Fundraising Tips

Hopefully most of you have begun your fundraising by now. If not, get started!

IT'S EASY!

See below for Fundraising Tips and instructions on how to deposit your money.

Appealing for Donations

The most important component of an effective appeal for contributions is your own excitement and enthusiasm about the event and its mission.  

Your donors will give for many of the same reasons that you decided to partipate: the charitable cause of providing music education to children who cannot otherwise afford it, the grass-roots nature of the fundraising drive, and, most importantly, because of their relationship with you.

There are many great selling points for this event on our Beneficiary and Performers pages.  It will be to your advantage to read over those carefully so that you can answer questions your contributors may have.
 

Writing Letters

Writing personal letters or emails to your friends and family is perhaps one of the most effective (and easiest) ways to bring in the cash.  

To help you out, we have created a sample fundraising letter that you can send to potential donors.  (Download the letter here: .doc or .pdf)  You should alter the wording as you see fit to make it more personal.

People who are likely to contribute include: your immediate and extended family; your close friends; your past music teachers, high school teachers, and your musical friends from high school; members of your religious community; even your vast Facebook friends list.

Remember: it's easy to raise $100 with lots of small donations.  Reach out to anyone and everyone who you think might be interested.  No donation is too small!

Donating Online

Send your donors over to our Donations Page, which has a link to our PayPal account.  The direct link is: http://www.musicmarathonconcert.org/donate.php

Facebook

We've created a Facebook Event which you can send to your friends. We encourage you to use this for small dollar donations. On the Event page we have linked to our website and our PayPal account.

Here's the link: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=105299382845815

Things to Know

Your donors can pay with cash or check (payable to Northwestern University), or they can donate online using PayPal.  

All donations are tax-deductible, and we will be able to provide receipts to those donors who request them.

Depositing Your Money

If your friends/family send you checks or cash, you can deposit those donations in both Regenstein (Rose Lavigne's office 224) or MAB (Ian Hookaway's office 112).

Go to one of those locations, fill out a deposit slip and seal your $$ with the slip inside one of the supplied envelopes. Be sure to write your name on the outside of the envelope, too!

Sample Deposit Slip