5 Best Practices in Nonprofit Crowdfunding
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The document outlines five best practices for nonprofit crowdfunding campaigns: 1) Start with a well-defined fundraising goal, 2) Rethink rewards and donation tiers to focus on impact, 3) Create a compelling story, 4) Build a tribe of champions to promote the campaign, and 5) Leverage press coverage when appropriate. It provides tips and strategies for implementing each best practice, such as using Hollywood storylines to craft narratives, identifying journalist contacts, and preparing pitch materials. The overall message is that nonprofits can boost online fundraising success by following these evidence-based crowdfunding best practices.
5 Best Practices in Nonprofit Crowdfunding
- 1. Five Best Practices for Nonprofit Crowdfunding Rob Wu, CEO of CauseVox www.causevox.com @causevox @robjwu
- 2. I Raised Over $125,000 In 10 days via social media and crowdfunding for the Red Cross
- 3. Create your own fundraising site Nonprofit crowdfunding & peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns
- 4. Launch a campaign in 4 easy steps It takes minutes to start fundraising. No coding required. Design your campaign Customize your site settings Enable personal/team pages (optional) Take donations! 1 2 3 4 Find out more at www.causevox.com
- 10. Three Major Forces in Crowdfunding Recovering Economy Consumer Behavior Ubiquitous Internet
- 11. 30% of the $5 billion crowdfunded went to social causes in 2013.
- 12. Best Practice 1: Start With a Well-Defined Goal
- 13. Use a Baseline How much have we raised online in the past year? What is the average amount that we have raised in a campaign or event? What is the average donation amount online for us? (its $88 for in crowdfunding)
- 14. If You Dont Have a Baseline, Think About How much do I need to make an impact? How much does the product or service that I want to create cost? How much did similar crowdfunding campaigns raise?
- 15. Shift Your Perspective Impact Unit Metric Dollar Metric
- 16. Make Your Goals SMART
- 17. Best Practice 2: Rethink Rewards & Donation Tiers
- 19. What Are Rewards/Premiums? Rewards are items, recognition, or a service that youll get for contributing a crowdfunding campaign. They are also known as perks or gifts, and are used as incentives to motivate people to support a campaign.
- 20. Rewards Actually Reduce Giving! You should focus on impact-focused rewards instead. Example: Hand-sewn scarves from a family who started a local business as a result of your donors micro-finance loan Personal letter from a child who you sponsored for her education.
- 21. Focus On Impact Tiers Instead
- 22. Best Practice 3: Create a Compelling Story
- 23. Lets look at Hollywood storylines to help you create a compelling story.
- 24. Overcoming The Monster Similar to James Bond, Batman, or the Avengers, you can show your organization overcoming a villain or some form of adversity.
- 26. Rags To Riches Like Chris Gardner in Pursuit of Happyness, showcase your organization or individual(s) transitioning from a low to a much better place.
- 28. The Quest Tales of a dedicated group of people who encounter perils along the way to reach an ambitious (Lord Of The Rings).
- 30. Tragedy In Breaking Bad, Walter White dives into the world of making meth. He falls into something bad and gets more and more evil each day. You can focus on the negative as part of your storyline
- 32. Best Practice 4: Build A Tribe Of Champions
- 33. Rely On The People You Know First
- 34. Rely On The People You Know First Promoters - People that will share your campaign and updates via email, social media, etc. Theyll amplify your reach. Think of them as your own publicity team. Fundraisers - People that will help solicit for donations via peer-to-peer fundraising. Theyll create a mini-crowdfunding campaign through personal fundraising pages. Youll raise twice as much this way. Donors - People that will contribute to your campaign.
- 35. Best Practice 5: Leverage Press For Your Campaign
- 36. Not All Campaigns Should Focus On Publicity & Press
- 37. 3 Steps To Get Press Target - Use free tools like Twitter Search to find journalists that have an interest in your area. Jot down their contact info (Twitter handle and email address). Prepare - Ask yourself, why is this newsworthy? Why would the journalist want to write about me? Why would her audience want to read the article? Come up with a press release and pitch materials based on your newsworthy story. Pitch - Contact the journalists that youve identified, tell them your story, and give them more info about your campaign.
- 38. Best Practices Summary 1. Start with a well defined goal 2. Rethink rewards and donation tiers 3. Create a compelling story 4. Build a tribe of champions 5. Leverage press for your campaign
- 39. Additional Resources Introduction to Crowdfunding for Nonprofits How to Plan a Nonprofit Crowdfunding Campaign Hollywood Storylines for Nonprofit Crowdfunding Publicity for Online Fundraising Community for Online Fundraising
- 40. CauseVox #GivingTuesday Resource Center www.causevox.com/givingtuesday
- 41. Connect With Us! Interested in a demo or have questions? Contact us directly at support@causevox.com. Wed be happy to help! Visit us at causevox.com twitter.com/causevox facebook.com/causevox
Editor's Notes
- #2: Welcome audience Brief intro to CauseVox 16000 campaigns, Red Cross, United Way, AJ Pujols, Jeremy Lin POLL THE AUDIENCE - crowdfunding knowledge - function at nonprofit Before we dive into the content, I am going to share a person story
- #3: How many of you remember the Japan Tsunami in 2011? Share story of March 11. - It was the most powerful earthquake ever recorded to have hit Japan, and the fifth most powerful earthquake in the world - Waves up to 133ft and up to 6 miles inland - The earthquake moved Japan 8ft east - Shifted the earth on its axis by 10inches - 15k deaths, 6k injured, 2k missing Raised $125k in 10 days. Featured in NY Times, CNN, Forbes, and many more publications. Share what I learned from this campaign as well as the best practices from 16k other nonprofit crowdfunding campaigns.
- #6: Ask the audience. Crowdfunding is a way to raise funds online from a large group of people. Think of it as a turbocharged donation page with storytelling, social media, and gamification components built in.
- #7: Zack Brown Raised $200 the first day Used stretch goals and rewards Ultimately, his success came from a wacky concept and press Typically.. Defined period Defined tangible output
- #8: Project Renewal raised more than $73,000 during their GivingTuesday campaign in 2013. How do you replicate this success? Today we will go over the six steps to planning a #GT crowdfunding campaign.
- #9: Crowdfunding can involve supporters via p2p fundraising.
- #10: Crowdfunding can involve supporters via p2p fundraising.
- #11: The internet is EVERYWHERE. Even in Mohonk! How many people use Amazon? Kickstarter? Economy is getting better! === all of this has resulting the growth and movement of crowdfunding.
- #12: Nonprofit crowdfunding is growing at an exponential rate and can help you get new donors from new audiences. Social causes account for the bulk of the crowdfunding market.
- #13: Pentagon / Military Personnel. Everything was about the MISSION.
- #14: If youre just getting started If youve created a campaign in the past If you know how many donors you usually get
- #15: Set a goal that is attainable as a pilot project
- #16: Dont miss the point about your work and mission.
- #17: Setting a goal matters, but goals can be changed. You just need to know where to aim. Red Cross campaign We shifted our goals many times, but we had to start with something Changed from dollar goal to marketing goals
- #20: Rewards work very well to incentivize people to pledge. You get something in return for supporting. Great for products and services because most rewards are preorders. BUTtheres something you should really look out for.
- #21: This has been hotly debated for 30+ years, and still, people have varying opinions. Yale professors (Journal of Economic Psychology, 2012) did a study on the impact of gifts on charitable giving and the results will shock you. As odd as it may sound, receiving a gift for doing something selfless makes someone feel as if they did it for the gift. And even worse, if the fundraising gift does not reflect their motivations for giving, it increases the feeling of selfishness!
- #22: Education books raised Homeless days of housing provided Water wells or people served
- #23: Once of the most common questions we get is how to create a story I dont have a sexy story or I dont know how to tell a story
- #26: Embrace the idea that youre the underdog, people love an underdog! Juxtapose before and after scenes in video or through photos and illustrations to show a theory of change with good defeating evil. Rally supporters to realistically defeat an enemy or imposing threat like illness or hunger through legislation, funds, or programming.
- #28: Show the journey to success and growth for one of your causes celebrity champions or advocates. Use first-person essays or StoryCorps-style audio features.
- #30: Think of your mission as a quest, and map out the journey (literally: make a map!), recruit companions (partners, supporters), and stock up on supplies. Encourage supporters to use personal fundraising pages as a diary of their crowdfunding mission.
- #32: Tread lightly with sad and dark storytelling to avoid the dreaded poverty or charity porn. Be strategic with imagery and personal stories to make a point and show what happens if you DONT make progress on your mission.
- #35: Theres no magic free money. Youre most likely way to succeed is to target the people that you know to help extend your reach. There are nonprofits that dont want to, but if the people you know wont support you then how are you going to convince people that dont know you? For Japan Tsunami campaign, we focused heavily on promoters and finding people we knew Speakers Keynotes Personal networks Fundraisers tell people to launch their own campaigns!
- #37: Finding the right journalists can be hard. If you dont have a relationship with them already, then the chances of them writing about you are lower. Your campaign or cause has to be newsworthy. Journalists look for stories that follow a broader trend or that are in their beat. Your story must have mass appeal Getting publicity may not yield significant donations. Even though you can get tons of awareness and traffic, they may not be the right audience that will fund your campaign.