How to Hold An Online Fund Raiser

Holding an online Fund Raiser for the families here at Gleaning the Harvest is pretty simple. Here are a few of the ways you can host a fund raiser event for GTH and others online:

1. You can just hold a fund raiser on your blog or website and encourage others to donate. Using the ChipIn codes on the sidebar is an easy way to set that up.
2. You can host a fund raiser as a benefit/giveaway and have others donate to the families to purchase entries to the benefit gifts.
3. You can also host a fund raiser as a drive online or in real life – or both! – and collect givings yourself and donate the money to the family in your name.

In addition to hosting the fund raiser on your blog or website, you can host the event on social networks such as FaceBook. FaceBook is unique in that you can set up a Fan page and/or an event page to announce your fund raiser and to invite guests on your friends’ list. In return, they can invite their friends, and the can invite theirs… and so on.

Twitter is also a big party-type social network where you can have an online party Twitter-style. Announcing your fund raiser, using hashtags and chatting, passing on the excitement and the links to your fund raiser post/s can all be a part of a Twitter Fund Raising event. If you have prizes to pass out – door prizes or giveaways – Twitter is a great way to make those announcements and have them be a real-time giveaway event.

Regardless of whether you actually host a fund raiser on either of these sites, they are both a great way to spread the word about the fund raiser on your site to your friends.

Fund Raisers for GTH Families

Now, about the particulars of hosting a fund raiser for Gleaning the Harvest families…

We have a couple of ways we already do fund raising for the GTH families. One way is that any advertisements are paid for directly to the families. Once the advertiser has paid the fee to the family of his/her choice in form of a donation, we consider that account paid up. They choose the family they want to give to, we check, deal done.

Another similar way is that whenever Jocelyn makes and sells a template for A Pondering Heart Boutique, half of it is given by the purchaser to the GTH families of their choice. Same idea: They give to a -the families – we check, deal done.

We have an informational packet about the GTH Mission that we are getting ready for you to print off and share with your missions leaders and other groups. That information can be made available to you to share with people IRL if you choose to raise funds in that manner.

So you want to host a giveaway or benefit?

Probably the easiest way to hold a fund raiser is to just have people use the giving widgets codes and just put them onto your website or blog. This way, you can use the widgets that are already set up, and no personal info is revealed about the family on the page, such as an email or address.

Hosting a giveaway or benefit online is also pretty simple. For those who want to give away items as an incentive for others to give to GTH families, having them donate any amount or specific amounts is easily checked by GTH administration. The givings will go directly to the families, your entrants can give you info about who they gave to, and we can check it to make sure if you like.

Some ideas for how to post the giveaway:

Have entrants tell you in a comment – however many comments as the entrant has earned – who they gave to.  You could make each $5 in giving worth a comment. If they give $50, they leave 10 comments. Likewise with each comment/entry worth $10 in giving, $50 would give them 5 entries/comments.

Be sure to link to the Gleaning the Harvest site so that your readers can read more about the Mission and the lives of the families you are supporting.

You can also share a partial blurb about the families from their bio pages, with their family icons on a post, introducing them to your readers.

Make sure you contact GTH to let us know of your fund raiser or giveaway benefit so that we can do some free advertising for you through the Gleaning the Harvest site, FaceBook , Twitter and our personal blogs also.

Other Avenues of Giving and Raising Awareness – Fund Raising

We are in the process of writing up a type of Unit Study you can use as a home school family to support the families and learn about widows, fatherless and giving as you give your support to these families.

Also, if you know of a family who is in need of support, a widow in your community, do not be afraid of doing a ChipIn or donation through Paypal for them. It is really simple to set up. All you need to do either Paypal or ChipIn is an email address set up attached to a Paypal acct.

Do a Penny (dime, nickel, quarter)Drive, and collect those coins to give to one or a couple of the GTH families.

You could do an IRL fund raising drive and set up a schedule to help out the widows with different things they may need. You can involve your community, your friends, your group of Believers, anyone who desires to give. You will find ways to help widowed and single-parent families on GTH or in your own community here: How To Help A Single Mom Part 1, and also How To Help A Single Mom Part 2 by Lizzie Norris.

We hope this has been of help to you in your giving to GTH families. We know that they so greatly appreciate all your givings into their lives.

REMEMBER that YOUR passion and desire to help out the Widows and Fatherless and the heart of our Father will be shown in how you present it. Your enthusiasm will spread by how you talk about and are excited about the giving to the famili/es you choose to support!

Please be sure to email us or to add your other ideas in the comments section.

Shalom~

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