Promoting Your Crowdfunding Campaign

Who are my donors, and why are they donating?

Planning for Success

● The 30-45 days before a campaign is launched are just as important as the 30-45 days the campaign is live.

● Plan and strategize your outreach, have the materials you need ready to go, budget your rewards, set an ambitious and achievable goal, know who’s going to help get your campaign in front of people.

● Ideally, you’ll have a very good idea of where the majority of your donations will come from. Who is going to be donating? Why are people going to support you?

Soft Launch

● There’s nothing uglier than a crowdfunding campaign with zero donations.

● Before campaign launch, identify your guaranteed donors: anybody you absolutely know is going to donate, simply because you’re asking them to. These are people like - you, your staff, your board, your friends & family, etc. Make a list.

● Do a soft launch for just your guaranteed donors. The day before you send out mass email & social media appeals, publish the campaign and only share it with your guaranteed donors. By the time you do your larger appeal, there will aready be donations and the campaign will already have momentum.

Campaign Momentum

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The more personal your solicitation, the more likely it is to get a donation.

Throughout Campaign

• Set micro-goals based on the donations you got in week one.

o Micro-goals help make donors feel like their contributions make a larger impact.

• Email everybody who has donated already to thank them, and also ask that they get 5 friends/family to donate $10 each.

o Give them an email they can copy, paste & send.

• Publicly thank people who have donated on facebook.

• Social media posts should highlight the progress, and ask that people donate to help get you to your micro-goal.

• If you’re offering rewards, send out an email highlighting them and reminding readers that in addition to the gift, they’re truly helping your cause.

Best Practices for Email

• Every email has one goal: get people onto the campaign page.

• Every email has a link to the campaign page.

• Every email has a strong call-to-action: “Can you donate today?”

• Try and keep them personal. Have an email that you copy, paste & send and just change the recipient’s name. Don’t cc loads of people - it will feel impersonal.

• Remember, all the info about the campaign is on the campaign page, so keep your emails simple. 6 sentence maximum.

• If somebody hasn’t donated yet, remind them in the same thread.

• Any mass emails should be congratulatory of the success you’ve had so far - they’re motivating news updates, not painful reminders.

Best Practices for Social Media

In general, social media is less effective than email at getting donations. However it’s integral to your outreach and shouldn’t be ignored.

• Every post has one goal: get people onto the campaign page.

• Every post has a link to the campaign page.

• Every post has a strong call-to-action: “Can you donate today?”.

• Promote media in your posts - include relevant photos, and ask people to watch the video (on the campaign page NOT ON FB/TWITTER).

• Post around lunch time or evening.

• If you know people have donated, publicly congratulate them.

• If people like/retweet/comment/share your posts about the campaign but haven’t donated, follow up with them personally.

WeDidIt Mobile

• Take donations in person any time, anywhere.

• WeDidIt Mobile app available in iOS app store.

• Leverage the social cues of in-person asks.

• Check campaign progress in real-time.

Post-Campaign

• Thank all donors more than once.• Let your donors know when to expect their rewards.• Donors to project-based campaigns want transparency,

so it’s on you to provide it.

Questions?

community@wedid.it