How to Give Big Just like Oprah Winfrey: Make Fundraising a Community Service

After watching Oprah's Big Give, many people find themselves asking how they can "give big" or fund-raise at home. Fund-raising might not be as daunting a task as it seems. These steps will help get you started on your own fund-raising experience and celebrate a big give.

Find Someone Who Needs A Big Give:

Sadly, it is easy to find a person or family in any city or town in the U.S. that needs immediate help. Decide first where you want to focus your fund-raising efforts. If you help in an area that interests you, you are more likely to know where to get resources or contacts that can enhance the fund-raising.

For instance, if you enjoy helping animals go to your local rescue league and see what they are in desperate and immediate need of.

If you would like to help a family in need, go to the Department of Human Services in your city or county and ask if there is a family in desperate immediate need and what those needs are. Also check with the local homeless shelters.

Recruit help for a Big Give:

Who would have thought that reality TV would teach us something about charity fund-raising? Not just Oprah's Big Give, but shows such as Celebrity Apprentice have shown that even celebrities are not too proud to beg for money or services for a good cause.

The whole idea behind fund-raising is to find out where the money or services are and how to enlist those with access to become involved. It's not about what you have, but more who you know or are willing to ask - even if you don't know them.

Family and friends should be easy recruits for a day of charity work. Ask each person to ask someone that they know, and soon you will have an army of service workers. Children are never too young to learn the value of giving of themselves, so be sure to include the little ones in the fund-raising.

Fund-raising for a Big Give:

Now that you have a workforce at the ready, its time to start fund-raising. Even if you are going to do a labor intensive 'give', it's still a good idea to raise as much money as possible for the task. Money can be donated to the effort, or used to feed the workers and supplement the 'give' experience.

Cold calling for cash is not easy, especially if you have no experience in how to ask for money. There is a right way and a wrong way to fund-raise. The goal is to make it the least painful and most fulfilling for all parties involved.

Do not think that you can call a bank for charity money, though it may seem like the obvious choice. Banks are in the business of safe-guarding other people's money, not giving money away. You won't get far using this method.

Narrow down exactly what you want to accomplish with your give, then go right to the people in a position to help.

For example:

If a family is in desperate need of a car, go to a local used car lot and talk to the owner - not the manager, the owner. Explain the situation in detail and ask if there is anything that they can do to help in the fund-raising. Explain that there will be a Press Release and plenty of publicity surrounding the event. Free publicity to a small business person can be a god send, so don't go straight to the biggest company. The benefits of this method are that the giving experience already starts to affect the entire town; the family gets the help they need, and a small business owner gets a reward for caring enough to help.

If the need is cash, then it is time to call in the bigger corporations. This is where the true cold-calling comes into play. Don't feel comfortable fund-raising with strangers? Ask your list of recruits who the best salesperson is, and hand them the telephone.

The key to asking larger corporations for charitable donations is talking to the person in charge of decision making. Go back through your list of recruits to see if anyone knows someone who knows someone that can make decisions at a major company, even if the contact is outside of your state. As long as there is an outlet office in your area, the campaign will remain grassroots.

Granted there is not as much to offer a major company, but advertising costs the same for everyone and every penny counts. So hit the publicity trail hard, offer a press release in print and on the Internet, if you write articles for a blog or other Website offer to write some free promotional articles for them. Most companies want to do the right thing when it comes to fund-raising, but they have shareholders to answer to so there has to be a quid pro quo.

Once the donors are lined up:

Get on the Internet! Talk about the coming fund-raising event everywhere you go on the Web - every chat room, blog comment, and e-mail. Contact every newspaper in the state, both free and paid periodicals. Most can be contacted through e-mail, but always call to follow up.

Present the Big Give:

Actually have a presentation ceremony. The more publicity the better for everyone involved. You are not publicizing the needy family, but the help that has poured out. The ripple effects of fund-raising may surprise you, once others see that a small group of individuals can come together on their own it will happen more often.