Learn how to promote a fundraising campaign effectively to maximize its reach – because even the best-planned campaigns won’t succeed if no one is there to see them!
*Updated August 2023*
Your cause is heartfelt, your story is written, your campaign looks gorgeous, you’ve been
planning and budgeting and dotting all of the i’s, and now it’s time to bring it to the world!
Congratulations, it’s no small feat getting this far!
Now it’s time to talk about Campaign Promotion. This toolkit will guide you through:
- Determine who your crowd is;
- Creating a pre-launch promotional plan;
- Launch day strategy
- Overcoming the mid-campaign slump
Campaign Promotion Step 1: What is a crowd?
If you have come to the HUB and this is the first time you have thought about who your audience is, then it is time to put your campaign planning hat on the shelf – temporarily! – and focus on this crucial and non-optional step of crowdfunding… building your crowd.
ConnectionPoint platforms do not promote or market your campaign outside of our own site and spotlight events, and even then, this is not meant to be a significant source of traffic to your campaign. Many of our fundraisers have worked for months (and even years) to establish a following to help fund and promote their causes. This work is paramount to crowdfunding campaign success!
With all of the information inundating the internet – in our emails, socials, search engine ads, apps – it’s ineffective to spread the word of your campaign around everywhere and hope the right people see it. Therefore, you must know who your target audience is – as in, those people most like to be interested in and contribute to your campaign.
Defining your crowd
To define your crowd, consider these questions. Then, in the workbook at the end of this article, write down ideas for defining your crowd.
| WHO is my crowd? | Every cause will have a demographic it’s most likely to connect with, be it residents of a certain area, people who have used your services (or their friends and families), people who have a specific pet or love for a certain animal, plant, or region, etc. Who is yours? |
| WHAT can I discuss with my crowd? | This is the value you bring. Is it insight into tackling the problem you’re trying to solve? Success stories? Does your crowd understand what makes you and your solution(s) impactful? |
| WHERE is my crowd? | You can find your people in multiple places online: social media and their targeted groups, blogs, forums, and, ideally, your own website and social followers. Also consider in-person avenues: flyers on community boards, to your neighbourhood, at trade shows or conferences, or local establishments willing to help. The campaign QR code is perfect here! |
| HOW can I engage my crowd? | Email, newsletters, forum chats, social media posts, blog comments, etc. Get creative here! Can you provide free information, rewards, an event, etc? |
Campaign Promotion Step 2: The pre-launch promotional plan
Think about movie promotion – long before a movie is released, we see announcements about release dates, casting, filming locations, and teaser trailers. Then, with a few weeks to go, we’ll see much-anticipated full-length trailers and reviews from critics. Even the latest iteration of Batman would have flopped opening weekend if no one knew it was coming.
How long you ramp up would depend on how established your online presence is. Well-established organizations with a loyal following of supporters might not need long at all – they can launch campaigns with no notice and still achieve funding. Newer and smaller organizations may want to consider a ramp-up period over the month before launch, teasing information and enticing interest.
What’s the best way to do this? We call it the “Dual Path Pre-Launch Promotional Plan“
Path 1: Current crowd
Everyone has a current crowd – even if it’s only friends and family right now. They may also be repeat supporters, volunteers, board members, etc. Your #1 fans; those most likely to contribute.
And they have ONE IMPORTANT JOB: getting that goal meter off of 0 as soon as your campaign launches to help entice your NEW crowd to contribute as well.
Most contributions are made upon launch, but those unfamiliar with you or your organization will hesitate to be one of the first contributors. The farther from 0 your goal meter is when your new crowd views your campaign, the more likely they are to contribute because you appear more established and trustworthy. For more insight into this and other aspects of digital fundraising psychology, check out this article on the FundRazr blog.
90 days to launch
The first thing to do is identify who your top-tier crowd is. Again, these are the people most likely to contribute to your campaign. In your workbook, identify up to 100 of these supporters as well as one identifying feature for all of them, which you can put in your first email to make it feel personal (Thank you for your monthly donations, Sarah. How’s your dog Buster doing, Uncle Jin? Etc.) Don’t worry if you don’t have 100, but consider leaving it at only 100 because you will be privately messaging them!
60 days to launch
Time to write your first email! You want each supporter to feel like you’re speaking directly to them, so here’s where you can use that identifying feature. Then, you’ll let them know this campaign is coming in a couple of months, and you hope to count on them to help rocket it to success by being one of the first contributors.
Plan out the core message in the workbook below.
30 days to launch
This second email is a reminder the campaign is coming. We recommend putting something exclusive in here – pictures, video, behind-the-scenes information – anything of value or insight into your campaign and organization to give your top-tier audience a small dose of good feelings in their day. They’ll remember that and be more likely to jump on the campaign when it launches.
Write your email and brainstorm some exclusive, valuable content to provide in the workbook below.
Path 2: New crowd
Obtaining a new crowd is a crucial part of crowdfunding campaign success – so much so that we’re going to take this entire section and make its own toolkit: the Build, Buy, and Borrow a Crowd Toolkit.
The goal of this path is to build up your email list. Email is still the number one converting medium for contributions (meaning more people are likely to support a campaign from a shared link in an email than via social media, ads, etc.).
The general path for this is:
Targeted ads (thanks to your work on defining your crowd) entice people to click, taking them to —>
Landing page, where they are encouraged to sign their email up for —>
Newsletter, where they’ll receive campaign updates.
For this path, see our Build, Borrow, and Buy a Crowd Toolkit!
Converged Path: Final countdown
14 days to launch
Grab your campaign teammates to ensure everyone knows their role. These may include:
- social media posts and responses
- sending emails
- reaching out to influencers and local media to help share
- paid ad management
- answering questions/comments on the campaign
- reward fulfillment (if applicable)
If this is a one-person team, that’s okay! However, consider asking some colleagues/friends/family for help, because not only can they help reduce stress (mental health is important!), but they come with their own crowds!
One day to launch
You’re almost there! You now should have a strong email list of people highly likely to contribute to your campaign. Email them and remind them the campaign launches the next day, and also remind them why it’s important for them to contribute ASAP. Be open and honest here – you are more likely to succeed if this crowd contributes as soon as possible on day one.
You can even see this in our Campaign Success Toolkit – campaigns that receive their first donation on day 1 are 6% more likely to succeed. It’s also widely agreed that campaigns are most likely to succeed if they receive at least 30% of the goal within the first week. Make sure your entire crowd understands that!
LAUNCH DAY!
Woohoo, we’re here!!! Time to roll up your sleeves and dive into email reminders, thanking your donors by commenting right on their contributions in your campaign Activity Feed, answering questions, and ensuring all promotional avenues from your marketing plan are live and working.
And one huge point to remember – ask your supporters to help you further by SHARING! Someone may have only a small amount to donate to your campaign or nothing at all, but they could inspire much, much more through their own communities.
If they’re wondering how to share, direct them to your campaign’s Share Bar!
Campaign Promotion Step 3 – The mid-campaign slump
Campaign promotion continues long after you’ve launched your campaign. It’s common for campaigns to go through a bit of a ‘slump’ after their first week, where little to no contributions are made per day. Combatting this slump involves keeping that ball rolling; don’t let it slow! Maintain your momentum through campaign updates.
Updates provide additional content for you and your supporters to utilize while continually building a foundation of trust and transparency in your organization. What type of content you provide will depend on your campaign, but there is one thing that an update is not: an additional ask for more donations. Updates should be a continuation of the initial story, ideally showing the impact of what funds were already donated. Always provide new and valuable content!
Updates can include:
- Behind-the-scenes pictures/videos
- Progress on projects.
- New rewards (if applicable)
- Mentions in media outlets
- Biographies of organization beneficiaries, workers, or volunteers
- Public posts of your cause in action
- Roadblocks, challenges, setbacks
- Calls for feedback/suggestions for changes, etc.
- Successes, celebrations
- Anything of value or interest!
Not all updates can be planned; however, it’s a good idea to plan ahead and produce content that you can use for your updates sporadically through your promotion. In the workbook below, plan out some potential updates ahead of time (you can even pre-write and schedule them to post ahead of time!).
Workbook
Use this workbook to plan out your campaign promotion strategy.
*Please consider the environment before printing. Try copying and pasting or recreating tables on your own.*
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