Have a schedule!
To maximize impact and make your life easier, we recommend you keep your site live for 20–30 days. Timing is important in crowdfunding; we want to make sure we’re reaching out to our donors with an even cadence that won’t tire them out and will instead excite them!
Here’s an example:
- Week 1: “Soft Launch” your campaign. Reach out to 5-10 friends and family members who you think would be interested in your campaign and ask them to be among the first to donate to your cause. Let them know how much; even a few dollars will help get the ball rolling.
- Week 2: Start your wide launch campaign. Reach out to a larger network of people via email. Begin posting on social media. LinkedIn is a great place to reach potential donors and engage with alumni. We recommend posting every 1-3 days while your campaign is active. Post about your campaign, your department's success stories, and what you’ll be doing with the funds.
- Week 3: Keep posting on social media; let people know that your campaign is coming to an end and how far from your goal you are. Begin to look at who has donated and who has not. Reach out to those you feel closest to and ask if they can share the campaign; this will take the financial awkwardness out of the ask.
- Week 4: Start winding down! You’ve done a lot over the last 4 weeks, and you should be very proud! Whether you hit your goal or not, don’t worry! Keep posting on social media, and send one last email to your extended network. Let your network know that you’re equally as proud of them as you are of yourself!
Words Matter!
You’ll have a lot of opportunities to tell your story, whether on your campaign page, in emails, or on social media. Connect with your donors by showing them the problems that your campaign is solving. Use anecdotes of people actually affected by your cause, and invite users to be a part of the good that you’re doing.
The truth is, just by visiting your site and learning more about your fundraiser, donors are helping your cause. Be sure to thank them as often as possible, even if they haven’t donated a cent!
A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words or Dollars!
Use high-quality photos to get your message across. Donors should be able to tell who their dollars are benefiting just by the photos you use. You can work with the advancement team to create a compelling photo spread. Just let us know what you’re looking for, and what you think would be most compelling, and we’ll do our best to hunt these images down for you.
Useful articles
https://donorbox.org/nonprofit-blog/magic-words-that-increase-donations
https://community.pepperdine.edu/imc/resources/editing-writing/