Fundraising has always been an important venture for schools and other non-profit organizations. But it can be hard to find the time and resources with so many other things happening.
Peer-to-peer fundraising is a strategy that allows your organization to tap into your social network to raise funds for important causes. The advantages of this approach are that it is more personal and requires less set-up, but it requires you to be specific with your messaging and empower the people who support your cause.
By keeping your supporters informed of fundraising and messaging updates, as well as by providing them with the resources they need to be successful in their own fundraising communication efforts, your next fundraiser can be successful. You can also check out our guide on fundraising ideas that work online or in-person for additional inspiration.
If you are searching for additional fundraising for your school, you can sign your organization up for Digital Deets and we can help you search for a paid sponsor to help you school earn passive income.
Create a Sense of Urgency
It’s not uncommon for schools to have year-round “direct give” campaigns to solicit donations from volunteers in the local community and business sector. Within these and other peer-to-peer fundraising efforts, however, it is important to try and create a sense of urgency and purpose to appeal to members of your community.
One easy way to do this is to give deadlines for your campaigns. Even if you do some kind of peer-to-peer fundraising year-round, setting specific time and earning deadlines can help drive donations through more specific messaging. If you can find a cause that will be directly supported by the funds you are raising, you should try to tell that story and align it with your deadline as much as possible.
To help schools raise more money in their fundraising efforts, Digital Deets is a combined fundraising and communication platform where schools can keep community members updated about fundraising campaigns and other important updates. Importantly, we also allow businesses the ability to sponsor schools to create passive revenue.
Leverage Your Social Network
Social media is a great way to amplify the messages your school or organization puts out. Sharing messages from school accounts is a good way to stay in front of your primary audience with important updates about fundraising campaigns. It also provides a chance for you to amplify the reach of your message by having interested community members amplify the fundraiser to their own social network.
This amplification effect can scale your fundraiser quickly, so it’s important to think about what types of fundraisers might compel somebody to share it to their own social media page. Once you’ve established the parameters of your campaign, ask yourself: what specific goals is this fundraiser trying to accomplish, and why are those goals important for the community?
Provide Resources for Supporters
Another way to empower your audience to amplify your message and support your fundraiser is to provide them with the resources they need to do so.
This can be as simple as providing pictures related to the cause you are fundraising for, or graphics displaying how close you are to your fundraising goal. One useful free resource for creating your own graphics is Canva. You could also provide supporters the opportunity to create their own custom landing pages where supporters could collect donations and personally explain why the cause is important to them.
There are many different tools and resources you could provide supporters and volunteers to help get the word out about your cause. Rather than try to do all of it, think about what your team has the manpower and time to execute on, and focus on doing those things well. Communication is essential.
Analyze Past Fundraising Performance
If you have ongoing fundraising efforts, particularly if they are based around a set theme or cause each year, you should be checking which tactics have been most successful for you.
This includes messaging over email and social media. Do your posts get more engagement when you include a photo? Have you found a sweet spot for the frequency of email communications regarding your campaigns? What percentage of people you connect with end up donating to your fundraiser? Are there any common characteristics among repeat givers?
As you accumulate data from past fundraisers, you can get a better idea of best practices and use those insights to improve your next peer-to-peer fundraiser.
Keep Your Community Connected
The success of any fundraiser depends on communication. In concrete terms, you will need to reach a certain number of people to hit your fundraising goals. On a deeper level, though, you will want to structure and present your fundraisers in a way that resonates with your audience, so that they understand the importance of the cause and feel compelled to help you reach your goal.
Digital Deets provides a platform for schools to host the communications they are already sending and monetize them with messages from the local business community to help raise money. Get started today by signing up your organization to take your fundraising efforts to the next level.