How to Market Your Virtual Fundraiser

These days, more and more nonprofits are opting for virtual fundraising. However, just like in-person fundraising events, online events also require unique marketing to get others excited about your cause.

Thanks to new technology, there are now several ways and platforms you can use to get the word of your fundraiser out to potential donors.

1. Jump on Social Media

Posts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn can be visually engaging and easily shared. These are two aspects that make social media platforms a valuable way to market your virtual fundraiser.

Plus, about 82% of people in the U.S. use these platforms every day. This means that potential donors are already on social media waiting for you!

When choosing your social media networks, choose those that the majority of your donors are using. For example, if you’re targeting a younger audience, then platforms like Instagram and TikTok might be a good idea. If you’re going for a more generation-spanning audience, Facebook might be better.

Here’s a quick overview of the different platforms:

• Facebook. With 2.6 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the most widely-used platform across generations. This platform is perfect for event updates, images, and longer-form text.
• Twitter. Limited to 280 characters per tweet, this platform is best used for quick and timely updates as well as engaging in conversation.
• Instagram. Great for reaching younger audiences with storytelling captions, impactful images, and live-stream video updates.
• LinkedIn. Many larger corporations have senior staff members that oversee corporate donations and partnerships with nonprofits, and most of these staff members are on LinkedIn. LinkedIn is also a good place to look for corporate sponsors.
• TikTok. A popular video platform where you can record 15-60 second video clips. They also have an initiative called “TikTok For Good” where nonprofits and charities can engage the user base with “Hashtag Challenges.” This is where users create their own content to show support for campaigns.

However, to get noticed on these platforms you’ll need to do a bit more than just posting a photo with a caption that says “donate now!”

Social Media Considerations

Here are a few things you must take into consideration when doing virtual fundraising on social media:

• Writing a captivating headline. Social media moves extremely fast. Your mission here is to write a headline that creates curiosity so that people pause for a second to read.
• Connecting with your audience. Share a heartwarming story that shows how your organization is changing people’s lives for the better.
• Tailoring your message. As mentioned earlier, each platform has its own demographic and formatting. Therefore, you must tailor your message to each platform.
• Creating urgency. This is a great way to give people the push they need to act now. Make it clear of the consequences of failing to respond. For example, if your organization helps children in low-income areas, you could tell them to donate now so students can get their supplies in time for the school year.
• Adding a call-to-action. You always want to tell potential donors exactly what they need to do and not leave them wondering what their next steps should be. Make sure that you provide a one-click link to a secure website so they can make a donation without any friction.
• Responding to messages quickly. Constantly check your direct messages on social media since users on these platforms typically expect fast response times.
• Posting at the right time. Social media business accounts typically allow you to see useful analytics about your audience. Pay attention to when your users are most active and schedule your posts for those times.
• Using interactive posts. Quizzes, polls, and open-ended questions can evoke responses from readers, which will increase your engagement and chances of social platforms showing your content to more users.
• Engaging, not just posting. Make sure you’re participating in conversations with your donors, volunteers, staff, community, and target audiences.

2. Get Influencers to Do Your Fundraiser Marketing

In this day and age, influencers are more influential than celebrities. This is because influencers are often just people with regular jobs, families, and hobbies that others can relate to.

Since they reach a wide range of people, celebrities are great to get your organization some recognition, however, influencers are better at developing an intimate connection between their audience and your organization, which will drive the conversions you’re seeking.

Influencers can be divided into two high-level categories:

• Micro-influencers. These are the first type of influencers you want to reach out to, since they’re in your current network. These people could be volunteers, board members, donors, or even previous attendees. Look for those who have at least 1,000 followers and are active on their platforms, with a lot of engagement from their own followers. If possible, connect with them one-on-one to discuss the partnership instead of sending everyone the same generic broadcast. These kinds of influencers are best recruited as brand ambassadors.
• Macro-influencers. These are those with a large audience, think 10,000+ followers. However, since some influencers tend to purchase followers, make sure that their content is getting several comments and engagement. You can find these influencers by searching specific hashtags, such as:
  • #socialimpact
  • #giveback
  • #socialgood
  • #donate
  • #helpothers
  • #communityservice
  • #philanthropy
  • #4charity
  • #givingback

When contacting influencers, make sure you are aligned in your expectations of the partnership. It’s often a good idea to ask them if your cause resonates with them. The more your cause resonates with them, the more passion and drive they will put into marketing your virtual fundraiser. Share with them some articles to help them understand your organization. This way, they can better explain it and connect with their audience.

Like What You're Reading? Subscribe Here!

Newsletter Opt-in

• Name*
  First Last
• Email*

Δ

3. Start Blogging

Having a website has become more of a non-negotiable for organizations than solely a supplementary resource. However, it is blogging that will help you bring traffic and get your content seen by the masses.

Every time you publish a blog post, it’s one more indexed page on your website, which means one more opportunity for you to show up on search engine result pages. You can publish stories, event updates, behind-the-scenes look at programs, opinions on local news, or articles educating others on the issue your virtual fundraiser is working to solve.

The advantage of having your own website is that you own it and have complete control over it. Social media platforms don’t belong to you, and if Instagram or Facebook go out of existence, all your followers, donors, and content would be gone.

Here are a few pointers on what to consider when fundraising with a blog:

• Introducing your virtual fundraiser. Asking for donations without letting people know the cause behind it won’t convert well. Be sure to introduce the fundraiser and use the post to build up some excitement and get people motivated to talk about it.
• Communicating your message and timeline. Let visitors know how they can help and make it easy for them to do so. If you have a fundraising target, make it clear in all of your posts and update people regularly on where you are and how long they have left to contribute.
• Encouraging discussion. It’s always a good idea to end your post with an open-ended question or ask visitors to share their story in the comment section.
• Embedding videos. Instagram reels, YouTube shorts, TikTok, Snapchat, you name it, videos are taking over the digital space. Videos are effective in reinforcing the message of where the help is needed. When you place videos in blog posts, your posts become more dynamic and engaging. Plus, they tend to generate more inbound links and increase viewership.
• Making your donate button stand out. Don’t make it difficult for potential donors to find how to donate to your case. Include one donate button close to the beginning of the post and at least one other within the post. Make sure to use contrasting colors as well.

4. Take Advantage of Pinterest

Pinterest is often thought of as a social media platform, but it’s actually a search engine. You can think of it as a visual version of Google.

When someone logs into Pinterest, they’re not doing so to see what their friends are up to. They’re typically searching for inspiration, recipes, ideas, and products to buy. In fact, 47% of users make purchase decisions on Pinterest, which is significantly more than Facebook at 15% and Instagram at 11%.

What’s great about Pinterest being a search engine is that your content will live on the platform for longer and you can drive consistent traffic to your blog.

Here are a few things to consider when marketing your virtual fundraiser on Pinterest:

• Using the right image dimensions. Pinterest recommends using a 2:3 aspect ratio for standard Pins and 1:2.1 for long Pins.
• Publishing 1-5 Pins each day. Publishing more Pins used to be beneficial, however, Pinterest has made many changes to its algorithms and is now focusing more on new and quality content.
• Using a scheduler. Fundraisers can be extremely time-consuming, to free up some time, you can use a scheduling tool like Tailwind to automatically publish Pins for you.
• Adding eye-catching images. A picture is worth a thousand words, so make sure that you choose powerful images that stir emotion. If possible, avoid using stock photos and use photos from your organization instead.
• Using keywords. Remember, Pinterest is a search engine, so don’t forget to add keywords on your Pin titles and descriptions.
• Creating infographics. Infographics perform well on Pinterest, therefore, if your organization has cause-relevant data that can be visualized, consider sharing a few infographics.
• Speeding up your website. Almost all Pinterest users access the platform on their mobile devices, so make sure that your landing page and blog posts are mobile-friendly and load in under 3 seconds.

5. Embrace Email Marketing

While email marketing is often viewed as a tool for businesses to boost their revenue, it can also be useful for those organizations where profit isn’t the goal. For example, you can use emails to announce events, ask for participation, maintain relationships, and send out newsletters about your organization’s activities.

Interestingly, the average open rate for nonprofit emails is a whopping 25.96%, compared to the universal email open rate of 6%, according to data gathered by MailChimp. This is good news for your virtual fundraiser.

When writing emails, keep these best practices in mind:

• Writing engaging subject lines. Questions and subject lines that create curiosity tend to perform well.
• Using recognizable senders. Make sure that your recipients know who’s emailing them by using your name or your organization’s name.
• Optimizing for mobile. About 53% of emails are opened on mobile devices, so your audience is much more likely to respond to your fundraising request if they can open and easily view your email’s content. Make sure that you use a single column layout, resize images, and make links large and easy to tap.
• Staying consistent. Email your audience frequently to avoid having them forget about you and label your emails as spam.
• Adding recipient’s name in the greeting. Almost every email marketing software will have the option to automatically add the recipient’s name.
• Adding relevant call-to-actions. Tailoring the content on your email and call-to-action will help boost conversion rates. For example, you could ask a donor to consider an additional gift or offer a long-time volunteer a new opportunity.

Begin Marketing Your Virtual Fundraiser

Online fundraising is one of the best ways nonprofit organizations can raise money for their cause. With them, you can collect donations from anywhere, capture more donor information, reduce costs, increase visibility and awareness, and much more.

Put in practice the ideas on this list, but remember to tailor them to match your virtual fundraising goals and specific cause.