Some tips to get you started on your online fundraising campaign to raise more funds for your cause!
As an online fundraising copywriter (who has raised more than $1.3m over the first 8 months of 2020 for the charity I work with) here are some things I advise you having in your campaign:
- Photos and a video (if possible) of your charity’s staff in action serving your beneficiary, or carrying out your work.
- Impact statements. These should be in your campaign, because they will show potential donors what their $10, $50, $100 or $250 donation will do. These should also be reflected in your campaign’s preset donation amounts.
- Benefits. What is the benefit for someone to donate to your campaign? Perhaps some donors just want to do some good and bring some comfort to your beneficiary. And perhaps some other donors would like to not only do good, but also get some tax deduction with their donation. It’s your job to also list the benefits in your campaign copy.
- Include a beneficiary story or testimonial. The testimonial can be from a beneficiary, volunteer or staff.
- Write your campaign from a one-to-one, person-to-person point of view. Reduce the amount of “we” and “I”, and include more “you”, “yours”.
- Your campaign copy (and indeed your charity’s marketing collateral) should be donor-centric and beneficiary-centric.
- Use the AIDA or AIDCA structure to frame your campaign:
- A = Attention (capture attention of your reader)
- I = Interest (stir interest, why should your reader care?)
- D = Desire (stir a desire within your reader to help)
- C = Conviction (testimonial or beneficiary story)
- A = Action (get your reader to take action)
- Be specific in the kind of action you want your reader to take. What do you want him to click? Where is the button? What colour is it? When do you want him to click it? Tomorrow? Today? Now?
- Arrange your donation preset options in descending order like so: $250, $150, $100, $50. This is a tip I got from legendary copywriter, Drayton Bird. You may be pleasantly surprised to discover that you get a bigger number of larger donations this way.
- Don’t forget to thank your donors, and never take them for granted.
If you’re stretched on resources, or copywriting expertise, and would like me to work with you on your online fundraising campaigns, send me a note at theo@theo-deroza.com today.
Let’s try and get your online fundraising up to speed, especially if your normal fundraising channels are handicapped due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Cheers,
Theo