You gotta start where you're at

You gotta start where you're at.

That may sound overly simplistic, but my experience is that many people, especially in fundraising, want to start way ahead of where they actually are.

Here's some of the things I've heard: she gives everything away... Don't undervalue your program... You should be able to get at least $10,000 for that.

The truth is what you are selling is worth exactly what people are willing to pay and not a penny more.

A few years ago, I was selling sponsorships in the County's annual Outlook Calendar. Each sponsor got an ad across the bottom of a month in the calendar.

Before I started working there, someone had assigned a value for each sponsorship at $550.

The prior year's calendar only had one ad in it so, theoretically, the calendar only generated $550 - hardly enough to offset the cost of printing, which was the point of having ads in the first place.

I decided I was going to do whatever I had to do to sell each and every month.

I started selling them for $100 each, two for one, an ad bundled with an event sponsorship... Whatever I had to do to fill those slots.

I sold them all. I think I ended up raising about $2200 for that calendar - not a lot, but a 300% increase over the previous year.

But if I had stuck with the initial estimated value of $550 a page, I probably wouldn't have sold any of them.

I had to start where I was at to set. That way, I could set myself up for a fantastic finish.

Create REAL news - Part 2

I was talking with a former colleague one time and she said it is tough to get TV coverage for her events.

The TV stations in that market don't want to cover fluff, she insisted.

My response was I don't ever send out fluff. Ever. I really don't even send out a lot of press releases.

Instead I try to connect the community events I do with organizations that solve real community issues. And I send event announcements to assignment editors at each TV station a week or two before the event.

As a former reporter, I can tell you that real attempts to solve real community issues are news no matter who is coordinating them.

These are just some of the things we have done in the last two years that have generated significant media attention:

*Created an event where we turned a student health center closet at UNC Charlotte into a Recovery Room where students now hold AA and NA meetings; the remodel was covered by almost every TV station in the market;

*Coordinated a collection drive for toiletries for teenagers staying in a temporary shelter for runaway kids; the event was featured LIVE by my friend Wilson from WCCB News Rising;

*Distributed colanders, cutting boards, and salad spinners at an event with Sow Much Good, which, among other things, makes sure low-income people have access to healthy food and teaches them how to prepare it; this event was on WBTV News 3 and Time Warner Cable News.

It is true - reporters and TV producers, generally, don't want to cover fluff. They don't like to cover check passings, ribbon cuttings, or CEO speeches.

But there is always a spot in each newscast and in the newspaper for a meaningful attempt to solve a real community problem.