I've raised money lots of different ways, through appeal letters, grants, sponsorships, and more. I can tell you that raising money through making bracelets isn't going to go very far.
You could certainly ask restaurants to set aside a day where you could get a percentage of the proceeds, but probably they won't say yes unless you also have a lot of good marketing. And they want the tax writeoff too, so unless you've got a 501 c 3 number, that route may not work for you.
In terms of personal fundraising,
Don't go the kickstarter route because if you don't raise all of the money you set out to raise, you don't get ANY of the money.
There's Indiegogo, they will give you whatever money you raise. here's a indiegogo campaign to help a 17 year old girl's cancer medical bills.
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/cancer...
then there's GoFundme, this particular website might be of interest to you, here's a fundraising campaign to help a child's medical expenses: http://www.gofundme.com/2f7hhs
There are other sites too, like Humantribeproject.com, FundRazr.com, and GiveForward.com.
Here's an article about different options for raising money for medical costs, from USAToday
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/natio...
Good luck for your fundraising for your friend!
Mazarine
Author, The Wild Woman's Guide to Fundraising
http://wildwomanfundraising.com
There are a lot of fundraising ideas on the internet but one way would be asking people to donate to help raise funds for the cause.
Another possibility is selling Rada Cutlery - 100% Made in the USA kitchen items. Your group works directly with the factory and will earn 40% profit for you to use for your dance. Your supporters will appreciate buying useful items at great prices.
These kitchen items (kitchen knives, utensils, gift sets as well as stoneware, quick mixes, soy wax candles and recipe books) are great for teachers, friends, families, and neighbors.
Also, face to face sales is often the best because no one wants to say no to young people who have a good cause - like yourself.
You can find more information at http://www.radacutlery.com/blog/rada-cut...
I hope this helps and good luck!
FYI - Rada Mfg. Co. has been helping groups fundraise since 1948 and last year helped over 19,000 schools, churches, clubs, and youth groups raise money.
I would use FunderHut as a crowdfunding platform. They are focused on community and dedicated to causes like this. Unlike other crowdfunding sites, you can keep the money even if you don't reach the desired amount. Since they are a start up company, you can receive a lot of personal press from their Twitter, Facebook, and blog accounts.
Crowdfunding reaches a much more diverse and wide spread population than traditional fundraising does. I think it would really help your campaign to start a profile on FunderHut.
I hope everything works out for you!
I applaud your compassion and desire to help, never lose that. Unfortunately it is not as easy as "just selling something" or "fundraising".
To do it properly A non-profit business entity needs to be set up within your state. From there depending on the standards your state requires, you may need to also set up with the IRS, or set up a bank account for the organization, set principals and board members, along with bylaws that may need to be public information along with public notices in the local papers. Some states may even require that the accounting be certified annually. you will want to contact your county and state to get the specifics (it might be called setting up a business entity, non profit business entity, corporation, non profit corp, or limited liability corp)
From there you do need to make sure taxes are paid and the proper insurance/licenses are in place to protect yourself from litigation.
I would suggest instead, you take a collection from some close friends, purchase/make a card and give her the money under the intention that she do/get something special for herself.
After getting some bad medical news about one of our friends, another friend and I decided to start raising funds to help his family with the expenses. We've never done this on our own before and aren't sure how to start, but here are some of our ideas:
-A blog or website (inexpensive to start up, please) where we can have a Paypal or other secure way to get donations, maybe with incentives (like a kickstarter?)
-Selling bracelets or something on Etsy
-Local outreach―besides the typical bake sales and asking for donations, we'd be interested in asking a local restaurant or business to set aside a day or a few hours where part of the proceeds would go to our cause
Have any of you reading this used any of these methods for fundraising before, and can you offer any advice based on your experiences? As of now, we're not even sure how to start, so any help would be appreciated! Also, I'm 18, but the girl working with me and the person we're raising money for are both underage, so please keep legal/privacy issues in mind!
Thank you so much!
