First observation: fundraising is hard work!
Second observation: it's especially hard when you're trying to get contributions from cash-strapped students (well, uduh, I know).

Our goal was to raise $4,500 (which we publicized as $14,500 in the media) and we ended up raising about $6,000--nothing spectacular, but not bad considering how disorganized we were, how little we knew about the whole process, and the fact that two of our main fundraising events had to be cancelled.

All the funds we raised were split between The Fair Opportunities Group (FOG), a small Canadian NGO with projects in Nicaragua, and Escuela de Espanol Pop Wuj, a Guatemalan Spanish and social work school. More specifically, the funds went directly to FOG's Education Bursary Fund and Pop Wuj's Scholarship Fund to help make education more accessible to students in Central America.

The work we did to raise money can be categorized into the following areas:

• Presentations to organizations;
• Media promotions;
• Flyers and brochures; and
• Fundraising events.

General stuff we learned include the fact that talking with the media is great for making yourself more credible to the public, but that more personal and direct contact does a lot more; fundraising events are great for raising awareness and touching people you normally wouldn't reach, but they're a LOT of hard work; organizations love good PR and politicians crave attention; and delegate what you can in your fundraising, but keep involved in the details--you're likely the one with the most passion and personal stake in what's going on.

Good luck.

This page authored by Sarah Kamal on July 19, 1999.