give-to-profit, fundraising, alisoun mackenzie, charity, cause marketing, business

Giving Strategy: Fundraising

Fundraising has become one of my favourite strategies for supporting charities and social causes through my business and can be a great way to grow your business, especially when you incorporate it into your marketing.

Keep reading to find out more or watch this short video:

There are many ways to raise funds for causes through your business as I share in my free ebook 52 Ways To Raise Funds for Charity or Social Causes Through Your Business.

Most strategies I share are those that enable you to strategically link your fundraising to your business activities so they become part of how you do business. Examples include organising fundraising events targeted at your ideal clients or partners and charitable sales promotions e.g. donating a percentage or amount from each sale to a cause.

Fundraising events can be a great way to showcase your expertise, give people a good experience, and raise funds for causes, all at the same time. When you come up with fundraising events your ideal clients find highly attractive, these can fit in really well with other business activities and help you connect better your followers or community. They can also help you expand the reach and effectiveness of other marketing strategies such as social media or joint venture partnerships. I’ve found that most people perceive me more positively because of my charitable activities. Fundraising often connects me at a deeper level with others in my network and community with similar values, many of whom become great clients, collaborators, and business partners.

If offering taster events is one of your marketing strategies, offering these as fundraising events is a good alternative to offering free events. When offering free events it’s common that people don’t show up and that you’ll attract a high proportion of people who will never buy from you. By contrast, my experience is that people who donate to attend fundraising events, are more likely to show up and buy from you in the future (if of course, you offer something they’d like). One of my clients has also been stunned at how her charitable giving and story has helped people trust her and become customers more quickly.

Likewise, I rarely do free speaking gigs anymore. I either charge a fee to speak at events (where the organisation pays its staff or the event is one people pay to attend), or I speak at local events for charitable donations. Replacing the model of speaking for free with doing it as a fundraising activity feels like a better energy exchange. I also love helping conference organisers add fun and engaging fundraising elements to their events.

If you are interested in fundraising through your business you’ll find lots of ideas in my free e-book, 52 Ways To Raise Funds for Charity or Social Causes Through Your Business, which you can download HERE.

Please note that incorporating fundraising into your marketing is know as ’cause marketing’ and in many countries, legislation applies when doing this. It’s nothing to be scared of but worth checking out. You can find out more about this in my article Cause Marketing: Legislation and Best Practices.

I’d love to hear your ideas and thoughts – please do share these below.

Often described as one of the most authentic and inspiring souls you can meet, Alisoun is on a mission to empower business owners and entrepreneurs to grow fulfilling profitable businesses that make a difference in the world.

Alisoun’s keynote talks, training, mentoring, and best-selling books Give-to-Profit: How to Grow Your Business by Supporting Charities and Social Causes and Heartatude: The 9 Principles of Heart-Centered Success have favorably changed the good fortune of thousands of people worldwide. She loves doing humanitarian work, fundraising and living by the beach in Scotland.

Alisoun is also the founder of The Heartabiz Hub a business training academy and has written the following free ebooks:

52 Ways to Raise Funds for Charities and Social Causes Through Your Business (click here)
101 Ways To Attract Great Clients, With Heart, Integrity & Social Impact (click here)
The 9 Secrets to Signing Up Clients Without Selling (click here)

You can connect with Alisoun here: