How to Promote a Fundraising Campaign

Fundraising, Marketing

DIY Tips to Promote a Fundraising Campaign for Non-Profits

 

You may be asked to promote a fundraising campaign for a startup, non-profit, or even a well-established brand that is hosting a fundraising event.  And then there’s supporting a community event, raising money for a charity run or ride, or fundraising for your kid’s school!

From our 20+ years in fundraising, we’ve been helping brands and non-profits raise crucial funds to help solve the world’s most challenging environmental problems!  So besides contributing financially to the cause, this blog will teach you that there are lots of steps you can take to help get the word out and raise money.

 

1. Have a Simple, Elegant Fundraising or Donation Page

 

To promote a fundraising campaign successfully, ensure you have a great landing page to send potential donors!  You may have 1,000s of followers on Facebook, Instagram, or your mailing list.  However, if the page you are directing all of these potential donors to is slow, clunky, and poorly designed, all of your fundraising efforts may be in vain.  

This is often where we begin work with non-profit organizations.  And in case you are wondering, yes we can create a landing page within your website, or redesign your site to give you a fresh look before you kick off your next event!

Pro tip: If you will be using a platform like Classy.org, Kickstarter, or Go Fund Me, pay attention to the fine print.  Some platforms charge massive setup and/or transaction fees, or will not issue funds if you do not reach your goal amount!

Here are just a few of the organizations with whom we’ve created new website designs, and details about how we did it:

 

Pro tip: Directing traffic to your homepage is not going to generate as many conversions (aka donations or sign-ups) as a dedicated landing page for your event will.

 

how to promote your fundraising campaign

Before you begin spreading the word about your next fundraising campaign, make sure your website or landing page has clear messaging about what your organization does for the community!

Checklist for Your Fundraising Campaign Landing Page

 

Does your fundraising campaign webpage have the following:

 

1. Good Branding

Are the logos, fonts, colors, and imagery on your fundraising campaign landing page the same as your print, email, Facebook, or Instagram post?  If there’s a disconnect, a potential donor may be unlikely to give!  Read our What Makes Good Branding blog for more tips on how to build a better brand style.

 

2. Inspiration + Impact

Does it inspire, and tell the story of your cause and organization? Do you demonstrate impact? Example: A contribution of $200 can provide a kayaking class for 20 kids!

 

3. Easy to Make a Donation

Is there a clear call to action (CTA)?  And, it is clear of any other calls to action except the focus of your campaign?  In addition, do you have a short amount of steps/clicks to actually submit a donation or sign up? Hint: 3 or fewer steps are best!

 

4. Optimization + Tracking

It is optimized to be found by search engines organically?  Meaning have you correctly set up the SEO??  In addition, do you have tracking set up via your website host, third-party app, or Google Analytics so you can easily tell where you acquire website traffic from, and how long they spend on your webpage or webpages?  And, if they do not make a donation, where are they dropping off?  Finally, does your landing page load fast?  Page speed times should be 2 seconds or less to keep a potential donor engaged.

 

5. Easy to Share

Is it possible to promote peer-to-peer fundraising from your landing page?  Meaning once someone engages and makes a gift, is there anything you have in place to help them share this via email, or social?  Or can they start their own page or fundraising team?

 

If you cannot answer yes to all of these, then the first step for you in learning how to promote a fundraising campaign is to get your website’s landing page in order.  Drop us a line if you want to get started with a website rebrand or redesign.

 

Pro tip: Remember that now more than ever, people are signing up for fundraising events or making their donations through a mobile device.  Therefore, ensure your landing page is also mobile-friendly!

 

how to promote your fundraising campaign Outdoor Outreach

Having a clear call to action, like Outdoor Outreach’s latest web banner, will make it easier for potential donors to get involved!

2. Create and Gather all of Your Fundraising Campaign Assets

 

Whether you are leading the charge on this fundraising event, or just playing a supporting role, ensure all the assets you need to promote the event are accounted for.  And easily accessible in one place!

What Types of Assets Need to be Created for Your Fundraiser

 

What do I mean by assets?  Anything that could be used to help promote the fundraising campaign and events. This includes:

  • Copy: Approved text describing the event, taglines, hashtags, and anything you’ll be writing out in your pitch for donations
  • Logos: Logos of the brand, non-profit, and all partners that you will need to include
  • Images: High-resolution images (greater than 1MB, 300dpi, and in the CMYK color layout in most cases) are best for print.  Low-resolution images are best for web, email, and social (see below for specs).
  • Video Production: 15 seconds, 30 seconds, and 1-minute video clips are perfect lengths to use for Instagram, Facebook, Instagram Stories, or your webpage
  • Press Release or Public Service Announcement
  • Graphic Designs: Need help with this one?  Read more on how we might be able to work together!

 

how to promote your fundraising campaign

Having professional photos and videos created can help you appeal to potential donors!  Need help?  Read our blog on How to Take Better Photos!

 

Pro tip: Have a graphic designer create images in the following sizes that you, your volunteers, and your supporters can easily use:

  • Instagram (1080x1080p or less, as long as you keep equal ‘square’ proportions)
  • Facebook and webpages (1200x628p, 640x320p, or similar rectangular proportions)
  • Email header or webpage banner (600x200p or a skinny rectangle!)

Where to Store Your Fundraising Campaign Assets

 

We use both Dropbox and Google Drive to store everything from images, videos, logos, or marketing strategy docs.  Create one file folder per event, per year, and drop everything into this folder and make sure everything is labeled.  IMG_78956 does nothing to help people identify the image and where it can be used!

In addition, share not only with your team but make it easily accessible to anyone helping you to promote the fundraising event.  Furthermore, you can also create a webpage where all of these links live!

 

Example: NATIONAL SUNGLASSES DAY

 

As an example, National Sunglasses Day is June 27th, and they’ve created a webpage that contains all of their print, web, and social collateral to help you promote the event for your brand!  Not only does this make it easy to share and download images and videos, but it also provides you with display ideas, copy suggestions and they even offer someone who can help you create customized artwork around your National Sunglasses Day campaign!

 

how to promote your fundraising campaign

Whether your non-profit organization supports projects at home or abroad, make sure everyone on your team has easy access to the latest photos and videos to promote your programs.

3.  Set Up Your Fundraising Campaign Marketing Strategy

 

Now that you’ve got the major content pieces in place for your fundraising campaign, you need a clear outline of where this content will be distributed and when.  We cannot stress enough how having a plan in place weeks before launching the campaign will help everyone on your team stay organized and connected.

Therefore, if you have a set event date, work backward from there.  Ensure you leave plenty of time to drop content in emails, blogs, social media posts, and communicate with your non-profit champions.

 

Pro tip: Do not expect people to stumble upon your fundraiser simply through search alone.  Help them find it through strategic content distribution.  The great blog you just wrote, the graphic images created, or the video you just recorded to promote your fundraiser can be shared in a number of different ways.

 

how to promote a fundraising campaign

Create branded imagery that is sized correctly and can be easily used by your team, your volunteers, and your brand ambassadors for social sharing!

Distribution Channels to Include in Your Fundraising Campaign Marketing Strategy

 

Here are a few channels we use, with links to how to DIY many of these steps!

 

Tracking your Fundraising Campaign Content Distribution

 

Pro tip: Keep track of the content you are distributing, what channels you use, and who is in charge of what.

We create a Content Calendar to stay organized and use publishing tools like Hootsuite to track when, where, and what we’re sharing for the upcoming fundraising event.

Examples of other tools you can use to organize your fundraising campaign content: Excel, Google Sheets, Buffer, Post Planner, Trello, and Hubspot.  Invite everyone that is participating in promoting the fundraising event to have access!

 

digital marketing costs phone outdoors

With mobile giving and peer-to-peer fundraising being two of the best ways to reach potential donors, make sure your website and/or landing page are mobile-friendly.

Key Takeaways on How to Promote a Fundraising Campaign

 

Here are your action items for the next few weeks:

 

Get that webpage or landing page ready!  Make sure it’s inspirational, the SEO is dialed, and it’s mobile-friendly!

 

Make sure you can accurately track conversions so you can see where your web traffic is coming from. This is huge to help you decide where to spend the rest of that marketing budget!  If your fundraising event gets more people clicking to register or donate via Facebook than Instagram or LinkedIn, spending on pay-per-click advertising on Facebook may be a great option!

 

Gather your assets– photos, video, copy, press release, and put them all in one place for easy sharing.

 

Create a marketing strategy to spread the word about your fundraising event!

 

Evaluate Your Fundraiser, But Keep it Fun!

 

The last step is to evaluate your fundraising campaign during and after the big event.  And, instead of focusing on negative stuff like what went wrong, or that you need to raise even more money next year, try and keep your fundraiser de-brief fun for your team.  Hold it in a cool spot.   Take ’em out for a hike or a SUP class on the bay.  Celebrate the small successes and the reason you are fundraising in the first place!

 

Want more tips on digital marketing?  Check out these posts:

 

To learn more about what we do on the regular, follow Top Rope Media’s adventures on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter.

Until next time, happy fundraising!

Meredith

 

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