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Saturday, August 30, 2014

3 Health-Related Fundraisers

Donations to medical and health nonprofits, like Children's Miracle Network Hospitals or Doctors Without Borders USA, help bring relief to those in need, as well as fund research for a cure for difficult diseases. As such, every little bit donated to these causes truly makes a huge difference.

You can do your part to support these efforts by organizing fundraisers that promote good health. Some ideas you can try include:

Healthy Breakfast Fair

Eating healthy is the best way to prevent cardiovascular conditions or diet-related problems, like insulin resistance. With that in mind, what better way to help people make the transition to a healthy diet than by starting with the most important meal of the day?

Host a “Healthy Breakfast Fair” at a local park. You can then have families pay a small entrance fee. They can then choose from a variety of healthy breakfast options, such as wholegrain pancakes and jam made from locally sourced fruits.

Cold Turkey

Heavy smoking and/or drinking substantially increases the risk of contracting a variety of diseases, including cancer and organ damage. Fortunately, people can quit these vices as long as they have enough support, encouragement, and willpower.


Promote healthy choices by asking people to go cold turkey and quit their vices, where people sponsor them for each day they go without their vice. You can also enforce a “penalty” on participants who do not clear past a certain amount of time.

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Promoting Online Auctions

Getting high bids for your online auction can be a real challenge if you have a limited audience. Fortunately, there are ways to spread the word on your upcoming event without having to spend a single cent. How do you do this? Through social networks. Here are a few tips to keep in mind when using social media:

Get creative with your posts.

Some individuals may be all set to support your cause, but they don’t need to be told status update after status update about what you stand for. Instead, put your creative chops to good use and post something to make your fans or followers constantly check your page, like witty observations on relatable, everyday situations.

Encourage interaction.

You may find this a daunting task initially, but you’ll be amazed how your social networking sites can promote interaction if you make the right move. Establish a theme, and encourage them to post pics according to that. For instance, if your organization is devoted to helping animal shelters, ask people to post “before and after” pictures of their rescued pets.

Give people a glimpse of the work you do.


Have a staff member film an entire day at your headquarters and post the edited video on your social networking accounts. This way, you give people an idea of the work you’re doing. Once they see you are hard at work, they will be prompted to help out.

Sunday, August 24, 2014

Creative Themes for a Halloween Fundraiser

Yearly festivities that are much-awaited by both children and adults are perfect opportunities to grow your following and raise funds for your nonprofit. With all the fun traditions and unique themes you can use during the celebration, you can surely come up with charity events that a lot of people would want to be part of. Let’s explore some possibilities for your upcoming Halloween fundraising:

Dress us up!
Does your cause involve kids or underprivileged individuals? Through our platform, you can arrange to have generous donors buy costumes for your benefactors. Charitable people can also donate to finance a fun Halloween party for your cause.

Run for your lives and for others!
Put a twist to the usual fun runs or marathons! Give your participants costumes instead of simple race bibs. Alternatively, you can give it a twilight-zone or apocalypse theme, where ghouls, goblins, and zombies can chase the participants to try and eliminate them from the race.

Pound plenty of pumpkins for a prize!
Who doesn’t love pumpkin-smashing? Make it a challenge to see which participant can pulverize the most pumpkins in a set time limit. To make things easier, you can sell the pumpkin-smashing tools, such as the sledge hammer and apron, as well as the entrance tickets to your event on our online platform, eBay Giving Works.

Treat yourself to a royal ball!

Parties don’t have to be dark and scary. Organize a glamorous ball, where the dress code strictly specifies royal gowns and prince attires. You can also find rare or high-fashion costumes and auction them off on our platform for attendees.

Thursday, August 21, 2014

Viral Fundraising Ideas

With the Ice Bucket Challenge hype in full swing, it's understandable that a portion of the public is starting to wonder if the goal to raise awareness about ALS is lost on some adventurous folks who just want to make their friends laugh. How about taking the time to sit down and think of a few other creative and potentially viral ways to support a good cause?

Forbes writer Kashmir Hill has some ideas.

Planking
Lying down flat on the ground or any surface took to the Internet a few years back. Believe it or not, imitating a wooden plank for charity has been done several times. In July 2014, fitness junkies participated in the Plank 500 Challenge in Newport Beach, CA. The participant who held a difficult planking position the longest won a $500 donation to any charity.

Let It Go” Video
If the cold doesn't bother you, film your kids singing Frozen's "Let It Go" and then upload it to video sites. Teach your kids about the value of donating to charity, and let them see how well their video is doing online amongst your family and friends. This is a great alternative to the ice bucket challenge as it wastes no water or ice.

No Selfie

Slowly drop that smartphone and walk away; you're participating in a no-selfie challenge. It's like the IBC but with a pact not to take selfies for a period. Like the "Let It Go" Video challenge, this idea would be new and interesting to the online communities. However, a similar idea has been done in March 2014 as part of a fundraiser for Cancer Research UK, which involves selfies without makeup. Take the challenge and make it your own to see the most success. 

Monday, August 18, 2014

Irresistible Auction Items

With online charity auctions, you can put virtually anything up for sale and use the proceeds to support your chosen charity. However, some things do tend to sell better than others.

Without a definite sell, you won't be able to help the charity of your choice as much as you thought you could. If you're dead set on helping charities via this route, it's best to know about the items that tend to sell really well. The item doesn't necessarily have to be in high demand, although that does increase the item's chances of being bought. Joanne Davidson of the Denver Post lists two of the biggest charity auction hits:

Electronics
Believe us when we tell you to sell your old smartphone or laptop for charity. As each generation grows more tech-savvy, so will demand for years-old gadgets. In fact, we've been mentioned in several lists of the best places to sell electronics in support of a good cause. On top of that, you can prevent landfills from swelling in size due to discarded electronics.

Travel Packages

Won a trip to Europe but don't have the time to enjoy it? Why not auction that travel package before the deal expires? If you can't enjoy an all-expenses-paid trip to a fabulous destination in the near future, then find someone else who can and make a difference for a charity at the same time.

Friday, August 15, 2014

Tips in Choosing a Charity

It appears that people are becoming more generous every year. Statistics show that Americans gave about $335.17 billion to charities, foundations, and other nonprofit groups in 2013, which is a 4.4 percent improvement over 2011’s numbers. If you’re interested in supporting a particular cause, choosing eBay Giving Works as your intermediary can yield even better results.
Through our auctions, you can rest easy knowing that the money you donate to charity is guaranteed to reach the right people. If you have problems deciding which nonprofit to support, though, consider some of these tips:
First, do a little soul-searching and become clear on your beliefs and advocacies. Do you care about the environment more than economic development? Have you lost a loved one from a rare, presently-incurable disease? There are plenty of groups who truly believe in these causes and could certainly use your support.
Second, be absolutely sure that the nonprofit in question is legitimate. Visit their website or check with your local business agencies to see if the charities or foundations you’re about to donate to are indeed what they say they are.

Lastly, review the non-profit’s programs, goals, and achievements so that you’ll know how you can help them in the future. If they’ve hosted fundraising marathons before, you can help further by participating in the next run. 

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Give Annual Funds another Look

As fundraisers, we’re often on the lookout for strategies we can implement that can help us achieve our organization’s goals. Having the cash on hand to pay the overhead necessary to push work on these goals forward naturally goes a long way to ensuring success, and a recent survey by the Nonprofit Research Collaborative has found annual funds to be highly effective in this regard.

Saturday, August 9, 2014

How to Use Clothes for a Cause

Are you thinking of ways to raise money and awareness for charity? What you’re wearing might just be the key! By soliciting and selling clothes on our platform, you can get more funds and followers. To give you an idea, here are some trending fundraisers for nonprofits:

Wednesday, August 6, 2014

3 Humorous Fundraising Ideas

Get ready to tickle more than a few funny bones as National Tell a Joke Day falls on August 16. To help get the ball rolling, here are three quick fundraising ideas to help you put a smile on the face of both your donors and the people you help:

I bet I can make you laugh…

Walk up to people and tell them you can make them laugh within 3 attempts. If you succeed, they give a donation to your cause. Be sure to stock up on more than a handful of jokes.

You can increase the amount you raise by videoing your attempts to make others laugh and posting the video on YouTube. Don’t forget to add donation details in the description box!

Reverse raffle

Put a clever twist to a classic fundraising event. Hand out raffle tickets for free at the start of the event. Instead of giving away prizes, however, you raffle out funny yet embarrassing penalties! Should the “winner” choose not to accept the penalty, he or she can return the ticket along with a donation.

Beard art contest


Have several friends grow their facial hair and participate as models. Contestants then channel their inner stylist and try to make the funniest look. They can choose to braid the beards, shave opposing halves off, dye the hair, and other silly things they can think of.

Sunday, August 3, 2014

Raise More Money from Auctions

Holding an online auction is already a cost-effective way for nonprofit organizations to raise money, but there are simple steps you can do to raise even more money than you normally would in a live or silent auction. Here are three:

Provide high-quality images.

Most internet users respond more to visual images than text, so it’s important to grab their attention by providing high-quality images. These don’t have to be shots taken by professional photographers. They can simply be taken by someone in your staff who has a knack for photography. Remember, the more visually interesting your pictures are, the better chances you’ll have in getting high bids.

Include a detailed description.

Prepare a detailed description to accompany your pictures. Avoid sounding too generic, though, that the item sounds like a run-of-the-mill one. Avoid sounding too fancy either that internet users have no idea of what you’re talking about. For instance, if you’re putting jewelry pieces for auction, fast-fashion may be too flamboyant when describing them, so simply write the type of accessory, e.g. rhinestone, sterling silver, etc.

Set a deadline.


With most online auction resources, you can set a deadline for accepting bids. This creates a sense of urgency in your online audience, and pushes them to act quickly if they are interested in supporting your cause and getting the item you auctioned off.

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