Online transactions and giving – beware!

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are almost always in need of fundraising ideas. Many NGOs are strapped for cash and are constantly looking for ways to collect capital for the group to work with. Luckily, most NGOs have the benefit of working for worthy causes that can easily be related to potential donors. Everyone wants to help kids with cancer: the trick is letting people know who you are, where you are, and how they can help your cause (through events, etc). NGOs should strive for publicity through professional and well-designed flyers, websites, and other informational materials that illustrate the human faces of the cause for which they are trying to raise money. Getting out into the community is equally important for an NGO to raise awareness about a cause. Organizing events are effective ways to establish a presence. If your organization has direct results of previous funding, invite potential donors to see them. A pediatric cancer ward visitation hour, though it should be restricted to occasional occurrences, could work fundraising wonders for your NGO and the cause it aids.

SmartRaise

SmartRaise is an easy-to-use and completely free online tool that is the perfect complement for the traditional fundraiser. In a matter of your minutes, your group can have its own personalized fundraising website where supporters can log on, learn about your cause, and earn you cash with every purchase they make at many online stores.

As with so many things today, this third-party money raiser can actually be quite duplicitous. Recently it was discovered that an online fundraiser that was the facilitator of transactions between buyers and sellers was actually a right-wing homophobic religious organisation that worked often against many of the issues that the buyer or the seller wanted when using them (ie, the buyers/sellers did not know the political mission statement of the transactionist). Be careful and do your homework.

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