Five Best Practices for a Successful Campaign

There are a million creative ways to run a great campaign, but the five suggestions below highlight themes common to GiveCampus’s most successful fundraisers. You don’t need to do everything on this list, and you certainly don’t need to do everything yourself, but we encourage you to think through each of the five opportunities listed below as you chart your strategy.

Set the right length and an achievable goal

Create a sense of urgency by limiting your campaign to no more than 30 days, and choose a realistic and attainable goal.  Campaigns that meet their goal early often continue to fundraise well beyond the initial goal.  Early momentum also correlates with success. 

Remember that goals can be defined as a number of dollars OR a number of donors.  Don’t be afraid to frame your goal around participation: 9 of the 10 top grossing campaigns on GiveCampus have had donor goals! Check out this resource for more information on goal setting.

Create a compelling video

Your video doesn’t have to be a Hollywood production. In fact, one of GiveCampus’s most successful videos was filmed on an iPhone.  That video and other standouts all share the following attributes:

• Short: Less than 60 seconds in length 
• Personal: Connect with your audience and tell a story. Nostalgia is powerful! 
• Includes an ask: Make your request simple and in the first 30 seconds.

If you’d like 10 tips for a great fundraising video, click here.

Develop an outreach strategy

This is not ‘Field of Dreams.’  Though you’ve built a great campaign page, you still need to drive interest and engagement.  The primary channels schools use to raise awareness about their campaigns are the following:

• Email: Email is the #1 vehicle that schools use to raise awareness about their campaigns. Linked here is a set of best practices.
• Social media: Many schools create social media toolkits with pre-created images that are easy to share via Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.  When sharing updates or requests on social media, consider uploading images and tagging volunteers and champions so that they receive a notification.
• Print mail: In advance of a major campaign (e.g. giving day, year end push, etc.), it can be effective to send a print postcard including a link to the campaign, a call to action, and details on any incentives you are offering.
• Events: For major campaigns, some schools will even hold a ‘kick-off’ event at the beginning or ‘final push’ event at the closing stages of a campaign.

Prepare your champions and encourage advocacy

Find those you believe will be your biggest advocates, educate them on the new tools available via GiveCampus, and empower them to feel ownership over the success of the campaign.  These champions can be class agents, staff members, your most loyal donors, or anyone else you think will help engage your constituent base. 

Reinforce the message to your supporters that their impact is magnified when they give AND spread the word.  GiveCampus provides numerous options including ways for supporters to track their outreach, create their own matching gifts and challenges, and even create ‘selfie’ videos so they can use their own words to share why giving back is important to them.

Feel free to personalize and share editable ‘How to Be an Advocate’ document.  Reach out to your partner success manager to schedule a 20-30 minute webinar with your champions to walk them through the site in advance of campaign kickoff. 

Share regular updates to maintain enthusiasm

Update your supporters regularly throughout your campaign to sustain momentum and deepen engagement.

  Using the Update tool on the campaign page, you can choose if you want to push notifications to supporters via email or simply update the campaign page.  Consider including photos (and even video) of your progress and important milestones - that way, supporters will feel more invested in the success of the campaign.

In each update, remember to ask supporters to spread the word to their networks, consider recognizing an all-star advocate, and, if you are providing incentives based on their advocacy, remind them of these additional reasons to go the extra mile!