121 Fundraising Tips to win with your
crowdfunding campaign on Impact Guru

121 Fundraising Tips to win with your
crowdfunding campaign on Impact Guru

We bring you some tried-and-tested, beaten-and-stirred, used-and-unused, ancient-and-new tips to guide you towards crowdfunding success!

Plan your fundraiser

• Quick Tips

• Pre-Launch Ideas

• Post-Launch Strategy

Design your fundraiser

• Write A Good Story

• Craft An Appealing Title

• Give Great Rewards

Promote your fundraiser

• Overall Social Media Plan

• Fundraise On Facebook

• Fundraise On Twitter

• Send Great Emails

Plan your fundraiser

No fundraiser is an overnight success. Crowdfunding involves careful planning on when to make your fundraiser live, how to take it to the right people and how to get those right people to donate and share. Our fundraising experience tell us that there is no one formulae that works for all, but we've seen some common patterns to assemble some of our most profiting advice. Pick and choose to create your plan!

Quick Tips:

7 quick checks for a great fundraiser:

• Fundraiser Story: Tell people why you want to raise the money. This is VERY important. Believe us, the donors want to know what they are donating for - even if they know you in person.

• Images/Videos: Would you rather buy a dress you can see or a dress that is only described to you? Images put a face to your fundraiser, they make donors care about you and your cause a lot more. (5 times more to be exact!)

• Rewards: We all feel motivated when given something in return. Though most donors donate out of kindness, rewards like a simple thank you note or a small merchandize can urge the donor to support your campaign further.

• Fundraiser Title: People may not judge the book by its cover but they certainly judge it by the title. Titles are one line stories. They are what gets the donor to click on your campaign amongst all the others.

• Goal Amount: We understand that you may sometimes need a huge amount, but start humble. Put in an achievable target and then get it increased once you reach there.

• Base Amount: Everyone gets scared of a zero. So, does you donor. Make sure you add some base amount to your fundraiser (be your first donor) or urge a close friend or relative to make a contribution so that the donor can give with more confidence.

• Create a support group: Before you begin, enroll some friends and family who will dedicate time regularly to share and talk about your fundraiser within their network. Make sure your fundraiser is shared far and wide by these supporters.

Pre-Launch Tips: What And How To Prepare Before Launching Your Fundraiser

Starting a fundraiser on Impact Guru takes only 5 minutes! However, most successful campaigns start planning way before the fundraiser goes live. Effective pre-planning makes sure that no time is wasted once your fundraiser is up and running and you reach your goal quickly.

• Pick out your core donors:Create a support group that will help you throughout the campaign. Think of friends, family, co-workers, ex-colleagues, college batch mates, club members, pen friends, anybody and everybody who can help you by making a contribution or reaching out to others. These are people who will absolutely not say NO to you and will definitely share the fundraiser within their networks. Keep them informed that you will be launching a fundraiser soon and prepare them on how to share once your fundraiser is live. Almost 25 - 30% of the funds should come from this group

• Create email templates: Emails are proven to be more effective than even social media. A study by convinceandconvert.com states that 44% email recipients have made purchases based on promotional emails. Another report by Mckinsey and Company states that email conversion rates are 40 times more than Facebook or Twitter. Keep email drafts for the following ready so you can simply hit send:

• Introductory email, telling people about your fundraiser (Please donate to my fundraiser)

• Thank you email for donors (Thank you for your donation)

• Asking people to share your fundraiser (Please share my fundraiser)
Use MailChimp or Campaign Monitor to create great email templates.

• Team Up!: Build a dedicated team of people who can not only promote your fundraiser but also help you create it (like click good pictures, write regular updates) etc. Each new member doubles your outreach.

• Donor Analysis:Analyse the target population to know what interests them, causes that are close to their heart, and the most effective way to persuade them to donate.

• Device a communication strategy: Select the perfect combinations of communication platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp) that best suit your cause and your audience. Figure out where you can tell your story well and where you will find the most donors. A simple way to understand that is by asking yourself: which platform are most of my friends on? What do I use most frequently to communicate? Try to group your donors according to where they are the most responsive and plan how and when you are going to send your message
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Facebook and WhatsApp are proven to be the most powerful tools next to sending direct emails.

• Join Facebook Groups: Join Facebook groups that match your profession or interests and spread the word amongst that community. Eg. If you are teacher, you can join Teachers In Mumbai and post your fundraiser to get help from the teaching community.

• ...And Twitter influencers: Find influencers on Twitter (ones who have more than 5 or 10k followers and tweet to them for an RT.

Eg. Here's how we tweeted to Hip Hop International to help raise funds for a team of young hip hoppers who wanted to participate in the championship.

Post-Launch Strategy: What To Do After Your Fundraiser Goes Live!

Launching the fundraiser is step 1 of your fundraising journey. Successful crowdfunding needs strategizing. An Impact Guru fundraiser usually runs for a maximum of 90 days during which you will have to make sure it grabs enough eyeballs and lands up on the daily feed of the right people. Here's what you can do:

• Social Media Blast: Let potential donors know on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn and Instagram that your campaign is live and is accepting donations. Make sure your first post (asking for contributions) is interesting and energetic. Give a social media shout-out to your first donor and ask your influencer group to start spreading the word too. Use social media management tools like Hootsuite, Buffer etc. to schedule your posts. Here's how to tackle the main platforms: Facebook: Keep the post description short (not more than 2 lines) and use the best pictures you have. In fact, it wouldn't be a bad idea to click fresh pictures of your NGO program, product, or social enterprise project to post. Posting once or twice a day is good enough. Twitter: