PRE-PLANNING FOR EASY RECORD KEEPING

KEEPING NAMES AND ADDRESSES IS A MOST IMPORTANT PART OF A GOOD FUND-RAISING STRATEGY

1.	Attended any special events
2.	Volunteered time
3.	Donated money
4.	Donated goods and/or services
5.	Attended launches / lunches / look-see tours
6.	Bought raffle tickets
7.	Given discounts on goods / services used for fund-raising purposes
8.	Given useful information or leads for fund-raising usage
9.	People who need to be thanked and recognised for special efforts

HINT: Names and addresses, with a FEW ADDED DETAILS of who they are and what they did or attended are a most valuable resource for fund-raising, and often they are thrown away, disregarded, as yesterday's event fades into history. It is precisely this "history" of their contact with your organisation that should require their name to be kept.

This topic will deal with "how" to pre-plan, to keep a record of names and addresses, which will only need handling once initially.

Most small non-profit organisations are not resource rich, in either man power or technology. Fund-raising is a vital part of their job, but the main job is the service that the organisation is there to provide.

However, you are not there to sit down for hours at a computer terminal, punching in names and addresses for hours on end, just because they were involved with your organisation one way or another somewhere in history.

The SIMPLE SOLUTION IS TO PRE-PLAN ALL YOUR TICKET PURCHASE RETURNS, or sponsorship forms, to give you names and addresses of participants on these returns, so they can be used directly for the same event next time. They can be pre-sorted so that you can delete immediately any of no value, and not clutter up your (small) office, or data base if you have a computer.

They can be grouped together, in event files, until you have the time to sort and put them in order of future usage.

You can put them onto a data base and generate a mailing list and labels in one strike.

If you have no access to a computer, you can write/type labels from these returns, photocopy them, and make up a mailing list that way.

RECORDING DONATIONS (OF GOODS, SERVICES, TIME):

Obtain a small receipt book

On the front cover write:
1.	Organisation's name:
2.	Date:
3.	Donation / Donor
Record the following information::
1.	Name, address, telephone number of donor
2.	Type of donation (money, goods, services, or time)
3.	What it was ($10, ream of paper, printing, 3 hours time phoning for invitation replies to appeal launch)

Receipts for goods or money are tax deductible in some countries (though not usually for time or services donated). Check to see if your organisation is a registered charity or can provide tax deductibility to those donating, and use this as a bargaining point when negotiating for donations.

Make sure this receipt book is handy at any function, or office and that all donations are written down as above. You then have a record to refer to for the future, to follow up these donors again, put them on mailing lists, ask them to Thank You Parties, or approach them again for a similar donation.

Don't keep it all in your head. You will move on or someone else will be President of the Committee next year. The name of the donor will disappear and a valuable contact lost if it is not recorded.

SUMMARY: Keeping records for fund-raising purposes is vital. Names and addresses form future mailing lists. Simply kept donation information could lead to tomorrow's major sponsor contact! Keeping it all in your head does not help your organisation: WRITE IT DOWN!