I recently met with a non-profit that needs to raise money for a new bus that will take its clients to medical appointments and social/recreational opportunities. The bus not only gives the clients more independence, but it also fills a gap in a public transportation system that isn’t geared to people with such high special needs.
It’s a good cause but could it resonate with enough donors to reach the $80,000 goal?
Rather than set a goal for the entire cost, we thought of campaigns that would appeal to different groups of potential donors to raise smaller amounts that would all add up.
One group of potential supporters was staff — most of whom had worked at the organization for more than 10 years. The advantage: they are passionate advocates for their clients. The disadvantage: they might not feel comfortable asking friends and family for donations.
We came up with an idea for a friendly competition to see who could influence the most donations using the platform’s new leaderboard feature. As well as earning bragging rights by being the person who encouraged the most donations, we thought of some prizes that local businesses could offer to the top three “winners.”
The leaderboard works this way: let’s say I make a $20 donation and post a link to the campaign page on my Facebook, telling my friends why I care so much about the cause. As a result, five of my friends also make a $20 donation. On the leaderboard, I’d be shown as influencing $120 in donations — my $20 plus the $100 my friends donated as a result of my post. That’s a pretty nifty magnifying trick!
Maybe some staff members still don’t feel comfortable asking for straight-up donations. Here’s another scenario: every Monday they bring home-baked cookies to work and sell them for $1 each, donating the proceeds into the campaign. They can even spice things up by promising to email the recipe for their world-famous cookies to everyone who donates $10 to the campaign in their honour. The money from those fundraising efforts goes to their campaign, bumping their numbers up.
That means staff don’t have to make big donations themselves in order to be a top fundraiser. All they need to do is spread the word about the campaign — “Help me win a nice prize AND watch the wheels of the bus go round and round…”
— Martha Perkins, executive director, FundAid.ca
