How to Raise Funds with Awards Management Software
The hour-long telethon that was organised in support of the victims of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma is an excellent example of how powerful online fundraising can be. With celebrities like Beyoncé, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Demi Lovato sharing their stories and songs online, the event created a real buzz and raised over $14 million in just one hour.
From a marathon to a charity gala, it’s now possible to power any type of fundraising event using online streaming and other digital tools.
In this post, we analyse how you can raise money through award-driven fundraising events with the help of online awards management software.
What is a fundraising campaign?
Any occasion, project, or cause that depends on the collection of donations can be turned into a fundraising campaign. Typically organised by non-profit organisations, fundraisers are events that not only collect money but also build useful connections with donors.
How does it work?
To build a successful fundraising project, you have to stay abreast of multiple tiny details with minimum fuss. The key recipe for constructing an effective fundraiser includes the following:
- Hone the idea. Think about ways to present your event’s cause and clarify the value behind it.
- Mobilise fundraisers. Reach out to the members of your organisation, volunteers, and a support base to mobilise fundraisers before the launch.
- Create a donation page. Research shows that 75% of donors refuse to make a donation on an out-of-date website. Build a branded landing page that reflects the key event information and features a top-notch design.
- Maintain engagement. Stay constantly connected with your audience before, during, and after an event. One of the great strategies for promotion is creating a campaign video with a powerful story that reflects the event’s cause.
Types of fundraising events
Let’s tap into the current fundraising trends and see which types of fundraisers create the biggest buzz.
Charity auction
This one is a real money maker. Not only are charity auctions super profitable but they also present an amusing and entertaining way to engage with donors. At charity auctions, non-profits earn money by taking bids for specific items and selling those items to donors.
Depending on the resources you have at your disposal, you can choose from among three formats for such events: silent, live, and online auctions. Online auctions, in which photos of the items are featured on a website, are taking the lead these days as they are cost efficient and organisers can reach out to international audiences.
Crowdfunding
With excellent virality potential, crowdfunding campaigns are superb instruments for collecting donations from a wide audience of users. Basically, through crowdfunding, you persuade people to give you a small donation in support of a cause, product launch, or initiative.
Here’s an example of a successful online crowdfunding campaign from the leader in project donations, Kickstarter:
Peer-to-peer fundraising
Peer-to-peer (P2P) fundraising is a unique technique for collecting donations based on a multi-tier approach. This means that apart from a centralised page where you collect donations, you can also raise funds through the personal profiles and websites of your community. From walkathons to fun runs, you can make P2P super creative and entertain your target community while reaping real profits.
Online campaign
In fact, all of the fundraising event formats described above can be taken online. Through Pinterest boards, Facebook and LinkedIn promotions, and video storytelling as well as easy-squeezy donation website building, online campaigns are the real win–wins for non-profits.
How can you use awards to build successful fundraising campaigns?
Awards fundraising is the collection of donations through events that offer users some value in exchange for contributing. The great thing about award-driven fundraising is its virality potential. You can ask your community to do referrals, promote UGC in support of your online campaign, and more. Here is a step-by-step guide to launching a fundraising contest:
- Planning: Reward and be rewarded
Start your preparation by setting goals for your non-profit or business organisation and then aligning the latter with the objectives your target community might follow when signing up for an event. Here are some examples of SMART goals you might consider at this stage:
- Hit $5,000 in donations in the first 10 days of the contest by using Facebook engagement activities and reaching out to 2,000 users on your contact base.
- Expand your network from 2,000 to 3,000 based on Facebook referrals in five days after a contest start.
- Send three personalised emails to each contest entrant to keep people tuned in during an event.
- Provide the top 10 winners with special discounts.
The goal of fundraising is to make money. This makes profitability your first priority. Ensure your contest expenses fall into the campaign budget, and try to make the most accurate predictions about the costs you can expect within the event.
- Implementation: Give life to your fundraising awards ideas
Break the news on a website, social media, a newsletter, and other platforms you’re going to leverage by covering the event theme, the fundraising goals, and the entrance terms.
Make a plan of the activities you’re going to feed your community with. You can create a social media posting and email blasting schedule, a plan for pitching activities, and ongoing updates.
Ensure that your donation page works perfectly on mobile and that people can always get support from your team if they encounter any problems.
- Closure: Show gratitude
Gratitude pays off. Even with a perfect plan in place, your fundraising campaign may fail to bring the expected profits. Despite the results, send a post-event thank you email to every contest entrant, or simply express your gratitude on social media and the donation website.
Why use awards management software for fundraising campaigns?
The short answer is, good fundraising awards software minimises costs and labour inputs. Flexible contest management instruments like a centralised submission dashboard and tools for moderation help you keep full control of all entries. Thanks to public voting modules, the evaluation of submissions are super easy and quick. Finally, analytics tools give you insights into what worked best and where you should improve.
Conclusion
To grow the number of your fundraising event supporters, focus on award-driven campaigns. Rewarding people for their engagement with the use of robust fundraising management software tools is a great way to collect donations online, even if you’re bootstrapped.