any 1099.
      • https://hhmin.org/donations/
        • Contributions can me made to Helping Hands Charitable PO Box 337, Tallulah Falls GA 30573 in the Memo section reference the project name. Donations can be made through their website once the project is established.
  • Awesome! What about donors who want to pay check?
    • You will need to setup a donor advised fund. A donor advised fund is pretty easy to setup and again, does not require a 501(c)3.  Please inquire through with the National Christian Foundation.
  • Who is the National Christian Foundation

More on Donor Advised Funds

A Donor Advised Fund comes into play when someone with a DAF wants to make a contribution to the project we establish for Pacific Fresh Grill…  www.grabandgosandiego.org.  Donor Advised Fund contributions can only be made to approved Nonprofit/501C3 organizations which Helping Hands is.

More on a 501(c)3 that hold your money & make payments on behalf of you

In our scenario, we use Helping Hands as the beneficiary 501(c)3 for the grabandgosandiego.org fundraiser ran on the GoFundMe platform.  They will make payments to vendors once whoever you are fundraising for establishes a Financial Hardship Project.  In this case, it was based on the Covid 19 National Emergency.  So Helping Hands receives receive a wire.  They can next day, process a wire or Fed-Ex the following day or two.

 

Marketing Tips

Yes, we have links that we may want to advertise in crossing or relay to the local news but are any of the link below remotely memorable if someone’s watching TV or absorbing from idle conversation?  NOPE.

Charity GoFundMe

 

https://charity.gofundme.com/lets-feed-san-diego

 

 

Non-Charity – GoFundMe

https://www.gofundme.com/f/lets-feed-san-diego

National Christian Foundation

https://mygiving.secure.force.com/GXDonateNow?id=a0U0H00000YqVK4UAN

Marketing – Fixing Terrible URLs

My favorite domain registrar these days is www.NameCheap.com .  Buy a domain from NameCheap like we did, for our non-profit www.grabandgosandiego.org and redirect or forward this domain to one of the fundraising URLs.   Don’t worry, we provided a link for this.  ProTip! Make sure you utilize free email, mailbox for all your fundraising communication.  It makes you look professional.  Do it!!

Resource:

How to redirect – forward a website URL.

News Segment

Hooray!  You finally got that compelling 6p local news segment spot that gives your fundraiser exposure to your local audience.  Fix terrible URLs today to avoid tomorrow’s mistake of absolutely no one being able to find your fundraising site and the good citizens of your region having to a call up the news channel to figure out where to donate.  Watch the segment.  A redirect from www.grabandgosandiego.org would have fixed this blunder and probably produced a lot more donations.

Social Media and Texting Links

The name of the game is to make this transaction for the donors as friction-less as possible.  Instagram basic personal account does not allow for you to have an external link but you can advertise the link in the comment section and refer to your bio page.

Marketing a Fundraiser & Beneficiary Setup

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Marketing a Fundraiser & Beneficiary Setup Summary

 

Obviously, I can digress more into social media efforts but getting your ducks in the row with a trustworthy beneficiary, setting up a donor advised fund, and simply having a friendly URL to type in can go a long way towards increasing your fundraiser’s exposure and avoiding grueling tax forms.

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