Here’s some promotional ideas for Non Profit organizations to use for outreach, fundraisers, branding and much more!  For examples of specific products referenced, just click on the links, visit www.bnoticed.com or call 877.300.5005.

Fundraising with Custom Playing Cards

Playing cards can be customized on both the back and face of the card making them a great fundraising tool. Best yet, supporters will be reminded of your organization or event each time they use the cards for some time to come. 

• Put the logo of your non profit organization, school or college on the back of a deck of cards.  If you’re promoting an event, place the logo of the event on the card.  This fundraising idea is particularly great for a “Casino Night” themed event!
• “Sell” sponsors the right to place their logo on the face of each card. While pricing varies depending on the specific type of cards selected, the sponsorship  fees can be tailored to cover the set up costs to print the cards and yeild a surplus of funds for the non-profit.  (Note: These funds also provide some “insurance” to cover costs of printing in the event that you don’t sell as many cards as you anticipated thereby limiting risk.) Pricing could also be set up to allow sponsors to purchase a single card for a set fee or multiple cards (e.g. all Ace’s, all Hearts, etc.) for a slightly discounted fee. 
• Sell the cards to supporters, members of the community and event participants for an additional profit.  Again, the specific price will depend on the cards selected, but pricing could reasonably yield a 100% return especially for higher quantities.
• Ask Retail Business sponsors to sell the cards as well!

There are a variety of customized playing cards available with varying packaging options as well.  For more information, visit www.bnoticed.com or contact us at 877.300.5005!

Incorporate Custom Lapel Pin Collections to Support Non Profit’s Objectives

People like to collect stuff!  Think about those imprinted glasses that fast food restaurants sell or those cute little baby figurines.  At the Olympics, participants and spectators trade lapel pins in an effort to collect as many of the different pins as possible.  And, then there’s the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts with those badges! 

Why not incorporate the enthusiasm for collections into your non-proifit activities? 

There are a variety of opportunities to leverage custom lapel pins to support a non profit organizations goals and objectives. For example: 

• For organizations needing a large number of volunteers, consider giving volunteers an annual lapel pin which they can collect from year to year to demonstrate their years of service to the organizations cause. 
• If you need more time from volunteers, consider giving out special lapel pins to those who volunteer a specific number of hours per year. 
• Acknowledge donors with lapel pins annually or for specific campaigns (or both).  Consider awarding different style pins based on the donation level, like the gold, silver and bronze type of approach.
• Sell event specific lapel pins for key non profit events such as fundraising auctions, walks/runs, etc.  This can be especially helpful with annual events since it may encourage supporters to participate each year to continue their lapel pin collection.

Another great thing about lapel pins is that it enables your supporters to show their support by wearing their pins.  This can not only encourage them to continue their support but also increase visibility of your organization and cause to their friends, family and coworkers!

One of the keys to pursuing any ”collection” campaign is to ensure each item in the collection is unique.  Be sure to ensure your lapel pin designs vary from one event to the next (or from year to year).  If designs look too much alike, it will not encourage the same level of enthusiasm for a collectoin.  In addition to a unique design, consider some of the innovative pins available like the bobble head lapel pinspictured above.  If an event has a theme, incorporate the theme into the lapel pin design (e.g. put dice on a lapel pin commemorating a Casino Night Fundraiser).  Even if it’s just in words, pins should identify the specific event or year that they’re associated with so that participants will be able to know which pins that they have and which they are missing! 

Pins can be distributed attached to a custom post card that provides information about the event or organization.  This can be helpful when recruiting new supporters or volunteers.  However, consider providing lapel pins in a lapel pin gift boxto yield a higher perceived value especially when using to raise funds or as an award. 

Visit www.bnoticed.com for a complete selection of custom lapel pins available or call us at 877.300.5005.

Using Custom Calendars as Tools for Non Profits

Custom calendars can be great tools for non profit organizations for both outreach as well as as a fundraiser.  Why?

They’re in demand.  Let’s face it, even in the day of the Blackberry, ipad and Outlook, people still like to have a calendar to use. 

They’re highly visible.  Calendars typically get some of the prime real estate at home and at the office.  At home, they’re often hanging right on the refrigerator and at the office they’re on the wall above the desk or sitting right on the desk.

They last for a year, sometimes longer.  Unlike post cards and mailers, calendars are around for a long time.  Whether its a 12 month or 18 month calendar, that’s a lot of visibility for a non profit organization (or any organization).

They’re budget-able.  There are a wide range of calendars available at varying price points.  Too, the more you buy, the less expensive they are.  So, there’s very likely a calendar within just about any non profit organizations budget.

They can be highly customized:  

• There are calendars available which can have custom photos for the cover or each month.  Non profits might feature photos of their facility, employees, volunteers or benefactors.  It’s a great way to give supporters greater insight to the non profit and their cause.
• Options exist to customize the individual calendar date blocks.  For non profit organizations that plan major events in advance each year and/or hold routine events each month or quarter, this can be a great tool to ensure supporters, clients and sponsors know what dates are important to the non profit.    
• There are some very innovative calendars that make for great gifts.  Like the calendar shown above, some calendars can be personalized with each individual recipient’s name as well as the non profit’s logo.   These unique calendars can be great to recognize key sponsors or as an incentive for donors to meet a reward threshold.  

While most people think of calendars as a new year item, most custom calendars can be designed to start at any month desired. 

TIP:  Many manufacturers offer special pricing for calendars ordered early, even if they’re not delivered until later in the year.  Often, ordering by August will help ensure the best price for the next year’s calendars.

To more information about custom calendars, visit www.bnoticed.com or call us at 877.300.5005.

Non Profit Gift Wrap Can Raise Funds and Recognition

Custom gift wrap featuring a non profit’s logo can not only be a great fundraiser for the holidays but can also help to raise awareness of the non profit and it’s mission.  By creating custom designed wrapping paper featuring the non profit’s logo and selling to business and individual sponsors, non profit organizations can raise funds while also getting exposure to more businesses and individuals associated with their current sponsors.  Businesses benefit by demonstrating to their support of a worthy cause to their clients, employees and associates.

Consider creating multiple custom designs including a clean simple design suitable to more conservative businesses as well as more festive and colorful designs which might be better suited for personal use.  Non profit organizations serving children might even consider utilizing design concepts developed by their client’s artwork.  They might even hold a contest to further engage the children in participating. 

Custom Coins Can Be Great Tools for Non Profits

As an alternative to lapel pins, custom coinscan be used by non profits to help meet the organizations objectives.  From rewarding volunteers to generating revenue through sale of coins commemorating key events, customized coins are great collectors items that supporters, volunteers and sponsors will keep for years to come. 

See our posting for Lapel Pins for further insight applicable to customized coins as well.

Custom Chocolate That Makes A Difference

Whether it’s for Valentine’s Day, Easter or Christmas, non profit organizations can take lessons from school’s chocolate bar sales drives.  Offering supporters chocolate gift boxesfeaturing the non profit’s logo can be a great way to raise funds while enabling supporters the opportunity to show their support of your cause while delivering colleagues, friends and family with a holiday favorite. 

In addition to chocolate boxes and boxes made of chocolate, non profits can choose from a variety of custom boxed food gifts including boxed candy, boxed nuts and gift baskets!

Raise Funds with a Photography Competition and Auction

For a relatively easy fund raiser, why not engage your volunteers and supporters to participate in a photography competition that culminates in an auction of framed copies of the best submissions!  It’s a pretty straight forward fundraiser with limited expenses:

• Choose a theme for the contest.  It might involve something specific to the non profit organizations mission or the community it serves.
• Determine a prize amount for the winning submission (or submissions).  Solicit supporters to cover winning fee as well as potential honorable mention gifts.
• Define and document guidelines for submission of photos.  To keep it simple, organizations might request all submissions be in a digital format submitted by email to a specific email address.  Include specifications on file size as well as identification of submittors names and contact information.  Be sure that the email service has adequate capacity for submissions.  Also, take into consideration guidelines for photographic releases if pictures include people. Consider how the submissions will be judged.  To involve without overwhelming sponsors or board members, consider using a panel to filter submissions to a final number of candidates that are then either voted on via Internet or by a selected body or specialist.
• Prepare a Press Release and contact local media including news papers and television stations for publicity, solicit submissions and gain exposure for your non profit organization and cause.  Include in news letters and email blasts to current supporters.
• Allow participants ample time to take their pictures and select their submission(s).  If the theme involves photographs of the non profit related services or events, be sure to schedule accordingly. 
• Collect and judge submissions.  A low cost method to allow voting on submissions would be to utilize a social media site such as Facebook.  Pictures could be loaded to a special album on the non profit’s business page for voting by anyone or be limited by creating a group page that requires prior approved access.  Votes can be tabulated by the number of “Like’s” recorded for each photo.
• Select the top photos for auction and obtain hard copy prints in 8X10, 11 X17 or other frame-able sizes. 
• Obtain customized picture framesfeaturing the non profit’s logo to display and accompany the auctioned photos.  The customized frames add to the perceived value of the photograph while also helping to optimize the appearance of the photo.  Consider matting photographs to further enhance their perceived value .  Matting can be done with a little practice by volunteers with the simple use of a matting tool.
• Hold an auction displaying the top candidates and announcing the winner.  This could be combined with a wine & cheese type event or a cash bar.  Many local bars and restaurants will provide space for such events to gain exposure as well as to support a worth cause.
• Cap off the event with a follow on press release announcing the winner.  You might even consider utilizing the winning photograph in organization literature, newsletters and/or displaying copies in the organizations facility. 

Colorful Outreach for Kids

Non Profit Organizations seeking to outreach to children and families should consider some of the many educational coloring books available.  Even when parents may be reluctant to pick up literature or information, these coloring books will likely catch their eye (maybe with some help) and they’ll be bringing on home for the little ones.  With a variety of educational topics, these coloring books are great to not only entertain children but also to inform them (and their parents).  Add in a box of promotional crayons, and they’ll be all set.    Here are just a few of the topics available in these promotional coloring books:

• Asthma
• Eye care
• Recycling
• Fire safety
• Eating healthy
• Buckling up in the car
• Say no to drugs
• Natural disaster safety
• Dental care
• Water conservation
• Crime prevention
• Stress and conflict
• Volunteering

And many more topics!

Coloring books and crayons are not only great for outreach but can be effectively used to help entertain children when providing services to their parents and care givers. 

It’s even possible to create your own custom coloring book which could be a great fundraiser as well as outreach tool.  Of course, fully customized coloring books typically will require large order quantities. 

Raise Funds and Holiday Spirits with Customized and Custom Ornaments

There are a variety of ornaments available which can be customized with a non profit’s logo or event logo as well as fully custom ornaments designed to an organizations specifications.  In both cases, ornaments can make great holiday fundraisers for non profit organizations.

To limit risk, non profit organizations might take orders for the ornaments in advance to avoid over purchasing.  Even with pre-orders, it’s still a good idea to include some extras for last minute purchases since some supporters will likely be inspired to purchase the ornaments once they see them.  To encourage pre-orders, organizations could offer a discounted prices for advanced orders as well.

TIP:  Many holiday ornaments, especially fully custom ornaments, have longer lead times compared to other promotional products.  These lead times can increase the closer it gets to the holidays.  To avoid disappointment, it’s a good idea to order early (generally by late summer or early fall).

Custom Wall Plaques and Clocks are Key Tools for Non Profits

Custom wall plaques are not only a great way to recognize key donors and volunteers but they’re also integral to capital campaigns. 

It’s important to recognize key donors and volunteers for their contributions and efforts.  Providing them with a customized plaque is a great way to express appreciation. 

In addition, custom plaques can be an important tool to support construction or remodeling of a facility, non profit organizations will often sell sponsorship opportunities for various rooms and areas of the facility.  Custom plaques can be displayed within each room or at the entry of the rooms to identify the sponsor of each area for years to come.

Custom wall clocks are a great alternative to plaques for dedication of rooms and faciliites.  Not only do they provide recognition of sponsorship but meet a functional need of the facility.  

Of course, there’s nothing that says that sponsorships have to be limited to new facilities.  Why not use annual sponsorships to support annual operating costs for a clinic room or to support furnishing office space? 

In the case of clocks and plaques, there’s a wide range of styles and option to choose from to compliment just about any decor.  Check out the selection available at www.bnoticed.com or call 877.300.5005 for more informatoin.

Outreach with Access to Your Services

When a non profit tries to outreach to low income clients and volunteers, it’s important to consider how they will gain access to your services and reach your facilities.  Even great interest and the best intentions can be stymied by transportation needs.

Consider providing promotional items which can be used to hold bus passes such as imprinted coin purses, wallets and business card cases.  If possible, include free bus passes and bus schedules. Also, consider reviewing the bus schedules with them to ensure that they know the easiest route to take noting the buses routes to your facilities.

Also, be sure to include a business card with the address, phone number and points of contact.

Fund Raising Activities as an anternative to Walks and Runs

There’s no doubt about it; Walks and Runs can be outstanding fundraising activities that can raise a good deal of funds to support worthy causes.  From walks supporting Breast Cancer Research to seeking a cure for MS, these activities are widely popular at not only raising funding but also awareness.  They’re also great for attracting participants of all ages and backgrounds by combining an activity that most can do and that serves a worthy cause.

Of course, in may locations, it seems that there’s a new Walk or Run every weekend.  Too, large walks can be an enormous undertaking with the logistical and coordination efforts involved such that they may be out of the reach for smaller organizations.

Here’s some ideas for other activities that can be employed as fundraisers in much the same way as walks but are more scalable for organizations of varying sizes and resources:

• Sand Castle Building Contest.  Organizations in coastal areas can hold a sand castle building contest in early spring and fall when beaches are less crowded.  Entry fees and sponsorship can be used to pay for prizes and generate funds for the non-profit as well as increase awareness.  Nominal admission can be charged to spectators or simply deploy some other fundraising activities like raffles for beach related prizes. Give out some imprinted beach bucket sets to participants and be amazed at what they can create! 
• Dance-A-Thon.  Taking a card from earlier times, why not revitalize the dance-a-thon concept.  Instead of closing streets and beaches, a large room for a dancefloor, a DJ (with music) and microphone are the main requirements.  Tailor the music to your target audience whether it be dancing to the oldies, square dancing on break dancing, you can help attract a specific demographic that you’re interested in reaching out to as well as raise funds for your cause. Use customized dance medals as awards for first place in each age category, best costume,etc.
• Skate-O-Rama.  With the resurgence of skating rinks in recent years, why not hold a Skating fund raiser.  Like walks, skating events can be for a specific number of laps around the rink or make it a marathon. 
• Wii Tournaments.  Wii bowling and other games continue to be popular even among seniors.  Even many cruise ships offer Wii activities these days.  Why not have a Wii bowling tournament for a easy and low cost fundraiser.  Large screen televisions can be rented in many locations or find a local sports bar to allow you to hold the tournament there. Have participants wear their favorite bowling styled shirt or sell event bowling shirts as part of the fundraiser!
• Put-Put Golf Tournament.  Just like golf tournaments can be great fundraisers, consider having a minature, or put-put, golf tournament.  If you don’t have a facility nearby that can host the event, create your own obstacle course at a local park.  Make it even more interesting as an evening event and use light-up golf balls!
• Frisbee Golf Tournament.  Popular in many locations with teens and young adults, frisbee golf is something that just about anyone can do and enjoy (even if they’re not particularly good at it).  While many cities have established frisbee golf courses, if there’s not one available, create your own at a local park using trash cans, hoola hoops or anything to create a “hole”. Give participants a logo frisbee imprinted with the name of the event and non-profit beneficiary!  Here again, add to the intrigue with a night time event using light up and glow frisbees!
• Texas Hold ‘em Tournament.  Many neighborhood bars and taverns hold regular Texas Hold ‘em Tournaments and the game continues to be a big draw at casinos.  Why not have your own charity tournament using entry fees to raise money and awarding winners sponsored prizes based on the number of custom event chips that they have remaining at the end of the event! 

Of course, don’t forget some of the other more traditional fundraising activities including:

• Golf Tournaments featuring customized event golf balls and golf trophies.
• Car Washes where you can also sell imprinted car wash kits as a complimentary fundraiser.
• Chilli (or some other) Cook-off Contest where the cooks compete for an cook-off award or prize and spectators make a donation to eat!  Sell imprinted event aprons as a complimentary fundraiser.
• Wine Tasting events at a local hosting bar, restaurant or even a supporter’s home where you sell admission tickets to raise funds.  Provide participants with an etched or imprinted wine glass to take him as a souviner.  Engage the participants by having a blind-taste test competition to see who can figure out the most number of wines from comparing tastes to a description of the wines from the label.
• Casino nights are still popular funraisers and can incorporate those custom imprinted playing cards that we showcased earlier in this blog!