Fundraising Strategy: Give Donors Plenty of Ways to Help

Fundraising Strategy Tips: Give Donors Plenty of Ways to Help
Every professional fundraiser knows the power of integrated fundraising; it’s an essential part of every good fundraising strategy. Integrated fundraising is the coordination of specific tactics to reach a fundraising goal. In short, it means you give people lots of different ways to give so you can raise even more money.

An Integrated Fundraising Strategy for a Gala
Take a fundraising event like a gala. The first thing you do for a gala is sell tickets, right? But that’s not the only way you can raise money.

• Because you’ll have lots of people at the event you can sell sponsorships to companies who want to be seen at the event.
• Because your guests need something to do before the dinner, you have a silent auction.
• Because you have a great group of wealthy people attending the event, you get some expensive items donated like a car or a trip, which go to the highest bidders of your live auction.

The point of an integrated fundraising strategy is to never miss a chance to raise money.
If you held a gala and only sold tickets you’d be leaving a lot of money in people’s pockets that could have gone to your cause. That’s a fundraising no-no and would get a professional fundraiser fired!

How Can an Individual Create an Integrated Fundraising Strategy?
You don’t have to be a professional to tap the power of an integrated fundraising strategy. But you do need to think strategically about your fundraising objectives.

Take the example of a fundraiser for Whitney Hardy. On February 20th, Whitney was hit by a car while running. When she should have been out skiing with her boyfriend Dan or scouting out sites for their wedding, instead Whitney was fighting for her life.

Whitney has a long road to recovery. But she’s not traveling it alone. Her friends launched a fundraiser to cover the expenses of her rehabilitation. To date, they’ve raised nearly $75,000 on GiveForward.

But Whitney’s supporters didn’t stop with one online fundraiser; they employed an integrated fundraising strategy that allowed multiple ways for people to learn and donate to the cause.

They launched a Booster campaign to maximize their fundraising potential. By creating a custom neon t-shirt with #FightHardy on the front and back they were able to raise an additional $4,610 to aid Whitney’s recovery.

In addition to raising more money, integrating an online Booster t-shirt campaign can:

1. Give people another way to support the effort. What happened to Whitney was tragic, and friends, family and co-workers wanted to help in every way possible. The custom Booster t-shirt was another way for people to show their support for Whitney’s recovery, both on and offline.
Emily O’Donnell who witnessed the accident and stayed with Whitney until emergency crews arrived, bought a Booster t-shirt to show her continued concern for Whitney’s welfare. “I am happy to hear her daily improvement,” Emily wrote on Whitney’s Booster campaign page, “and wish her a full and quick recovery!” People have big hearts. Make sure your fundraiser is as big as their desire to help.

2. Give your events a unified theme. In addition to an online Booster campaign, supporters have also launched a series of fundraisers across the country called the “Friends of #FightHardy Event Series.”

You can check out some great pictures from these fundraisers on the #FightHardy Facebook page.

Here’s something you can’t miss in the photos: Booster’s neon #FightHardy tees, which is being sold at events to raise more money and build awareness.
Regardless of the fundraiser, audience or location, a custom Booster t-shirt shows the world why everyone is there.

3. Enhance awareness of the fundraiser. Whitney has some smart friends and family members, because using the hashtag – #FightHardy – as a battle cry was a brilliant move.

All the major social networks, including Facebook, use hashtags to track keywords and topics.

Including a hashtag on your custom Booster t-shirt is a great offline tool to drive supporters online where you can educate them about your campaign. These new supporters, in turn, make a donation, buy a t-shirt and repeat the cycle with others.

Booster custom t-shirts drive online engagements through offline means and help you generate more awareness for your cause and raise more money.

Combined with a hashtag, t-shirts are perfect advertising for Millennials who love social networks as much as they love to give back.

The #FightHardy team is working hard to get Whitney on her feet by delivering a one-two punch that people can’t resist. Their integrated fundraising strategy demonstrates that you as an individual or professional fundraiser can exceed your fundraising goals by just allowing others multiple ways to give to your cause.

To create your integrated fundraising strategy, you’ll need to plan well in advance. This checklist resource can help you map out your campaign or fundraising event from start to finish.