You’ve got your fundraising page just right, so now what? You need to get people to come to it. This is the fun part as it’s your opportunity to talk to people about your cause. Friends, family, colleagues, heck even strangers are all potential supporters for your campaign.
The key is to engage with your network using meaningful conversation that informs, inspires and even entertains. The following is one approach for you to use, but feel free to adapt it to suit your own personality and style:
- Announce your campaign as widely as you can:
- Group your audience into segments such as family, close friends, colleagues and acquaintances and send each group an appropriately worded message.
- Tell people why you’re fundraising, who it’s for, and how the funds you raise will be used. We have produced several resources for you to use including graphics and messages, which you can find later in this document.
- Promise people regular updates on your campaign during and after the funds are raised and make sure you follow through with it. We will of course provide you with regular updates for up to 12 months from when the funds raised are sent into the field.
- Give updates regularly to your audience:
- Tell people how much you’ve raised so far since your last communication with them, be that daily, weekly, or any period you feel is more suited to your audience.
- Share any messages of support or comfort you’ve received (provided you have their permission of course), as a way of showing your audience the movement you’re creating around your campaign.
- Be honest with your audience about your hopes and fears of making your target, and the impact this will have on the children you’re fundraising for.
- Create shout-outs:
- Thank your supporters collectively for helping you reach your milestone and/or overall campaign target.
- Identify key individuals/companies that have helped you along the way for special shout outs. They may have given you a large donation, or provided a key piece of advice, or even volunteered some time or product to help you achieve your current position.
- Make target announcements:
- Tell your audience when you’ve reached certain milestones in your fundraising target, e.g. 25%, 50%, and/or 75%.
- Announce how much you have left to make up your target. This can work well, particularly when you’re at the half-way point or more in your campaign, as it tells your audience you’re on the home straight and need one last push from them to get you to your target.
- Use alternative targets to money. For example, if your fundraising target is £120, then this is enough to provide one child a place to eat, learn and play for a whole year. You could talk about the number of months of support your campaign will, or has left to, provide.
- Incentivise your supporters:
- Offer your audience a gift in return for a donation of a specific amount. The gift itself can be sponsored by a local company. For example, get your local coffee shop to provide a free cup of coffee every time somebody donates £10. This is also a good incentive for the coffee shop who will receive some publicity.
- Tell your supporters that their donations will be matched by a generous donor. This motivates supporters to give as they know their donation will go further. You can get a local company to do the match funding promising them publicity in return. You could even match the donations yourself, setting a maximum limit that you’re comfortable with.
- Set milestone targets, and offer your supporters to do something a little crazy if they help you reach them. Refer to the ‘Fundraising activity’ section for some ideas.