|
|
|
With foresight on a good domain name, Cedarburg’s FundRaising.Com takes off
Some might consider Dick Raddatz a sucker for developing a concept of giving away free lollipop samples. But after discovering the opportunity of direct marketing to fundraisers and moving onto the Internet, the FundRaising.Com CEO is tasting sweet satisfaction almost a decade later.
Raddatz founded Raddatz Marketing Companies out of his home with his wife Judy. With a staff of four to five people, he developed a marketing program around the concept of giving away free lollipop samples.
"It was an inexpensive project, they could be drop-shipped and they had a very low overhead," Raddatz says.
As inexpensive as it was, he still found himself with a $50,000 credit-card bill that forced him to mortgage his home. A short time later, funding problems left him another $50,000 debt. But the company survived the early lack of capital.
"It’s hard to start out with nothing and go through all the funding, especially if you grow at the rate we did," Raddatz says.
He realized the opportunity of direct marketing to fundraisers. "The Lollipop Company" was growing and Raddatz moved his business and his family into a larger house in Mequon. Seeing the growth opportunities of the Internet in 1995, he registered the domain name www.fundraising.com. In September, 1999 the company kicked off its aggressive new business strategy by launching its Web site, and in December 1999, Raddatz decided to officially change the name of his company to FundRaising.Com.
Raddatz Marketing Companies "is not the kind of name that brings recognition," Raddatz says. "We bought the domain name in 1999 and, being a fundraising company, www.fundraising.com was the "cool" thing to do, he recalls.
With the help of the Internet, FundRaising.Com now sells more than 20 products for groups and organizations that need to raise money. Raddatz’s biggest challenges in building a top-flight Internet company were hiring the right people and getting right exposure.
From 1999 to 2000, FundRaising.Com exploded from nine employees to 47, its largest growth yet. So in January, Raddatz moved his company from Mequon into its current, 4,000-square-foot office at N143 W5775 Pioneer Rd. in Cedarburg, which allows space for the company’s call center as well as executive offices and some warehouse space. He says the firm will be hiring a lot more people for the upcoming school year.
"A lot of our employees are mothers with kids in school who want to work six to eight hours and still be home with their kids," Raddatz says. "So they can relate to the PTA and other boosters in terms of fundraising."
Raddatz also says getting the FundRaising.Com brand into the mainstream market is pivotal for a company without millions of dollars to spend on Superbowl advertising. The firm uses direct mail and "viral marketing," or customers talking to other customers, to spread its name without doing heavyweight advertising on television or radio.
"We also made some strategic partnerships with Kellogg’s and ProFlowers by becoming their primary fundraising company," Raddatz says.
FundRasing.Com provides three ways for organizations to raise money. The first is traditional product sales, which FundRaising.Com makes cheaper by eliminating sales representatives.
"The organization gets a much higher profit," Raddatz says.
Another option on the site is an online fundraising mall. Those who wish to earn money for their groups can log on to a fundraising mall Web site, select their groups and then link to different e-commerce sites to make purchases. The e-commerce sites award affiliate fees to the site through which their site was accessed. Although the online fundraising mall concept is not new, FundRaisng.Com has the highest donation rate of 100% of all affiliate fee revenue to its group, according to Dick Raddatz, who says other fundraising firms offer between 50-75% of affiliate fees to their groups.
"It’s like writing a check for $100 to a charity, but you don’t have to," he says.
The convenience of the Web site is due to its simplicity, according to Rick Raddatz.
"It’s really a matter of hiring the right developers," the younger Raddatz says. "If you hire the right people, things get done right."
Rick Raddatz says he utilizes the Internet package Microsoft Shop, which includes a Windows NT server and software such as Internet Information Service (IIS).
"It’s so easy to use because it comes in one package," he says.
Rick and his sister Lauralee are two Raddatz children who have returned to work with their father. Reuniting his family is Dick Raddatz’s greatest accomplishment in business.
"The whole family is back together again," he says. "The kids were out on their own for 10 years and they wanted to come back."
Prior to joining FundRaising.Com, Rick Raddatz spent 11 years with Microsoft. During that time, he developed code for a variety of Microsoft products, including Microsoft Basic, SOS 5.0 and 6.0, Windows NT and Visual Basic 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0. He is a recognized expert in technology who has conducted technology and strategy briefings to industry giants such as Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer of Microsoft.
Lauralee was head of business development for Europe, Middle East and Africa at Mmd Advertising and Public Relations in London, developing and implementing the entire marketing strategy for new, pan-European PR service, targeted to multinational it and Telecom companies. She is well known throughout her industry.
Now Dick Raddatz hopes hiring the right people as well as growth on the Internet will help FundRaising.Com reach its ultimate goal. "We want to be the portal under which all fundraising can take place," he says. "With our name, we are in a very powerful position."
SMALL BUSINESS TIMES , MILWAUKEE, WI - July 21, 2000.
|
|
|
|
|