Fundraising Introduction

Group Fundraising

The Amigos Chicago North Chapter fundraising campaign is a group effort. While each individual volunteer will solicit his or her own perspective donors for contributions, success in fundraising is not individually measured. Full participation in fundraising is a prerequisite for participation in the Amigos program. A Volunteer will successfully meet the fundraising objective by meeting the established deadlines and completing the necessary steps for the letter writing campaign.

The success of the overall group effort is measured by the total dollars raised. All donations are deposited into a common “share and share alike” fund for the benefit of the group. It is the group’s responsibility to raise an average of $2,650 per volunteer. In our chapter’s case, which anticipates 27 volunteers, this totals $71,550.

Individual Responsibilities

Each volunteer is responsible for writing a basic fundraising letter, preparing a list of at least 100 prospective donors and submitting the completed letters to the Fundraising Chairperson for mailing. The timetable for completing these steps is provided in Critical Dates for Amigos Fundraising.

All donations will be mailed to the volunteers in their homes. The donations will be collected at the training meetings and then deposited by the Treasurer. We anticipate that the responses from the potential donors will begin to arrive in the last week of January. The volunteers are responsible for ensuring that all follow-up steps are completed in a timely manner. As you will discover, your donors will be supportive and generous. Consequently, they deserve the courtesy of a timely response to their generosity. For the expected follow-up steps, see Fundraising How-To.

Amigos volunteers maintain control of their own mailing lists. There will be no future solicitations of the donors by either the Chicago North Chapter or the Amigos International Office. Chicago North does not keep a copy of the volunteers’ mailing lists. Volunteers who return to the field in a subsequent year, however, may choose to ask the same donors on their original list to contribute a second time. Successful non-profit organizations thrive by returning to their past supporters for subsequent fundraising. Amigos is no exception. We expect returning volunteers to participate in fundraising on the same basis as first-year volunteers. The choice of whom to send letters to, however, is theirs alone since the chapter does not maintain the mailing lists generated each year by the volunteers.