The Tricks and Treats of Social Media Fundraising

It’s no surprise that social media fundraising is the most effective way to go when trying to connect with new donors and keeping faithful ones abreast of your current projects. It also is a budget and environmentally friendly way to eliminate newsletters, donation envelopes and the ever increasing price of postage. Here are some of the tricks and treats of fundraising.
The Trick: The Time Vacuum  – The Treat: Using Time Wisely
Social Media can be a great time vacuum; by the time you check your e-mail, Facebook and Twitter accounts, an hour seems to have magically slipped away. Between clicking on links, responding to e-mails, deleting the spam and sorting through old e-mails that need replies, one can easily get swamped just maintaining an inbox. The trick is to delegate and delete. Have an assistant or media manager sort through the bulk mails and reserve a special e-mail for those who seriously need to contact you (this of course is pending the size and budget of your organization.) Another option is to check your e-mail, address the necessary problems, and then close that window. Every time a new e-mail pops up you won’t see it and you can focus on one project at a time. The greatest waste of time is going back and forth and never accomplishing anything while still feeling completely overwhelmed.

The Trick: Simplicity is Key – The Treat: Less is More

Choose your projects, your campaigns and your goals wisely. The more you have on your plate, the less success you’re going to have. If you’re trying to raise money for a new building, plus doing a holiday project, plus having a volunteer work day, plus sustaining the programs you have, you’re going to burn out yourself, your staff and your donors. This is obvious, but map out your year, get a feel for the capacity of your staff, and tap into different donors at different times so you aren’t always asking the same people for money.

The Trick: It’s All About Perception – The Treat: Gaining a Loyal Following

Positive word of mouth and a strong reputation are your strongest marketing tools. You can have the most artistic flyer or spot on website, but if volunteers and donors have had a bad interaction with your charity and post it on Facebook, all that publicity is for nothing. Your employees will pattern their passion and work ethic after you and that influence will flow to your supporters. The core of any non-profit is how people are treated; the people who are adopting pets, the people who are volunteering or the people who are being helped through your services.

The trick to a non-profit is always keeping your eyes on your goals. Why do you work so hard for so little money to have so much stress? It’s all because of the treat: you’re making the world a better place and changing the lives of countless others.

New Fundly Videos about Fundraising Online

We’re happy to let you know that we just launched a new YouTube page—one we’d encourage you to subscribe to—over at YouTube.com/GoFundly. We’ll be adding more videos to the half-dozen or so we have up now, but here’s a look at our “Leverage Your Network” video to hold you over until then.




Is there something you would like us to cover in a video or blog post? It can be specific to using Fundly, or about fundraising in general – just let us know in the comments below.

How To Raise Money Online For A Cause? Easy Fundraising Tips

t is now possible to raise money for a social or political cause without having to organize an event or advertising in newspapers. The Internet has come up with an easier solution where you can reach out to millions without incurring expenses. You can raise money online as there are many avenues that you can employ, including social networking sites.

Raise money by targeting your donor audience
If you want to raise money online then it will be a good idea if you target the audience that supports your cause. You can do that by assessing the popularity of your cause and promoting it across a number of social networks. You can start with Facebook and Twitter and later expand your footprint to other social networking sites. All it needs is a simple approach that can help you in expanding your outreach.

·      You can start with creating a page on Facebook. This will serve as the mainstay of your fundraising efforts.

·      You can then start the process of outreach by visiting pages supporting similar causes and encouraging people to join your page.

·      You will be able to reach maximum number of people if you promote your page on social networking sites. The greater the number of fans and friends, the more will be the money raised.

·      Twitter can serve as the secondary platform to raise money online. A single tweet can encourage many to donate towards your cause if you have significant number of followers.

·      Linked-in and other websites can also help you to raise money for your cause.

How to raise money in significant amounts?
While you may be able to find some donors on social networks, it is important to expand your footprint to raise significant amount of money. This will call for a streamlined approach where you can track analytics on every social networking site. It is also important to create a network of payment where people are able to donate without lengthy procedures or glitches. Credit cards, electronic checks, and other modes of payment should be enabled on your platform.

A single platform for making donations may increase the number of donations as people will find it easier to donate to your cause. You can use payment platforms that offer simple procedures of accepting donations from social networking sites. These platforms offer an application where you can post links to the payment module on social networking sites and people will be able to make donations by clicking on that link. Some donation platforms do not even need the posting of a link as you can directly embed the donation module on your Facebook or Twitter page. Visitors to your page can use this module to donate on the spot without being directed to an external site.

You will also be able to keep track of each donation through this arrangement. You can raise money online in substantial amounts by using donation platforms and applications. You will be surprised by the ease with which you will be able to raise money.