Fundraising For Volunteers

Preface

Volunteer fundraisers are everywhere in our community.

People from all over Australia are volunteering to run fundraising events with the aim of raising much needed funds to help the worthy causes they care about.  The list of organisations that run fundraising events is quite a large one.  Groups that fundraise include sporting clubs, service clubs, church groups, health groups, education groups, scouts/girl guides, lifesavers, bowls/golf clubs, disadvantaged interest groups, disabled interest groups, industry groups and many more.  Essentially any group with a community interest will fundraise at some time.  If you participate in your community in any way it is likely that you have, or one day will, find yourself in the role of a volunteer fundraiser.

There are two types of fundraisers to be aware of.  Firstly there are the professional fundraisers who are paid either part time, full time, or on contract to raise funds for their employer who is usually a Not For Profit organisation of some sort.   These people usually have a great deal of experience across a broad range of fundraising activities.

However professional fundraisers are far outnumbered by the second type of fundraiser - the volunteer.  There are many times more volunteer fundraisers than paid fundraisers.  Volunteers are usually members of a club, committee or group of some kind although they don’t necessarily have to be.  Some may be quite experienced in fundraising but most commonly volunteers have a limited knowledge about fundraising and make up for it with motivation and enthusiasm. 

According to research undertaken by Philanthropy Australia¹, the estimated number of people in Australia aged 18 years and over who volunteer is 4,395,600, and this represents 32% of the civilian population.

The most frequent activities that volunteers undertake are; 

These figures show that 56% of all adult volunteers, or 2,461,536 people, undertake volunteering to raise funds in Australia each year.  This equates to 18% or nearly one in five of all adults in Australia that volunteer as fundraisers each year.

To put this figure into perspective let’s compare it with figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics for some other industries. 

The Retail Trade industry employs 1,211,332 people and the Manufacturing industry employs 1,010,179 people².  These are Australia’s two largest industries and combined these two industries employ just 16% of all adults in Australia.  This demonstrates just exactly how big the volunteer industry is and exactly how predominant volunteer fundraising is in our country.

With all these people involved in fundraising, you may be tempted to think that volunteer fundraisers would be well supported with plenty of information and advice in a very mature industry.  Well hardly!  Because the nature of volunteering means that there is no payment for the work done, volunteers often find themselves working for organisations that have an obligation to strictly contain costs.  This leads to the situation where volunteers are often not provided with the training or support that a paid staff member in a commercial organisation might receive.

Volunteer fundraisers are usually very committed to the cause and are willing to make substantial efforts to help.  However they also often report that they need more support and guidance in order to become more effective with their fundraising activities.  They want to be more effective so they can raise more money for their cause.

This book provides volunteers with the knowledge that can turn novice fundraisers into confident fundraisers with the ability to turn a vague fundraising idea into an organisational and financial success.

It contains information which will help experienced volunteer fundraisers improve their current fundraising events and find new fundraising events which could provide exciting new income streams for their organisation. 

Everybody who reads this book will broaden their knowledge and experience with fundraising activities.