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Fund Raising IdeasI am involved with several nonprofit organizations in western North Carolina and I know how much effort goes into raising funds to carry out the missions of the groups. I'm not necessarily talking about official 501(c)3 and similar nonprofits, although some of these ideas might work for them. I'm also thinking about community civic and cultural organizations, school bands, sports teams, churches, schools, cheerleaders, youth groups and charities. I'm thinking in groups that you may not think of when first hearing the word 'nonprofit'. Who said fundraising had to revolve around bazaars, bake sales, car washes, and donations. What about earning a commission when people use products and services they use every day. I think it's a win-win situation when the folks in your community can save money on things they use every day and you can earn a commission as long as they use the service. Does that sound promising? Here's an article written by Jon Arnold, a national trainer for Cognigen, and helping organizations raise funds is one of his main interests. I'll let him tell you in his own words and refer you to his site for more information, if you're interested. When you contact him, tell him John Dilbeck was happy to recommend him to you. Fundraising Ideas for Non-Profit Groupsby Jon Arnold (This article was written by Jon Arnold, a National Trainer for Cognigen. It is republished with his permission. This newsletter was published on August 26, 2003) NON-PROFIT GROUPS?Do you know of any non-profit groups? You do, I can almost guarantee it. Think about it. There are the more "obvious" ones like Lions Club, Toys For Tots, United Way, etc. But then think about all the YOUTH oriented things, which are really ALL non-profit, like Cub Scouts, Girl Scouts, Boys Club, Big Brothers, etc, or the organizations associated with churches such as Habitat For Humanity, or the various groups and organizations with the churches themselves. How about the church youth group or the church itself to raise money for that new addition or organ repairs or evangelism? You have schools in your city, right? How about: High school football boosters. Schools have more organizations than you can shake a stick at, but believe me, each and every one of them does some kind of fund raising throughout the year. They HAVE to, because the school districts can't afford to (or just won't) give them money to do activities for the kids! (Ok, don't get me started here...) I've done my share of selling Christmas trees in the rain in Florida to raise money so the high school band could get a new tenor whatchacallit. Look at the marching band as a classic example. It costs a fair amount of money to rent 3-4 buses and drivers to get the band and their instruments to an away game during football season. The schools can hardly afford to get the PLAYERS there, let alone the band. How about those church youth groups -- it costs money to get those kids to a church camp for a week in the summer. And the list goes on and on and on... How much more could these organizations do and how much more effective could they be if they just had the necessary funding to be able to provide more opportunities, create new programs, plan more activities, get required equipment, etc? SO WHAT DOES THIS MEAN TO MY COGNIGEN BUSINESS?Here's the great part. You probably know someone who has some involvement with a non-profit organization, right? You probably know somebody (or maybe are yourself) who has kids in school or at church, and they or you are on the parents committee trying to raise funds for the year's planned activities. Talk to them about this particular opportunity for the non-profit group to become a Cognigen agent. NOW is the time to be talking with these advisory groups, since NOW is the time that they are meeting, planning activities and associated funding for the year! Think about it. Yes, it's good to be recruiting new agents for your Cognigen business, and you shouldn't become distracted from that task. But at the same time, I don't think you should ignore the Non-Profit Program aspect of it. If you recruit a new agent, then that's good, because there's one more person gathering customers that he/she gets commissions on, and that you also get commissions on. But with a non-profit group that you sponsor as an agent, now instead of just ONE person gathering customers, you've got MANY people within the same "agent" gathering customers! Say you sign up a high school marching band -- you've now got 150-200 people gathering customers! And those can be lean mean customer-gathering machines! Don't feel comfortable doing that? Ok, I'm still ready for you! Just give them the following web site address and ask them to check it out: This is a web page that I created and I am hosting on a server to promote this particular aspect of Cognigen. It explains what this is, the fact that it doesn't cost the non-profit group a red cent, and even gives example pages of how it works in terms of money in their pocket! All the information is there. For the non-profit group, the key is that this is FREE for them to implement. It requires ZERO money out of pocket. The only thing it takes is some effort on their part to promote the program. And almost all non-profit organizations have a core group of people who are more than willing to donate time and effort to get an effort such as this rolling, especially when it can be implemented with no out of pocket costs! MY OFFER TO YOUCognigen's Non-Profit Program is great. In fact, Cognigen's founder, Kevin Anderson, has set up his daughter's school with this program, and they are doing well with it. I've been promoting this web site to non-profit groups. If you have some contacts in this area, refer them to this website. But Jon, if they visit that web site, then they'll contact YOU, how do I get credit for that? Here's the deal. If they contact me, ask them to mention YOUR name in the email. (Or if they don't, I'll specifically ASK them who referred them to the website, and hopefully they'll remember that it was you). I'll answer their questions, and if they want to go ahead and do it, I'll HELP YOU get them started and going. Note that I'm NOT going to do it all. This will be YOUR agent in YOUR downline. And I'll help you too, if you ask for help. Even if they just contact me about it, I'll still let YOU know about it, since it's YOUR potential prospect, and even if "now" is not the right time, you should follow up with them at a later date. If they decide they like what they see from this web site and join right then and there, I *will* arrange for them to be moved under YOU instead of me, if it's your customer and your referral. I will put in the effort to create their customized web site, and I will pay the costs of hosting it for the first year, in the interests of helping YOU take your Cognigen business to the next level. Is that fair enough? What does this mean to YOU if you get one (or more!) of these non-profit groups on board with this program? Well, first of all, you should get a feeling of satisfaction from helping a non-profit group. But secondly, keep in mind that for every customer that they gather, while the non-profit group gets 7-8% and maybe as high as 10% commission from all their customer's usage, YOU also get 1% commission from all their customers, since this non-profit group is one of the agents in YOUR Cognigen downline! Yes, there is another thing that is different about a non-profit group with this Cognigen program. If they can produce proof that they are indeed a non-profit group such as a faxed copy of their 501-3C form or something similar, Cognigen will raise their starting commission percentage, starting on day #1. SUMMARYThis market segment is virtually untouched, because the non-profit groups don't have the money to invest upfront into a program to make money, which is what many programs require. With Cognigen, there is NO inventory for them to stock, NO deliveries to make, NO collections to be done. What these groups DO have, and in abundance, is energy and dedicated volunteers who believe in the mission of the group and who want it to succeeed. What you're offering them is a win-win situation. The customers they gather save money on long distance and/or other Cognigen services, and the organization makes commissions from the customer usage. I've seen little old ladies who wouldn't switch from their 38 cents per minute with AT&T for the world, but would sign up on the spot with one of the church youth if it would help the church's youth group. Now is the time to be talking to these groups. I'm there to help you -- you have the contacts in your local area. Let me know if I can help.
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