How to Set Up an Online Jewelry Fundraiser?

by Heidi
(Ontario Canada)

We have recently experienced a tragedy in our community; a young mother of three was involved in a car accident on Christmas Eve and passed away suddenly on Christmas day.

There has been a trust fund set up for the children, and as such I would like to contribute as much as possible. I was hoping to put my skills as a jewelry designer to use and donate several pieces for an online auction.

Does anyone have experience with this type of fundraising, and setting up a site/blog for an online auction. Are there any LEGITIMATE sites out there? In today's day and age there are so many "charity" scams . . . I would like to know how to legitimately raise funds.

My heart goes to this family and I want to do as much as I can to help.

P.S. We reside in Ontario Canada.

Heidi

Comments for
How to Set Up an Online Jewelry Fundraiser?

Click here to add your own comments

Online Jewelry Fundraiser
by: Rena

Heidi, I haven't ever set up this type of event online, so I'm hoping some of our friends will share some ideas for you here.

I'm so sorry to hear about this terrible tragedy. My heart goes out to these children and their dad - and what a shame they will always think of Christmas as the day they lost their mother.

I think you have a good idea for using your jewelry to raise money for the children's trust fund. People are usually glad to buy a piece of jewelry when it's helping a good cause.

I have a few thoughts for spreading the word about your fundraiser once you've got it set up:

Spreading the word to as many people as possible is important for getting more bids / sales for your fundraiser.

For example, a couple of years ago I purchased a pair of earrings (which I love) from a jewelry artist who was raising funds for a friend's medical bills from a serious illness. I'd never heard of this artist until I came across someone else's blog post about her fundraiser. A lot of people blogged about her fundraiser, and she got quite a few orders from the publicity. I was very glad to help out by buying some jewelry - but I would never have known about the fundraiser at all if people hadn't been helping her spread the word by blogging, etc.

So while you work out the rest of the details of your fundraiser, you may want to start thinking about people who can help you get the word out about it.

For starters, you know you can count on me to buy a piece of jewelry - and to write about your fundraiser when you've got it set up.

And I would think that your Ontario community would have a lot of folks who have been touched by this tragedy, and want to do whatever they can to help. Perhaps you can connect with some of the businesses and people in your area about helping you spread the word when you've got your fundraiser set up.

Also, why not send a press release about your fundraiser (plus a jewelry photo or two to illustrate it) to your local newspaper, TV news stations, radio stations, etc.?

And are you active in any online social networks? If you're on Facebook, Twitter, or any other networks you can post about your fundraiser (including your link to it) and ask people to please help you spread the word by tweeting, posting, etc. to let their friends, etc. know about it. On social networks, I think people really shine when they see a way to help someone - so I think that's another strong possibility for publicity for you.

(continued below . . .)

( . . . continued from above)
by: Rena

A couple of other thoughts - Valentine's Day is just around the corner, so perhaps your fundraiser could include some heart jewelry that could be given as Valentine gifts (and the hearts would also represent the bereaved family's love for their mother).

Regarding setting up your charity sales as an online auction - it's true that bidding might make your pieces sell for higher prices. But an auction could also lead to fewer customers participating. I'm not sure as many people are interested in shopping via online auction (where they may not wind up with the piece of jewelry, or they have to take the time to check back and see if they need to bid again to win the piece), vs. simply being able to quickly purchase a piece of jewelry outright and know they've helped a good cause.

The fundraiser I mentioned above (where I bought the earrings) was set up on an Etsy shop. All profits made on items in that shop (after the cost of jewelry supplies, listing fees, etc.) were earmarked for the fundraiser.

For this event, the artist was making very nice but fairly simple wire jewelry designs that she could turn out quickly and keep up with her sales volume.

She had a jewelry blog, and she posted daily updates about how her fundraiser was progressing - how much earned so far, how many jewelry orders she had to filled and shipped that day, how generous everyone was, how her friend's health was progressing, etc.

If you have a blog of your own, you could post about the tragedy and about your fundraiser, explaining where the money will go, how your event is progressing, etc. If you don't currently have a blog, you could either start one now, or set up one on a temporary basis, just for the duration of your fundraiser.

Heidi, I hope some of these ideas help - and I hope you'll keep us posted about your event. And be sure to let me know the details so I can blog about it.

More thoughts
by: Patricia C Vener

Etsy is a good idea - it's free to join and listings cost 20 cents. You can, however, enlist other etsy sellers (and maybe ArtFire and zibbet sellers) to help out, either by donating a piece, or a percentage of sales of certain pieces, or by creating treasuries (collections on ArtFire), and by promoting in forums and on blogs.

Good luck getting this started; it is a very worthy idea.

Online Auctions
by: Cindy C.

You can use a site called "eClassicauctions". The format is simple to use. All of our local nonprofits use this as a vehicle for auctions to fundraise. The have been very successful.

You can theme the auction for example featuring "jewelry" only from yourself or various other designers or you may want to consider making it a generalized auction where everybody/business in town can donate what they can afford. You would have to post each item, you can include a picture, and people can bid when and where they want. When the auction closes consider having a fundraising dinner to award the prizes like a spaghetti feed that is cheap to do and charge for it. Sell tickets for 5.00 each or a family of 5 for 20.00 get a local grocery store to donate the items and have your local fire department do the cooking. I can assure you that if you follow this recipe you will have an overall successful event that will accomplish your goal.

An Easy Way to Help
by: Kathy

Heidi, this is commendable that you want to help. This past fall, I held an online auction on my blog. The proceeds benefitted a Haitian orphanage. It was fun, easy, and successful. Below is a link to the blog post which explains what I did. I just created a box on the sidebar of my blog wherein I updated the bids periodically (which were sent to me via email). If you have any further questions, feel free to contact me via my blog. Blessings to you in this worthy endeavor.

http://artfulaccents.blogspot.com/2010/10/ludnies-hope.html

Let Us Know
by: SterlingCrystal

Hi Heidi,

Please let us know what you finally decide upon. I would be happy to donate some earrings, if that is the way you go. Contact me through Etsy below.

Thanks Rena for posting this. There are so many charity things happening, and you don't always know what is legitimate or not, but this site feels like a bunch of friends, so I am comfortable donating to (or buying from!) the cause.

Sam Ryder
SterlingCrystal
www.sterlingcrystal.etsy.com

Thanks!
by: Heidi

Thanks for all the great suggestions. I've spoken to the family and I have permission to move forward with fundraising activites. I have been doing a bit of research and reviewing the comments. I think the best way to apporoach this cause is by selling a select number of pieces on ESTY. I may try auctioning one or two pieces...see how that goes. Also, I am attempting to locate "eClassicauctions" on the web, but am unable to. I will be starting this process soon, and hope to get enough confidence up to ask other artists to help. Thanks for all the advice so far!
Best,
Heidi

Charity Site Complete!
by: Heidi

At long last, I have finally completed the charity site. I hope to generate at least $450. For those of you interested please review....I welcome your feedback and comments.
Best,
Heidi
Grace-Lea Jewelry

http://www.etsy.com/shop/gracelea

Jewels for Jen Fundraiser Shop
by: Rena

Heidi,

I've just blogged about your Jewels for Jen fundraiser shop - you can see my blog post here:

Jewelry Fundraiser - Please Help Spread the Word.

I think you did a great job of setting up the shop and stocking it with appealing jewelry. (I bought a bracelet for myself!) :o)

One question I had is that in the shop announcement it says "Items can be purchased until January 29, 2011."

Yikes - if I understand correctly, that's only 5 days from now! Is there a reason to have the fundraiser shop close that quickly? And have you generated enough publicity for everything to sell out so soon?

A lot of people probably won't even find out about the Jewels for Jen shop (and get around to shopping there) till after then.

Since I may have misunderstood about the January 29, 2011 date, I didn't add it to my blog post.

Overall my impression is that your Jewels for Jen shop is very professional looking, and that a lot of the items would make excellent Valentine gifts!

Please keep us posted on your jewelry fundraiser, and thanks for giving us a chance to help here!

Great suggestions and tips, everyone!
by: Rena

I want to thank everyone for sharing such helpful ideas and resources here, regarding setting up an online jewelry fundraiser.

Lots of great ideas from all, and I'm sure this discussion will help many other jewelry artists who want to set up a fundraiser.

Thanks also to Heidi for starting this thread!

I appreciate all of you! :o)

Click here to add your own comments