5 Reasons Why Fundraising Bricks Work

According to a Financial Times (FT) article, raising funds for a charitable or any other cause is increasingly becoming difficult due to "charity fatigue." As such, organizers of fundraising events need to come up with innovative and effective ways of appealing to their target audience. One of the most effective ways of overcoming charity fatigue is by using fundraising bricks. These bricks work because of the following reasons:

Easy To Purchase

You can easily purchase fundraising bricks from both online and brick-and-mortar retailers/distributors. More importantly, fundraising bricks come in different shapes and colors, thereby making it easy for buyers to choose those that suit their needs. Some online retailers even provide free virtual brick tools, PowerPoint presentations, "get started" guides, and video presentations to help buyers make the right choice. This is in addition to free ordering templates and shipping. 

Customization

The beauty of charity bricks is they can be customized in numerous ways. For instance, you can have the names of donors or a specific message engraved on the surface of the bricks ordered. Take note brick engraving can be done in different colors and font styles. These aspects increase the likelihood of your target audience donating monetary/non-monetary resources to support a particular cause. You could even invite donors to customize the message to be printed on brick surfaces in their honor. It would be difficult to achieve such customization with other fundraising strategies.

Uniqueness

Bricks give you the freedom to create and rollout a unique fundraising campaign that appeals to donors. For instance, you could encourage donors to download a mobile app that enables them to customize the bricks they purchase. This approach is called "gamification" and it is quite effective in improving engagement metrics. In fact, the Pew Research Center says that game mechanics and simulations improve adoption, performance, and engagement in day-to-day business processes. For further information go to this website: http://www.fundraisingbrick.com/

Tangible Reward

The bricks you purchase for a fundraising campaign act as rewards and are likely to make your target audience respond more positively. In fact, a study published in the European Journal of Marketing found that concrete rewards rarely produce negative reactions from the target audience. Furthermore, research published by the Association of Consumer Research shows that rewards influence the behavior of target audiences significantly. In other words, even donors are likely to respond to rewards of bricks engraved with their names or specific messages. 

Build Structures

Unlike other types of rewards, bricks can be used to construct physical structures such as buildings, memorial monuments, and concrete parks that can be seen and touched for decades. In addition, such structures will always remind donors of their good deeds. It would be nearly impossible to elicit similar emotions with intangible rewards.

Conclusion

Although raising funds for a particular cause can be difficult, you can make the task easier by using bricks designed specifically for this purpose. Such bricks are easy to purchase online and offline, can be used to build physical structures, are customizable, act as tangible rewards and enable fundraisers to develop unique campaigns. 

Retire With Confidence Using These Tips And Advice

Retirement is a time for peace and quiet. You can either take up a new hobby or just relax and do nothing. In fact, you can volunteer, take a new job or even travel the world! In order to be able to do what you want use the tips below to start planning today.

Diversify your investments over time to set up a retirement portfolio. This is a crucial technique, as it will reduce the amount of risk that you have when you are playing the market. If you are not having success, take some time off to study what you need to do to maximize your earnings.

Ask your employer if they match your 401K savings. Many employers will match the savings you place into your 401K, but only if they meet minimum requirements. Figure out if your company offers this kind of deal and what the minimum deposit is before the employer will match the saving.

If your employer offers retirement plans, take advantage of them! Contributing to a 401(k) plan can lead to lower taxes, and your employer may even contribute more on your behalf. As time goes on, compounding interest and tax deferrals on your plan will begin to accumulate, and you'll be saving even more.

When trying to determine how much to save for retirement, first figure out what your ideal annual income in retirement will need to be. That should represent 2 percent of your total retirement portfolio. That will make your portfolio large enough to last a long life expectancy on your part.

Many people put off doing the things they enjoy until they retire. However, time often seems to speed by as we age. Advance planning can help mitigate this.

If you've always wanted to be more politically active in life, but simply never had the time, do so in your golden years. The 65+ voting group has become quite a force, and you could have fun expressing your political opinions. Look online or sign up for a local group, and let your voice finally be heard!

If you're planning on taking advantage of a workplace retirement account, make sure you know how long it takes to be vested in the account. Some accounts will not allow you to keep your employer's contributions unless you've been an employee for a set number of years. Know how long you'll need to be working in order to maximize your payout in the end.

Don't burn any bridges in your career as you face retirement, because situations can change quickly! While it may feel good to tell your boss how you've really felt about him all these years, you may need to go back to work part-time and will want good references. Think first before you sign-off on opportunities.

Look for other retirees to befriend. Finding a decent group can help you enjoy your free time. You and your friends can enjoy common activities for those who are retired. Your support group will also be strong.

Save often and save early because you never know when you'll stop working. Plenty of people retire early and plenty of people find themselves unable to work earlier than they expected. If you start saving early and as much as possible, then you'll be taken care of even if you retire early.

If you haven't got as much saved up by 65 as you want, you can consider working part-time to compensate. You could also find a new job which is easier on you physically but keeps you going mentally. It might pay less, but you may find it more enjoyable.

You will have a limited income from which you will draw for your retirement expenses. Therefore, it is important that you develop a budget so that you will not overspend. You do not have to count pennies, but you should consider each purchase carefully before you buy something to stay withing your budget.

Do not let saving for retirement fall to the back-burner. If you save consistently throughout your working career, you should not have a problem in the future. Remember, though, that the later you start saving, the more money you need to put away each month. That is why it is important to save whatever you can each month, even if it is early in your career and you are not making much.

If you are used to extravagant tastes, you may need to tone that down during your retirement. Your stream of income will be much smaller because you will not be working. Since less money is coming in, less should be spent. If you do not control your spending, you may run out of money in your retirement.

As you move closer to retirement, consider downsizing your home. This is especially true if you had multiple children who are now out on their own. You can get a smaller home and still have just as much personal space for yourself, if not a little more. At the same time, you can take that extra real estate value and put it towards your nest egg.

Do not just rely on Social Security benefits when you retire. Although that money will help, it is not enough to live on comfortably. Generally, Social Security offers roughly 40 percent of your previous income, and this likely will be insufficient.

Consider selling your home and renting in retirement. Renting gives you more flexibility to move if you need to for financial or health reasons. It also leaves you with less responsibility to care for a house and yard. This might mean more time to travel and really enjoy your retirement.

Avoid making assumptions about retirement, because things rarely turn out the way we plan. Seek the advice of a qualified professional, and put your financial house in order long before you actually stop working. Most people think they've got plenty saved up, but it all goes very quickly, and they usually find themselves unprepared!

Today is the best day to start planning for your retirement, so use what you've learned and begin as soon as possible. If you need more help feel free to keep reading all you can. In fact, the more you know about planning for retirement, the better your retirement will be.

Personal Development Secrets For Finding Great Success

Many people say that self-help is about finding the empowerment to go out and become a different person. To an extent, this psychological mindset is a true model; by becoming a better person you raise your self-esteem by preset goals that you plan and achieve. This behavior is reinforced by positive results and consequently sets up a person to succeed in more areas, given that they have enough talent and drive to succeed.

Socializing with large groups provides a soundboard for ideas, and helps to ground people in reality. A personal opinion or two may be the cause of some distress, but with a large forum of people you hear a multiple of perspectives. Then you can objectively weigh more possibilities than you could if you just hear your own voice, or that of one or two friends or critics.

Remember there are often consequences to inaction. Whether we elect to pay our bills late or turn in a project for work two days past the deadline, most often there are negative consequences for our inaction. We might just have to pay a small monetary penalty on the bill, but the late project could mean we are passed up for the next promotion.

Chronic anxiety can lead to major losses in terms of time, productivity, and emotional stability. One of the most direct ways to determine whether or not a problem is worth your concern is by determining foremost if it is a problem with a solution. If so, you should move to the next step: identifying possible solutions, not possible failures. If not, you might be afforded some relief simply by realizing that a problem with no solution really is not a problem.

When you are trying to improve a new skill, start a new diet, or even a new course, it is important to try and make it something you enjoy. If you are constantly dreading the new part of your life, you will quickly lose motivation and find ways to give yourself excuses.

Be sure to track your progress at very regular intervals. For many health and fitness goals there are applications for smart phones, which can help you. For other developments, you can create your own tracker with a simple spreadsheet or chart. This will help you to see how far you've come and also help you to maintain your momentum.

Be willing to stand up for what you believe in. Defend your beliefs strongly, especially if someone is questioning them. There are people that will try to break you down, and the more you are willing to stand up for yourself, the more you will develop and feel proud of who you are.

To succeed in personal development, you should make it your passion to do what you love. It's easy to fall into the trap of choosing a path because it seems to be the one paved with more gold. Those paths, though, can be of little interest to you past that, and soon you could lose interest. To truly succeed, go with what you are passionate about. The money will follow.

To help yourself stay motivated and on task write your goals down. Creating a checklist or a chart is a simple way to stay motivated. Once you complete a task you can mark it off. Seeing your progress motivates you to complete more tasks.

Prioritize what you need to do daily. It's important to keep a list of what you want to accomplish for the day. Even if you find it hard to get most of the things on your list done, you will be happy knowing you did get some of your list completed.

A great tip that can help you with your personal development goals, is to surround yourself with people who are positive and supportive. If you're around negative people all the time, it can be hard for you to make any positive changes. Being around positive people can help a lot.

Sometimes people establish goals and then don't stick to their plan, so they fail. The key point is to stick to it and don't ever give up. Whatever your goal is, just hang in there and day by day you will inch closer to realizing your dream. You will be so happy once you achieve your goal.

If you want to better yourself, you should aim to always be humble. Avoid being arrogant because when you are arrogant, you are close-minded about anything new. Humility means that you are proud of your accomplishments, but you always give credit where it is due, and you always keep your mind open. Being open-minded is the key to improving yourself.

You should always have a backup plan for any situation in your everyday life. Having a good backup plan is a great way to ensure that you will accomplish your goals even if unforeseen problems arise. This is a great way to ensure that your personal development process goes well.

Self-help is truly goal based. By breaking up the ultimate goal into little portions or pieces, people are able to achieve minor goals in their life and work up to the overall change. Turning into a self-made millionaire isn't an overnight process, but the key to starting is to start. Like the pyramids, every great work takes effort, and in this case, change is best done one brick at a time.