Any nonprofit owner or community organizer knows that fundraising can be a real hassle.  First there’s all the planning, then there’s bugging people to come, and in the end, if your initial costs outweigh your profits your fundraiser was a total bust.

There are a lot of ways to fund raise money and they range from mundane to exotic.  There’s the direct method of soliciting donations via phone calls, emails or websites like KickStarter.  This is a rather difficult method because you need lots of friends with spare money who are really into your cause.  Of course, there are also the old tried-and-true upstart methods like car washes and bake sales.  These have minimal cost but also result in minimal return.  Finally, there are fundraising events which take a lot of work to plan, but can be successful if implemented properly.  We’ve all seen (and probably attended) fundraising events, whether it be a 5K or a cocktail party.  They can be fun, but they can also be dry and dull.

So, how do you keep the fun in fundraising?  To start, know what your target audience is into.  If most of your supporters are over the age of 65, a Saturday morning brunch with light musical entertainment might be just the thing.  But if your supporters are twenty-somethings with limited cash, you might have to get a little more creative to get them out of the house and into supporting you.  You get the idea.  If your organizations is all about marine life, think about how you can blend that theme in for aquatic lovers.  If they are health buffs, maybe you can plan a road race or fun or host a nutritional cooking class.  Entice them to be excited for your event so they’re not left thinking “it’s just another thing to do”.

At Civic Support, we’ve had quite a learning curve when it comes to fundraising.  Here are two creative fundraising events that we’ve hosted which have seen increased success as we get better at planning:

1) Brewery Tour

Craft beer is a huge up and coming thing nation-wide.  As a nonprofit that is interested in promoting localism, we felt that a tour of some small breweries would not only interest our supporters, but would also solidify our position on “support local, buy local.”  We have done two brewery tours so far in which we rented a bus and brought ticket buyers to four breweries/brew pubs where they could sample beer and learn about how it’s made.

The cost of a fundraiser like this is a bit high, but the fun everyone had both years was priceless!

2) Silent Disco

If your supporters are a fun and energetic group, there’s no better way to get a lot of attention than hosting a Silent Disco.  For this fundraiser we organized a pub crawl across Boston but here’s the catch; we were all wearing wireless headphones that were tuned into the same music.  As we danced our way across the city dozens of people stopped to ask what we were doing and what the fundraiser was for.  Not only was it a blast for all involved, it was a great way to get exposure and raise some money.  Silent Storm Sound System provided the equipment rentals at a very reasonable price.

Do you have any fun/ unique fundraiser ideas?  We’d love to hear all about it in the comments section below!

Marketing via social media has become all the rage as of late, offering virtually anyone the ability reach anyone else who is using the same platform. Twitter has been shown to have the most effective marketing platform in terms of click through rate, so it is just common sense that more and more people are using it in order to reach their audiences. With the proper manage, social media can greatly enhance your business but certain mistakes can create major problems for your company and hurt your business. Want to tackle the world of Twitter successfully as you market your business? Here are six common mistakes that are made and how you can avoid them for your own small business.

Mistake Number 1: Not Showing Your Brand Clearly
Followers know you by your brand, which makes your company unique from all the others. Your brand can be the name of your company or a term, symbol or design that’s directly related to your specific company, products or services. The most imperative thing to do is to choose something that suits your company best and then clearly brand it across all of the social networking sites. You want users to see your imagery and instantly recognize YOU.

Mistake Number 2: Being Too Pushy
Do not use social media to push your products or services. This is where you go to interact and establish a relationship with your fans. It is not the place to heavily promote your business or constantly repeat the same messages to make sure everyone knows your latest promotion. Instead, try to mention links to your website or blogs where fans can learn more if they’re interested.

Mistake Number 3: Inexperienced Staff Members
You don’t want someone without any marketing or social media skills in charge of your social media marketing. Ultimately, you are responsible for anything that goes on your site of your company. You need someone or a team of professionals with marketing experience along with an understanding of how social media sites work to avoid mistakes that could damage your reputation and your business.

Mistake Number 4: Excessive Self-Promoting
Promoting your business using Twitter and other social networking sites should be part of your marketing plan but excessive self-promoting is not good. Your first goal is to interact and build an emotional connection between your company and your supporters. No one wants to connect with a spammer. This will allow your company to miss out on the opportunity to build connections and relationships when all you use your accounts for is self-promoting.

Mistake Number 5: Ignoring Your Followers
Don’t ignore your consumers when they leave comments or feedback, even if they may leave negative comments. You need this type of information to learn more about what people like and dislike, so you know what steps to take to improve and expand your company. The point of social media is to interact with your followers in a more personal manner so ignoring your sending out an auto response defeats the purpose entirely. Get out there and engage with them, ask their opinions and interests and then listen to their responses. They are the center of your network!

Mistake Number 6: Not Being Consistent
Last but most importantly is learning to be consistent and spend some time on it every day! You want followers to see a strong company that’s organized and committed to their followers. Post regularly about a variety of topics that would be an interesting base and also use a variety of social media platforms, as well. Examples of this would be new stories, upcoming events, and promotional offers.

Avoid these mistakes with social media marketing and create a comprehensive plan that will build brand awareness and can increase the business. For more information on how to avoid social media marketing tips on Twitter visit

Twitter Marketing Mistakes To Avoid

As of now marketing your business on social media sites, such as Facebook, is one of the most powerful forms of advertisement. Facebook has over 900 million users constantly searching, posting, liking, commenting, and sharing articles and pages that are trending the social media site. There are many benefits of running a Facebook page for your business such as little to no cost to use it and can spread your company’s name to countless numbers of users. Running a Facebook page can generate a massive amount of potential clientele if it is correctly used. If you ever find your page stagnant and wonder what should be your next step for you and your page, use this as a guideline or checklist to make sure you are staying away from these common mistakes.

Incomplete Information Page

If your page is incomplete and information isn’t easily accessible you should take time to look at your page through a customer’s point of view. For example make sure you have all your contact information in plain sight. That includes phone numbers, email accounts, addresses, URL addresses, and the business mission statement.

Over posting/Under posting

A couple major mistakes that are a must to avoid are over and under posting. With over posting of content, regardless of how helpful the posts maybe, customers might be turned off to your post and consider them spam, especially if the content is irrelevant to what your company strives for. That doesn’t mean don’t be afraid to post because under posting, in my opinion, is a bigger mistake to avoid. If you fall to under posting potential customers will forget about your page or believe that you page isn’t as official as say your competitors.

Too much Text in Posts

When posting an article or a page your actual writing in it should be around 2-3 sentences that pulls the reader into the article, thus letting the article speak and talk for itself. Also another key tip is to have a photo with each post. Pictures will forever speak 1000 words. People mostly spend their time scrolling down their news feed on Facebook and that a post with a paragraph worth of information in it the user will feel more compelled to keep scrolling down, thinking that it will take too much time to read. This is why those first 2-3 sentences are crucial.

Focusing too much on Likes

Acquiring likes is very good thing to have none the less but shares and comments are what you should be shooting for. A like just stays at a like on your page and might bring in more customers if you have enough, but a share or comment causes interactions with multiple individuals. If someone shares your post, your post can now be viewed by all of that person’s friends, thus getting your post seen by more people and your business’s name out there.

Not Following Facebook’s Guidelines

Facebook has restrictions on certain things that you can and can’t do. For example is the material you put in your cover photo. It is restricted, by Facebook, to have any sales, contact information, telling others to join, and having links in the photo.

Not utilizing Facebook’s AD Section

Facebook can be very accommodating when it comes to pricing an advertisement and displaying it to your ideal target market. Facebook has packages on how much you’d like to pay either per day, per week, and per month. Not all business have it in their budget to have a Facebook sponsored advertisement but for those who utilize it during big sales week can make a good profit by it rather than not using it all.