One of the best ways to help a charity is by making people aware. This can promote additional donations from others at a later date. Spreading awareness of a cause is the same principle as advertising for a product or service. It makes others aware of the charity potentially increasing its income later on. There are a multitude of ways you can promote a charity without requiring a large investment on your part.
Social Media Challenges
Many people may have heard or participated in the “ALS Ice Bucket Challenge.” This was not only engaging and fun across social media, but it helped the ALS Association accumulate millions in donations. As most social sites are free to use, the expense to yourself for challenging others may be nominal.
Pot-Luck Neighborhood Barbecue
A pot-luck barbecue can attract a lot of people to any home or park. If the pot-luck has a theme for the charity, this can spread awareness quickly throughout your community. At the same time, make a collection box available for anyone willing to donate to the cause. At any rate, it’s an excellent way to meet the neighbors while informing them about the charity itself.
Blogging
Setting up a blog for the charity of your choice is relatively easy. Not only does this give you a platform to share with those you’ve spoken to, but it may help create awareness of your cause on the Internet. In fact, you can take it a step further and monetize the site with ads and affiliates to help drive additional revenue for the charity.
Online Video
Ask supporters if you can interview them for online video services such as YouTube. This can help you develop content for your blog as well as reach out to others on the world wide web. Remember, video content online is one of the most effective forms of marketing.
Give-Aways
While you might have to be careful when conducting give-aways in your location because of legal issues, it can still be fun to hand out small trinkets and goodies. Some establishments “sell” baked goods for a cause priced at what ever someone wants to donate. For example, A plate of cookies can be anything from $5 to $100 depending on how generous the recipient is.
Friendly Competition
There are many ways you can help put together a friendly competition for charity. From bowling to golfing, it’s easy to rally support of the local community when proceeds of those events are put into the needs of the less fortunate. Pitting one business against another can have a similar effect as watching professional sports as some customers may be partial to one company over another.
Many successful business owners, such as Bob Parsons, put money back into programs that help and inspire others to achieve greatness. Whether you own a business or not, you can still do a great deal to help those that are in need. The best part is you can feel the sense of pride and accomplishment of helping those organizations achieve their goals.