Preparation
When it comes to running a successful crowdfunding campaign, preparation is half the battle! It’s important to consider who you want to appeal to, what your budget is and your overall strategy.
A successful launch can make all the difference in the energy and momentum of your campaign. Make sure you have communications prepared to support your launch, for example, a series of social media posts and/or a special newsletter. It is essential that your community and key audiences know about the issue before you launch – people need to know why they should care about your campaign!
While it can be tempting to dive right into fundraising, investing time into a successful launch will pay dividends in the future.
You need to know who you want to appeal to, what your budget is, and the next steps following the completion of your campaign. Spend some time researching other campaigns with similar goals or interests. What worked for them, what didn’t? Consider setting up a timeline of media posts before you launch. Build up hype about your project within your communities prior to going live.
There is a correlation between a good launch and time spent preparing your campaign. If you don’t have a community behind you or people ready to fund your project, this is when you want to start making those connections. Aim to spend at least 12 hours per week prior to launch in preparing your campaign.
Videos/Images
Make sure you have good quality images (and if possible, videos) for your campaign. These don’t have to be taken by professionals (a “homemade” look is often appreciated by donors) but clear images and a good script and audio for videos are key. If you are going to create a video, it is important to be genuine about your project – avoid sounding too scripted or passive. Images and video add visual appeal to your campaign and help set the story – remember, a picture is worth a thousand words!
Selecting a Goal
Focus on a specific, achievable goal to start. Remember, we can change the goal on the page at any point. You can also add messaging to your page to update your audience when you’ve reached your initial goal and let them know that you are now fundraising for the next phase of the project. Optics are important when setting goals – if you set your initial target too high and only have a few donations come in, it may discourage others from supporting you because the goal seems unattainable. Conversely, if you set too low a goal and reach it almost instantly, would-be-donors might get the impression that your cause doesn’t need their support.
Your Crowd is Key
The “crowd” in crowdfunding is what will get your project funded – whether through people you know or others who connect with what you’re trying to accomplish. Statistically, most initial funding will come from the generous support of your friends and family. The rest will come from virtual communities in which you’ve built a reputation or that otherwise connect with your goal.
Crowdfunding always works best when a community comes together to support something that matters to them. Consider communities you or your project already have a reputation in – that’s who you want to appeal to for raising funds. Let them into the backstory of your project and keep them engaged throughout your journey.
Social Media
While social media absolutely plays a part in crowdfunding, it’s very likely that only a small amount of your funds will come directly from posting on a social platform. Connecting with the people on the other side of the screen is key – they need a reason to care about your project. Also make sure that you choose the correct platform for your audience(s) and tailor your communications accordingly.
Pitching and Phrases
Always make sure your pitch is clear and concise, as well as free of spelling and grammatical errors. If available, consider including endorsements in your communications. Make sure to let your audience know why you need funds and what their generous contributions will be used for. At the same time, avoid going into overly specific explanations in case you have to pivot. For example, instead of writing that funds will be used to buy 50 lawn signs, indicate that you are fundraising for communications efforts, which may include lawn signs. This allows you to be flexible in case circumstances change and lawn signs are no longer useful for your project.
Phrasing can also play a role in swaying donors. Certain words and phrases can trigger an emotional response in donors that encourage them to donate. For example:
| Emotions You Want to Communicate | Helpful Keywords |
| Urgency | early bird, be the first, the time is now, time is running out |
| Social | friends, friendship, community, family, people |
| Emotion | passion, dream, inspired to start, believe that, impact, volunteer |
| Gratitude | thank you, so thankful, thanks, thanks so much, grateful |
| Trust | why support us, funds will cover, will be used, aiming to, aim to raise |
| Collective | help us, we can, we raise, we plan to, we need, we found, we created |
Announcing Our Partnership
We encourage you to share the news of our partnership to help eliminate confusion from donors when they are directed to donate through our platform. Don’t forget to tell them about our:
- Flexible Donation Options: Donors can contribute via multiple methods, including credit card, cheque, Electronic Fund Transfer and appreciated securities (stocks and mutual funds).
- Tax Receipts: Donors will receive tax receipts for their contributions, providing added value.
- Expert Support: Your project is backed by a team of experts and a capacity-building engine that is committed to your success.
To assist you in making this announcement, we’ve prepared some tips and suggested language for use on social media or in your newsletter:
- Use Small Change Fund’s About Us information when sharing who we are.
- Use language that emphasizes this is a joint project in partnership with Small Change Fund:
- Examples:
- [Insert project name here] is a project in partnership with Small Change Fund. Through this collaboration, SCF provides our joint project with a powerful crowdfunding platform and expert guidance, enabling grassroots organizations such as ours to amplify our impact. Your donations go directly to our project, in support of the work we are doing.
- We are excited to announce that we are now accepting donations for our project through our partnership with Small Change Fund! All donations are tax deductible and go directly towards [project name or description].
- Examples:
- Include the direct link to your crowdfunding page and provide clear instructions on how folks can donate using the link as well as other donation options.
Remember, Small Change Fund is a partner on the project, not a “trustee” or “funder”.
Updates
It’s important to regularly update your page to keep your supporters informed of your progress. You can make edits to your crowdfunding page, as well as preview changes, through your project dashboard. As a security feature, edits will be saved as a draft until your project lead has reviewed and published these changes. Please allow two business days for this process. During this time, your crowdfunding page will remain online with the previous content.
We’re Here To Help
As your partners, we’re here to help your project succeed! Please reach out at any time if we can provide support or advice.
In summary, be prepared to do the work to be successful. Crowdfunding isn’t easy but it is very rewarding and will help you reach your goals. These tips will help you, as will we, if you run into any problems. Please reach out at any time if we can do anything to support.