Posts Tagged ‘Calendars’
Start Your Fundraising Using Fundraising Calendars
September 10, 2011 | 
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While not all of the best fundraising ideas can be done fast, you should know that using fundraising calendars are different. With the effective use of fundraising calendars at the turn of the year, it is really quite easy to raise a significant amount of money fearlessly fast at the most opportune time. Let me show you how you can do this kind of fundraising fearlessly fast with the right weekly steps. Just go through the different steps below and see how you can easily and quickly raise the funds you need.
Week 1: Prep Work – The first week for your fundraising campaign with custom calendars is all about prep work. You will need to gather materials and information for your calendar design. Do your market research first and identify who you want to target to sell your custom calendars as well as the prime locations where you can market to them.
Next, try to gather all the images, software and other tools that you need to develop designs best suited to those target markets. Make sure that you also compose all the needed feature text, fundraising campaign information and contact details. Finally, try to acquire the tools and software that you are most comfortable in using, as well as any calendar templates that you might want to use. Once you have all of these materials setup, you should be ready to develop your design.
Week 2: Development and Testing – Design development for your fundraising calendars can actually be done in just a few hours, but depending on your expertise, testing and the adjustments that you need to do, the whole process should safely be done in a week. During this time of course you will be developing your design using your own desktop publishing software. Make sure that you enhance your images and be clear cut with your layout. Proofread and check several times so that you won’t have mistakes in your content.
Once you have a rough draft finished, do not forget to test your calendar layouts by printing them on your own and having other people check it out. Get some feedback from colleagues and even random strangers if possible. These tests and feedback should give you some ideas on how to improve and refine your calendars to make them ideal for fundraising. Finalize your design after integrating all those feedbacks and refinements.
Week 3: Printing – Finally, once the development and testing is finished you go on to the third week for printing. If you print your calendars online, you can actually have those hundreds of calendars finished within one to two days. This is of course a rush calendar printing job that is more expensive. However, you can safely reserve at least five days for normal printing without incurring any extra costs for the rush order. Just make sure you choose the best online calendar printing that you have access to. Check their quality guarantees and their printing options just to be sure it is ideal for your fundraising calendars.
Week 4: Deployment – Lastly on the fourth week, once the calendars are delivered, you can then deploy your custom calendars and start your fundraising. Besides advertising your calendars at your shop or office, do not forget to promote it proactively by informing your social network about it and just generally marketing your calendars through promotional materials. Do everything that is in your power to get word about your fundraising calendars and you should get those fundraising results you wanted as quickly as possible with the best possible returns.
Great! So within a month you can actually be able to raise funds for your campaign using only color calendars. It is quick and fast fundraising fearlessly through custom calendars.
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Facts About Fundraising Using Calendars
One of the lowest risk and low investment fundraising ideas that you can have are fundraising calendars. It might not sound as snazzy as a fundraising dinner, or a fundraising marathon but fundraising calendars can be a simple and easy way to get some extra funds for a good cause. Don’t believe me? Well, let me give you the easy facts that should convince you that custom calendar printing for a cause can be your key to extra funds for your project.
a. Low cost investment – If you look at the typical quotations for calendar printing, you will discover that it is pretty cheap. In fact it is remarkably cheap than setting up a whole big event with all the logistics and extra staff you need to hire. In most cases, a typical batch of calendar printing for fundraising should cost you only around 20%-30% of the budget for a big fundraising event depending on how many custom calendars you print. So this is perfect for projects who only have limited resources for investment.
b. Easy to create, even by yourself – Another great thing about using calendars for fundraising is that those custom calendars are very easy to create. You can even create the color calendars yourself to save on staff fees! With just a simple desktop publishing application, a digital camera, a calendar template, inspired imagination and some elbow grease you can have a decent looking calendar for fundraising in no time at all. With the tools today, you don’t really have to be an expert to do it!
c. A breeze to mass produce – It is also a fact that color calendars, even heavily customized ones are easy to produce. If you have a great printer at the office or at your home, it is very easy enough to churn out your calendar pages and prints. On the professional side of things, you can hire online calendar printing companies to do the job. With just a quick order in their website and of course an email with your designs attached you can do the whole calendar printing process quickly. In fact, you can have it printed in rush and get it in a day or two. So calendars are really a breeze to mass produce. So if you have a busy schedule, fundraising calendars can be very convenient for you.
d. Very easy to deploy and sell – Fundraising calendars are also very easy to deploy and sell. Besides using your own booth or shop to sell them, you can also easily distribute them to your colleagues and friends to sell to others. You can even have other community shops to sell them easily enough since there is no real maintenance or anything needed to sell them. So there is no real worry about the actual execution of a calendar based fundraising campaign.
e. Always sells a lot at the turn of the year – Finally, if you are worried that your fundraising calendars aren’t going to work, think again. By timing your calendars to be sold at the turn of the year, you can easily sell a lot of them and turn out lots of extra funds for your project or campaign. Everyone needs new calendars once the turn of the year starts and you can be sure of significant sales in the months of December and January. So there is no real problems in getting results from fundraising calendars as long as you time them right.
Great! As you can see, using custom calendars for fundraising can be a low risk, low investment but high benefit project that almost anyone can do effectively. So why not use calendar printing for fundraising? You’ll never regret the decision.
Grading Fundraising Calendars Benefits
Want to know if fundraising calendars have the passing marks that match some of those other fundraising ideas out there? In this special article, we will tell you our different grade marks for fundraising calendars and the precise explanations why they are so. Hopefully this allows you to realize specifically the benefits that a fundraising calendar can provide you, giving you the best information available to compare this fundraising tool to others. So let me show you the exact fundraising calendars’ grades have according to experts.
Cost : A
When it comes to production and deployment costs, fundraising calendars get a perfect “A”. This is because fundraising calendars are basically cheap to produce and distribute. While other fundraising ideas will run into thousands of dollars, printing calendars will only cost you a few hundred. For small fundraising projects to just the opening salvo for a big fundraising campaign, custom calendars have the perfect costs for anyone. Even with limited resources, you should be able to manage creating a good custom calendar with free software, free design elements and cheap calendar printing, as long as you know where to look. So cost wise, fundraising calendars are perfect.
Effectiveness: B
In terms of effectiveness, using color calendars for fundraising is a decent “B”. We gave it a “B” because it is not always a sure fire way to get several times the returns, but it still gives you great returns on your investment. This is the case because with custom calendars, you do have competition from other commercial calendars. Your fundraising calendars will have to go head to head with professionally made calendars which can sell for cheaper prices if need be. . So you will have to work and be competitive with your fundraising calendars for them to be effective. If you really work hard though with the design and distribution, it should get you amazing results though, giving you a great fundraising boost, especially at the turn of each year.
Ease of design: A+
When it comes to creation and design, we gave fundraising calendars a whopping “A+”. Why? That’s because designing custom calendars today is simply a breeze. Most desktop publishing applications today (even simple ones like Microsoft Word) can create a simple calendar design for you with convenient calendar templates. Other design software can use special calendar templates that you can actually customize yourself in various ways. So whether you are a newbie that needs some quick calendar formatting, or you are an expert that wants to control every aspect of the design, color calendars can be a breeze to design for you. There is just so little trouble with dealing with it; that is why a fundraising calendar design gets an A+ in this category.
Ease of printing: B
Printing calendars gets a “B” on our grades. Why? That is because printing calendars is pretty simple, easy and very convenient today. While you will still need some know-how and maybe a little bit of research on the process of printing and the best options in color calendar printing, the whole process can easily be simplified by online calendar printing companies. These firms can typically help you with the whole process, letting you choose the precise details that you want to change. After that, they can handle the rest of the process, delivering you the finished products within days. It is very easy to print, as long as you willing to learn and try to get the hang of what is happening.
Deployment : B
Finally, on deployment, we give fundraising calendars a “B”‘. It is a “B” simply because it is relatively easy to deploy, but you will have to do all of it with some footwork and creative marketing. To get lots of custom calendars sold for your campaign, you will have to do be a bit extensive with your activities. Passively selling custom calendars will not give you the best results. You will need to promote and get other people to help you sell those calendars to get returns from them. So while they are easy to move around and sell, you will have to work to get them to the right people.
So those are the grades for each aspect of fundraising calendars. Overall it is a good positive spread of grades. It is good enough for you to seriously consider using custom calendars in most of your fundraising campaigns.
Create Fundraising Calendars For Your Social Cause
Raising money for your social cause can be quite a challenge. It is not always easy to get people give you money for support and assistance. You need to be creative as well as be able to take risks in raising funds. Previously, you may have had experience raising funds through the traditional ways: conducting garage sales, hosting dinners. If you want a new idea, you may want to create fundraising calendars. Fundraising calendars are great way to generate money. Before the year ends, fundraising calendars can be a hit among everyone. These are great gift ideas as anyone who is looking forward for the New Year prefers the functionality of fundraising calendars. Before you go on designing and printing fundraising calendars, you may want to take a look at the following guidelines first:
1. Establish your cause.
On your fundraising calendars, always keep the pictures relevant. The pictures should say a great deal about what cause you are supporting. You do not just sell fundraising calendars without setting an identity for your organization. Check what are the images, whether they are illustrations or photographs, you can use. Make sure that the images are of high resolution. Otherwise, the appearance of your fundraising calendars can be pixilated.
2. Get the best calendar printers.
There are a lot of companies that offer printing services. Find one that can offer you quality prints. Check for discounts. These can make a big difference on your budget. See what your printing options are. Do not easily settle with a printing company for your fundraising calendars without checking your other possible choices. You may want to check the internet for printing services.
3. Monochrome over full color.
You can go for monochromatic fundraising calendars. As you know, you can save on costs if you go for monochromatic. Full color printing can cost quite a lot. If you want to go for monochromatic, make sure that the final outputs are of great quality. Otherwise, it would be better if you go for full color printing.
4. Check print samples.
As you have to sell these fundraising calendars, you want to offer the best to your potential clientele or customers. You do not want to offer them fundraising calendars that are not at par with those available in the market. If you wish to get the services of online printing companies, always request for product samples.
5. Inspect the outputs.
Once you have the sample print outputs, take a careful look at the design as well as content. You may find mistakes that can affect the over-all look of your fundraising calendars. Check each page of your fundraising calendars more than once. You may find major mistakes that need to be revised immediately.
6. Work on the content.
The design of your fundraising calendars is just half of it. You also have to work on other elements, such as the text. You may want to include messages to let your receivers get familiarized with your social cause. You can get the services of a copywriter for the job. If you are good at copywriting though, you can always do the task on your own.
Fundraising calendars are a great way to raise money for your organization. However, you have to make sure that what you present to your potential donors are of high quality.