Three ways to get funding for yourself:

Email your friends

Set up a GoFundMe campaign to raise money

Make a video on YouTube and share with friends.

One of the first things you can do to help get money for airfare, hotel fees and conference fees is to reach out to friends and family. $20, $30, $40 from several people can start to add up.

Remember when talking with people about supporting you to attend the conference to share why you want to attend, and what you will gain by attending in addition to sharing the conference highlights. Also remind them that their contribution is a gift towards the peacebuilding and advocacy work you and the other attendees will be doing at the conference, and in the future. When you give them all the facts about what you will be doing and gaining by attending the conference, people often find it a joy to give in support. Many people have done this sort of fundraising, for past conferences and had great success. Below is a sample letter that you can use when asking for donations. Feel free to adapt the letter so it meets your needs.

In addition to directly asking for donations you can also work in your local community to raise money for yourself and others. This can be done through events like bake sales, garage sales, etc. Ask your friends and colleagues to contribute.

Email your friends

SAMPLE EMAIL LETTER

Dear Friends and Family (or insert the name of the person you are sending the letter to so it seems more personal),

I am writing to ask you, my closest friends and family, to support me to attend the Be the Movement! National Conference, this October, in Washington DC, put on by The Peace Alliance.

The conference will focus on the Five Peacebuilding Cornerstones, of The Peace Alliance Be the Movement campaign: Empowering Community Peacebuilding, Teaching Peace in Schools, Humanizing Justice Systems, Cultivating Personal Peace, and Fostering International Peace.

At the conference we will explore practical, yet transformative, actions we can collectively take to change the trajectory of our nation.  And, we will make our voices heard to our Members of Congress, as we spend time lobbying on Capitol Hill.

Together we will work to advocate for a nation and world where:

1.     We proactively organize ourselves around the effective work and values of peace.
 
2.     Our elected officials prioritize policies and legislation that uplift humanity, helping to reduce violence by implementing proven peacebuilding solutions.
 
3.     Our communities have the systems and support they need to effectively transform conflict and violence into opportunity and hope.
 
4.     We teach peace and conflict resolution skills in our schools, giving our kids a solid foundation from which to thrive in life.
 
5.     Justice prioritizes restoring and repairing harm done, thus bringing healing.
 
6.     The work of peacebuilding is our primary international approach, widely employed in hot spots across the planet, helping to mitigate conflict before it turns to violence and war.

The conference will cost ______ for travel, food, hotel, and registration fees. I can afford to cover ______ of it myself, and am working to raise the rest of the money.  If you are willing to help please send a check made out to:

INSERT YOUR NAME/WHO YOU WANT THE CHECK MADE OUT TO
INSERT YOUR ADDRESS/WHERE YOU WANT THE CHECK TO BE SENT

Or you can use my GoFundMe account to make a donation via credit card.  (www.gofundme.com)

Attending this conference is not just for my benefit. In addition to the important connections I will make and getting to learn from the inspiring speakers and experts, I will have the chance to learn advocacy skills that I can teach to you and use to make our community better.  In addition, I will put the skills I learned to the test as I lobby on Capitol Hill to make our world better for our friends, children and grandchildren.

I will not call you about this request, as I would rather you did not experience any pressure to donate. If you would like to be part of a better future for all, and/ or want to support me, please consider making a gift. If I do not raise enough funds to attend the conference or am unable to for other reasons I will return your donation to you (unless you would rather me still donate it). If I raise too much I will donate the remaining money to the conference/ Be the Movement campaign so that others can attend.

If you would like to learn more about the conference or about attending yourself please visit https://peacealliance.org/be-the-movement-national-conference-in-dc.

I would also be more than happy to discuss the conference with you in more details, what I am hoping to gain from attending and/or why I want to attend.

Thanks for considering my request.

Sincerely,
Insert Your Name

Set up a GoFundMe campaign to raise money

GoFundMe ( http://www.gofundme.com ) or other similar sites, help you easily and quickly raise money from your network.  (They do take a 8% cut, so if folks want to give directly to you, it will save some of that money.)  You can use some of the language from the sample letter above, or you can also record a video to insert on the site (see step 3 below).  This can be HIGHLY effective and we’d strongly encourage it.  See instructions at bottom of page!

Make a video on YouTube and share with friends.

Record a video from your webcam on YouTube. Here is a link to some directions on how to record a YouTube video:
https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/57409?hl=en

You can also record a video from your smartphone (iPhone, Android, etc.) and upload it to your YouTube account (you may have to create an account, though most Gmail accounts are already set up with a YouTube account).

It would be smart to write out a short script beforehand to help guide you, but do look into the camera and speak from your heart when recording.  We advise you to keep your video short and sweet, a minute or less is plenty.

The video can either be uploaded to your GoFundMe page or sent directly to your friends and family (through Facebook, email, etc.)

Tips/script for making a fundraising video

Tips:

•  Speak slowly and clearly so your viewers can understand you.
• Make the video short and to the point because if it is too long people will not watch the whole thing.
• Try not to be reading off a piece of paper, and instead speak directly at the camera. This will look more professional.
• Make sure to include personal reasons in your video because for most people these are much more compelling of a reason to donate then just facts about the conference.

Sample Script:
*Feel free to adapt the script so that it meets your needs.

Hi, my name is [insert your name here] and I would like to ask you, my closest friends and family, to support me to attend the Be The Movement! National Conference, this October, in Washington DC, put on by The Peace Alliance.

The conference will focus on the Five Peacebuilding Cornerstones, of The Peace Alliance Be the Movement campaign: Empowering Community Peacebuilding, Teaching Peace in Schools, Humanizing Justice Systems, Cultivating Personal Peace, and Fostering International Peace.

At the conference we will explore practical, yet transformative, actions we can collectively take to change the trajectory of our nation in positive ways.  And, we will make our voices heard to our Members of Congress, as we spend time lobbying on Capitol Hill.

I want to attend the conference because [insert reason as to why you want to attend]. By attending I am hoping to gain [insert what you are hoping to gain by attending].

The conference will cost ______ for travel, food, hotel, and registration fees. I can afford to cover ______ of it myself, and am working to raise the rest of the money.  If you are willing to help please send a check made out to [insert the address as to where you want the money to be sent] or feel free to make a donation on my GoFundMe page that can be found at [insert the website address of your GoFundMe page].

If you would like to learn more about the conference please feel free to visit The Peace Alliance website at www.peacealliance.org  I would also be more than happy to speak with you more about why I would like to attend the conference and what I hope to gain by attending.

Thank you so much for considering my request!

Steps for making a GoFundMe:

1. Go to https://funds.gofundme.com/dashboard/create and create your account.
2. A window will then open up that prompts you to enter basic information about your campaign (such as your goal for the amount of money you want to raise, the title of your campaign, your zip code and your campaign theme).
3. You will next have the option to insert a photo or video. It is required that you at least enter a photo. The photo you enter now will be the main photo for your campaign. If you later decide you want to add a different photo and or a video you will have the chance to do that.
4. You will now be prompted to “tell your story.” This is where you can enter a message that describes what exactly you are raising money for.  This message will be shown on your campaign page.  Feel free to use the sample text from the letter to your friends or the video script.
5. You will next have the option to link your campaign with your Facebook. This is optional so it is okay if you do not do this, but if you do it will add your Facebook photo to your campaign. This might help people more easily recognize your campaign. GoFundMe strongly recommends that you link your Facebook to your GoFundMe account.
6. You will then be given a personal link that you can give to your friends and family. This link can be added to materials such as your letter to your friends and family.  Later you will also have the option to customize this link if you so choose.
7. Next GoFundMe will give you a few options to invite your Facebook friends and or email contacts to view your page. You will also have the option to manually enter the email address of the people you want to send your page too.  Doing any of these is optional so feel free to skip them if you prefer not to have your page directorially sent to anyone. You can advertise and send the link yourself if you would rather.
8. You will lastly have the option to have your campaign posted to your twitter just like you had the option to do this with Facebook. Again this is optional so it is okay if you do not want to do this or do not have a twitter.
9. Now you will be given the option to customize your GoFundMe link instead of using the one provided. Doing this will be a good idea because instead of the link having a random letter and number combo you can make it something like your name that will be easy for others to remember.
10. You will now be promoted with the option to print a poster advertising your campaign. If you want to publically advertise your campaign, printing your poster and hanging it is a good way to do that.
11. You will now be shown a window where you can post an update to your campaign page. Updates can include update information about the conference, your fundraising efforts or anything else you think will be relevant. You do not have to post an update right away as you can always come back later and add one.  You can post as many or as few updates as you would like.
12. GoFundMe will likely now have a window pop up that asks you who will be withdrawing the money from your account. Remember that there are charges when you do this, but doing this multiple times opposed to once does not mean you will face additional charges then had you just done it once.
13. To update your page (add an update message, an image, video, etc.) later go back to www.gofundme.com and click “Dashboard” in the upper right corner. You can update your page as many times as you would like.
14. Once you have clicked dashboard you can now withdraw the money if you choose. To do this click on the down arrow next to your name in the upper right corner. One of the options here will be to withdraw your money.  You will then be prompted to choose who is going to withdraw the money and you will be given steps to follow.