Five Ways to Spread the Word About Your Fundraising Campaign
Making the decision to hold an online fundraiser and making it happen are two different things. There is so much that goes into planning a fundraiser including setting goals of the fundraiser and deciding on the methods to use in spreading the word about your fundraising campaign. Perhaps, a major challenge that many people face when running a fundraising campaign online is determining the best ways of spreading the word about their fundraiser. Fortunately, once you know how to spread the message about your online fundraising campaign, you not only draw the attention of more potential donors to your organization, but also make your fundraiser stand out.
#1. Create a website
When people hear about a fundraising campaign from friends, co-workers or family members, they will most likely ‘Google it’ up. That’s why creating an online presence for your fundraising campaign is very important. Setting up a website for your online fundraising campaign gives both the campaign and your organization the much needed online presence. Apart from ensuring that people get first-hand information about your online fundraiser, a website enables people to donate to your organization in a more convenient way. If you are currently without a website, the Donorhut platform provides you with a fully featured campaign which you can use as your website. In addition to accepting donations, your Donorhut campaign can act as your organizations website and be customized to your branding, learn more by taking a tour of the platform.
#2. Spread the word during the holiday season in different events
The holiday season provides the most appropriate time to spread the word about your fundraising campaign online and increase donations. Ideally, use social gatherings and events to inform more people about your online fundraising campaign. During the holiday season, people hold different celebrations and events. These include Christmas, Thanksgiving, New Year’s Eve and Hanukkah among others. This is an excellent time for bringing up information and ideas your online fundraising campaign. The word about your campaign will spread faster when friends and family members, particularly your target donors and audience, meet in these gatherings. During these gatherings, information about your organization and its cause as well as contribution experiences are likely to be shared. This will most likely convince others to make their donations.
Additionally, send potential donors ‘Season’s Greetings’. In your greetings, connect with potential donors at a personal level while asking for donations rather than gifts. Ensure that the recipients of your greetings’ emails know that regardless of how large or small their donations are, their support will be appreciated by your organization. Once they donate to your organization, send them thank you messages to show them that your organization appreciates their donations.
#3. Use social media
Social media is a very important aspect of any online fundraising campaign. A large percentage of contributors come from the social media shares. These include Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, and Facebook shares among others. To spread the word about your fundraising campaign online, start by creating a Facebook page that draws more potential donors to your campaign. Invite people to like your Facebook page by reaching out to close friends and members of your organization. Add pictures from your organizations and its activities on your Facebook page. Create posts and tweets that tell people more about your organization, its cause and the fundraising campaign. You can even come up with a hash tag for your online fundraising campaign.
Use Google+, YouTube and other social media networks to share videos that tell potential donors more about your organization. You can also create a blog for the campaign where people can learn more about the fundraising campaign. Ideally, explore as many social media networks as possible. For instance, if you belong to an online community, let them know about your online fundraising campaign. Remember that the success of your online fundraising campaign depends on the people that care. However, they will not care unless you share your story with them. Earlier we wrote a blog post about how social media can supercharge your fundraising, you may want to read it for a more in-depth review of this method.
#4. Use local news channels
When your organization has great stories, it will attract more local news channels or outlets. Therefore, let the local outlets know about the great work that your organization does. Visit websites of radio programs and TV channels and send them press releases. Use the contacts of online news channels to share stories and messages about your online fundraising campaign with them. Once one news outlet publishes or airs your story, others will follow.
#5. Run an online contest
Contests create a win-win situation for donors and organizations. However, they entice more donors who participate in the contests trying to win the set prizes. Thus, running a contest for your online fundraiser will not only spread the word about your fundraising campaign online but also attract more donors. To run a contest, talk to a business that believes in the cause of your organization. Discuss prizes that will be worn by the donors and how the contest will be promoted and run. Ideally, donors may be required to donate at a specific level to be entered into a draw.
If you are running or planning to run a fundraising campaign online, try any of these ways of spreading a word about the campaign. You can also combine two or more ways to expand the reach of your campaign, drive engagements and increase donations to your organization.