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If you are like most clubs, associations and non-profit organizations, you are constantly on the lookout for new ideas on how to fundraise using the power of the Internet. Like many others, you have probably already tried a fundraising program or two, maybe successfully or maybe not, but deep down you know there is a program out there somewhere that will work well for you and your organization. There are numerous online fundraising ideas available on the Internet, but for the purposes of this article, I am going to focus on just one; one that will work for any club or non-profit organization, one that has already been successfully used by clubs and organizations the world over. What I am talking about here is Photo Gifts - over the last few years the personalized photo gift market has burgeoned and is now a multi-million dollar business offering multiple fundraising opportunities to organizations of all sizes. From small dog clubs to massive non-profits, the photo gifts industry provides what could be the best, and certainly one of the easiest, fundraising opportunity's available anywhere. How can photo gifts provide my organization with a fundraising opportunity? Photo gifts are predominantly sold through online web-stores - these stores receive millions of visitors every day, visitors that buy either ready-made photo gifts or make their own personalized gifts, by uploading their own photos, logos and designs and putting them on products. Given the rapid development of the industry, it is now very easy for any organization to open their own web-store - better still, there are several ways of setting up your own web-store for free! Before choosing a host for your free web-store there are a number of important issues that should be taken into consideration. 1 Does the host offer their entire product range for use in free stores? A number of photo gift companies, especially the biggest ones, limit free web-store owners to around 25% of their product range. Others only allow a free web-store owner to offer a single design on each product, in other words, for example, your store can only contain one pair of cufflinks. In order to gain unlimited access to the full product range these companies require you to upgrade to a paid store. 2 Does the host allow you to use your own domain name for your web-store? Most photo gift companies only offer sub domain names, for example host.com/yourwebstore. Although most clubs and associations are happy with this arrangement, what they don't realize is that visitors to their web-store are often lured away by the bigger choice of products offered on the main host website - this can lead to a lot of lost sales. 3 Does the host offer base prices low enough for you to make a profit while still selling your products at a sensible price? A number of the photo gifts companies that offer free web-stores have base prices that are so high that the store owner cannot make a sensible profit, unless they use unrealistically high selling prices! These companies rely on the goodwill of your members and supporters to pay above market prices to support your fundraising efforts! 4 How often does the host pay you your profits and what are the restrictions? Some photo gifts companies take an awful long time to pay you, up to two months in arrears, and even then, some have payment thresholds as high as $100, which can cause even more of a delay! It's best to find a host that doesn't have restrictive payment thresholds and pays you at least once a month. Conclusion Assuming you pick the right host, photo gift web-stores are a wonderful medium for fundraising. Their single biggest advantage to any organization, large or small, is once they are set up they look after themselves. There is no ongoing workload for your members and volunteers to deal with and if they have been set up properly, they will continue to raise funds for your organization for many years to come. Through his website www.photogiftsmall.com David Sheath provides Clubs & Non-Profit Orgs with detailed information on how to fundraise using free web-stores. If you are interested in free fundraisers you will find his site very informative & of great help if you decide to proceed with your own free web based fundraising.
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Club Fundraising Ideas, How to Fundraise, Easy Fundraiser Ideas, Online Fundraisers, Fundraiser Ideas, Good Fundraising Ideas, Fundraising Ideas, Free Fundra,
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