Running an online fundraising campaign takes time, planning, and effort. Find out the seven core components that will help you have a successful campaign.
This article has been provided courtesy of Charity Studio. Need help? Charity Studio can develop, run, or enhance your fundraising campaigns. Learn more at charity.studio/fundraising
Running an online fundraising campaign takes time, planning, and effort. At times, the details to take into consideration can seem overwhelming. It is often difficult to figure out what is crucial to the success of the campaign and which details are not as important.
In this post, we break down the logistics of a fundraising campaign into seven core components. We hope this post will help you stay focused, organized, and most importantly raise the money needed to do good!
1. Create A Theme
People need context and meaning when they decide to donate and won’t stick around long enough to hear the whole megillah. Themes do a great job of providing context to a campaign.
Some examples of themes:
“Here I Grow” for a school fundraising campaign.
“Fuel The Future” for a building campaign.
“You Belong Here” for a community organization.
Like the subject line of an email compels people to open and read an email, a campaign theme is crucial for keeping people around long enough to learn more and donate.
A good campaign theme should be relevant to the organization’s work or how the money will be utilized. Additionally, there should be action words that encourage giving. If you can’t incorporate a call to action in the theme name itself, ensure you have a subtitle that clearly asks people to get involved and donate.
2. Develop Meaningful Visuals
Humans often judge a book by its cover and first impressions do make a difference. Well designed and creative visuals bring more awareness and recognition to your campaign.
Place two organizations sites side by side. One is shabby and in disrepair. The other organization is neat, organized, and well maintained. Regardless of which organization is offering a better service, people are more likely to give to the organization that looks good. People want to support winners!
Before running a campaign invest in professional design work that seamlessly incorporates the theme and photos of your organization’s work.
3. Share the Stories
Your organization may offer many great services and help thousands of people. You might even have pages of data demonstrating your impact. Save this for personal conversations with donors and board meetings. The general public will have a difficult time understanding what the numbers really mean but everyone can appreciate a heartfelt story of how your organization impacted individual lives.
Develop five or six stories of people who have been helped by your work. If possible, include pictures, testimonials and video. Impactful stories will help your donors relate better to your cause and will inspire them to donate, enabling you to make a difference in more people’s lives.
4. Build Awareness
You know the saying ‘if there were no pictures it never happened’? If you don’t find ways to get the word out about your campaign, consider it as if the campaign never happened.
It is imperative to create awareness through many different channels (multi-channel marketing). Some channels to consider using are:
- Email marketing
- Organic social media use
- Facebook advertising
- Messaging tools such as SMS and WhatsApp
- Enlisting the help of organization ambassadors to spread the word
5. Use Simple Intuitive Technology
Once people are committed to giving the last thing you want is technology that doesn’t work.
Use a platform that was designed for mobile phones and is visually appealing. The primary goal of the platform is to make donating quick and easy. Don’t clutter your site with too much content as it will distract donors. Remember, if a donor got to the site they most likely received all the information needed about the campaign from an email you sent or a social media post. Make sure all donation options are clearly visible.
6. Communicate With Your Donors
All of the above elements are crucial to a successful fundraising campaign. However, if you don’t go and ask your donors for money, you won’t receive much money! Before starting your campaign you need to organize a donor communication plan. Decide which potential donors will receive an in-person meeting, who will receive a phone call, and who will be sent a personalized email. Include volunteer callers in your communication plan. Try and personally reach out to as many donors as possible.
7. Show Your Gratitude
Often forgotten in the aftermath of a campaign is thanking your donors. To ensure this doesn’t happen, make it part of your plan before your campaign starts. Make sure your thank-yous are meaningful and personal. Decide if donors will receive phone calls, mailed cards, tokens of appreciation, public recognition, or another way of showing your gratitude.
Wishing you a stress-free fundraising campaign!
This article has been provided courtesy of Charity Studio. Need help? Charity Studio can develop, run, or enhance your fundraising campaigns. Learn more at charity.studio/fundraising