A few months ago I started a page on my blog to capture advice from fundraisers all over the world who are using social media and the internet to fundraise. I have been really impressed with the feedback that I’ve received and wanted to highlight a few of the contributions that have been posted.
- Get a volunteer commitment from the key people who will be driving forces for the campaign before it even starts. (Submitted by Jayson, The Wellspring Foundation)
- When approaching multiple donors in different ways with your online campaigns diversify your approach to fundraising beyond soliciting donors to converting donors to fundraisers. (Nina, Dare to Dream Fund)
- Sponsorship can be of great value; be creative in creating partnerships with local businesses. Maybe you could ask an online businesses to donate a portion of their online sales? (Micky, Innovative School Funding)
- Asking for a specific donation amounts and encourages shorter timeframes for an online campaign. This gives donors a target and an incentive to give now. (Christine, Social Actions)
- Build strong genuine relationships with the people who are promoting you over social mediums. (Colleen, Flower Power Fundraising)
- Create a fun and “sticky” YouTube video. “The viral components (video and website) effectively cut through the noise, sparked discussion, controversy and attention.” (Beau, iwantagoat.com)
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
One of the criticisms of charities is the use of donated funds to cover the overhead of events rather than the cash going right to helping the cause target. A great way to utilize sponsorship is to focus on getting sponsors to underwrite the event. They can donate inkind donations for giveaways, raffle prizes and items that would be directly used to run the event such as food products produced by the company, bottled waters, tshirt printing, lending of trade show equipment, etc. When they donate funds or donate inkind, put them on the ads, T-shirts or lit going out and they will benefit from the promotion and knock on your door again.
Perfect, i think you summed up all the key factors when it comes to generating that next phase in your non-profit! We are working on a youtube video (like you mentioned above) to help increase the awareness of our non-profit (http://www.generationrecycle.org) but have found that making a video is hard work!!! But hopefully this will be our next hurdle to tackle! Thanks for the great info you provided!
{ 2 trackbacks }