by Kalyani Kurup

Created on: October 28, 2008

Non-profit organizations do wonderful work in this not-so-wonderful unequal world. They cater to the needs of the underprivileged and unfortunate. This they do by making the privileged or fortunate cater to their own fund-raising needs.

The first step in promoting a non-profit organization is making the public aware of what it is doing. The public should know how they help, whom they serve, their dreams and their strategies planned to realize those dreams. And then, the organization should tell the public what it needs to do that work.

In this era of the internet, the first requirement for getting across to the public is a lively website. The site should be vibrant, with good graphics, and factual stories, explicit enough to convince any browser who may step into it. The site should be continuously updated. It should also contain detailed contact information. No one viewing the site should fail to attend a fundraising event just because it is not listed there. Nor should anyone trying to help with time, money or expertise be unable to do so for want of contact information.

Group and individual emails should be sent to people with a touching story in the body of the mail and necessary contact information. A chain mail, with a request to the recipients to forward the mail to as many as possible, is a good idea.

There should be enough flyers and brochures and posters available with volunteers all the time so that they can distribute it at every opportunity. Distributing it at offices, churches, or schools, where people congregate, is important. Based upon volunteer availability, these should be taken to individual homes also. Detailed contact information is of crucial importance in every bit of paper.

Cultivating good media relations comes next. Any fundraising event of the company should appear in the local newspaper not as an ad but as a news item. It is best if this can be managed through any contact the company may have. If not, the organization should manage to convince a reporter about the importance of the event. The concise report, since no paper would give too much space to a fundraiser event, should start with a touching' story or a success story' that should soon graduate into details of the organization's activities and goals and needs. Then lastly, there should be the most crucial contact details.

Celebrities, from whom larger donations are expected, should be separately contacted. Mails to them should be expertly worded, involving them emotionally in the philanthropic cause. Make sure that the organization does not lose the patronage of larger corporations it already has. And there should be constant attempts to rope new ones in. Donators should be continuously intimated on how their money is being utilized.

Never underestimate the value of smaller contributions. But these should be collected online or in places where people congregate, like fairs, churches or flea markets. Otherwise, traveling expenses might outweigh collections.

Make use of the talented speakers who can volunteer their expertise to give promotional speeches of the organization's work, combined with a call to action. Emotional approach is what works best for non-profit organizations.

Volunteers should be recruited by emotionally involving them in the cause. But ensure that they are not overworked or exploited. They are the heart and soul of the organization and if they buckle, the whole thing will crumple. Volunteers can also be used to do grassroots level marketing.

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