7 essential things to think about when doing digital fundraising or crowdfunding

These are the key takeaways from the training that we run on this subject.

New technology, social media, and the different ways we connect as individuals and organisations have changed how fundraising works.

This has to be recognised by organisations and it needs to be built into how fundraising happens.

There is no right or wrong thing to be doing and different organisations will find different ways to bring digital into their fundraising. It is important that you do what will work for you and that this fits into your strategy.

Whatever you are planning then these tips will be key to working out how best to move forward.

As with all fundraising, this will take time and it is not a simple, quick or easy way to meet your targets

There is no simple quick fix to raising the money your organisation needs, if there were I would have retired on the fundraising franchise I would have developed, and all charities and community groups would be following that plan.

You won’t go viral unless you are both hardworking and lucky, but if you do then make sure you let me know and we will add it to our impact story.

If your trustees or managers have ‘make viral funding video’ in their plan then take it out as this makes as much sense as saying ‘wait for the multi-million-pound legacy to arrive’.

If it happens it is great but assume it won’t and be prepared to put in the time and hard work to meet your funding targets and not rely on a windfall.

It is easy to get distracted or put off, by new ideas, new platforms and new digital toys. Don’t!

Some will love them, and some will loathe them, but you have to focus on which digital tools will be most beneficial to you.

This will depend on many things including who your actual and potential audiences are and where they connect. (It is no good having the best Facebook campaign if all your audience has left to join TikTok).

Make sure that you invest time and money into the areas that are going to reap the best rewards. It may be that you need to do some testing to find the right way to maximise digital income and this is a great way of working out how to focus your efforts.

Just because you are an early adopter or a closet Luddite don’t let that influence your decisions and remember it is what works for the whole organisation.

Your website will be central to your whole digital success – get it right

However, if you are raising money digitally it is likely that your website will have a part to play.

It is essential that your website is accessible across different platforms and that it is clear and easy to understand. It is also vital that the donation journey is smooth and that you only take the information you use.

It is also vital that you follow up on any donations and most importantly that you thank your donors. One of the key reasons people don’t continue giving is that they are not thanked, so often using digital techniques can be automated so there is no excuse to not make it a priority.

Your story is key – tell it well

Whatever digital fundraising you are planning you have to tell a compelling story. All the tools in the world won’t make up for a story that does not grab a person’s imagination and make them feel something.

There is a whole training session on storytelling (keep an eye on the CCVS website training and events page. Jonah Sachs in his book Winning the Story Wars (which I really liked) says your story should be:

• TANGIBLE – Stories present information that makes concepts visible and human scale. They make you feel you can touch and see an idea.
• RELATABLE – Stories matter because their characters carry values that we want to see rewarded or punished.
• IMMERSIVE – Stories allow people to feel that they have experienced things that they have only heard.
• MEMORABLE – Stories use rich scenes and metaphors that help us to remember their message without conscious effort.
• EMOTIONAL – Stories elevate emotional engagement to the level of, and often beyond, intellectual understanding.

In essence, it is not about facts and appealing to the head it is about emotion and appealing to the heart. This is especially true if you are limited in space and competing with other organisations’ stories.

If people want the facts the impact and the accounts these should be available on your website, but you have to draw them in to want to look before they will contemplate giving you their hard-earned money.

Build your tribe

Digital fundraising, and especially crowdfunding, is about a lot of small donations rather than a few large ones (but the large ones are always welcome).

It is also about gaining supporters and raising the profile of your organisation. It is about getting followers who will share your messages and requests with their followers. It is all about mobilising people behind what you are doing, in effect you need to build your tribe.

Your tribe will be made up of different groups.

Your core followers or true believers

They will be the ones who will most likely donate and will be instrumental in making your plan work. They may be staff, volunteers or trustees; they could be some of those you work with or their families.

Your more casual members.

These are the people who will normally share your message, may well donate and will be removed from your core followers.

Influencers.

These are people who can share your message to much wider audiences, they may be local reporters or key people in your community or the local voluntary sector. They will be key to getting your message out as widely as possible.

There may be other subgroups who you can identify but it is important that you work out who these people are. You need to concentrate on all the different parts of your tribe and motivate them with the right message, and importantly you have to find ways to build the numbers of them.

Planning is everything

You must have a plan for your digital campaign. It is unlikely that you will be the only person involved in making it a success, so a plan helps keep everyone on the same page and ensures that you maximise the impact for the minimum effort.

Think about the story, the tribe and everything else and detail it in the plan. Ensure you map the key points of the campaign and that you know what messages you are sending to who. (And who is sending them).

Your plan needs to be a working document. You have to be able to adapt to unforeseen events and make the most of unexpected opportunities.

There is a rise of people who are motivated by inverse giving, this is when a negative story encourages people to give to a cause.

You need to think about how you react to this type of opportunity even if you don’t know what it might be and if, or when, it will happen. In short, the better the plan is and the more detail it has the more likely you are to reach your fundraising goals.

Data is important don’t neglect it

In the digital world, the data geek is king (or at least is the kingmaker). There will be lots of opportunities to collect data on donors as you develop your digital strategy. It is important that you use data in the ways that you have said you would and not for anything else.

It is important that all the data collected is yours to use and not retained by a platform. It is important that you store your data in a secure place, and you stick to all the rules on this and how you process the data.

Don’t ignore how proper analysis of your data can help build the success of your digital fundraising, ensure you are investing in this and in the skills of the staff or volunteers who are tasked with the analysis.

AI will be a thing but…

This is an extra point.

AI will start to impact more and more on how you fundraise. I am not sure how this will turn out, but I firmly believe that the above 7 points will remain as valuable.

You will still need to invest time, but this may change. Your story and your tribe will remain key even if they are connected and built in a different way. You will still need to plan, and data may well become even more important.

Conclusion

Digital fundraising is here. How people give and where they choose to give is changing.

Technology will continue to evolve. Charities and community groups of all sizes need to think about how they can adapt and develop the new fundraising techniques that will best suit them.

This will mean ensuring people have the skills and knowledge to manage the process and the technology, but it will also mean that the organisation commits to the investment that is needed to make things work.