Fundraising

Fundraising

Andeos Guide To Raising Money To Finance Your Trip Abroad

Several students who have participated in our programs have been successful at raising additional funds to finance their trip abroad, or even the entire amount, by asking for help from their family, friends and community. Here are some ideas to consider when preparing a fundraising campaign.

Why?

To best prepare your “pitch”, put yourself in the position of the person you are soliciting. They will be asking themselves questions like:

Is this a worthwhile cause? Why?
How will I benefit from giving this person a contribution?
Why does this person want to go abroad? Is this trip “necessary”?
What will the benefit be to the community if this person goes abroad?
Has this person been prudent in choosing an exchange program? Why this program and not another?
What will this person do with their experience in the long run?

Who?

Think about who you want to solicit. What kinds of people would be interested in what you are doing, and willing to contribute?

Who shares your interest in foreign language and culture?
Are there businesses in your area that generally support the schools and/or educational goals?
What about people that you or your family do regular business with?
What about your parents’ contacts, employers, clubs?
Do you have relatives or family friends who support your educational goals?
Are there clubs or organizations that would support your goals? For example, a German Club or a French Club?
Are there international firms in your area? For example, the Portland Corporation Freightliner is owned by Mercedes Benz from Germany, are there Japanese firms in the area, etc.
Some businesses, organizations, or clubs just love a “cause”. Find out who they are and how you can become their “cause.”
Your local library is a great resource! Ask the librarian for help to find appropriate clubs, organizations and businesses. Talk to everyone and tell them what you are trying to do. If they cannot help you, do they know of anyone, or any organization, which might?

The Proposal

After you have thought about these questions and decided whom you want to solicit, you need to prepare a proposal. You may want to adapt the proposal for presenting to different people, but it should always be organized, neatly written and spelled properly. Present your proposal in person (if possible) and dress neatly. Be positive and enthusiastic!

What to include in your proposal:

The Program – Describe it and include a brochure. We’ll be happy to give you extras.
Your Goals – What are your personal goals for the trip and how do you hope to benefit from it in the future?
Financial Need – Prepare a budget of the costs. How much money have you personally saved? How have you earned/saved it? How much will your parents be contributing? How much do you need to raise to make up the difference?
The Why – Here is where you need to incorporate what you thought about earlier, coming from the standpoint of the contributor. Also, what kind of volunteer or community service work have you done? Church, school, scouts, etc? What are your scholastic achievements? Leadership roles, your GPA, club memberships, awards, sports? Show that you are the type of person who takes advantage of opportunities and makes the best of them. What might you be able to bring back to the community? A slide show for community groups, increased global awareness, understanding of other cultures?
Other – A letter of recommendation from your language teacher or language/international club advisor is sure to impress people. Is there anything else unique to your situation? Many people, especially businesses, get lots of solicitations, so make yours stand out!

How Much?

Generally, people will give contributions of $10 to $50. In certain cases, you may want to suggest a donation of $10 to $25 so that an individual or small business feels like it is an amount they can handle. People will react much differently if they know you would appreciate $10, than if they wonder if you are expecting $100. Think about what is appropriate in each case.

What about something other than money that they can donate? This could be either things you will be needing for your trip (suitcase, film, gifts for your host family, writing paper), or things to help you raise money (gifts to raffle, cookies for a bake sale). Make lists of everything you will need to do or buy before you leave, mark the ones that cost money, and think of someone who could help you out.

No! Maybe?

Be prepared for no. Be polite about it and don’t take it personally. If you never ask, then no one has the opportunity to say YES. You have to go through a certain number of NO’s to get to a YES. Just think of each NO as one step closer to a YES!

Also be prepared for a MAYBE. Have some information (i.e. a copy of your proposal) that you can leave with them if they want to take more time to go over it. Ask them when you should get back to them and make a note of it so you don’t forget. It may be appropriate to follow up with a note to them thanking them for their consideration and confirming when you will be in touch with them again. Then, get in touch with them again, exactly when agreed upon!

Yes!

Also be prepared for YES! Sometimes when you have been through so many NO’s, you are caught off guard with a YES! Give them an enthusiastic THANK YOU on the spot. Have some nice stationery or thank you cards on hand so that you can respond quickly with a note to them expressing your appreciation. Be sure to keep a record of all your contributors, both large and small, and their addresses so that you can either send them a postcard from abroad, or a note about your trip when you return. You don’t want them to feel like their money went into a black hole. If you have promised to make any presentations upon your return from overseas, be sure to follow through promptly.

A Few More Considerations

Ask people for referrals. Do they know of any other person or organization that might be willing to contribute? It is a great “in” to be able to say, “I got your name from so-and-so. They said you might be interested…”

Ask teachers or club advisors for fundraising ideas. Especially if you can get together a group of students who are trying to raise money for trips abroad, you may be able to have a fund raising activity together and split the money.

Get creative! Brainstorm with your friends, family, or teachers and see what you can come up with. Raffles, returnable-bottle drives, barbeques, car washes, and school club scholarships have all been effective for raising funds.

One creative student raised several hundred dollars by having a garage sale. In addition to cleaning out her own closet, she asked everyone she knew to donate all the things they were going to give to charity to her instead, and she was able to put on a big sale. She also had a big barbeque where she raffled off gifts that were donated (t-shirts, rounds of golf, restaurant meals.) She even got some businesses to donate the food for the barbeque!

If it looks like you may come up short on raising the money, you may want to think about places where you could get a loan. Often grandparents or other relatives are willing to give you a low cost loan that can be paid back after you return home.

Sound Like A Lot of Work?

It is! But the energy that you put into this project will come back to you in the form of experience, increased confidence, exposure in the community, and the satisfaction of knowing that you can put out the effort and get what you want, AND A TRIP ABROAD.

Currently Andeo has no scholarship program. We have low program fees so that the program can be affordable to most people, rather than charging a higher fee and offering limited scholarships.

We would be happy to help you in your efforts. Obviously, we believe very strongly in the benefits of going abroad. If you would like to give our name to anyone who wants to know more about the program, we would be happy to talk to them. We will provide you with as many brochures about our program as you need and, as always, will be happy to answer any questions you may have. Just give us a call at
503-274-1776 (Portland) or 1-800-274-6007 (outside Portland).

We think that if you take the previous suggestions into consideration, prepare yourself well, have lots of persistence and enthusiasm, you will be successful.

PS - Please let us know how you do with your solicitations. What was the most successful method? Least successful? What other suggestions, advice or words of wisdom can you pass along to help other students trying the same thing?

Good luck! Viel Glück! Buena Suerte! Bonne chance! Ganbatte!

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