Crowdfunding Donations Online
Step 1 - The Campaign Setup

This is the first step to successfully taking Crowdfunding Donations online.

Both this part, and the promoting of your fundraising campaign are equally important and you HAVE TO take the time to read and implement all the tips given!

It's equally as important to read the first page of this three page article on Online Donations, if you haven't already.

It'll help you understand who will donate to you and why, which is unbelievably important in ensuring you don't waste valuable time and energy!

So let's setup your Crowdfunding Donations campaign page....

Setting Up Your Campaign Page:

Although the promoting of your crowdfunding donations fundraiser is the most important part, the first important step is to actually set your campaign page up properly!

What people see and read when they land on your page will be the difference between someone donating and someone not donating!

So make sure you do the few simple steps outlined here correctly!

The first step is to actually sign up at a Crowdfunding site like this one.

Once you've signed up at a Crowdfunding website, you should automatically be taken to the page to set your campaign up from.

There will be a few different sections to fill out...

The Basics:

Project Name; Campaign Target /Goal/Need ($ amount); Category; Campaign Length.

• Project Name: Give your campaign a catchy title that draws people in. Yes, it needs to be relevant to your cause, but make it powerful and impactful... Catch people's attention!
  
  Get them to click through to your campaign page.
  
  
• Amount: Your crowdfunding donations target might already be defined, like it might be a specific medical bill or cost for a new building. But if not make sure you think about your goal carefully!
  
  Make it realistic with valid reasons as to why you've set it at that amount. Consider drawing up a projecting budget (you may want to get help with this) and use that budgeted amount as your target.
  
  You'll also want to give details of that budget at the bottom of your elevator pitch.
  
  
• Category: Simply select the most relevant category for your need!
• Campaign Length: Some Crowdfunding sites require that have deadline to your fundraiser. This might be predefined already if you need the funds by a certain date.
  
  If not, pick a time period that would best suit your fundraiser.
  

Upload a Picture Or Video:

First of all a video is always more powerful.

So it would be ideal if you can make a short video that describes your need in a creative and yes, you guessed it, emotionally connecting way! Tell Your Story!

You will need to upload that video onto YouTube or Vimeo first so that you can use it on your fundraising page.Remember to link to your fundraising page from your YouTube video as well!

A personal, meaningful and descriptive image will take second place and should only be used temporarily if you haven't been able to do your video yet!

So what do I mean with meaningful and descriptive image?

Simply put, the photo should represent the cause or need of the fundraiser in the best fashion possible...

If it's to fundraise for orphaned kids then have those orphaned kids in the photo. If it's to fundraise for cancer victims, then have cancer victims in the photo. Get the point!

If it's a personal fundraiser you should ideally be personally in that picture! People want to see who they are donating to and by being in the picture you make the connection more personal.

But by all means do not leave the photo or video out. Your crowdfunding donations page HAS to have an image!

Elevator Pitch:

This is the part where you get to connect with the potential donor, tell your story and pitch your need to them.

And tell your story you must!

Draw them into your need or cause and make them feel involved already. Connect emotionally and on a personal level.

Keep your focus on the donor when addressing what your need is on your crowdfunding donations page.

Use the word "you" often and show them what the benefits are for them to be able to donate and help your cause... e.g. being part of a great cause, having their name displayed on your website, receiving a reward (part of the last section), etc. etc....

As much as people are selfless and love to help others, we are at the same time self-centered and always (even if it's subconsciously) want to know, "what's in it for me".

So make sure that donating to you is worth it, and let your potential donors know how!

I'd suggest you take the time to read the fundraiser letter writing tips as to some extent this is a fundraising letter!

A small amount of the advice there won't be relevant, but most of it will help you further with getting your elevator pitch just right, like the 'setting the scene' section!

Advice From A Successful Crowdfunding Fundraiser...

Here is some advice from Natalie Sando, a successful Micro Giving fundraiser, quoted off the Micro Giving blog...

The next thing you have to do right is the grammar, spelling and punctuation of your pitch! Make sure that your spelling is correct and that you punctuate properly.

And most importantly you need to have nicely spaced paragraphs... Shorter than what you would find in a book or offline writing.

The reason you need to have short paragraphs, that leave lots of white space on your page, is because of how people read online.

Well, they don't actually read, they skim! Nice short paragraphs help break the page up for them so that they can pick up most of the information...

If you have huge paragraphs (or even only one big paragraph) the reader get's to the second or third line and then just skips to the next paragraph or glazes over, which is totally not what you want...

What you want is for them to take in as much of the information, story and pitch that you provide for them as possible.

SO... Nice short paragraphs!!!

Here Are Some More Pointers For When Writing Your Pitch:

• Obviously tell them your need, cause, project, or business idea!
• Get to the point.
• Tell a story. Tell your story!
• Connect emotionally and really draw your visitors into your need. Make them feel and understand how much it means to you!
• Don't make it too long... meaning don't waffle on about unnecessary stuff.
• But do, if applicable, give a breakdown of figures. (In the Post Script.)
• Be direct about asking for donations and also be specific about amounts. But also mention that any amount will help, "Whatever you can afford!"
• Explain precisely how donating to you or your cause would benefit the donor.
• Don't just ask for crowdfunding donations... Ask people to spread the word further. Ask them to tell all their friends about your fundraiser.
  
  Point out the social media toolkit under your photo, asking them to Facebook like and share, Tweet, Email, 'ShareThis' etc.
  
  Get the Buzz going!

Rewards For Crowdfunding Donations:

The fourth and last section you need to set up on your crowdfunding donations page is the rewards you will offer to donors!

This is such a brilliant incentive function on Crowdfunding websites to help encourage people to donate!!!

You must use it!!!

What and how many rewards you give will totally be up to you, but here are some suggestions for your rewards section...

• Have multiple reward tiers. I'd suggest four or five but it's up to you.
• Make the rewards worthwhile if you can. It's so powerful if you can make a donation worthwhile purely based on its reward!
• Consider using publicity in your rewards - i.e. "Your name or company name will be posted on our Facebook page and website."

Recognize that every single person that donates to you must be thanked. So your first reward should be for $1 donations. A simple personalized email or snail mail thank you letter will suffice.

Remember that hand written, snail mail, thank you letters are by far better than an email or generic thank you letter! So just keep that in mind...

This may encourage you to use a hand written thank you letter for a $5 donation. But once again it's totally up to you, do what you can do!

Not Required But Highly Recommended Additional Info:

There is some additional info that you can add in your profile section which is not required for your campaign but that I would highly recommend you use!

Bottom line the more potential donors can find out about you or your organization, the more emotionally and personally connected they will become with you, and the more likely they will be to donate to you!

Not everyone will be interested in finding out more about you but some might, and it might be an important factor on their decision of whether to donate to you.

I would also recommend that you add extra media (photos and videos) to your profile, especially if you are an organization! Obviously that media needs to be relevant to you and your cause!

After all, Images speak a thousand words!!!

I would also suggest that you interact on the comments application on your campaign page. Place updates, thank people, and respond to every message you receive.

The more active you are; the more real you become to people.

What Next:

Once you've setup your crowdfunding donations page correctly, which is the first important step, you then need to actively promote your fundraiser effectively for the duration of the fundraiser!

Like I said before, setting up a campaign page on a Crowdfunding site is not enough. You actually need to then go out and send as many willing to donate people to your page.

So click here to go to part 2 and read how to promote your online crowdfunding donations fundraiser effectively.

And if you haven't already, go here to to setup your profile and campaign page!

Other Recommended Internet Fundraising Ideas:

Online Apparel Fundraising

Affiliate Fundraising

Where are you?

Fundraising Ideas Home › Crowdfunding › Successful Campaign Setup

Fundraising Ideas Home › Online Fundraisers › Crowdfunding Page Setup