Raising Money for an Organization You Meet While Traveling

Last month, a friend from Montreal wrote to me for suggestions on how to raise money for an organization she had come across several years ago in Peru. She was about to return to the country and wanted to bring good news in the form of a micro-philanthropy campaign that would support the organization's community projects.

The only problem: she didn’t know anything about micro-philanthropy.

Below are my suggestions to her. I’m posting them here as a resources to anyone thinking of raising money and support for an inspiring organization they meet while traveling...

FIRST, you will need materials:

Digital pictures of the group at work, preferably from this trip
Video footage of your trip
An interview with the founder and a few interviews with the people involved. You can translate and put subtitles on these materials later in the campaign.
Footage of the group’s workspace and the community where they are based.
Ask the people you're visiting to state their needs in their own words. If you can get the group to write a “fundraising letter/solicitation” explaining their situation, then you’ll be in good shape. If you can get them to read it to you (and record it), then you're micro-philanthropy campaign will be smoking.
Facts and figures about the region/issue you’re focusing on

All of these materials will help give your micro-philanthropy campaign its proper voice -- in the end, the campaign will appear created by and for the organization in question. You will be the messenger and nothing more.

SECOND, you need to think about what the fundraiser will accomplish:

How much are you trying to raise?
Who are you trying to get involved?
How will you deliver the funds?
Where will the money go once it’s collected?
What will the donations make possible?

These are questions that potential donors will want answers to. If you can anticipate as many questions as possible, and provide comprehensive answers, then you're more likely to gain the trust needed to get more people to donate. Posting an FAQ will help in soliciting donations from the extended network of your friends and family, and from the people who come across your campaign by chance.

THIRD, you need to pick the right combination of social action platforms and tools.

For now, all you need to know is that you're going to use a combination of 'social action platforms and tools' to spread word about the fundraiser and receive donations. You can explain to the staff at the nonprofit that you're going to use new online tools to make the micro-philanthropy campaign spread to people who have never heard of the organization.

Also, you can assure them that you'll provide the exact names of the tools and platforms that you plan to use before the campaign is launched. Some of these platforms will be commercial. Some will be strictly nonprofit. It's important that the staff members at the organization know how their message is getting out. This will keep them in the loop and also give them the possibility of using these tools on their own to reach donors at some point in the future.

Raising money for an international organization is not easy. Most social action platforms are geared to U.S.-based nonprofits. As a result, you have two main options:

GiveMeaning is a social action platform based in Canada that can help you find an official organization through which to pass the funds. This will help produce the tax-receipts for 'donors' who want them.
ChipIn is a tool that will permit you to raise money with a specific fundraising goal in mind and receive donations through a PayPal account. In other words, you wouldn't have to worry about finding an organization to distribute the funds. If you use ChipIn, you can simply transfer the money from PayPal to a bank account or make periodic distributions from PayPal to the organization via PayPal. A third payment method would be to transfer the money from PayPal to yourself and then write a check and mail it.

GiveMeaning and ChipIn on their own won't produce the desired result. You'll want to enlist a range of social media tools and social networking sites to fully disseminate the message. Basically, there are a few things you'll want to do:

Create a Flickr account with photos of the group and your trip
Invite your friends to donate by email
Invite your friends to invite their friends
Thank people who contribute as soon as they donate
List the campaign on Change.org as a “change”
Perhaps start a blog for your fundraiser
Perhaps create a Facebook group for the organization.
Definitely compile the video footage into an actual online video that people can send around through YouTube
Update the website of the organization (if they have one).
And the list goes on.