How many of you find it tricky or
uncomfortable asking your parents for money- may it be for rent/ food/ uni
fees/ new car?
If you are nodding your heads, I’m sure you
can imagine that asking someone you do not know for money would be even more
awkward!
Interning at Relay for Life Fremantle (RFL),
a not-for-profit organisation, budget was limited, therefore I had to approach
local Fremantle cafes to garner vouchers for a competition I had developed.
Where’s DOUGAL?
Where’s Dougal is a competition that
involved Cancer Council’s teddy bear, Dougal, who has gained a few
kilos over winter, hoping to lose some weight and get healthy before RFL, by
hunting down Freo’s healthiest cafes! The aim of the competition was to get
RFL’s social media followers to guess where Dougal is in order to win a voucher
to the café!
However, in order to successfully
facilitate the competition, COMMUNITY SUPPORT was vital!
Here are some TIPS of
‘How to approach 3rd parties for vouchers.’
1.
DO YOUR RESEARCH
· What organisation?
· How is aligns with your
organisation?
· Opening hours, contact
information
2.
PREPARE A BROCHURE/
INFO PACK
· Create a 1 page brochure/ info
sheet about your organisation
· Include competition details
· Why you? Why not? What you will
get? What we will need?
3.
PRACTICE YOUR PITCH
BEFORE APPROCHING THEM
· For those of you who are not a
fan of public speaking, rehearse what you will say to the manager prior to
approaching them in order to sound confident and enthusiastic.
4.
WALK IN WITH A SMILE :)
· Take a deep breath before entering
the store
· Don’t overthink it, it’s not as
scary as you think!
· From my experience, the local
cafes were more than happy to be involved with RFL, some even donating generous
vouchers!
5.
FOLLOW UP WITH A THANK
YOU EMAIL/ MENTION ON SOCIAL MEDIA
· It is important to build the
relationships between the organisation and the community as these relationships
may be beneficial in the future not only for the organisation but potentially
for yourself!
· Remember to provide them with
recognition for their support eg. through social media tags
More to come,
Chermaine Leo
xx
2 comments:
Hi Chermaine,
Thank you for posting this as I am actually currently facing the problem of raising funds myself. I am interning for a PR Consultancy and one of our clients is a Non Government/Non Profit organization.
They have basically a non existent budget and I liked your post because you had an interesting idea that can help with the money situation.
Your post tells me I too need to try and think outside the norm of what fund raising activity is expected to be and come up with more creative ideas and solutions.
Thanks for the advice and I wish you luck with the rest of your internship!
Ramsha
Hello Chermaine,
It is an interesting post of yours sharing these useful tips and information on how to request for sponsorship from other corporation. One of my work task in Grand Palace Hotel was similar to yours as well, and I found it really challenging at first. The more the number of times doing the relevant work task, you will be used to it and at last could respond freely. Practice makes perfect.
Best of luck in the future.
With regards,
Sim Chiew Hui
Curtin University, Sarawak Campus
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