Board Materials

 

 

TeenNow California

Fundraising Page

Fundraising is a key responsibility of the Board of Directors. This page contains resources and tools you can use to meet your fundraising obligation to TeenNow California.

There are several key ways we ask you to raise funds for the organization. First, we have created a FirstGiving page that you can direct potential donors to. You can also create an individualized FirstGiving page and link it to our page. FirstGiving will walk you through the process and allow you to create personalized messages about why TeenNow California is important to you, and also allow you to thank donors.

You can also choose to raise funds in one of the "53 Ways" listed in the document to the left. These are creative ideas for how you can use your time and talent to ask for money in fun and novel ways.

One of these is to hold a house party. The "Planning a Fundraising House Party" resource is one that focuses on the film industry, but many of the pointers are applicable to non-profits as well. Some variations include:

• Board members can be the hosts of their own fundraising party, or can find someone else to host.
• Sponsors are nice but not necessary; the parties outlined in this sample are on a larger scale than what you would need to do. A simple dinner with pizza and salad, or a cocktail or dessert party will be enough to put your fundraising skills to work.
• Instead of asking for money at the door, leave a basket by the door that people can contribute to as they leave. As part of your guest materials, include an addressed envelope so that people can put checks in and leave them in the basket, or if they prefer, mail them to you at a later time.
• We recommend that you NOT contact radio stations or other media outlets, unless you want to have a very large party. Inviting your friends, neighbors and colleagues will suffice.
• In place of the trailer screening, consider offering some value-added programming or entertainment to the party. For example, one organization reported that their Board president, a young women with small children, hosted a party and offered her friends a brief talk on parent-child communication. She had one of the employees from the agency come to do the talk, but if you have expertise in a certain area, you can do this yourself. Tailor the presentation to the interests of your invitees—for example, if the people you are inviting are mostly older, you can offer a talk on why investing in teen parents and pregnancy prevention is good for the economy, or with an audience of lawyers, you can talk about legal issues such as minor consent or parental notification. Or, if you think your guests would prefer not to have an educational lecture, you can do a brief talk on the work of the agency and why it matters to you.
• The money pitch should come from the Board member, regardless of who hosts the party. Stress the importance of the cause, and also let your friends know that you also support this organization with your time and donations. Show your passion for the work we do, and your guests will want to support us as well.

As always, if there are more resources or materials you would like to see on this page, please let us know. We want to help you be as successful at fundraising as possible!