Do You Need Fundraising Solutions?
Are you one of the many who need to raise funds for a community organization or to fund your dream? Have you realized there’s a world that needs your talent and ideas, but you require more resources than you have to get to the next step? Rather than giving up and tossing your hands up in despair, the fact that you’re reading this indicates you’re looking for solutions. Congratulations, you just got one step closer. What you need now are the tools and resources to create a fundraiser that operates 24 hours a day 7 days a week with minimal demands on your existing resources once it’s set up. Before we get into that let’s look at some revealing trends.The money making opportunities abound. For instance, results of a research study done by Yahoo! And Grey Worldwide, San Francisco indicated that business owners reported Web sites topping the list of “critical” marketing tools (69%), followed by search engine keywords (36%), and community relations (35%). Other “critical” marketing tools included email marketing (24%), direct mail (22%), and the Yellow Pages (12%).
KM World [Content, Document and Knowledge Management] recently reported that according to John Gantz of IDC (idc.com), “Companies are looking to IT (Information Technology) to increase revenue, develop new products and increase productivity.” The most sought after tools are predicted to be those that streamline communication to decision makers, precisely delivers reports on client actions, and simplifies management of campaigns. The bottom line is every organization and business, small or otherwise is looking for ways to do more with less. Spending across the board will be driven by increasing productivity and revenue. That means that products that help integrate the various aspects of marketing, revenue generating IT deployment, CRM [customer relationship management], productivity enhancing and are easily scaleable could be very well positioned.
It points to a growing necessity of websites, software and IT as marketing tools, resources, revenue streams, and information sources. Now you must decide how this insight can serve you or your organization.
There’s always the advertising site. This means you get automated content from article directories and plug in a Google ad-sence affiliate script. It will automatically rotate ads that relate to your page theme. Success with this however, generally requires the setup of a legion of sites or pages tied to good keywords. An alternate approach is informed by a similar reality.
According to Thomas Industrial Network’s recent study showed that online sourcing is the solution of choice by business buyers. Those surveyed found increases in productivity and significant savings demonstrating real ROI value.
21% of buyers estimated they saved their companies more than $501 per month through online sourcing
18% reported savings of more than $1000 per month
51% of buyers said their company saved at least 51 hours per month by using online sourcing
21% saved 500 hours per month
13% estimated time saved at more than 1000 hours per month
Now what does this mean to you? It means opportunity. As more and more people are laid off or downsized people around the world are increasingly seeking ways to start their own businesses, many of them online. For many this will mean getting contract work within their expertise from those seeking cost saving outsourcing solutions. And that means they need to have a functional website and an internet presence to get the ball rolling. Just how interactive your site needs to be depends on your target markets desire or preferences.
While it’d be easy to just hire someone to handle much of it for them. Consider a workforce development trainer who offered trainings being able to deliver them online in real-time over the internet and then archive them for later viewing by others who also pay for access. Offering the technology isn’t enough, you have to also make it an easy to use enhancement to productivity and revenue generation.
However, there are many that start at a different end of the spectrum. The fact is that many are faced with the challenge of learning how to do their own internet marketing/public relations, website setup, develop a system for managing prospects and cultivating customer loyalty. In addition they’ll likely be interested in creating information products to supplement or compliment professional services packages. Your opportunity lies in making the process of finding what they need and strategically utilizing it easier.
You don’t have to be an internet wiz or guru you just need to know your niche or market segment. Non-profit organizations begin with exploring which niches you can tie into your organization’s mission or activities. Whatever you choose to do, profitable niche selection is an issue intertwined with optimal keyword motivated content and site theme, so it is definitely among the first orders of business if you hope to be victorious online.
Finding and focusing on a niche that is large enough to profit from, but small enough to avoid huge amounts of competition is also an import element in that process.
Defining your niche in the marketplace will further develop your budget priorities. Again, knowing your customers’ values and needs will help inform this process because it will help clarify how you will reach them by building on the relationships and techniques you have already determined as most important.
The bottom line is that the number of burgeoning entrepreneurs will be growing and you can position yourself to serve a targeted segment of them. Let’s say your organization does youth programs. You could focus on targeting contracted professionals within human services such as those who serve group homes. You could start by designing a website that provides resources to assist them in going into business within that niche and marketing their services using the internet as a vital component by offering the tools they need. Assemble or acquire product bundles that will simplify the search and the management process.
Increasingly non-profit and community organizations are facing the threat of terminating important programs. The fierce grant seeking competition has made it nearly impossible to count on grant funding to sustain an organization. The explosion in home based businesses will continue as the global community adjusts to impact of globalization. Reality demands that more innovative approaches to fundraising be explored and implemented if vital community programs and continued entrepreneurial growth are to survive. Taking a proactive approach can be an equally powerful force in shaping the future of globalization. As always, the future is in YOUR hands.
Until next time.....
All the best,
Yvette
WebAntiphon consults and develops Internet "message campaigns" to help you communicate your ideas and directives efficiently to the people that count. It's Customer Relationship Marketing at it's best. A team of knowledgeable, results-driven experts are ready to work with you to develop an Internet Presence that sings and a measurable response that matters. (Learn more)
posted by Yvette Dubel @ 9:34 AM
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