Teaching knowledge to others: opportunities and approaches

Teaching

If I had the opportunity to teach a skill to someone else, I would show how to conduct fundraising campaigns for a worthy nonprofit organization. Once a leader in a nonprofit group has the skills and the experience he or she could use those skills to help raised needed funds.

We would start with some basic fundamentals. A nonprofit group should be incorporated so that donations people and businesses make can be tax-deductible. There are groups representing the American Bar Association in nearly every city in America and they offer a half hour free consultation to nonprofits. This is a good starting point for a group, to achieve the ranking of a 501(c)3, a federally licensed nonprofit corporation.

Benefit Concert

There are many ways to raise funds other than just asking for handouts or sponsoring a bake sale. A good starting point is to plan a community benefit concert. Choosing the bands to play at the concert is important, because if you plan to attract middle class families, as well as younger college age students, you'll need to avoid hard rock, hip hop, and bands that are heavily tattooed and/or noted for tunes that are provocatively laced with controversial lyrics.

What kind of nonprofit are you part of? That has an impact on what kind of music you may wish to play. If you are an animal rescue group, or a group that helps homeless people (or rescues stray dogs and cats), or otherwise an organization that offers humanitarian services, you generally have a better chance of attracting paying customers to an event because the public loves to provide support for animals, for wildlife, and as a rule people feel good about helping homeless people and battered women as well.

Ideally, a musical act that has national appeal (and sells records on a national scale) but is based locally should be your group's first choice. Realistically, you're not going to get Bob Dylan or even Taylor Swift to come and play, but putting together some locally (or regionally) respected groups (perhaps 2, no more than 3) is enough of a draw to get started with the fundraising. Charging a reasonably low price for entrance is smart: maybe $8 for adults, $6 for students and kids get in free. A person who does face painting and creates balloon characters will be needed to entertain the kids because you want this to be a family affair.

At this concert you are going to want to have other fundraising mechanisms within the concert venue. You will solicit some wonderful prizes from local businesses for a raffle; tickets will be sold by volunteers from your organization that circulate throughout the concert event. A dollar each and 6 for five dollars is pretty standard. The prizes to be solicited should include: dinner for two at nice restaurants, movie passes, tickets to major league sports, a $30 gift certificate at a local bakery, a night in a nice local hotel, $50 worth of gasoline, and other thoughtful, practical prizes. There should be a grand prize like a week's vacation in a condo in Hawaii, or in the Rocky Mountains; someone related to your group no doubt owns a condo in a beautiful setting and would be willing to donate it for a week for the top prize.

Also, groups that are well organized always have a silent auction as part of the fundraiser. This is another opportunity for volunteers from the group to go out into the community and ask for donations. The persons going out to solicit should be dressed well (no sloppy sweatshirts or holy jeans), well-groomed, and have a copy of the group's nonprofit corporation papers so the business can see that the group is well-organized and that the group is professional.