Hey everyone. It is me, Lisa. I’m welcome back to another episode of the other 99%. Today, I wanted to chat with you about fundraising during the holiday season. So think about it, the gift that keeps on giving. So think of ways that you can work your business, maybe pair up with people or work with people to host events where you can, you know, give back to a group or organization that’s within your community during the holiday seasons. There’s so many people in need right now. It’s really a great way to use your business for good. So in this episode, I’m gonna give you a few different options that I can think of on how you could possibly incorporate a fundraising component into your day-to-day business.

So first I’m gonna talk about holiday gift giving fundraising events. So…Think of approaching places like local schools, maybe animal shelters, maybe non-for-profit organizations within your area and see if they have any upcoming events that you might be able to get a table at. They might be looking for a small fee to do that, but you can also let them know that you’re willing to donate a portion of your proceeds from all sales that day to the organization or cause. So when you go to these events, I think that you need to go with a few things in mind. You need to have items that are Christmas themed or holiday themed. You maybe think about having things bundled up in collections that might be good for, you know, gifts for teachers, gifts for neighbours, maybe, you know, gifts for colleagues at work, something that is a lower that people are going to be willing to pick up on the spot, have them nicely packaged so that these people, they’re coming there, they can cross people off of their holiday shopping list and there’s no other thought needed. Plus they’re going to be feeling better spending money with you knowing that a portion of their purchase is going back to the cause that they’re supporting anyway. So think about that and approaching, I mean, I can think of a ton of different locations that you can talk to. And especially this time of year, there’s gonna be a ton of different events happening.

Even like those events that are happening, I know that I’ve done this in the past when you get invited to do a vendor event at a local school or something like that, or a local church. I always have items on the table that are part of a fundraising effort. So if some of those items sell at the event, I always give the church or the school and the organization that I’m dealing with those funds as well on top of my table cost. And what that does, it just puts you in their good books. Let’s face it. It’s like they’re usually really shocked that you’re bringing them extra money after you’ve already paid for your table and they appreciate it and they’ll remember you the next time they have an event because they know that you’re willing to help them raise funds for their effort.

All right, so the next one that I wanna talk to you about is sponsoring a family campaign. Now I heard this referred to in many different ways. The one that I remember all the time is like, buy one, give one. So think about this, for example, like something with Epicure, you could have like a collection that you’re featuring for say the month of November. And when your customers and your VIPs and people are purchasing these collections, you might say, are you interested in gifting one of these collections as well? That would be an additional X number of dollars on your purchase and these items are going to be donated to XYZ cause. So a lot of people are willing to just add that extra money knowing that their purchase is gonna go to help a family in need in the community. And it’s a feel good campaign. It just makes people happy to be able to support those who are less fortunate than them.

Next thing, if you’re hosting events anyway, why not put a little twist on them during the holiday? So think about doing, and these could be virtual events or in-person events. And when you’re hosting these events, maybe pair up with a host that is interested in helping you raise money for a certain event or a organization or a cause in your area. And I will say in your area When you’re raising funds for local charities, people are more inclined to help you out. So, you know, I would probably not have as good a luck in my area if I was raising funds for, you know, a food bank that was in a different province or a different country, because the people in my area, they wanna support locally, they wanna help people in. the local area. So if you’re working with a host, think about having them pick a cause that’s within their area that they know that their friends, family will support. And then you could just have it where there might be one specific collection where your commission is getting donated to the cause. You might do the full, any sales that come in are donated to the cause. I have currently have an event going where I basically just open a shopping link and this has been running for, I think this is the fourth year now. And I work with this organization every year and they just call me up. They want a link set up and then I offer a portion of my commission to their cause fundraiser collection as well. So we actually run a catalog party and a that fundraiser collection at the same time. And the organization that the organizers, they do all the work and all they do is they send me the sales, I give them a portion of my commission. And then I help them raise funds that way.

But what it does, it helps me meet new people. It puts my name out there, letting people know that I’m willing to do things like this. So it just helps me get out into the community. And I love the fact that it’s bringing new people into my funnel. And I get to meet all these amazing people. And the great thing about offering the two different types of fundraisers with Epicure is when I offer the catalog fundraiser, they can share this with anyone that they know from coast to coast. So it might not be somebody who’s local to me, that I like, I might be being introduced to somebody who might be in say, Nova Scotia. And it’s somebody that I would never have met if it weren’t for this fundraiser. So think about adding the fundraising twist to events. You might even want to reach out to your, your customers and potential hosts and ask them if anybody would be interested in partnering with you during the holiday season to raise funds for a cause that’s near and dear to their heart. You never know because people are gonna be more inclined to host when they know that there’s something in it for others, not just something in it for them, especially around the holiday season.

This next one I wanted to talk to you about because it’s a big opportunity during the holiday season especially when you put the fundraising twist to it and many people don’t think of it. I mean, I know people who have made a lot of money by offering corporate gifting. So what does that mean? We have a ton of businesses in our areas and then we could approach them because we know that almost every business gives like a holiday gift to their employees. So depending on what your company offers, you might be able to put a collection of items together and then just approach companies and say, you know, who takes care of your holiday gifting? Would you be interested in me showing you a few collections that I have available? If you use your company host rewards, if they have like company paid host rewards, you might be able to give them more collections than what they actually have to pay for because if they buy say $10, $25 collections that unlocks another collection for free. So you might be able to help them out that way. But then what I also do is offer to give a portion of my commission to local charity on their behalf. Now that could be anything. It could be anything 10, 20%, it all depends on how much commission you actually make and how much commission you are able to donate. Because let’s face it, we’re all in this business to make money, not lose money. And if all you can give is 5% of your commission, that’s better than nothing. So approach it that way. But the one thing that I will say that if you do approach companies like this, make sure that you have it all laid out in writing, maybe have the collections already done up so that you can show the person that’s taking care of the gifting, what these items will look like when they’re presented to their employees. It’s just gonna give you a better approach. People are, you’re gonna come across as looking more professional, and usually you’re gonna end up being more successful if you go in and you’re confident about what you have to offer.

And then the last thing I want to talk about is subscription boxes. So if your company has a subscription box, think about it as this way, like, you know, offer up, who do you know that could use 12 months of gifts or something like this and say, well, it would cost you this over the, you know, the 12 month period. The great thing is you don’t have to put the money up front, it’s going to come out of your credit card on a monthly basis for 12 months. You could stop it at any time. So if you only want it to do a one, two, three months subscription, that’s not a problem. You control it all in your back office or all in your account. I should say not your back office. And, um, you show them how to control that. And so take for Epicure, for example, we have the Epic box.

Now, if I had somebody who wanted to do the Epic Box subscription as a gift for someone, what I would do because they would most likely be purchasing it in the month of December, possibly November for a December delivery, but typically in December. But the Epic Box isn’t going to arrive at their home in time for Christmas. It will arrive the first couple weeks of January. So what I would typically do is have a nice maybe postcard or card or letter made up with details about the subscription and what they plan on doing and what they will get. And you know, with the Epic Box, you know, for every box that’s sold, seven box or seven meals are donated to families in need. So I would make sure that they knew that this gift was not only giving their family good meals, but it’s helping those in the community who are less fortunate. So there’s just so many different ways that you could do that. But like, I could think of like something like color street with your color street box and think about like a young lady who likes to do their nails, thinking receiving a box like that every month, they would just be, it’s like Christmas all over again, every month it arrives. It’s like, oh my God, look at this.

So think about things outside of the box. Don’t always just think about gifts to put under the tree on December 25th, if that’s when they’re celebrating. But there’s so many other ways to give gifts during the holiday season. And people are usually more inclined to give when they know that there’s charities involved as well. So I hope this little talk has helped you pique some interest in one of these areas and helps you grow your business through the holiday season. I would love to hear from you and hear if you’ve done any fundraisers or if you picked up any of these tips and ran with them. I’d love to know the outcome, but I want to thank you so much for joining me again on another episode of The Another 99%. And we will look forward to seeing you next week. Take care.