Abstract
This paper researches a fundraising event for Humanity is Key. Humanity is Key is a non-profit organization founded in 2007 to provide basic needs to abandoned kids, older adults, and the disabled. Humanity is Key also ensures that refugees and immigrants receive legal services. To provide all the services required, the stakeholders join an organizer for donations from individuals, churches, and other organizations.
This paper will also show the order of events, participants, and donors from different parts of the world. The time frame for planning and the actual date of the event will be covered. This research paper will also demonstrate how effective the current management is working with the available resources to ensure the event’s success. All strategies are put in place to ensure that the public is well informed about the event will be covered. Techniques to ensure transparency and honesty while handling the funds will also be considered.
Introduction
Most non-profit organizations aim to ensure the welfare of the less fortunate in their countries or globally. They visit underserved areas, orphanages, and homes to donate money, food, or any basic need. Most start-up charities begin with a fundraising plan, while others are big business organizations that come together to start another organization to help the less fortunate. Economically stable countries are few globally, which means there are still many people out there who need help.
Refugees, immigrants, orphans, the disabled, children, and the old are major charity cases worldwide. Non-profit organizations ensure that refugees receive legal services to guarantee their comfortable stay in their new countries. When more funds are required, stakeholders come together and plan how to raise the money through fundraising. They look for individual donors’ businesses and create public awareness for people to offer support. The success of the event is determined by how well the fundraising is planned.
Humanity is Key Mission
Humanity is Key was mainly founded to minimize the misery of a deficiency of basic needs among people. The foundation tries to eliminate all the forces that can lead to human beings lacking basic needs and teach people how to survive with the available resources. They have started several homes for orphans, the old, and the disabled. The organization has offices in rural areas where they can get information on any person or family that needs help. It started as a small charity start-up, but it has opened more organizations in five different countries with the same mission in mind.
On the other hand, Humanity is Key ensures that refugees receive legal services in their host countries. The foundation reaches out to countries facing civil wars, and they take care of the people until it is safe to return to their home countries. Society works with legal services to ensure that they receive medical and other essential social services. They organize fundraisers annually to be able to run the organizations.
Humanity is Key goes as far as visiting hospitals and clearing large medical bills for low-income patients. They help students from low-income families get scholarships to further their studies. Humanity is Key has dramatically grown due to well-wishers since they help people by giving back to society. They also donate money to rural hospitals to improve their services. Their donations include medicine, hospital equipment, and money.
They travel to countries where education is poorly developed and start schools. They employ teachers and provide food for the kids and the necessary equipment for learning. Conflict resolution is part of Humanity’s Keys’ mission. They believe that conflicts may lead to disputes, and the vulnerable people suffer most when war breaks. Humanity is Key believes that helping an individual is like helping a community, which is why they never feel less while helping.
Humanity is Key Brand Image
Since the year of foundation in 2007, Humanity is the Key has worked hard towards achieving its goal. There are many homes founded by them and still running smoothly. These homes are decent, spacious, and comfortable; unlike other homes where people are congested, taking care of people becomes a problem. It is also a sign that there is transparency with the money donated by well-wishers. From interviews carried out in the various homes, the orphans were happy and content with the care they received from those homes.
Schools that are in rural areas and which were started by Humanity is Key is also running smoothly. Teachers get paid on time, and the students hardly lack any learning materials. Several people have appreciated Humanity is Key through various social media platforms on how they have benefited from the organization, especially on hospital bills and school fees.
Humanity is Key has never lacked well-wishers since the beginning because organizations and individuals know their donations reach vulnerable people. Citizens have agreed that assistance from Humanity is Key and is of great help, especially to hospitals in rural areas, since it helps to reduce medical expenses. There are fewer street families in the countries where Humanity is Key, meaning they are doing a great job minimizing the lack of basic needs. There is prominent personnel in the business world who claim to be a product of Humanity is Key. The Humanity is Key brand image is positive, and it is well depicted in the way they run their organization and the affirmative response from a citizen who has received their help.
Affiliate Organizations
Humanity is a Key organization that works with legal organizations for various reasons. Legal organizations help them offer social services to refugees and immigrants. These organizations can also adopt kids from different countries and quickly get citizenship through the help of permissible services. Donors from other nations are accepted in the host country through the use of legitimate services. Government authority also helps them to go to countries with civil wars to rescue people. Humanity is Key works with nationwide language interpreters to help immigrants get social services. Linguistics accompany them to hospitals, markets, and even churches so that communication can be easy. Law enforcement is also stress-free when the immigrants understand what is required, which is only possible through an interpreter.
Humanity is Key can reach out to many people through influential health organizations about medical issues. They help create awareness about self-care, how to control an outbreak or how to prevent certain diseases. Health organizations also bring information on hospitals that require a supply of equipment and other things needed for treatment (Stephenson, 2020).
Humanity is a Key member and also forms a more significant part of the emergency rescue team. They work together with the ministry of education to help them get teachers and the school’s curriculum or calendar of events. The ministry of education also guides on buying materials whenever they want to open new schools. These institutions work to rescue victims affected by natural calamities and war and take them to safety.
Sharing of resources is another reason why affiliate organizations are needed. When a charity organization works with the ministry of health, some health workers are posed to work in homes or refugee camps and then get paid by the government. Affiliation organization helps in acquiring resources on credit. Charity organizations may get construction equipment, installation of electricity, and other things on credit as long as the organization work with a construction organization.
Competition
Most non-profit organizations do not compete against other organizations with the same aim as theirs, which is also the case with Humanity is Key. Consequently, they compete for attention from the donors and citizens on why they should be supported. Competition is only an advantage when your organization performs better than similar organizations (Levinthal & Workiewicz, 2018).
To earn enough trust from givers and the public, the organization writes proposals and accounts for funds donated before. The urgency of the problem is another way benefactors can help quickly. Humanity is Key covers most issues for both citizens and non-citizens, which is why its competition is always positive and an advantage to them. Transparency on the use of funds, evident from how street families have reduced, has also helped Humanity is Key compete positively with other organizations.
Fundraising Event Plan
No matter how small a charity organization is, a comprehensive fundraising plan is required. The plan will give one proper guidance and enough time to organize the event, send emails, and make necessary calls. The people writing the program should be wisely chosen too, and most of the time, it should be the Executive Director, Charity’s CEO, or the board at large. Consultation from qualified fundraising planners is also vital to ensure event success.
The parts required in a fundraising plan include the goal, where the plan always begins with a picture of how the event should turn out. The fundraising goal is not guessed but created based on the organization’s need (Lindley, 2016). Calculations on how much money is needed to run the organizations are done before presenting to the people. The organization’s mission is essential because it allows the benefactors to understand why funds are needed. The operating budget should be included in the plan for pellucidity.
Once the goal and mission are in place, there should also be tactics for raising the required money. Each method in place should work towards achieving the goal. Some common ways include asking individual donors to contribute a certain amount of money or even gifts. Major donor groups, which include the board giving a funding or development team, are included. Events can also be created to achieve a given amount of money (Rabrenovich, 2019).
Direct mailing to people, telemarketing, e-giving, and online collection can also be incorporated. The timeline should also be set to ensure that no plan is left out and each is completed on time. Small events should be carried on between the timeline to help achieve the primary goal. During this time, people should be informed when decisions are made on the venue, entertainment when the benefactors will be implored, or when invitations will go out.
A timeline will force one to examine the fundraising choices critically and provide vital guidance on the events as the year advances, so it should be included. The people who have succeeded through the organization’s help should be given a significant role in sponsorship. Not as a payback but as a way of showing other influential donors that the organization’s sole mission is to help the poor. The plan should offer the required information and be done on schedule so that there is enough time left to create awareness among the public.
Creating awareness can be done through posters, calls, announcements on social media, or communication via televisions and radios. No crafty methods should be used to achieve the goal because once they are known to the public, they might cancel the whole event. Volunteers should also be willing to work hard to implement tactics and ideas to achieve the desired goal (A K M Kamrul, 2018). Stakeholders and directors should supervise the planning and implementation closely to ensure no part of the plan is left.
Fundraising Event
Humanity is Key holds annual fundraising in different countries but among the five countries where they work. They usually ask for donations from all the countries but collect them in one country. Each year they have a different theme for the collection, and the cycle repeats after every five years. The five themes include a pool for funding the opening of new hospitals and funding the current ones, pooling for homes for the orphans and street families. They amass money to fund schools for learning materials and start new schools in areas where they are scarce. In the previous year, they collected money for refugees and immigrants to set up camps and provide social services as they waited to go to their home countries.
Moreover, the homes for disabled people are separate from the homes of orphans and older people. The disabled also have a year to get money for their medical bills and equipment like wheelchairs for those who cannot walk. They assemble different amounts of money for each theme, with money for homes being the highest and for refugees being the lowest. They have permanent benefactors, but they still look for more so that they reach the intended goal.
The theme for this year is the collection of funds for the disabled. With the calculated budget, there is a substantial amount of money. There is at least a hope of three people getting treated for their disabilities from the five countries, and a lot of funds are needed to cover their medical bills. New members need wheelchairs and other white canes or glasses. More buildings need to be constructed due to the increasing population, not just ordinary buildings but special ones for people with disabilities.
More people need to be employed with the growing population, especially specialists who know how to handle different disabilities. Though there are volunteers, these experts typically help in cleaning and keeping them company. Learning materials like braille machines need to be added and hearing aids for those who are slightly impaired. Apart from those other things, they also need money for different basic needs like food, clothes, and sanitation. This fundraising will also help them get money to pay for electricity and other bills.
The goal of this event is to pool $1,000,000 to cater for almost all the expenses mentioned above. This includes all the costs, including the planning methods for collecting the money. The money will be divided among donors, organizations willing, and e-collection. The planning of the event typically takes a maximum of six months. Calculating the funds needed and drafting the budget are done in the first month.
Sharing of roles among the volunteers and available personnel is accomplished in the second month. Volunteers are taken from all the five countries as long as they work under Humanity is Key organization. Contributions are fetched from all nations, which is why sharing the roles takes a much longer time. In the third month, the directors and charity’s CEO travel to different countries with other board members to beseech organizations and benefactors to donate to the organization. This is to help them budget for the number of guests they will be expecting.
In the fourth month, the venue was decided, and the necessary renovations were done to make it fit for the occasion. Small preparations like kids practicing songs and different talents to present on the day also start in the fourth month. Creating awareness among the public and the venue and planning of events is done in the fifth month. A poster is designed, and audio messages for radios and televisions are also made in the same month. Concerns from the public and other organizations concerning the affair are addressed to give the final month time for easy finalization of the arrangements.
The last month is set aside for the CEOs to travel to the five countries to ensure that all the necessary arrangements are ready. This is because there must be representatives from each country to the occasion to participate in the donation to their countries or give feedback to the other on how the event was. The date of the event is passed this month, and most of the time, it falls on the last week of the sixth month.
Thus, $200,000 was used during the sixth month to cater to the arrangement of the whole plan, so out of the $1,000,000 collected, two percent of it will go back to the account. A minimum of $250,000 is expected from individual benefactors and other well-wishers. Two prominent business organizations agreed to donate a minimum of $450,000 after collecting from their affiliate organizations. The host country’s government agreed to donate $50,000 to appreciate the support they receive from Humanity is Key. The board members, volunteers, and employees in Humanity are Key offered a minimum of $150,000 to support the people they offer to work for. It is an excellent sacrifice because most of them volunteer to work without payment, and still, they offer cash as a way of support. So far, there has been a positive response from the public. Their support almost adds up to $100,000, a sign that our goal will be achieved and hopefully more.
Kids from various homes in the five countries have different talents. Some are painters while others sing. They participate in national competitions for multiple sports and also singing competitions. Painters are provided with the necessary materials to do their work and sell their products. Their paintings are sold during public events, and a good amount of money is collected. Sixty percent of what is earned is given to them, while forty percent is given back to the organization to help run it.
The same case applies to those who participate in music and national sports competitions. Humanity is Key works with several soft drink companies, and so during such events, they enjoy the free supply of soft drinks. The companies are willing to help because Humanity is Key purchases the same drinks for their homes. The companies also offer company chairs and tables for the guests and accommodation for those willing to spend the entire night in the country.
Spent Budget and Summary of the Occasion
Only $200,000 was spent during the six months to cater for the occasion. $55,000 was used to cater to the various countries’ representatives, transport, food, and accommodation. $20,000 was for making the posters and paying television and radio stations to advertise the occasion. The twenty thousand dollars also produced transport for the volunteers to put signs in different places. $40,000 catered for the venue’s renovation, hired the public address system and paid labor. $65,000 was given to the CEOs and development directors who traveled to the five countries to beseech benefactors and organizations for donations.
The money catered for accommodation, food, transport, and other required services during the journey. Other small services like buying the decorations for the venue, hiring people to do the beautifications were made possible by the remaining $10,000.
Three hundred and thirty guests attended the event, and all of them contributed a generous amount of money. A total of $725,000 was collected from individual donors and organizations. and $120,000 was collected from kids selling their paints and showcasing their talents. $72,000 was given to kids, while the rest of the money was added to the collection. Humanity is Key received a total of 163,000 from its employees, volunteers, and stakeholders.
The government kept its promise and contributed a total of $50,000 but promised to be ready to offer legal help when required. A total of $83,000 was collected from the public and citizens, which is also generous. The total amount of money collected was $1,092,000, which is more than the intended goal. It was a positive turnout because all the purposeful things could be bought and still have a surplus.
Conclusion
Most non-profit organizations survive through donations from individuals and organizations. They get benefactors only if their mission is honest and understandable. The collection events are either annual, or some charity organizations do them after some years, mostly less than five years. For the events to be successful proper drafting of the plan is paramount, and usually, the director of the development plan and the charity’s CEO draw the plan. Charity organizations must have several affiliate organizations to help them work.
Such as health organizations, legal service organizations, and social service organizations. Stakeholders of charity organizations work with the workers in different homes to know what is lacking, and they can create the budget. The primary mission of most non-profit organizations is to lessen human suffering because they know eliminating it is impossible.
References
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