This blog post was contributed by the staff at Edco, one of ACDA’s partners in online fundraising. In it they share information about their product.
Profile of a choir director:
This year I need to scrape together over $20,000 for travel expenses, new music, and uniforms/risers/music folders and I know about half of that is going to come from fundraising that I spearhead. I’m going to have to organize three or four fundraisers this year alone, just like I did last year and like I’m going to do next year. I just get so frustrated dealing with all the paperwork and keeping track of the money… and forget about trying to motivate my choir members to participate! It’s a huge challenge.
Well, I have to figure out how we’re going to raise all that money so… should we sell products? We did that last year, but that only reaches so far. I remember half my choir came to me saying that their out-of-town relatives wanted to help, but couldn’t buy the candy we were selling. Maybe we can host a restaurant night, but on top of everything else I have to do, I don’t have time to organize an event. I wish there was an easier way to fundraise.
Does this sound familiar? We surveyed the entire ACDA membership and learned a lot about choirs’ fundraising efforts and the above describes an average choir director’s experience. Seems overwhelming, right? Well, don’t worry. Edco can help you raise that $20,000.
Edco is an online fundraising platform designed for K12 education and engineered to address the most frustrating parts of fundraising. According to the survey, an overwhelming majority of choir directors are frustrated by dealing with paperwork/money and getting choir members to do their part. Edco addresses these issues by automatically keeping track of everything for you – funds raised, days left in the fundraiser, who donated, when, and which team member each donation was attributed to. We also provide tools (email templates, press release copy, etc.) and guides (Goal Setting: What You Need To Know, Maximize Your Earnings With Online Fundraising, and more) to jumpstart your fundraiser. And just imagine how relieved your choir members will be when they find out that they won’t be selling another product to their friends and family. Instead, all they need to do is spend a couple minutes creating an Edco account and uploading the names and emails of people who would be willing to donate directly to the choir. Fundraising online with Edco means you’re going to be spending less time organizing and running a fundraiser, and raise more money.
The continued use and growth of online fundraising is assured since people have discovered that it is less of a hassle than traditional fundraisers and yields better results. Our survey results indicate that about 20% of current non-users showed interest in online fundraising in the future. Projections show that usage of online fundraising will increase up to 46% – largely driven by the interest shown amongst non-users.
Choirs that don’t use Edco are leaving money on the table by not extending the reach of their campaign. You can set up your own Edco fundraiser in less than five minutes. Don’t be one of those choirs – use Edco.