Fundraisers offer a fine line between amazing accomplishment and extensive stress. After pouring endless amounts of time, preparation, sweat and sometimes tears – what are your next steps after it’s officially live?
We’re here to answer some questions and provide some tips to help you with your fundraiser right away. The success of your fundraiser is based on the amount of eyes you attract and how many of those eyes you convert into an action.
Here are 9 valuable tips to help build buzz for your fundraiser and drive more donations
1. Get graphic
Get your mind out of the gutter! What we’re telling you is to use pictures throughout your fundraiser’s page. Are you raising money for sick puppies? Show us their adorable faces! (tell me that puppy didn’t get you more interested in this post!) Are you trying to help someone pay their massive medical bills? Show us that person! Show us who your fundraiser supports, it’s critical to building empathy and understanding in potential donors.
2. Be personal
Along with showing everyone what they’re supporting, don’t be afraid to TELL them what they’re supporting as well. Tell the stories of who or what you are fundraising for, and do it in detail, and UPDATE! Make sure that potential donors are always in the loop about what your campaign is for and what stages it is in. It’s important not to leave any spots on your page blank and to use as many opportunities for engaging storytelling as you can.
3. Bring it to the real world
Find some community events that give you the chance to do some advertising in the real world, no matter what it is (hot air balloon fair, comic convention, what have you.) You can bring flyers to the event for people to take home (J&R marketing can help here) and even maybe a tablet or laptop to allow them to make donations or purchases of custom items (the profits of which will go towards your organization.) You can’t beat a good old fashioned real life interaction.
4. Keep talking
Make it tough for folks to forget about your fundraiser, don’t annoy them but if you have the chance to bring it up, do so gently and naturally. Throw a mention into an email to your team at work, or your family/company newsletter, even put up flyers around your neighborhood so the fundraiser will always be fresh in their minds even if you haven’t gotten a chance to remind them in person. Your fundraiser is important! Don’t let people forget about it!
5. Recognize the value of social media and use it!
Real world interactions are critical, don’t get me wrong, but since your fundraiser is likely primarily online, don’t underestimate the power of social media and the views it can get you. Write some Facebook, Instagram and Twitter posts linking back to your fundraiser page and gather your interested followers! Make sure not to spam people with your page, but keep them informed and aware. You can even make a facebook group for the fundraiser to update and inform donors. If your fundraiser hits a major milestone, tweet about it, if a cool person donates, ask them to make an Instagram post, people like being involved in successful campaigns, let them know that yours is one of them!
6. Use that share button!
It’s important not to just share your fundraising page, but to share related content that will keep people interested. if a think piece related to your cause came out, share it, if a clickbait came out about your cause, share it! It’s important to not only keep the fundraiser at the top of peoples minds but to also keep them reminded of what the fundraiser is for and the important changes that can be made with donations. Be sure to include a link at the bottom of your shared posts though!
7. Get technical
If you’re tech savvy or have a friend/colleague/coworker who is, there are a few things you can do to maximize views and get potential donors on your fundraising page.
- Build a QR code for your fundraiser and put it on your flyers and maybe even your promotional products if you make any (J&R is committed to helping you make money and is great at this sort of work!)
- Shorten your URL so you won’t waste valuable space on Twitter, try using the Google URL Shortener to knock off a few characters and give you more space to speak about your cause!
- If your personal web page has a lot of traffic, make sure those visitors also know about your campaign by embedding a link to the page for the fundraiser in a few strategic spots on the site, maybe even dedicate a blog post to it!
8. Get supporters excited and involved!
Make it worth their while to donate! Along with offering custom products related to your cause for sale or promotional purposes (another thing J&R marketing is useful for,) you can do cool things like run contests based on your fundraisers success, offer prizes to people who share the most or garner the most outside donations, the options are truly endless, but try and make donating not only feel good, but fun and worthwhile!
9. Get those donations however you can
If you really want to make the most out of your fundraiser with the time that you have, make sure you have a simple donation button as well as a wide variety of products that potential donors can purchase, with information about how their purchase will help the cause (percentage, production costs, everything, be as transparent about where the money is going as possible and people will feel much more comfortable about giving it to.) There are so many options for items to print on that it is impossible t0 NOT find something that fits your cause and is highly desirable.
And that’s it!
I mean, that isn’t it! You’re gonna have to implement some of these tools for success, if not all of them. Just keep researching and learning about how to grow your fundraiser, and don’t forget to keep J&R in mind for custom promotional products.
