Online e-commerce has come to be big business today, as consumers have come to accept the fact that technology has made it safe to buy online. While the shopping malls aren't going to close their doors, a large percentage of Americans buy at least one or two things online every year, and the amount of commerce being conducted in cyberspace amounts to the billions of dollars. Besides the fact that it's safe, it has also become popular simply because of the convenience factor. It's easy to comparison shop, and it's easy to place an order without having to leave home.

 

Your organization can take advantage of this trend with an online fundraiser. One of the biggest advantages to the online fundraiser is that it becomes possible, and very easy, to provide an abundance of information. A person who comes to your web site can have access to as little or as much information as they want to read, but it's up to you to make sure that it's all there for them.

As you do make all of your information available online, keep track of the traffic each page on your site gets, so you can optimize your site design accordingly. If an important page isn't getting much traffic, it may be that it's too hard to find, and you need to make the link to it more prominent.

 

The "lazy man's way" to online fundraising is just to create a web site that describes your organization and your mission, and then asks people to make an online donation. You can do this through online payment systems like PayPal. And although there are plenty of organizations that do this, don't expect to get a lot of donations this way. The simple online donation box is just one avenue, but definitely should not be the only one.

 

Rather than simply asking for funds, you may want to enter into the world of online e-commerce. Traditional fund-raising initiatives often revolve around selling a product, such as candy, household goods, or tickets to an event. You can easily do the same thing online.

You probably have a mailing list of everybody in your community and all of your supporters, and if you don't, you should have. That mailing list should also include email addresses.

 

Take advantage of email by using it as a quick and easy way to get the word out about special events and needs that you have. Combine the Internet with your day-to-day fundraising, by sending out emails to your mailing list, letting them know that you have candy (or whatever product you're selling to raise money) available.

 

Be sure to include something relevant in the subject line, so recipients won't mistake your email for spam and delete it before reading it.

In addition to email, you can set up a complete e-commerce web site. It's a lot easier than you may realize, and there are a lot of templates available that allow a relative beginner to set one up in less than a day.

 

You can make this a permanent sales center, and you don't even have to store the products. Companies called drop-shippers will take the orders and ship the products for you. By dealing with drop-shippers and other wholesale distributors, you can put together an online catalog of dozens of different items, and you can even rotate the items or change them for the holidays.

Of course, you can't just create a web site and expect the money to start rolling in. You have to let people know that it's there. You'll use the same methods of publicizing your online sale, that you would use for any other sale: Take advantage of any newsletter you may have access to, phone tree, public announcement, or take-home flier. 

 

But beyond that, you can expand your fundraiser to a much broader, even national audience by making sure that your web site is attractive, offers something useful at a competitive price, and is listed with all of the major search engines. Let's say for example that you sell compact fluorescent light bulbs on your fundraising web site.

Make sure that your web site's meta tag (a type of invisible tag that is meant to be read by search engines) includes keywords that relate to fluorescent light bulbs, so somebody halfway across the country that wants to buy one will have a chance of finding your site.

Also, make sure that you list your site with the search engines. Google, Yahoo and MSN all have simple methods for making sure you are listed, and it's free. It doesn't happen immediately, but ultimately, your web site may be able to bring needed funds in from all over the world.