5 Ways to Use Fundraisers to Drive Revenue and Community Goodwill

Introducing some new ideas to help you make a difference in your community.

This time of year is always filled with fundraising and donation requests from your community. With everything that’s going on, you may need to adjust your approach this year. As you consider which organizations to support, be sure to think about how best to benefit both your community and your business. This includes what to offer, pricing, donation terms, and possible ancillary sales opportunities instore later.

We outlined a few fundraising options in a previous post, and today our CenterEdge Operations team is sharing a few new ideas – along with some practical advice for setting up your new programs. Check it out below, or CenterEdge clients can view the extended post in the Ops Blog.

No. 1: Allow guests to round up their totals.

One of the easiest donation setups is rolling up. With the recent United States coin shortage, this can be a win-win situation for both you and the fundraising organization. It is best to host this type of fundraiser over a more extended time, so there will be a good amount of funds donated.

Reach out to organizations such as your local children’s hospital, any number of your cancer societies, school districts, boy/girl scouts, boys and girls club, and more. Partner with them and have them advertise that each time someone makes a purchase and rounds up, donations will go towards the organization. Offering a round-up donation benefits you by taking exact change during the coin shortage. You also have a partner advertising your business, can drive in additional sales and new guests, and show you care about your community.

All cashiers need to do is ask every guest if they would like to round up. Check out these detailed software setup resources to learn how.

No. 2: Create a unique package for sale.

Another idea to drive sales and help community organizations is to create a unique package and give a percentage of the proceeds to the organization. Creating a package makes it easy to track and calculate the amount to donate back to the organization.

Get creative bundling your items. For example, if you are working with an elementary school, you may want to create a family pack. Are you working with a sports team of teenage boys? Include food and additional play credits. Customize the package so it’s enticing to a specific group. Sell packages on a scheduled weekday, allow them to purchase them and use them at a later date, or even set restrictions on when the package can be redeemed. For step by step directions on how to create a package, watch our training video.

No. 3: Do more with passes.

Passes can be sold for a specified period and redeemed later. Also, as was said before, you can set restrictions on the days when the pass can be redeemed, the age for redemption, and the time of day it can be redeemed.  If you want to drive weekday sales, you may want to restrict the pass to Sunday – Friday and not allow them to redeem them during your prime times. Sell passes online and have the organization do the work of promoting them for sale. To get step by step directions to create a pass, view our article on Passes.

No. 4: Allow groups to market for you using hidden web store links.

You want to allow online sales of passes or events for fundraising, but you don’t necessarily want them to be readily available for anyone to purchase. You want the organization to have some responsibility to do the marketing and promotion for the fundraiser, right? Using a hidden link is a great way to make the item available for purchase online, and have the organization send it to their email database, share on social media, and promote through other channels as they wish. Selling online allows the ability to reach more guests and alleviate traffic on the front line. Learn how to set up hidden web store links.

No. 5: Drive traffic by donating proceeds for a block of time.

The final opportunity to drive sales with fundraising is by donating a percentage of sales during a block of time. Hosting these types of fundraisers during the week is another great way to have organizations drive mid-week sales. To do this, select a night and a block of hours for the organization’s fundraiser. Be clear about what you are donating from sales during those hours. It could be a few dollars from a specific package or a percent of all sales. Create a flyer with all the details that they can share on social media and blast out to market the night and drive business. You can make easy flyers using websites like canva.com.

Bottom line: fundraising is an easy way to drive sales, reach new guests, and partner with our community.

For CenterEdge clients, visit the CenterEdge Ops Blog to read the full post with software screenshots and additional resources for tracking your fundraising programs. Our Operations team works tirelessly to bring you the CenterEdge Help Center and CenterEdge Community so that you can maximize your CenterEdge relationship and drive the business results you seek. Reach out to our Director of Training and Education, Rosie Salas at rsalas@centeredgesoftware.com. with feedback or training questions.

How do you fundraise at your FEC? Share your ideas with us in the comments or on Twitter!