{"id":13426,"date":"2019-08-01T08:53:44","date_gmt":"2019-08-01T08:53:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rivaliq.com\/?p=13426"},"modified":"2019-08-02T18:16:35","modified_gmt":"2019-08-02T18:16:35","slug":"social-fundraising","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rivaliq.com\/blog\/social-fundraising\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Use Social Media for Fundraising"},"content":{"rendered":"

We want every nonprofit, entrepreneur, and corporate social responsibility initiative to be a success!<\/p>\n

One benefit of our always-on, always-connected society is the power to bring people together online. When newsworthy events occur, especially disasters<\/a> and t<\/a>ragedies<\/a>, word spreads fast, and countless people are more than willing to donate what they can.<\/p>\n

Here are a few of our favorite fundraising platforms you can consider for your next fundraising initiative.<\/p>\n

\"social<\/p>\n

Why Social Fundraising Works<\/h2>\n

Social fundraising is tremendously effective for a few key reasons. As media attention swirls and friends inundate newsfeeds with topical updates, social media users often feel motivated (or pressured, even) to donate to causes they care about.<\/p>\n

In fact, according to the State of Peer-to-Peer Fundraising 2017 study<\/a>, 21% of peer-to-peer fundraising dollars raised are the result of a direct click-through on social media.<\/p>\n

\"21%<\/p>\n

Since we can manage almost every aspect of our lives from the smartphone in hand, it makes perfect sense that organizations collect donations via online and social platforms. Platforms are organized, fast, convenient, secure and include sharing features to help any campaign go viral.<\/p>\n

Crowdfunding Best Practices<\/h2>\n

30-day\u00a0online campaigns work best<\/h3>\n

Like any project, you want to establish smart goals<\/a> to keep yourself on track. This includes setting realistic fundraising goals and a realistic timeline. Although the average duration of a crowdfunding campaign is about 9 weeks<\/a>, according to a study by Indiegogo<\/a>, of all the campaigns they analyzed that met their goals, nearly a third of them (30.5%) ran a campaign between 30 and 39 days.<\/strong> You want to consider how long you and your team can realistically commit to engaging with your campaign and community. Communicating and engaging through social media channels make this more manageable, but on-point engagement is likely more work than it seems at first glance. Be prepared.<\/p>\n

Schedule ample planning time<\/h3>\n

The best performing fundraising campaigns are those that have a team who put in the time to build a strategy. According to F<\/a>undly<\/a>, it takes about 11 days to prepare a successful fundraising campaign<\/strong>.<\/em> Shoot for setting aside two weeks prep time.<\/p>\n

Social media is vital<\/h3>\n

Sharing is caring (and cash!)<\/h4>\n

As you know, social media is a fruitful place to get your fundraising campaign kicked off without a hitch. Your followers are your organic reach amplifier; communicate with them! Get this, 12% of Facebook shares\u00a0convert into donations<\/strong>. Let that sink in. Whether you choose to use paid ads or use 100% organic social posts, give your audience a\u00a0reason to share your post and your organic reach will soar!<\/p>\n

Test out different media types<\/h4>\n

Get the word out early so you have momentum when the campaign kicks off. Make sure you have a customized landing page set up: you can use one of the crowdfunding platforms below, or a resource like OneCause<\/a> which can help you easily set up campaign microsites with built-in payment processing. Be sure to leverage different types of media including video, images, and .gifs to optimize engagement on your campaign page and across your social channels. Campaigns with personal videos raise 105% more than those that don’t.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Leverage the power of social targeting<\/h4>\n

If you’re looking to grow engagement, following or reach a new audience, try out social ads. Only 15.17% of crowdfunding donations are made on mobile<\/strong><\/a>… keep this in mind when you’re setting up placement on those Facebook Ads (people are more likely to donate from their desktop).<\/p>\n

Tracking the reach, engagement, audience, and performance of your social media posts (ie. best time and days to post, media type, channels, etc.) can be really time-consuming and difficult to analyze. Luckily, there are tools out there, like Rival IQ<\/a>, you can use to easily track and test these metrics to build a better, more efficient social media strategy for fundraising. Use tools like hashtag analysis and Facebook ads in Rival IQ<\/a> to focus in on your social fundraising strategy.<\/p>\n

Don’t be afraid to reach out to your base<\/h3>\n

As it turns out, people who donate to causes don’t donate because you caught them at a moment when they’re feeling especially altruistic. They actually care about the cause, which is the reason why they continue to follow and support you. Twenty-eight percent of nonprofit donors donate a second time.<\/strong> Initially, that may sound small, but think about your entire donor base… over a quarter of them will donate a second time. These are your evangelists and your influencers. Reach out to them to see if they would like to have an active part in helping you achieve your fundraising goals.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s worth noting that some experts<\/a> caution against solely relying on online mechanisms for fundraising. Studies show donations made online have shrunk from 48 percent of the overall average gift in 2014 to 32 percent of the overall average gift in 2016. That means that even though more people are giving online, the amount per donation is smaller than those given offline. In our opinion, the best approach is a comprehensive one.<\/p>\n

Create a well-rounded campaign that includes modern and traditional tactics to recruit donors. Make sure to monitor data that measure your campaign performance, including retention rate and average gift sum, to make sure you\u2019re on the right track.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

With over 191 U.S.-based crowdfunding platforms out there<\/a>, we narrowed it down to three popular online fundraising channels: GoFundMe, CrowdRise, and YouCaring.<\/p>\n

When making our selections, we paid close attention to the following criteria:<\/p>\n