You may have noticed an increase in talk about fundraising in the Big Orange Heart Slack channels and in the Facebook group. Further to a meeting around how to enable fundraising by individuals and smaller organisations for whom significant donations or sponsorships are not an option, we’ve come up with a few ideas. Some are pretty straightforward, some will need a few volunteers to help make happen, all need you and your feedback! What do you think? Do you have other ideas? Would you like to get involved with anything here or something else?
- An auction of promises can be successful if enough people contribute and bid, so we’re working out how to make this happen with skills and services rather than the cake and champagne of a local auction I worked with some years ago (though if anyone wants to pay for me to bake some of my rather excellent brownies, I’ll gladly do that and post them!). This is something we can do and we’ll start plotting and planning this and launch as soon as sensible. And of course there are plugins to assist! This is WordPress, after all!
- Can you add a giveaway to your own website, something useful for your audience, your clients – and donate the proceeds to Big Orange Heart? An ebook or some digital download that can be paid for, and those funds donated to Big Orange Heart? Any support or guidance you want on something like this we can share directly with you or within the fundraising Slack channel. Contact us via [email protected] with anything you do.
- Michelle Frechette highlighted some useful posts on the GiveWP blog so we’ll make use of those as much as we can. The idea of donating ecards is something we can enable and we’re working on designs ready to launch as soon as we can make it happen.
- Would you like to join in with a global bake sale within your company/organisation? Something for companies and their staff to join in with – highlighting the work and services of Big Orange Heart while raising funds at the same time. We’d set a day on which we can all join in, sharing your bakes for the world to drool over, and maybe even send out some items to share amongst those participating. What do you think of this as an idea? I mean, there would be cake… What’s not to love about that?
- How about your own fundraiser? There’s already talk of waxings on Facebook and in Slack – oh my! But in less excruciating form, this could be allocating and promoting a day in which you help people with their WordPress issues, and in return they donate. Such fundraising can be set up via your website in conjunction with the Big Orange Heart Donately fundraising system, or indeed as a Facebook fundraiser. Whatever you do, please let us know what you’re up to so we can cheer you on. And yes, we want photos. And no, Dan is not skydiving!
- If you have items to sell on eBay, you could donate the proceeds to Big Orange Heart – a bit of de-cluttering or clearing your excess “stuff” while doing good at the same time! You can set a % of your sales, or the full profit, and away you go! More room, less clutter, more that Big Orange Heart can do.
- When you shop on Amazon please go via https://blog.bigorangeheart.org/smile (only in UK at time of writing). This way Big Orange Heart receives a small percentage of your sale. And if many of us did this, over a year this could fund more support. This service can also now be set up in the Android and iOS apps.
- If all of this feels a bit too “extra” and you just want to donate – follow this donate to Big Orange Heart link – it’s a really easy form and allows for a regular amount or a one-off. And thank you.
If you cannot donate financially or in any of the ways above, can you give us an hour of your time each month? We also need more volunteers to help us keep things going. The funds keep the lights on but we need more blog contributors, companions for people, more people to spread the word, more feedback on how we help you. So can you give an hour, give a tweet, or give an idea?
Whatever you can do, even by sharing our posts, sending out a tweet, it all makes a difference, and we thank you. More ideas are always welcome, for fundraising and beyond. Pop them below as a comment or send directly to me if you prefer – you can find me in the Facebook group and in Slack.
Big Orange Heart