My Communities

The one way I can think of to increase my organization amount of unrestricted gifts is by planning a few small-scale fundraising activities. The event is going to be Ramadan Dinner Party where i will gather people to give us money and be giving good time

In doing this , I will set up a strong committee who will be chaired be someone with good leadership skills. We would set goals and have standard planning strategy. First and foremost, We would have the list and type of people to invite that I know are prospect donors. We will make sure that these people are doubled considering those who may disappoint. But we make sure we get them committed to the program. We will consider the venue that may not cost or probably that can be in-kind space gift. We will ask for other in-kind gifts like donation of drinks, water , snacks among other things. We will ask for in-kind services like decoration of the venue, servers, music, printing of invitation cards etc. We will makeup the once we can not get free. The numbers of the volunteers will be doubled.

Timing for this kind of dinner is very important. It has to be when people are just completed fasting and in festive mood looking for places of relaxation. Tickets will be sold out earlier to get enough people to attend. There will be media jingles. Many activities will be put in place that will make the dinner enjoyable and eventful. We continue update until the event is done.

(b) This will help me build my organisation's capacity by making it known through awareness creation, impressed old donors and getting new donors, have assess to unrestricted gifts that could be used for organization operations (like rent, bills etc) and programs activities. If all well and good , part of the money will be invested, some kept in the bank under cash reserve.

We expect you to tell us how this adventure trip will look like. Who are your target audience. How are you going to generate the funds. If its more explanatory so that we can learn from you

Memberships (having patrons) and dinners are ways of increasing my organisation's amount of unrestricted gifts.

Very true

Everything is fine! The course is positive

1: What is one way you can think of to increase your organization’s amount of unrestricted gifts?
One way to increase an organization's amount of unrestricted gifts is to initiate Jeffersonian dinners or Giving Circles.

2: How could this help build your organization’s capacity?
They both would introduce an organization to diverse groups of individual donors which would lead to increase in support and contributions.

I agree with this! One of my previous organizations struggled with this concept as well. They weren't always receptive to moving out of their silos and branching out into the very community they were designed to help.

Our organization has not applied for any grants yet. We are solely ran by donations. One way we can increase our unrestricted funds would be to host more fundraising events and make myself more available to discuss the needs of the organization to aid our mission.

I am trying to think about how I could incorporate memberships into my organization's structure.
Thank you for this idea.

1: What is one way you can think of to increase your organization’s amount of unrestricted gifts?
Have more scholarships given with less specified criteria for recipients or more funds created to use for other things
around campus.
2: How could this help build your organization’s capacity?
More people could see that you don't have to just give money for student scholarships, and that their gifts could be used to benefit the university in other ways.

Great idea!

Organizing cultural evening where underprivileged communities will perform or open mics where the participants can also perform if they register beforehand. They will have to enter the event by buying a ticket. And there would be small stalls where products made by the communities will be sold in a higher price. The target audience will be mainly expats and senior officials of donor organizations/INGOs/corporations, etc.

1: Regular fundraising events that are fun have shown to be a great way to raise funds, also organising fleamarkets and raffles.
2.- These events could grow bigger and bigger every year, making it sustainable and more profitable for the organisation

Unrestricted fundraising,This could be achieved by using campaigns,emails to create a fund raising and making it flexible for donors who might not want to make it public in otherwords remotely with the ease of technology this funds are mostly used to cater overheads in the daily running of the organisation

For me small, unrestricted, and ongoing gifts are good for my organization. Therefore It is important to build the capacity of my organization in terms of planning, advocacy, evaluation and accountability.

1. One way I can increase my organization's unrestricted funds is through some fundraising events that are aimed at raising funds while minimizing the costs of holding such events.
2. This would help my organizations capacity because we would have funds to fund any of the activities that would help sustain the organization.

I like the idea of holding ruffles and sports events to help raise funds for an organization. I once conducted a similar event by making some cookies that were sold during the fundraising event and we charged people to participate and a small fee to enter. It really worked wonders as we had a good turn-out and we only failed by not making it an annual event.

One way to raise unrestricted funds could be to hold a raffle with donated items where the ticket price goes towards general funds for the organization. In doing so, staff and other bills can be paid.

One way to ensure that you get unrestricted gifts is by making sure that you get small gifts from individual donors or small businesses. This will help you to have operational budget that you can use to fund budgets likes salaries and travel cost that other large donors may not be willing to pay

restricted support or funds are monies set aside for a particular purpose, while unrestricted funds may be used for any legal process.

Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people.

Membership payments and regular monthly or quarterly donations

This has actually been the toughest part of the course for me, there was a lot of information to take in

One exciting thing I've learnt is Fund raising. I think this would be a very key tool for raising unrestricted funding... I remember we once did such with my team were we offered to braid hair for students at a lesser price ... We need to get back some more into this and improve....

This would help my organisation run our day to day activities effectively without having to depend on some mystery money in the sky, but we would have planned and raised the money ourselves

Absolutely... Infact try organising and Funds Fun Fair

I work in the fundraising department of an international organization, our individual program is pretty recent and just starting hence some of the ideas from this course will be really helpful. One challenge we seem to be facing is our perception in people's eyes. Being a large organization and being based in a lower-developed country we're often asked why we need to ask for money since we are already established.

Having said that we have a few initiatives going what we can add is establishing our pyramid solidly with small, unrestricted gifts, especially from small and medium-sized businesses. There are many of them in my country and if we find the correct message to target them I'm sure they would contribute. I also plan to suggest holding some small-scale events once or twice a year to help us solidify our individual giving base

setting up events that will not only bring funds but create relationship with the donors.

One way I might be able to increase my organization's unrestricted funds is through holding a fundraising event and making a call for donations.

These are creative ideas.

well, I believe expanding our budgets i.e asking for more will help shape our capacity and also establishing a working relationship with our donors/funder to see what we do and how we do things.

1. I can increase my organisation unrestricted funds by starting up a membership program and also organising fundraising events.
2. I will make the event to be more of a Net income than a Gross income in order to provide benefit for my organisation and will also give me a competitive advantage and increase reserve.

I strongly agree with you.

Nice initiative

Very true and as they grow bigger they tend to increase the organisation's benefits.

I think the one way in which we can increase the amount of unrestricted gifts, is by friends of friends/membership.
awesomely great

By organizing fundraising activities like dinners, sale of works, games etc. where the supporters of the organization can participate in a relaxed way while still contributing to the running of the organization. This will help to raise fund for the general purpose of the organization and it will be unrestricted.

1: What is one way you can think of to increase your organization’s amount of unrestricted gifts?
2: How could this help build your organization’s capacity?

One way to increase your organization's amount of unrestricted gifts is to ask for the amount you want to increase to. This will allow you to ask donors to maximize the amount that they feel comfortable giving and this gift may be automatically given each year.

I believe if you have a large established non profit you should do fundraisers as you mentioned it sounds like your donors would like to receive something in return for a donation.

The best way to improve our unrestricted funding is through organizing fundraising events.

In improving the organization's capacity, the source of funding must be and unrestricted one

You have a very good point here

Nice ideas

Nice ideas

To present an annual plan of the different projects we are participating in.
We can do a bugdet and have basic money to operate

Great! funding events are the greatest way to engage donnors

It is essential to explore fundraisers through dinner and dance, spiced with some cool auction

Unrestrictive funds are more beneficial as it gives our organization the flexibility to use it as per requirements

1: What is one way you can think of to increase your organization’s amount of unrestricted gifts?
Our organization has a successful membership component. If we could organize paid events for members, we could use this uncommitted funding in support of our operational costs.
2: How could this help build your organization’s capacity?
Whenever an organization is able to get its members together in a successful event, it helps the organization build its communication and fundraising capacities, both are very important.

Yes, but how does your organization raise unrestricted funding? I know for the organization I work for in Germany, this is not easy to do.
What about your organization?

Consistently follow up the donors...

I agree with a high profile event if it is properly planned and budgeted.

We are on a crowdfunding platform where donations are required to go to certain projects. We can build into the project administrative expenses in a transparent way.

1. I think by being honest to the donors when presenting you budget to them.

2. It will help us as an organization to operate is a free environment where we can avail money to more pressing matters with no one objecting our decisions.

good idea

ways to solicit unrestricted funds for my organization would include; membership fees, fundraising from some of our suppliers and stores from our area of operation, and, organizing some concerts and events

To fundraise for my organization, I would focus on small, planned, and unrestricted funding and keep widening the base of giving. I would also focus on the organization of fundraising activities such as a marathon. This will help build a good venture base.

I will write where and in each activities does the money is asked for and I will explain a broader areas that the money will expend in such a way that all these activities must be accomplished so the interventions could reached its defined goals.

I really couldn't find any participants who could explain one way, hwo he or his team could take into consideration to receive unrestricted fund.

You mentioned the source of funding not the way you covince the donor to support your organization unristricted funding.

To build a good go to the fundraising strategy ,the way to generate unrestricted fund may help the origination in may way and for generating the funds
we have a lot of way like event organisations, street free food test store ,to taste the food and give some donation in the charity box, camping to the tourist places so we can evaluate much ideas to the tourist and take donation from them .

One way could be offering some special service or product to conscious customers with higher pricer than usually, and use and advice that the difference of price is to help the organization's capacity.

I like the idea of the charity box because it can be used both in local stores and in the big companies.

1. One way to increase my organization’s amount of unrestricted gifts is to initiate digital crowdfunding.

2. It will publicize my organization and attract donations.

Good idea. Though, I would have preferred that you clarify what you mean by fund-drive activities.

I think one way my organisation can increase fundraising is through unrestricted fundraising events like Dinner, and also focusing on membership fees. This will help to build the capacity of the organisation's team.

One way to increase my organization's amount in unrestricted funds would to organize some sort of events. Such event would be mostly in the entertainment arena - such as beauty pageant or sporting events where donors will be invited at a very reasonable cost. The idea is to have a series of pageants and come up the grand final where the winners from the previous pageants will compete for the final crown. The organization will look for sponsors, patrons and the cost for the ticket will be affordable to attract small donors.

We will also be cognizant of the cost of organizing the pageant so that most of the fund from the pageant does not account for expenses. I believe by starting and successfully carrying out this activities in improve my organization's capacity in the areas of planning, reaching out to stakeholders, event planning amongst other important organizational skills.

In increasing my organisation unrestricted fund, we would work more on gather membership. Therefore this can help in increasing our work scale too.

My organization could increase its fundraising piramidal bottom making a better plan with fun anual activities for our community’s members. Additionally, to have a wide marketing diffusion will help us for getting more small donors. We could be better recognized and getting bigger donors.

That’s wonderful, when people feel a ‘material’ income, they might be more open to become frequent donors.
Doesn’t matter if the ‘material’ income is something random. The most important is what it means.

I think one way i can increase our organizational fundraising for unrestricted funds is through organizing fundraising events such as Diners and
Movie show and fund-drive activities.

My organization focuses on grants almost 100% of the time, which is good but it is all directed to our programs, and we need unrestricted money to keep the organization itself alive. I think that organizing fundraising events would probably help us raising more unrestricted gifts. Those events are good also because they can help us make other people to get to know us and what we do. They are a good way to make networking and prospect individual donors too.

I think that is an amazing idea! People tend to go to fundraising events because they are usually fun, but that's a great way to get people to know more about your organization and also to prospect individual donors.

I agree with everyone, I think the success of fundraising is to plan an unrestricted fundraising campaign as it allows us to cover minor expenses that many donors are not interested in such as staff salaries.

There are two types of support unrestricted and restricted support
unrestricted support are grants or donations nonprofits organization gets to use or spend any ways in the interest of the organization (paying electricity bills}
restricted support these are grants or donations given to the organization with a specific purpose in a specific period of time should the specific period of time elapse without the found being utilized you have to return the found or ask for extension. government grant is restricted if you can not start using it before the time period for it to be used.

Getting more restricted fund for a project I propose to include financial literacy, self protection through karate and natural nutrition, menta and physical health education in most African schools especially in my locale is Simply by reaching out to parents of wards and alumni in those schools.

This would effectively build my organization capacity when the mission is completed to thrive to extend our scope from my locale to other parts of the city

This is very revolutionary in its approach and foresee your good intentions . Only like minded persons would align with what you've said because it is people oriented both for donors and the project proposed.

To build on how to gain gain more grant through resource mobilization

To build on how to gain more grant through Resource mobilization

It can help my organization in having more projects and training of staffs for capacity building

We could increase our amount of unrestricted gifts by engaging more with the community we operate in.
This would help our organization by being able to plan long term and not being always focus on raising money.

Exactly. Admin costs are not appealing for many donours so it's nice to have healthy unrestricted donations to be able to cover that.

I will definitely convince our Board of Directors to establish a fundraising event(s) for our organisation to raise funds. I have in mind "Theatre for Development" that is both entertaining and helps our organisation to achieve our mission as well.

Choosing to raise funds from the corporate sector has potential to build the capacity of our organisation in terms of extending our people network. Our organisation is looking to expand our membership base as well as identify new board members. My recommendation to our Board of Directors is that the new members should be the kind we can use for fundraising - facilitate door opening, etc.

Yes, the funds collected from membership fees can be used for staff development. My experience working for a membership organisation, is that in some cases the membership fees were needed for administrating membership related issues - member meetings, etc.

I agree. I will be recommending establishment of a fundraising event for our organisation. One where we have done the math that the net income is worth it.

Each board members should have their skin in the game. They must start the donations first and encourage their friends, relatives & others for donations.

One way my organization can get unrestricted funds is by organizing dinner event to do a fundraising. The funds can be collected by selling food, drinks and other cultural artefacts in the event.

The one way of raising unrestricted fund for my organization at Keeping It Real (KIR) Foundation is by hosting event and stewardship of the attendees to convert them into long term ongoing donors.

Nice!
What are the steps one need to take to organize such event?

Does it mean you will have to sell the food at an unusual rate not below a certain amount?

Thanks for organizing this course

Hold events like donor gatherings. Ask each person to bring one person who could be a prospect. Include the board.

We would like to organize special fundraising campaighn for that type of support. Also, we will organize Charity Dinners for those who support our organization.

1- I THINK UNRESTRICTED FUNDS CAN BECOME EASY THIS DAYS BY CLASHES AND CONFLICT STATES ORG CAN MAKE GIFTS FROM FUNDERS BY A NEW IDEA THAT DEPENDS ON WAR EFFECTS NOT WHAT HAPPENED DURING WAR.

2-MORE UNRESRICTED FUNDS FOR SURE IT MEANS MORE FREEDOM TO IMPLEMENT AND INCREASE EMPLOYEES AT MY FOUNDATION.

Nice idea

One pf the way is I think increasing the visibility, to more acceptable for Unrestricted fund?

It's not always true, but I think in some cases, it's OK

Work on the branding, more effective!

We an increase unrestricted funds by enticing donors with an engaging call to action, praising donors for unrestricted funds as well as always saying thank you and maintaining a healthy strong relationship.
This will help build our organization capacity as we are thinking strategically and promoting the importance of living out our mission and the donors contribution.

Thank you

We can increase the amount of unrestricted gifts by utilizing the relationships of our current donor base including our churches - networking. Church visits can create more exposure to individual donors.

1- I THINK UNRESTRICTED FUNDS CAN BECOME EASY THIS DAYS BY CLASHES AND CONFLICT STATES ORG CAN MAKE GIFTS FROM FUNDERS BY A NEW IDEA THAT DEPENDS ON WAR EFFECTS NOT WHAT HAPPENED DURING WAR.

2-MORE UNRESRICTED FUNDS FOR SURE IT MEANS MORE FREEDOM TO IMPLEMENT AND INCREASE EMPLOYEES AT MY FOUNDATION.

I feel the best is to engage in several events that will help donors be aware of the activities we do and try to exchange services with the donors in turn out organization will be able to generate several funds