The 5 Ps of Successful Fundraising to Sponsor a Child’s Education

Give Haiti Hope 5 Ps from Sammy Davis on Vimeo.

Guest post by Sammy Davis, age 24, founder/owner Sammy Davis Vintage

I work and live in New York City as a curator and stylist of vintage clothing for women through my company, Sammy Davis Vintage. My passion is fashion because I believe that style can be achieved with substance. Maybe that’s through buying eco-friendly vintage clothing as an alternative to mass produced fast fashion. Or on April 18th in New York City, when I host a “Vintage for Haiti” benefit sale to raise money to send a girl to school in Haiti, it can be by making the conscious decision to invest in clothing that supports a greater cause.

The cause I’ve chosen to shed light on is how we can help children go to school in Haiti. For only $200 a year, I’m sponsoring a high school student’s education through proceeds from my sale. For $100, I can sponsor an elementary student’s education.

$200 is the mere cost of 20 (cheap!) Big Apple lunches. By leveraging my company’s brand and network to fundraise through my clothing, I’m giving Haiti the powerful tools it needs to grow its impoverished economy and improve quality of life.

In a few weeks, I’ll welcome supporters and friends looking for one-of-a-kind styles to refresh their spring and summer wardrobes. I’m promoting the event as a benefit sale and hosting it at a friend’s spacious apartment on a Sunday afternoon. Thanks to the generosity of local businesses, attendees can enjoy complimentary wine and cupcakes and win door prizes, while they shop and socialize.

What I’m doing is no different than planning a seasonal sale for my brand or planning a party and inviting all of my friends to attend. The cost for me is little, and by organizing an event of this nature, I’m reaching a new customer base and creating a positive energy around my brand. By helping others, I’m growing Sammy Davis Vintage: Kindness truly is karma.

Organizing this sale has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my career as a fashion company! You too can take your passion and translate it into a platform that adds value to human life through education.

Here I breakdown the five “P’s” components of organizing your own benefit event or sale, plus a few tips on how to leverage your passion toward a greater good.

PASSIONATE PRODUCT: If you could do one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be? Playing the piano? Running? Baking? Sewing? Reading?

Take your passion – the one thing you love and do naturally well – and present it to family and friends as a means to drive donations through either a) an entertainment-based event or b) sale of a product.

Anything from baking cupcakes and selling them at a church or school function, to participating in a 10K road race and requesting donations from friends and family through a site like First Giving, are easy ways to apply what you know and promote it to the people who you know.

PITCH: Brainstorm an easy pitch name to your event. I dubbed mine “Vintage for Haiti” because I’m selling vintage clothes to raise money to help a teen girl go to school in Haiti. Keep pitch names to a few words and key phrases.

Write a list of adjectives and nouns describing your event and try different combinations to see what phrase clicks – remember that the name will be the most talked about part of your event, seen in email subject lines, Facebook event listings, social media outreach, and of course, spoken via word-of-mouth!

PROMISE: Your event or sale of a product should promise a donation to your network of participants. For my sale, I’m promising to donate $200 of proceeds to the Haiti Outreach Program. I could have promised 20% of proceeds, or $2 from every purchase. Find a value that works for your passion or product, and attract participants with that promise.

PRODUCTION: While your passion may be a one-man (or woman!) show, the production around it doesn’t necessarily have to be. I recruited three of my friends to help organize my sale. Outsource the skills you don’t have to friends excited and inspired by your energy. Plus, in today’s busy world, it can be difficult to find time to gab with a friend on the phone. Use this project as a way to reconnect with old friends and to meet new ones, too.

PROMOTE: The easiest promotional tools are at your fingertips – literally! Use your keyboard as the main vehicle for spreading the word. Social media tools like Facebook reach friends and acquaintances with just a few clicks. Create an event where you can message attendees multiple updates and instructions on how to participate.

I’ve found that Facebook is the easiest method of promotion because you can directly connect with our network. To reach a greater range of people who you don’t know personally, create a flyer and mass email it to a few of your friends requesting that they do the same to their friends, family, work colleagues, etc. Include your contact information on the flyer so that new supporters can reach you with questions.

Craigslist, Meetup.com, and even the bulletin board at your church or local recreational center can pull from a range of social networks interested in experiencing your passion for a positive cause.

Want further insight on how I organized a benefit sale for the Haiti Outreach Program? Email me with any questions and we can brainstorm ideas on how you can model my platform using your own passion!!