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Donating cars to charities is something that has been done for well over a decade now, but it is still not as widely popular as it ideally should be. By donating a car to charity, you are doing something genuinely kind, something that will make a positive difference to those in need. So long as a car is roadworthy, or just a little repair work away from being so, then it can be donated to charity. A car that is of little or no value to you can really make a big difference to the lives of those less fortunate than yourself. Different charitable organizations do different things when you donate your car to charity, but there are three main options that will generally be available to the charity when a car is donated - all have substantial benefits. Auctioning off the car and investing the profits into the development of their programs is one option. This is generally the preferred way of dealing with donated cars as charities always need more hard cash. Auction houses generally waive their fees for donated cars, and buyers are willing to pay a little extra, and so the final amount that goes to charity would be significantly more than they would get if you auctioned off the car yourself and just gave the money to a charity. Other charities will use the cars donated to them for their members to perform charitable work, such as taking old or disabled members of the community out. Although the car may be old and not in pristine condition, as long as it runs and can get a person from point A to point B without any problems, it can provide a lifeline to someone who has a serious mobility issue. The third option, which is generally only used if the car is beyond repair, is to pass it onto a car recycling scheme. This involves stripping a car of its valuable parts, and then selling them off, and selling the remaining shell of the car to a junkyard. A fair amount of money can be made from doing this, and you can be sure that, as it is a charitable organization involved, all the buyers will be as generous as possible. When you donate car to charity, you can always ask the organization what they plan on doing with the vehicle. Most groups will be happy to tell you all the details of what they will do and how your donation will benefit others. If you do not care for their plans, you can always find a different organization to donate your car to. So, should you happen to have a car that you feel you can do without, and you would like to make a real, positive difference to the lives of some people that are in need of a car, and would greatly appreciate it, then please put a little time and effort into donating your car to charity. Next : Donate Car To Charity |
Posts Tagged ‘charities’
Charitable Donations - How Your Old Car Can Help Others
Wednesday, January 6th, 2010Consider The National Lotto As A Legitimate Charity Funding Idea
Tuesday, June 30th, 2009| Scentsy | Flameless Candles | Wickless Candles |
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Unfortunately many charities fail to benefit from donations from the National lottery, with the small charities possibly missing out the most. However, today all need not be lost, as a different method of setting up a lottery funding project is now available. Since 2005 some of the Premier League football clubs have been utilising this method to raise funds for parts of their business. Usually the money raised is used to fund the youth development side of the business where recruitment and coaching of new, up and coming players can be financed. Charities are also now beginning to realise the potential of this new lottery fund raising idea, mainly because now they can offer their supporters real value for money rather than relying on them to contribute out of the goodness of their own hearts. Twenty million people already enjoy playing the lottery in the UK, but now by clubbing together and still making a donation to their favoured charity, they can play with a much better chance of winning when compared to buying a single ticket. Count up the number of supporters in your club or organisation. What is the result? Whatever the number, multiply it by four and that is the potential number of pounds (GBP) that your charity could be benefiting by on a regular basis. A kind of charity funding on autopilot. Below is a brief review of how it works. Supporters join either a UK National Lotto syndicate or a Euro Millions lottery syndicate from your own unique lottery website with the charity name of your choice at the top. From here they can play for as long as they like, with at least one guaranteed matching number in every draw, for just five pounds a week, of which one pound goes to your charity by way of commission. All winnings are divided equally between the syndicate members and distributed to members after each draw. No commission whatsoever is taken from winnings and the whole process is completed automatically online so that all the charity has to do, is to promote their website. The company operating this unique International lottery system have been in business since 2002 and make no charge for registering your charity, club or organisation. They are also members of the UK Lotteries Council, which oversees lottery organisations within the United Kingdom. About the Author:
The author Peter Moore, has been involved with the eLottery organisation since 2004 and can be contacted on +44 (0)79 63827153.
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Nurturing Your eBay Customer Base
Saturday, June 20th, 2009| Scentsy | Flameless Candles | Wickless Candles |
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The overwhelming majority of members who buy things on eBay are customers. But as any successful eBay seller knows, they aren’t just buyers. You must remember that the customer is king, the key to maintaining a great feedback rating, and the key to repeat business that can keep an eBay fundraising effort afloat. Cultivating ongoing relationships with satisfied customers is the key to ongoing business. To those who sell on eBay to benefit charity causes, customers are even more special: they are donors as well as buyers. They’re people who keep you going and make your activities possible. As anyone who has participated in one of eBay’s community forums can tell you, the internet is a wonderful place to develop close relationships with individuals who share a common goal or interest, in other words, develop relationships with a wide online community. On eBay and the web, caring for and nurturing donors is as important as it is in the offline world. eBay gives you several options to maintain good relations with other members. The most important is eBay’s well-known feedback system, which rewards trustworthiness and punishes dishonesty. You can also volunteer information that helps your donors providing them with the URLs of web sites they might like to visit, on eBay or elsewhere, or answering questions on the message boards. At the very least, you’ll gain the respect of your donors by responding quickly to e-mail inquiries, and making payment and shipping easy. It’s all about helping people to do the right thing. Customer Support If you’re affiliated with a charity, you already know about growing your donor base. It boils down to being nice to your donors: inviting them, nurturing them, thanking them, and giving them special access and possibly other perks. On the web (and by extension, on eBay), looking after donors is the same as providing a high-Ievel of customer service. But customer service on the Web is different than in other venues. Nonprofits, like other organizations that sell on eBay or online, need to take into account the special way online consumers behave. In the traditional offline world, customer service is a matter of answering questions and solving problems with orders. Customer service representatives make themselves available to field questions and problems as they arise. Customer service on the internet isn’t a matter of publishing a phone number or e-mail address and waiting for consumers to send you questions. Such basics are important, but it’s more a matter of making information easily available to consumers. The customer is in charge on the web, not the seller. Customers choose to view your items for sale or visit your web site; they choose to make a bid or a donation, or go elsewhere with their money. Many eBay sellers who receive questions from prospective bidders answer those questions quickly. But they go a step further, also. They also publish the questions and answers as additions to their sales descriptions. This reduces the number of similar questions you receive, which saves you some work; it also raises the level of customer service you provide, which makes prospective bidders more likely to purchase from you. When you receive a question from a prospective buyer through eBay’s message system, you have the option of simply responding to the buyer privately, or adding the question and your response to the body of your sales description. About the Author:
Goldstar Stationery is a great source of ideas for fundraising and fundraising ideas. For a variety of different and easy to manage school fundraising ideas visit http:/www.goldstar.net.au today.
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Growing Your eBay Donor Base
Friday, June 19th, 2009| Scentsy | Flameless Candles | Wickless Candles |
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The vast majority of members who buy things on eBay are customers. But as any successful eBay businessperson knows, they aren’t just customers. You must remember that the customer is king, the key to maintaining a perfect feedback rating, and the key to repeat business that can keep an eBay fundraising effort afloat. Cultivating ongoing relationships with satisfied customers is the key to ongoing business. To those who sell on eBay to benefit nonprofit causes, customers are even more special: they are donors as well as buyers. They’re people who keep you going and make your activities possible. As anyone who has participated in one of eBay’s community forums can tell you, the internet is a wonderful place to develop close relationships with individuals who share a common goal or interest, in other words, develop relationships with a diverse online community. On eBay and the internet, caring for and nurturing donors is as important as it is in the offline world. eBay gives you several ways to maintain good relations with other members. The most important is eBay’s well-known feedback system, which rewards trustworthiness and punishes dishonesty. You can also volunteer information that helps your donors providing them with the URLs of web sites they might like to visit, on eBay or elsewhere, or answering questions on the message boards. At the very least, you’ll gain the respect of your donors by responding quickly to e-mail inquiries, and making payment and shipping easy. It’s all about helping people to do the right thing. Customer Support If you’re affiliated with a nonprofit, you already know about cultivating your donor base. It boils down to being nice to your donors: inviting them, nurturing them, rewarding them, and giving them special access and possibly other benefits. On the web (and by extension, on eBay), nurturing donors is the same as providing a high-Ievel of customer service. But customer service on the Web is different than in other venues. Nonprofits, like other organizations that sell on eBay or online, need to take into account the special way online consumers behave. In the traditional offline world, customer service is a matter of answering questions and solving problems with orders. Customer service representatives make themselves available to field questions and problems as they arise. Customer service on the web isn’t a matter of publishing a phone number or e-mail address and waiting for consumers to send you questions. Such basics are important, but it’s more a matter of making information easily available to buyers. The customer is in charge on the internet, not the seller. Customers choose to view your items for sale or visit your web site; they choose to make a bid or a donation, or go elsewhere with their money. Many eBay sellers who receive questions from prospective bidders answer those questions quickly. But they go a step further, too. They also publish the questions and answers as additions to their sales descriptions. This reduces the number of similar questions you receive, which saves your volunteers some work; it also raises the level of customer support you provide, which makes prospective bidders more likely to purchase from you. When you receive a question from a prospective buyer through eBay’s message system, you have the option of simply responding to the buyer privately, or adding the question and your response to the body of your sales description. About the Author:
Goldstar Stationery is a great source of ideas for fundraising and fundraisers. For a variety of different and easy to manage school fundraising ideas visit http:/www.goldstar.net.au today.
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Fundraising by Direct Mail
Saturday, May 30th, 2009| Scentsy | Flameless Candles | Wickless Candles |
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A direct mail campaign is often the most cost effective way to reach many donors. Sending letters also is a simple way to raise money. There is no need to recruit, train, manage and motivate a large group of volunteers. A few talented individuals can run the entire operation. And you will find you will get a lot more volunteers to fold and stuff envelopes than to cold-call potential contributors. Thats not to say all one must do is write a letter, post or e-mail it, and wait for the returns. What makes mail fundraising campaigns difficult is that they are one-sided. No allowance exists for a campaign worker to personally motivate prospects. The most enthusiastic letter simply cannot match the give-and-take between a skilled solicitor and an open-minded potential donor. Lacking aggressive salesmanship, only minimum gifts can be expected, no matter how well written the solicitation letter and enclosures may be. Heres another angle to ponder. Assume that Im a small-donation prospect with some interest in your endeavors. Theres a good chance that Ill donate generously to your appeal if you knock on my door or phone because your enthusiasm and presentation will be hard to resist. And how many other organisations will solicit me in these ways? Very few. But send me a solicitation letter and you place your request in the midst of enormous competition for my same donation dollar. And because its a letter, I have little problem withstanding its impersonal nature. If your organisation is not among my very favorites, you wont receive a contribution of any consequence. You see, although I think highly of your charity, I have a desk piled high with fundraising letters, from the best known national charities to all sorts of noteworthy sporting and local groups. I am saturated with mail appeals. After sorting through them and making my top-ranked selections, I find my charitable budget is about depleted. But I still care about your cause, so heres two bucks to show you my hearts in the right place. With these factors as a downside, mail solicitations produce highly profitable income derived from small-gifts for organizations that plan and carry out meticulous programs. However, first-class mailing programs get extremely involved, both creatively and from a marketing standpoint. There are six elements to understand before considering a direct mail campaign: 1. Fundraising by mail is an ongoing component of annual fundraising programs. In capital campaigning, letter writing is a tool for wrapping up an appeal and giving thanks. 2. Ongoing mail appeals focus equally on retaining and upgrading present contributors while discovering and cultivating new prospects to make up for donors lost to attrition and to enlarge the group of donors. Present givers wont always be an available source of funding. 3. Donors via mail dont come free. Depending on the package, to obtain a new contributor, you can spend from $1.30 to $1.60 (or more) for each initial dollar raised from that person. 4. Mail programs are long-term propositions and instant financial rewards are very rare. 5. Be clear who you designate as a donor and who you label a prospect. Donors are people currently contributing to your campaign. Someone who gave you a gift two years ago or a person who once contributed a painting to your auction are prospects, not donors. Get used to thinking of three distinct groups: current donors, past donor prospects, and new prospects. 6. Some prospects have more interest in and knowledge about your organisation than others. Cultivated potential donors are first approached because they represent the highest rate of return. For instance, a past donor prospect is a better bet to send you a new donation than someone who once came to a special event that you held. The person who came to the special event is more likely to fund you than someone who never heard of your group. In planning a full scale mail campaign, dont lose sight of the fundamental fundraising requirements. Make sure your project has compelling goals, high visibility, specific, attractive, and timely needs. Additionally, make sure your group has start-up funds on hand for what can become a relatively large investment to get the program rolling. For example, depending on the scale of your operation, you might want to engage a letter shop or mail house to provide the many functions necessary to get your direct mail package to recipients. This is an expensive proposition. Or you might opt to subscribe to an online software provider to help drive your mail program. Since the highest percentage of return comes from current contributors, they are the first group to target. If a goal is reachable by only contacting these people, expenses will be minimal and your problems will be solved. If thats not realistic, additional prospects who might fund your project would need to be reached. Thats fine so long as you realize that their percentage of return will be far less than supporters. For instance, you send a letter to current donors and perhaps 30 percent of them respond with gifts. A letter sent to brand-new potential donors typically yields responses of around 0.5 percent to 2 percent. Until youve won over a new potential giver, dont expect relatively large donations. A return of 5 percent to 12 percent can be expected from present donors. About the Author:
If your group, school or club is looking for fundraising ideas and easy fundraisers, have a look at Goldstar Gifts and Stationary’s easy to manage ideas for fundraising.
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