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Whether you are setting up a fundraising page to raise money for your favourite cause, making a start as a professional fundraiser or just looking for tips to help you maximise fundraising opportunities using social media, you will find this article useful. It is a compilation of social media, SEO and general fundraising tips from professionals with extensive experience in their field.

 

Sandra Swanson

Sandra Swanson, Fundraiser & Sustainability Consultant

Share your wish list – consider ‘pinning’ your wish list to Pinterest or a similar site. Let people know if you will accept gently-used materials and where/how to donate them. For example, if your charity works with children in need – you could encourage people to donate food, handmade/store-bought toys, toiletries, gift certificates, blankets/quilts, backpacks, sports equipment, in-kind services (accounting, admin, etc). Perhaps make this festive! “The 12 Days of Giving – On the first day of giving what we really need is books that the children could read. On the second day of giving what you could give to us is a mechanic to help us fix the bus!” and so on… Entertaining, creative, specific.

Recruit supporters – Rather than spending an overabundance of time designing a ‘shiny’ new campaign – make an appeal to your core supporters (current members, trustees, followers, donors, users, etc) to help you reach a specific fundraising goal. “Help us fund a new classroom in Bolivia! We need to raise 25k in the month of December! Please retweet! Please share!” Just by ‘asking’ people to share and retweet you increase the likelihood that it will happen by 60%. According to one study conducted by social media scientist, Dan Zarrella, the words “Please Help” get 130% more retweets and shares. This approach is best used for specific programme costs (versus general appeals). Give people a goal they can achieve — for a product/service they can see value in – then ask them to help you achieve it.


Evgeniy Garkaviy

EvgeniyGarkaviy, SEO Consultant

I am quite surprise that some people, especially those coming from SEO background are yet to appreciate how powerful social media is today. As a matter of fact, if your deploy the potentials of the most popular social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest you will get more traffic than you will from search engines.

Quick tips to get your social media pages bringing in the donations:

  • Create a simple post on your social profile using hashtags #fundraising and #donation and the cause you are fundraising for. This will help you attract attention from people interested in the keywords you added to your post.
  • Be proactive, just creating a post and sitting back is now enough, actively seek out people interested in your cause, let them know what your fundraising is all about.
  • Always create a one very detailed blogpost about your fundraising and the cause you are fundraising for with lots of pictures then link to the detailed page from your social media posts.
  • Ensure you make what you are fundraising for very clear to your potential donors right at the top of your blogpost.

Jukka Myllyniemi

Jukka Myllyniemi, Online Fundraising Manager, PETA UK

Even during Christmas, online fundraising is still all about the cause and the donor – not your organisation! Over the holidays, don’t just tell supporters how great your organisation is and what you’ve achieved this year. Instead, make the donor feel something and explain how he or she can change the life of the beneficiary this Christmas. Also, as this is the busiest time of year in marketing communications, don’t assume that just because your messages are received well every Tuesday at 10 am throughout the year, the same will happen in December. Experiment with campaign launch dates and times. And since it’s so busy, you may also need to increase the volume of messages you send and send more reminders so that your message actually reaches the audience.


 

Carleigh Sisson

Carleigh Sisson, Digital Marketing Manager at Marketing CoPilot

Don’t look at social media as a channel. It is an opportunity to share other peoples thoughts and ideas. Twitter and LinkedIn are more than merely broadcast channels. The true meaning of social media is to share. Therefore, retweeting is just as important as tweeting. A retweet is when you repost another Twitter accounts post. Taking a couple minutes every morning or every other morning to look through your Twitter home feed and retweet a couple of your followers’ tweets that relate to your business, interests or opinions will increase engagement with your followers immensely.

Sharing posts on LinkedIn and Facebook from your company page through your and your colleagues’ personal accounts will significantly increase the reach of your content, allowing all connections to potentially see your company’s new post.

Check out “Is social media a waste of time or a useful business tool?” on the Marketing CoPilot blog for more insights on how to use social media for fundraising and non-profits.


 

Harris Schachter

Harris Schachter, optimizepri.me

I’ve only worked with one non-profit in my career, but what I have found is not dissimilar from eCommerce. The best way to increase donations is to make sure the contributor gets something out of it, especially a tangible item or discount on something relevant. While it feels good to donate, people are still people and are more easily persuaded with the acquisition of something positive or the reduction in something negative. So, give something away with a donation and make that “freebie” more substantial as the level of donation grows (the more you give the more you get). This can be even more beneficial if you layer on classic persuasion techniques like scarcity or social proof.


 

julia campbell

Julia Campbell, www.jcsocialmarketing.com

According to CNN, in January of this year, “Americans used smartphone and tablet apps more than PCs to access the Internet — the first time that has ever happened.” Nearly half of consumers say they won’t return to a website if it doesn’t load properly on their mobile devices (I know that I am one of these people). The statistics go on. You need to know your donors’ digital habits. Whether they are using their devices on the toilet (they are) or on the subway or while watching TV, you need to be there and to provide the best possible experience for them. Keep mobile in mind when sending emails! The email subject line in the iPhone 5 is just 5-9 words before it gets cut off.


 

Brian Massey

Brian Massey, customercreationequation.com
The biggest mistakes non-profits make are assuming that altruism is the primary motivator for donations. It’s not, and there is research to back that up.

For fundraising to work on social media, I recommend adding additional incentives.

1. Enter them into a contest for a desirable prize for each dollar they donate
2. Give them a digital bonus. A free song or cup of coffee.
3. Create a video with the focus of a Kickstarter video. Show them who you are, ask them for their money and promise them a little something in return.
4. Bring social traffic to a special landing page that asks for the donation.
5. Test test test. You never know what landing page headline or image is going to get people to donate.


 

Erik Emanuelli

Erik Emanuelli nopassiveincome.com

Using social media for fundraising/donations will increase your exposure.
It will help you engage with your target audience around the world and not just your local area.
You’ll have more chance to find people interested in your cause, thanks to social media networks.

After having identified your organization’s values and target audience, you can use Pinterest to “pin” the images related to your fundraising, while providing instructions on how to make donations.

Use Twitter, to keep your audience updated on how things are going, giving links for the news and mentioning/thanking people for their donations.

After creating a Fan Page on Facebook, you can decide to organize a contest, based on gamification principles.
Your audience will have fun while donating and helping your cause!

Remember, the key here is encouraging people to take action on your fundraising.
Grab your audience’s attention by keeping them updated via social media and by sharing compelling images.
People will react based on their emotions!


 

Jeroen Beelen

Jeroen Beelen 101fundraising.org

Christmas is of course the time to express your warmth and emotions. And also the time to spend a lot of time with your family. This can also be applied on Social Media: spend some time with your friends and followers. And by expressing your warmth and emotions to them. Thank them for their time, support and feedback this year.

And if they are willing to give some more warmth to you they can express it by giving a small donation…..