Running a fundraising campaign for your nonprofit is a great way to not only raise money but also raise awareness for your cause or a specific event. In this post, we’re going to be exploring some of the ways in which you can run a successful fundraising campaign for your nonprofit and some techniques to help with raising awareness. Keep reading to find out more.
Planning Your Campaign
The first step should be to come up with a clear and well-organized plan for your campaign. You will need to plan details such as funding, marketing, potential donors, and the resources you will use to run your campaign. You should also organize reports being taken to allow you to track the progress of your campaign. Delegating tasks to specific team members can help you to ensure that your campaign runs smoothly and effectively and that workloads are spread evenly. Create a timeline for the campaign and how it will run. Plan out each step of the campaign, from launching, holding events, marketing strategies, and calculating fundraising.
Raise Awareness And Marketing Your Fundraising Campaign
Once you have a plan in place for your campaign, you can start building awareness of it among the general public and previous donors. Social media is one of the best ways to build awareness for your campaign and has the bonus of being largely free to use as a form of advertisement. However, should you choose, you can boost your advertising on social media with paid adverts to increase your reach to the general public. You can also explore the option of pairing up with a social media influencer or public figure to help reach a wider audience. Consider influencers and well-known figures who share a personal interest in your nonprofit and whose audience would be sympathetic to your cause. You could also consider activities such as handing out leaflets, putting up posters or holding a stall at nearby events to interact with passers-by. Holding community activities such as car washes, community clean-up operations, fun runs, and holding a food stall are all great ways to get communities involved in your fundraising campaign and boost awareness.
Goal Tracking
An important component of running your campaign should be making sure you’re tracking your goals throughout the course of the campaign. Givebutter’s fundraising goal tracker allows you to keep track of the progress your campaign is making and how close you are to reaching your fundraising goal. Goal tracking is important as it will allow you to adapt and change your campaign as you go along and gives you an indication of whether certain techniques and strategies you are implementing in your campaign are paying off or not.
Hold A Fundraising Event
A fundraising event is a great way to give your fundraising campaign a boost. You can encourage people to attend by making it into an opportunity for people to get dressed up and enjoy a glamourous evening. Hosting drinks and dinner and providing entertainment will provide guests with an enjoyable evening, at the same time as providing your nonprofit with an opportunity to educate those attending on your fundraising cause. Be sure to send out invitations to previous donors as well as those you think would be able to donate to your cause. Consider having a theme to make it more fun, such as a casino night or 1920s glamour. Set a target for the amount you want to reach for the night to help ensure the costs of hosting the event are covered as well as the target fundraising amount.
Run Competitions And Giveaways
Another option to help with fundraising is to run a competition or giveaway. The likelihood of people donating money will be increased if there is a chance of them winning something from it. The prize could be anything from a food hamper to a holiday, depending on the kind of budget you’re willing to work with. Try and advertise your competition as much as possible. Digital marketing can be the best way to do this, such as through social media and advertising on other websites with banner ads.
Provide Evidence For Donation Impact
When it comes to encouraging people to donate more than once, it can be helpful to show your donors the impact their donations are having. Provide evidence of the way in which donations are used so that they can see where their hard-earned money has gone, and that it’s making a difference to your cause. Use channels such as your social media pages to publish details about projects and the way in which donations are effective in helping causes. You could also consider either mailing newsletters or emailing e-newsletters to your donors to keep them informed of the difference donations are making and the latest news from your nonprofit.
