Any campaign starts with a strategy. What's your overall approach to reaching your goal going to be? And that begins with surveying your resources. What is your primary resource for doing this? Raising the money you have set out to raise is something you can do. In fact anyone can do it. But how each person goes about it will vary. Because each person is different and has different resources available, each approach will be slightly different.

The Big Ride a cross-country cycling event sponsored by the American Lung Association® of Washington required a minimum fund raising of $7000. Faced with this challenge three people approached it in three different ways:

• A 17-year-old high school student figured that his best resource was his time. "I have a year, that's only $20 per day and that is only four $5 donations." So he went out after school everyday and knocked on doors until he'd raised at least $20. What he discovered was, it was easy and he raised considerably more than $20 per day and $7000 over all.
• A mid-career businesswoman started with this thought, "I know a lot of people. Do I know 70 of them who will give me $100 if I ask? Yes, I do." So she sat down and made a list of her contacts, it turned out to be closer to 100, so her fundraising went well over the $7000.
• A construction manager figured his vendors were his best resource. He does millions of dollars worth of business with these folks, so he went to them and explained what he was doing and why and asked them for a contribution. He got thousands.

The point is, anyone can do this. But everyone will do it a little differently. The first step in deciding how you will do it is to look at the resources available to you.

• Contacts. Your major resource is the list of people you know. Friends, family, coworkers - people you know who are willing to help you. The length of our list will vary depending on who you are and where you are in life. But this is where everyone should start and everyone will have a list. The amount they give will depend on their circumstances, but give everyone close to you a chance to contribute to your efforts. One fundraiser tells a story of an acquaintance whom she forgot to include in her appeal and who heard about her efforts from a mutual friend. She got a phone call, "hey, have you forgotten who your friends are?" So don't leave anyone off the list. Some will do a little; some will do a lot. But in the end all will be glad you asked.
• Time. You may feel that you don't have a long list of donors who can help you out. Well, what about your time? Remember the lad who collected over $7000 in five dollar chunks. If you don't know a few people who can give you $100, then maybe you can find a way to meet a lot of people who will give you $5. Or coupled with a special Skill (see below) time can turn into money through application of your skills.
• Skills. Unique fundraising opportunities come from using your special skills. Use either your work or hobby skills to do special things for people in exchange for a donation. One Trekker raised almost $2000 doing odd jobs for people in exchange for a donation. Cooking, sewing, carpentry, artistic skills all can turn into donations. You can either do work in exchange for donations directly, or leverage your time by raffling or auctioning off your time and skill.
• Associations and Organizations. In some cases the organizations you belong to may be a good source of people who will help you. Service clubs, religious, labor and professional organizations are possibilities. One fundraiser we know of was struggling until she turned to members of her union. Her efforts were published in the union newsletter and then she began contacting union members individually. In fact she was able to talk some shop stewards into collecting for her and went well over her goal as a result.
• Customers and Vendors. Depending on the business you are in, you may have relationships with customers and vendors that can prove useful. We already talked about the construction manager that talked with his suppliers and subcontractors. We also know of a restaurant owner who put up a sign near the door of his restaurant explaining what he was doing along with a jar for customers' contributions. He proved to be his event's top fundraiser. (Important Note: there may be ethical issues raised here and you should be sure to clear what you're doing with your employer.)
• Matching Gifts. Many companies match the gifts their employees make to charitable organizations, and some match the donations their employees raise as well. Familiarize yourself with the list of companies with Matching Gift programs and if one of your donors works for one, ask them to be sure to submit the paperwork to have their gift matched. Human Resources offices are usually the place to go for information.
• Corporations. Corporations do give a lot of money to charitable causes. And if you can make the right contacts it's possible to do your fundraising in "big chunks" through corporate giving. However a special caution is due here. Because corporations get asked frequently, they usually have quite complex systems and policies regarding their giving. And they are really pretty good at saying "no." Some of the things you may run up against in trying to work in the corporate world are budget cycles that limit giving to certain times of the year, committees on corporate giving with lengthy proposal and review processes, and policies that limit the kinds of charities they support. The thing is, if you just ask the "corporation" it's easy for the "corporation" to say no. But if you have a way of making it more personal (see Fundamental Secret), then your chances improve. If you have or can develop a personal relationship (see Six Degrees of Separation) with someone in the corporation who can effectively make the decision to contribute to your efforts, then that is well worth pursuing.

You may not have all of these resources available, but you surely have some, and some more than others. You may also have resources available we have not listed. So the first step is to inventory your strategic resources. As you go through this list and add to it, begin to flesh each category out. Put down the actual names of your personal contacts. List the ways you might best use your time. Which of your particular talents might you use? Select your strongest suit. Which is most likely to help you reach your goal? Select a couple of secondary resources as well. In the end what you want is a pattern of strategic resources, the ones that are most worth your time and effort. Set those aside for further planning.

Now that you're familiar with your strategic resources, you can go on to the section on planning and develop a specific fundraising plan for yourself, or go on to explore ways of expanding your contacts list through Six Degrees of Separation or develop some specific ideas for further exploration.