1. Have a goal in mind
Determine the audience you want to reach, and donation amount you would like to achieve. Having clear goals in place will help you to determine if your campaign was successful or not. Agree on numbers i.e. $50,000 as a goal as you need to communicate this goal to your donors as well.
2. Determine your campaign theme
Your campaign theme consists of a key message and key visuals
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- A) Determine a key message
Your message is what you want potential donors to hear and remember from your non-profit. Emotional messages create meaning and highlight the purpose of your organization in a way that anyone can relate to. This message could be a specific project you want to shine some light on or perhaps spread some positivity with certain success stories.Remember, the more specific you can be the better i.e. “Shine Your Light This Holiday Season – Help us raise 20,000$ and keep 50 homeless people in Red Deer warm this winter”.
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- B) Determine key visuals
After determining your message, you should have a good idea on how to get this message across. The visuals of your campaign consist of images, colours, and graphics and can be anything you want, get creative here. You can create your visuals based on the holiday season or it can be based on your key message or goals. It’s important, however, to develop consistency throughout all your marketing. Make sure to change your social media background images and icons as well as any affiliated web pages so that a potential donor recognizes they are in the right place. Pencils of Promise has a great example here using an image that fits with their key message and their “Season of Promise” campaign:
They also clearly articulate a goal they are trying to reach over the holiday season.
3. Create a fundraising page with donation packages
Creating a separate page or restructuring your homepage makes it easier for people who visit your website to give to your campaign. This page should highlight your goal and show the amount needed to reach it. To make it easy, create “donation packages”. These represent something tangible per dollar amount. i.e. 25$ buys 2 mosquito nets for a child’s bed in Kenya. The more specific you can get with your donation packages the better. Many Hopes does a great job here.
The great thing about this page is that it makes it easy to see the impact you make, as well as the entire process of donating. You want to make the donation process easy. Not only is this a busy time of year for you, it’s also busy for everyone else. Having a simple to navigate donation page will help people move to that thank you page quick and easy.
4. Create relevant content
Share impactful stories, pictures of people and numbers of people your donations helped. Create stories from volunteers or past donors that inspire people. You want to show the truth and hardships but also show how someone can help. Give hope and share positive messages to inspire giving during the holiday season. Remember, people are already more willing to give, during this time they just need the right message and motivation. $1 out of every $5 donated to a charity online is given in December – and donors give much larger gifts this time of year, too – around 80% bigger overall. (Wedidit.it)
5. Get the word out
After setting up your content it is important to share through the right channels. It’s important to share content that drives people back to your donation page and inspires them to give. Create impactful Facebook Live posts or invite a volunteer or donor to share their story. You can do this through video, blog posts, or a simple social media post. Collaborating with other local businesses with events or fundraisers is a great way to spread the word. Remember to share through traditional marketing sources as well such as radio, newspaper, and billboards. People aren’t always online and with so much noise on social media, it’s important to not forget good ol’ fashioned marketing.
6. Thank You Page
After someone decides to donate you should have a thank you page. It doesn’t have to be generic either. Show a video of members of the organization thanking you for supporting or a message from your Executive Director. To create a bigger impact, you can enable social sharing or create incentives to get friends and family to donate as well. Get creative and really show your appreciation here.
Optional: Facebook Re-marketing
To capture those people that may have visited your site or donation page you can use re-marketing techniques. To advertise on Facebook, you should install the Facebook pixel code to your website and create ads that drive people to revisit your website. Facebook is the social media site that most inspires giving coming in at 62%, with the next closest being Twitter at 15% (Givingreport.ngo) It would be a shame to forget those people who were interested in your non-profit but just got busy and left your page.
It may take a little time and effort to restructure your website but the results are well worth it. Creating a site that is clear and easy to navigate is crucial to helping get those potential supporters to give gifts to your organization. We hope you’ve gained a little insight and perhaps have got the creative juices flowing for your next year-end campaign.
