Innovative Fundraising: Donation-Based Voting Music Competition

How many times have you read an article or attended a conference session focused on "innovative fundraising"? More times than you can probably keep track of, I'm sure.

There's a reason for that, of course. Donors don't wake up every morning thinking about donating money the way fundraisers wake up every morning thinking about raising funds. That means nonprofit organizations need to find ways to grab donors' attention, and a great way to do that is to fundraise in new, fun or, dare I say, innovative ways.

Let's be clear, being innovative does not necessarily mean reinventing the wheel. It simply means coming up with a different, intelligent way to fundraise.

That's exactly what the Doing Good Network is doing with its Bands4Good Challenge. Taking a cue from the popularity of singing competition hits like "American Idol" and "The Voice," the Bands4Good Challenge harnesses the population's desire to interact and vote on winners for such competitions.

So like those popular shows that implement audience participation and peer-to-peer sharing, the Bands4Good Challenge allows people to vote on their favorite bands, with the winners receiving a variety of prizes including career development, vocal/instrumental coaching, recording studio sessions, performance opportunities and more. However, the challenge has a twist — combining voting with donating.

Bands can apply for inclusion in the challenge through Oct. 30 in both the U.S. and U.K., and once the application process is complete, fans can vote once per day without cost to support their favorite bands, and in addition they can "purchase" additional donation votes in package bundles, with the money donated to charities supporting music education.

The goal of this online charity benefit concert is to raise awareness and funds for music education. Benefiting charities include Little Kids Rock, Arts for Life, Street-Level Youth Media, Kid Pan Alley and the Silverlake Conservatory of Music.