Saturday, August 18, 2012

Free Advertising Tactics

Have you ever been in a situation where you have great school fundraiser ideas but somehow it didn't become successful? Maybe you didn't have an effective advertising strategy which in turn made your previous fundraising event futile. In connection to this, I will be discussing great advertising tactics which will cost almost nothing.
In incorporating effective school fundraiser ideas for your fundraising event, it is important to consider the importance of fundraising publicity. This is one of the constant challenges that every fundraising organizer must face in order to succeed in your efforts. When you see that people aren't interested in your fundraiser, it doesn't always mean they don't have money to help your cause, it's because people just don't know there is a need to. It's when you can effectively reach out to your customers about your fundraising event and how they can help; that you can really start to go up the ladder of success. There are numerous ways to advertise your fundraising events such as advertising and marketing campaigns, and direct mailings. These kinds of advertising strategies don't really guarantee a good return of investment as well as it is expensive. But there are still better ways to come up with a good advertising plan without shelling out large amounts of money since the whole point of a fundraiser is to raise funds, not spending your investments on uncertain methods. What I'm talking about here is getting "free advertising" for your fundraising event. How do these work? Local newspapers, television stations and radio stations are dying to get good content for their news segments. They need people to watch and read what they are publishing in order for them survive. You can take this to your advantage by making it in its feature story section. Undoubtedly, people love reading feature stories since they are entertaining, educational and inspirational so make sure you can get them to feature your fundraising event. Not only will this boost your publicity, this costs your fundraising event absolutely nothing. Being in a feature story is more effective than placing an ad for your fundraising event because the media grants on-the-spot legitimization. Most people are likely to trust organizations they see on newspapers and televisions.
So how can you get these "free advertising" to your advantage? By reaching out to media people every chance you have. Media loves touching stories such as how a certain organization is thriving it's best to raise funds for its beneficiaries; or how one volunteer made a big difference in order to achieve the organization's goal. These kinds of inspiring and true-to-life stories are what people dig in. They like these kinds of stories since it touches them with sympathy and compassion. When your fundraising campaign reaches them, you can be sure that they will contribute to the success of your fundraising efforts. Just make sure to only include the truth and reality to ensure that they won't regret helping you out. It's a bad publicity for you and your fundraising event if you will include fallacies.

Saturday, August 11, 2012

the Other Cornerstone

The strident notes of the telephone pierced the darkness, dragging me out of a sound sleep. "Mom's gone," a voice I could barely discern as being my sister's uttered through muffled sobs.
The unthinkable had occurred. My mother, the glue that bonded four generations of offspring, had gone the way of all men and women of the past. In less than three months, she would have celebrated her hundredth birthday. I had come to believe she was going to outlive her children. In the end, she preceded all of us in death.
I dressed quickly and prepared to trek to the nursing home to visit Mom for the last time. As my feet crunched in the snow, skating across patches that were too slippery to walk, I pondered how my mother had been the steadying force in my life, along with Jesus Christ, for my entire ride on planet Earth. I couldn't count the number of times I discussed the obituaries with her. We both watched the passing of the townsfolk with great interest. She knew many of the people behind the names. I had watched an entire generation vanish from the planet. But yet my mother persisted in not only clinging to life but in embracing it. Passion for her children and their families waxed strong despite the fact she was beginning to have trouble remembering all the names.
Memories came back to me like the flurries of snow which had blanketed the South Dakota prairie in white. My foray into the athletic world of Little League baseball came to mind. It was my mom, not my dad, who had thrown the baseball around the yard with me. Her early morning drives on frigid Sunday mornings to help me deliver my newspapers had no doubt kept me from abandoning my paper route. On more than one occasion as I dressed for a teaching position interview, my mother washed my car. When I purchased a local dry cleaning business, it was Mom who helped me to enjoy success as an entrepreneur. When the divorce epidemic stuck my own family, Mom offered a shelter from the storm. She had patched up my skinned knees as a child and my broken heart as an adult.
Her physical strength was legendary among us. At the age of ninety-nine, she would still work eight hours in her yard. She treated weeds like public enemy number one. Despite my protests, she continued to carry up wet laundry from the basement, navigating narrow steps that had nearly sent me plunging to the linoleum below on more than one occasion. And in her beloved back yard, she hung the clothes on a sagging wire with wooden pins whose weathered surfaces provided evidence that they had been helping Mom dry clothes for many decades.
Mom's prowess in the kitchen and with a sewing machine was also the stuff of legends. Her recipes were imprecise, but the final products satiated the hunger of many a family member or visitor even after she reached the age that most of her peers were in nursing homes or occupying cemetery plots. She did not have a lot of education. I arrived at the conclusion that my understanding of life, especially history and other academic endeavors, surpassed hers by the time I reached high school. However, it was amazing to see how she got smarter as I got older. Her book smarts might have been lacking, but the IQ of her heart was never in question. When I returned to my hometown, several people commented to me about their respect for my mother, mostly due to acts of kindness that she had bestowed upon them or their family members. She truly had a servant's heart.
As I began the process of sorting through the things in Mom's house, I discovered a music box that I had given her for Mother's day. The verse on it summed up my feelings. "Mother - you're an angel who holds me up when I find it hard to fly." I had figured at the age of sixteen that she had taught me all that she could. How wrong can a guy be? As I sat at my computer to write this, I arrived at the conclusion that she's still teaching me over forty years later. At our family gathering for the funeral, I made a comment about a certain situation. Afterward one of my nieces mentioned that it was such a Grandma Parker like oratory. I couldn't have received a higher compliment.
Today is Mother's Day. It would have been a very special day for my mother. She would have been one hundred-years-old today. Her whole extended family was prepared to celebrate. Instead all we had were memories of a special yet ordinary lady who had survived World War I, the roaring twenties, the great depression, World War II, a nasty divorce which left her raising three girls on her own, and thirty-two years of life after my father passed on. The May flowers are in bloom, bringing spring's promise of eternity even without my mom there to tend them. Life does go on without her, but it will never be the same.
My mother's death wasn't mentioned on the national news. She was unknown to the world at large, but her family recognizes she was a heroine. In an age where the glitz and glamour of life in the fast lane beckons to and dominates the world of young ladies, we need more role models like my mother. The fabric of our society was woven by mothers who summoned up the strength and courage to sacrifice the temporal pleasures of the world to provide a foundation for the family structure. I pray that God raises up more Titus 2 women like my mother, who will undergird a crumbling society with an aversion for responsibility, which is driven by sexuality, greed, and a search for endless entertainment. Jesus Christ needs to be our cornerstone, but the building of our culture requires another cornerstone. We need our mothers who will fulfill their tour of duty and prepare the next generations to do the same to perpetuate a healthy society.

Saturday, August 4, 2012

Quit Smoking Naturally - 10 Tips

Smoking is a practice in which a substance, most commonly tobacco, is burned and the smoke is inhaled. This practice is one of the most common forms of recreational drug use.
The nicotine substance is the one to be blamed for a smoking obsession. The substance is comparable with cocaine and heroin - producing pleasure from elevated dopamine activity. Smokers say that smoking can take away minor depression, suppress anger and mildly enhance concentration.
The good news is that this addiction can be contained. Here are some tips on how to quit smoking naturally.
(1) Have a positive attitude that this is an attainable goal.
(2) Do not make it a habit to light a cigarette when worried; instead, try to convince yourself to perform conscious relaxation exercise such as yoga, Tai Chi and Pilates. This kind of exercise is excellent for building self-confidence and maintaining good health as well as reducing stress.
(3) It is common to experience some withdrawal symptoms when you are trying to quit the habit. Try to join a support group that accommodates smokers who want to quit. This group of people can be very supportive in your quest to quit the nicotine addiction.
(4) Change your daily routine. Divert your attention to other meaningful activities. You can do simple things like rearranging your furniture, cleaning your house or playing music.
(5) To stop strong cravings it is also advisable to meditate, read, walk, take a warm bath, shower or a nap. Drink a lot of water. Water speeds detoxification and helps maintain energy.
(6) Spread the word that you already quit smoking. This way, you will be embarrassed if someone you know sees you smoking. As a result, you will be obliged to stop the habit naturally.
(7) Set short-term goals. List your reasons why you want to quit smoking. Have a timetable in each item and try to reach it. Celebrate every achievement by treating yourself for a job well-done.
(8) If you really want to get it over with as soon as possible, try fasting. A five-day fasting using fresh juice is very effective in removing the nicotine content in your body.
(9) Educate yourself. Read books, magazines or any material that will enhance your knowledge about the ill effects of the habit.
(10) Learn to say no. If someone asks you to smoke, just simply say no but in a polite manner.
Do not give up achieving your goal.