Donations And The Credit Crunch

"Do you think financial gifts will be affected by the credit crunch?" Helen asked me.

Hmm.  I wasn't sure.  So I thought about it for a second.

A recent trend has started in our neighbourhood.  My neighbours and I have started sharing our leftovers.  Clothes, magazines we've already read, tubs of food, biscuits... any surplus and we're handing it around like the Red Cross.  Only just last week my neighbour Paul offered me a huge pack of bacon that someone else had passed onto him!  Certainly in my neighbourhood the credit crunch seems to have inspired a sense of community and sharing.  

Giving makes us feel important.  So even if we feel more cash-strapped right now, we still want to give.  We still want to feel important.

So how can we use this in terms of fundraising?

Well, gifts in kind are definitely on the up.  Instead of asking for cash, why not ask for donations in kind instead?  Here are some suggestions:

-a donated bicycle to help a cash-strapped student save thousands on tube fares

-two free hours in a large hire room twice a week to rehearse for a fundraising event

-use of a computer, printer and stationery to send out three hundred sponsorship letters

No-one likes to see waste and no-one wants to be mean.  Normally, if a person or business can help, they will.  But you need to point them in the right direction!

To get ahead in these hard times, why not review your fundraising needs from an in-kind-er perspective?

How To Study For Free

I was overjoyed when I received my place at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.  I had tried for three years to get into acting school, and this was the opportunity of a lifetime!  There was just one catch: the cost.

All together, the fees and maintenance for the course came to over £25,000.  The course was a three-year diploma course and I wasn't entitled to a student grant or a student loan.  The course was 50 hours a week plus evening rehearsals so a part-time job was out of the question.  My family earned a lot less than the national average and could not afford to pay for me.  What was I going to do?

A little leaflet from another drama school gave me a sneaky peek at the truth.  It gave some basic information on a student who had managed to raise everything they needed to pay for their own acting training.  And if someone else had done it, I was damn sure I could!  I spent months researching, planning and building a fundraising campaign that raised over £25,000.

What I discovered is now revealed in Free Degrees, and together with its partner website degreesforfree.com, offers a step-by-step guide in raising all of the money you need for college or university without getting into debt.  

Free Degrees has been described as a 'life saver', 'first class' and given rave reviews by parents, students and academics alike.  Free Degrees isn't published until the end of April 2009, but here's a little taster of what to expect:

• How to find out how much your education really costs and write a budget
  
• How to market yourself, communicate your message and gain huge publicity
  
• How to appeal your local authority's decision to refuse you a grant
  
• How to raise thousands of pounds from people you have never met before
  
• How to search and find hundreds of scholarships and bursaries
  
• How to hold fun charity events that really bring in the cash

The knowledge and skills I gained from my experience have lasted me well beyond my student days.  Don't let debt get in the way of your studies.  You deserve to get the very best out of your education, and it doesn't have to come at a price.

Graduates Don't Make More Money

I was reading the NUS report 'Broke and Broken' recently, which highlights the current state of student debt.  Apparently Barclays reckon by 2010, the average student will owe over £30,ooo by the time they graduate.

The NUS report also shows you how much the average graduate will earn extra over their lifetime, compared to someone with just A levels or a college education.  As you might expect, doctors, lawyers and business CEOs are up there earning hundreds of thousands of pounds extra.  Good times!  They might have an expensive education, but the hard work and investment have paid off.

But arts and humanities graduates have a different story.  The NUS report predicts that in the lifetime of the average arts and humanities graduate, they will earn just £35,000 more than someone with A levels.

That's not per year, that's over a lifetime!

So let's get this straight... you are going to study History at university... you borrow £30,000 to pay for your education... you end up making £30,000 more as a result.  So three years hard work has actually made you nothing extra.  Not a penny.  Thirty grand in, and thirty grand out.  Bad times.

These statistics are frightening.  But then think about everyone you know with a degree.  Are they all working in the careers they studied for?  I know Design graduates who sell cars for a living, and Sociology graduates who work for Club 18-30.  There is nothing wrong with that, but the truth is, more and more graduates are not working in the field of work they studied for and are not earning any more than the national average. 

However, help is at hand.  You don't need to graduate will huge debts.  You can raise all of the money you need to study without taking on any loans or credit.  I know because I raised over £25,000 for my education with no previous experience in fundraising.  Trust me, I'm no genius.  I did it and you can do it too.