Learn how to effectively use wishlists in your crowdfunding campaign to grab supporters’ attention and communicate your project’s benefits.
What are crowdfunding campaign wishlists, and why are they useful?
Wishlists are items requested by a campaign owner to provide the beneficiary. Depending on the campaign, that beneficiary could be another person or group of people, themselves, an animal, or the project they’re crowdfunding for.
While this article focuses on donation-based campaigns for social causes, we do have a reward-campaign-based article on the Creator HUB for creators and other Crowdfundr users.
Using a wishlist in your campaign does three crucial things:
1. Helps the reader understand the ‘why’ behind the campaign.
Wishes are essentially units of impact. To become a supporter and contribute to your campaign, a reader must understand what their funds will pay for.
While it’s simple to list project expenses and needs, doing so doesn’t detail much for the supporter and is neither engaging nor visually grabbing.
2. Shortens or removes the supporter’s decision-making process.
Picture this: You’ve landed on a campaign you want to contribute to. The goal is relatively high, and you feel a bit like your contribution won’t move the needle much. You’re unsure what to contribute, and that hesitation is enough for you to reconsider.
“Things are tight right now, maybe I shouldn’t…,” you think. You exit the campaign, perhaps after sharing it, but perhaps not.
What if you saw a list of eye-catching pictures and details of items and services the campaign needs for their project? You usually contribute between $25-$40 to campaigns when you come across them, and in this campaign’s wishlist, you see:
“Perfect,” you think. “Within my budget, and I know someone would love and appreciate a day of good meals.”
You click ‘Contribute,’ and in less than two minutes, you’re done (ideally, you’ve shared the campaign somehow, too)!
The campaign didn’t give you a chance to hesitate, immediately helped you understand what you were giving someone, and everyone walked away happy.
3. Maximizes contributions.
Let’s go back to the previous example. Say you opened the campaign thinking you could spare $15 for this project. You see the first wish on the list (Day of healthy food) is $20. It grabs your eye, and considering how $5 isn’t much more, you decide to grant that wish. The campaign owner now has $5 more than without the list.
Worth a try yourself? Let’s look at some examples to get your creativity flowing!
Examples of wishlists in crowdfunding campaigns
Example 1
Campaigns for social causes might have the easiest time developing wishlists. Daily operations provide ample opportunity for conveying their needs to supporters. This shelter ran a campaign to help women and their children transition from their shelter into self-sufficiency, ensuring they have all they need for a comfortable beginning.
Here is their wishlist:
Example 2
Not everyone can create wishes so easily, though. Perhaps you’re crowdfunding for a single, large project like a new building, vehicle, trip, etc. This is where creativity comes in!
Every project has components – material, labour, etc. Consider using those components as wishes, as the Wildbird Recover Pre-Release Project did.
Their wishlist broke down their needed flight-enclosure project (to safely fly birds for exercise and release training) into its components. They also input other items their birds need:
Example 3
For the sake of our users’ privacy, we’ll stay generic with a demo campaign for this example and include wishes we’ve seen from various campaigns.
Medical campaigns not only involve treatments and/or devices, but about a million other things to work life around them. Our CoCoPay medical campaigns benefit particularly from wishlists because it helps the beneficiary’s friends and family understand the stressful situation they’re in.
Below is a (non-exhaustive) list of wishes we’ve seen in medical crowdfunding campaigns.
- one treatment session (be it clinical trials, specialized cancer treatment, etc.)
- medication
- rehabilitation equipment and physiotherapy
- home modifications
- gas, lodging, and other travel costs (some people have to travel quite far for their treatments or to be fitted for a device)
- child care
- groceries and other daily items (helps with loss of wages while receiving treatment, or if the beneficiary is unable to work due to their condition)
- comfort items (slippers, bathrobes, a book or two, etc.)
- mental health support for themselves and family members
Ready to try wishlists for your campaign?
Visit our help centre to learn how!
(Note: Wishes are grouped into ‘Rewards’ on all platforms)
