This is not a fundraising idea, but it is likely that it will be useful to many individuals and organizations that actively fundraise.  In addition to serving as a source of contact information, business cards (especially when free), can serve as a promotional tool for your fundraising events.

First, let us just underscore that this is not a gimmick.  The company and specific offer for free business cards we’re about to recommend is entirely legitimate.  It is possible to receive 250 free business cards and just pay $3-4 in shipping and handling.  We’ve ordered free business cards for promotional purposes from Vista Print plenty of times and we’ve never had an issue.

Any group interested in fundraising is naturally interested in saving money as well (or should be).  Thus, we introduce Vista Print, a stationary company with a huge web presence that allows individuals and organizations to order free business cards.  The only catch is that you are limited to a number of designs and the free business cards have the Vista Print web address on the back unless you opt to remove it for a fee (Vista Print offers free business cards with the hope that you will buy other Vista Print products and the idea that you’ll hand out your free business cards and others will visit the VistaPrint.com link on the back).

Free business cards are perfect for small groups and non-profit organizations, as it is always good to get your organization’s contact information into as many hands as possible, as you never know what can happen when information about your organization is floating around — someone can pass your card off to a lawyer who is willing to do pro bono work, a potential donor or someone who is willing to partner with your organization or volunteer.  The bottom line: Business cards are extremely cheap when you consider how much they can bring your organization (and cheapest, of course, when they’re free business cards).  To get started with Vista Print, click here and then click on “Free Products” and then “Free Business Cards” on the left-hand side.

Free Business Cards as a Promotional Tool for Fundraising Events
When business cards cost $20 for 250 or 500, it’s hard to justify just handing them out to strangers in a public setting, as most cards will be thrown away.  However, when they’re free, the range of promotional options using business cards grows quite a bit.  You can promote your fundraising events by handing out free business cards with your organization’s and/or event’s information on them to people in a public setting (make sure this is permitted in your location).  We recommend a town or county fair. Unlike a flyer which takes up space, people are likely to shove a business card in their pocket or purse (as opposed to just throwing it out), which increases the likelihood that they’ll find it again later.  To increase the effectiveness of promoting a fundraising event with free business cards, you could try the following: You can hand out cards that automatically enter people into a free raffle.  All you would have to do is write a number on the back of each card and something along the lines of “You’ve just been entered into a free raffle.  Come to Pete’s Pizza at 5:00PM to see if you are the winner of a brand new television!”  That’d be a great way to get people to a fundraising event being held at Pete’s Pizza at the same time, even if the event is as simple as Pizza for Charity, in which the restaurant donates a portion of its revenue from their dinner shift that evening to your organization.

Finally, one good thing to have on your business cards is a website.  If your organization (and ideally all of your major fundraising events) does not currently have a website, there is a free solution: Dev Hub, a free web-based site creator that is no more difficult to use than an email is to edit.  We’ve written about how you can easily build a free website for your organization and/or fundraising events and we encourage you to check out that post by clicking the “free website” link.