Hi Girl Up fundraisers!
I am the founding President of Hood River Valley High School Girl Up and I want to share some of our fundraising strategies with you all. Last year, we were a top fundraising Club with $13,500, and this year, so far, we have raised $ 12,500!
Our goal is to fundraise, advocate, educate and engage in community service throughout the school year. It seems like as the year gets going, we get busier and busier so we have chosen to focus heavily on fundraising in the fall.
- Start with a goal, make it achievable and think big! Brainstorm a ton of ideas with your entire club to reach this goal. The possibilities are unlimited.
- Put a few fundraisers on the calendar and make sure to start ASAP. We start in early August.
- Once you have a skeletal framework for the year, slip in little fundraisers like hosting a school dance or a bake sale whenever you want. Do as many fundraisers as you can, spacing large events at least one month apart.
- Figure out your target audience for each event and plan accordingly. For kids, do something easy with something they will get in return. If it’s older feminists with big pocketbooks, make it more educational, expensive and classy.
- Start planning logistics 1-2 months in advance. Remember to think about everything! Run through your dream event step by step and how to make that happen.
- GET. EVERYTHING. DONATED. Girl Up is a nonprofit, if you ask nicely and tell an inspiring story, people are happy to support your event. Almost everything can be donated in-kind or get grants/organizations to cover costs with a professional letter/email and a persistent ask. Make sure to follow up twice with everything. We have spent a maximum of $100 on fundraising over the course of 2 years as a club.
- Delegate and checklist to your death. Checklists are EVERYTHING! Make a large checklist and have members sign up for a responsibility.
- Spread the word! An event is nothing without people to attend. Have every member share the event poster on their social media and create a template email for parents to send to their friends. Make sure to post about every other day during the week leading up to the event. In addition, submit information to your local newspaper, radio station and local entertainment websites.
- As you continue to put your cause and message out, people will begin to look for Girl Up events to support.
Have a blast and know that through your fundraising efforts, your Club is changing the lives of girls all over the world. Pretty cool! Here’s what our fundraising calendar looked like last year:
- August/September – Coffee Fundraiser
- October/November/December – 3 part movie series
- December – Giving Tuesday email blast and Christmas coin box passed around classes at school (one of our teachers did a matching gift to whatever the kids put in the coin box)
- January – school dance, bake sales, etc.
- May – Dance Party, Global 5K
In total, we had 9 fundraisers and raised $13,500.
Remember, you can always reach out to Girl Up about fundraising by sending an email to fundraise@girlup.org
