We know that fundraising for an organization can be both exciting and scary. Here are some tips and tricks for helping you share more of the proverbial magic.
Start the campaign off right by making a donation to yourself: Other people are more likely to donate to your page when they see that someone has already contributed.
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- Donating some of your own money also demonstrates to potential supporters that you are serious about helping the cause.
- Remember, your potential donors will be interested in the cause, but they are primarily interested in you. Having your picture and info on your campaign site increases the likelihood that your contacts will donate.
Use your fundraising goal to your advantage:
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- You create more urgency when you ask friends and family for support when you let them know you promised to raise a certain amount of money.
- You give yourself a built in reason to follow up if the goal hasn’t been met.
Fundraising doesn’t need to be stressful. Don’t feel pressure to wake up at the crack of dawn one morning and get all of your outreach out at once. It actually benefits you and your efforts if you pace yourself and send your outreach out gradually.
The best fundraisers start by asking their closest contacts first and then progressively working outwards to more distant contacts. So think about getting your campaign started off right by sending individual emails to your five closest contacts and asking them for donations first. Getting your “inner circle” to donate to your page will help you build up some fundraising momentum. And mentally, it’s just good to start with the people you are most comfortable with!
How will this help?
- Your closest contacts are the ones most likely to donate; more remote contacts are less likely to donate.
- Studies show that as you make progress towards your fundraising goal people become more and more likely to donate to you (success breeds success!).
- When you start with your closest contacts and work outwards, you ensure that you build up progress from your core supporters before you reach out to the people who are less likely to donate.
- This means maximizing your chances of successfully meeting (or exceeding) your fundraising goal!
Contacting your networks correctly:
There is no perfect formula for how to reach out to your circle of contacts when asking them for donations, but there are some best practices to guide you:
- You know your closest contacts better than anyone does, so don’t feel like you have to stick to the canned campaign messaging or a predetermined outreach channel. If your best friend responds best to a text, your mother is always checking her email, and the girl that sits in the cubicle beside you is addicted to Twitter, then hit them up using those platforms.
- When it comes to people outside of your close circle of friends & family (i.e. business contacts, friends of friends, distant relatives, your entire address book, etc.) it is always best to send an email if you have their email address.
- If a one line message is going to work for a certain individual or group, go ahead and do that. If a longer proper message will work best, do that. Just make sure you include a direct request for support and a link to your fundraising page at the end of every appeal.
- Use social media to anyone who will listen. Literally anyone.
Bottom line, when contacting your contacts, just be yourself. You’ll know if something feels forced and they’ll know if something sounds inauthentic.
Nagging the non-responsive, nicely
Remember, people can easily miss or skip over your initial outreach! That’s why it can be a good idea to throw out your personal fundraising goal when you first contact them. It makes any subsequent follow up a personal update instead of pestering.
- Include progress updates in your follow-up messages and consider including any inspiring stories or personal anecdotes you have about the cause.
- Remember to continue using social media! Social media is a softer medium for communicating with your contacts and it’s more acceptable to frequently post updates in those channels.
Just remember that you are raising money for a good cause, so the only thing that asking people for money can do is make you look like a good person. So ask away. And if you don’t know who to ask or where to start, just follow the steps above and you’ll be golden!
Feel free to reach out to us at juniorboard@readahead.org if you need any assistance accessing your fundraising page, or with any questions regarding your fundraising!
Click here to download our guide to accessing your fundraising page.
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