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6 problems we found with fundraising packs and how we solve them in FundraizingHero.

2021-04-14 | Fundraising

As part of our research, we looked extensively at fundraising packs supplied by charities and subsequently organised a few activities to make use of the pack materials supplied to discover first-hand what it’s like to be a DIY fundraiser.

Here is what we discovered:

Our first observation was the delay between ordering the pack and receiving it by post. For example, when ordering a pack for our Coffee Morning our motivation was high, we submitted our request and were thinking about the cakes and biscuits we could serve with the coffee and where we would host it and what day.

The pack arrived 11 days after that, we had moved on to other things so after having a rummage through the pack to see what was included, we put it to one side until we have time or urgency to do something with it, it now seemed more a chore as our motivation had wavered over the 11 days waiting for the pack.

We pulled out the poster included and entered what, when and where as indicated on the poster, there was immense pressure in doing this as there is no redo, If we spell something wrong, write too big so we can’t fit it on or too small that the text can’t be read.

Then we had the dilemma of where to best place the poster for the most attendance we only had the one poster we had to make it count.

The other thing that struck us about the poster was the genericness of it, it didn’t shout Coffee Morning other than the words handwritten on it by us, it was designed so that it can be used for multiple activities a ‘one size fits all!’.

It also dawned on us that the charity had no idea what we were up to, yes, we had registered for a fundraising pack, but we now had confirmed the what, when and where, they didn’t know when to expect our funds, was our activity a week away, a month away, was it even going ahead. They were completely in the dark.

On the day of our coffee morning, we decorated the table, we added cake flags to our cakes and bunting along the table supplied in the fundraising pack. We could have done with more cake flags and more bunting to help decorate the room and promote the charity, there was an order form in the pack to order more materials, but we didn’t expect these to arrive in time.

There were a lot of items in the pack we also didn’t use, like a sponsorship form, the charity has no idea what we did and didn’t use in their pack. Which were used which went straight into the recycle bin.

We really enjoyed hosting our coffee morning attendance was ok, some found us by accident some had seen our poster but it got us thinking...if we had more posters and got them out earlier rather than waiting for the pack to arrive could we of had more attendance and raised more funds.

So based on our findings we set out to create a fundraising pack solution to solve 6 key problems. Below are the 6 problems and our solution:

Problem 1

Problem:: Delay in receiving the pack
Our solution:: Give the DIY fundraiser their pack materials when their motivation is High, minutes after they register their activity.

Problem 2

Problem:: Only one chance to write on their materials
Our solution:: Allow them to edit text on their material so they don’t feel the pressure to get it right first time.

Problem 3

Problem:: Packs contain materials that might not get used creating waste
Our solution:: Reduce waste by allowing them to download and print the materials they need.

Problem 4

Problem:: They are limited to the number of items in the pack, 8 cake flags, 1 poster for example
Our solution:: They can print as many posters, cake flags and other materials as they need to promote and decorate their activity.

Problem 5

Problem:: Most charities have one pack so the materials used are quite generic so they can be used for all activity types.
Our solution:: Materials are relevant to the activity taking place, if it’s a coffee morning the bunting, poster, and other materials feature a coffee illustration.

Problem 6

Problem:: After the pack has been sent to the fundraiser the charity is not aware of how or what is being used from it.
Our solution:: Give the charity visibility of what has been written on the materials and what materials have been downloaded.

FundraizingHero's Fundraising Pack Creator solves each of these 6 problems and because the DIY fundraiser gets the materials they need easily and quickly we believe it also minimises the risk of them DIYing their own poster and other materials. Click here to find out how it works

Fundraising Packs, Coffee Morning

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