How To Raise Money? Be Kind
Laura Manni is part of the Strategy & Innovation team at CMMB. Here she shares what she’s learned running a crowdfunding campaign and explains why she thinks kindness and relationships are key when raising money for causes.
Laura, Lazarous, Nicholas, and Mweetwa on the sports field (2006). Perhaps one of the first selfies!
Asking for money is never easy – just ask the guy at the train station who is 50 cents short for a fare. We are skeptical about people’s intentions and the ultimate destination of our money, an unfortunate byproduct of the dishonesty and mismanagement of funds that we sometimes see.
This skepticism is exactly the reason why I believe that running a successful peer-to-peer fundraising campaign relies more on relationships than anything else.
But we’ll get back to that. First, let me share some of the things I learned since I started my ownbirthday fundraising campaignfor Mukwashi Trust School in Zambia.
Head teacher of Mukwashi Trust School, Judah Sikamikami, dances to the children’s beat.
Before anything else, you need to decide on a fundraising platform. There are a lot of choices so do a bit of research and then make a decision that seems best for you and go for it. With some deliberation, I chose Crowdrise because it was the cheapest of the options that I investigated. After membership fees, they guarantee $97 of every $100 you raise, where most others only guarantee $92, and I loved their tagline “If you don’t give back no one will like you.”
In the end, though, it’s just a platform. No matter what you decide on remember that you are the one who has to figure out how to get people to visit it and, more importantly, to give.
So you’ve decided on a fundraising platform and set it up. You’ve crafted your message and found compelling images (or maybe created a video) to share with the world so that they can understand why you are doing what you are doing and why it’s important. Great job! That, however, is just the beginning of your fundraising work.
Setting up your campaign, while extremely important, is the easy part. Reaching your goal requires a lot of hard work and persistence – just ask Kirollos, who managed to reach his $5,000 goal in less than two weeks.
Once your page is set up, you need to get your story out to all of your networks… and I mean all of them! This is not the time to feel shy or worry about disturbing or inconveniencing people. Remember, this is not about YOU. It’s about the people you are aiming to serve or the goal that you are trying to achieve. Let the world know about it and remember that scientists say we are hard wired for generosity and that we are happiest when we give! Consider your request for a donation as an opportunity for others to be happy.
As a side note, you may want to approach your family and close friends first because they are likely to be your most generous donors. These initial donations usually set the barometer so that when you open it up to a wider audience they will see that you’re already on your way and will be more inspired to give.
Once you have done all this, it’s time to start posting and re-posting andre-posting the link onto your various social media channels. People don’t always see it the first or second or even twentieth time! And even if they see it, they may not be able to visit the fundraising page at that particular moment. Maybe they are on public transport and don’t want to take out their credit card, or they’re in the middle of a meeting where they really should be listening but have decided scroll their Facebook Newsfeed! It just might not be the best time.
Just yesterday, a little under three months since starting my campaign, a friend donated and included the following note:
“I’m embarrassed that it took me so long! I’ve seen this come up on my feed and just kept forgetting to donate.”
We all need reminders.
It’s also really important to give regular updates:
This lets people in your networks know how things are going – it might even encourage people to give again!
Use humor where possible.
And most importantly, find a way to say thank you to the people who give:
Children from Mukwashi Trust School showing their gratitude. The fundraiser will help bring senior secondary school to Mukwashi!
I posted photos like these onto the social media channels of every person who donated to the fundraiser. It was our thank you, but it was also an opportunity to highlight their kindness and generosity. For most people, it’s hard to tell others about the good they are doing in the world without feeling like they’re boasting. My advice – do it for them! The unexpected benefit of these very public thank yous is that others were moved by their friends’ generosity and also decided to give! Generosity can be contagious – so be ready for it to spread.
I set a VERY high goal – $40,000 for my 40th birthday. I didn’t set a time limit, just a dream, to build a senior secondary high school at Mukwashi Trust in Zambia. I started on my birthday – April 5th, 2016. The level of generosity by family and friends has been overwhelming. Within a month I had raised over $15,000 and today, not even 3 months later, the donations amount to $22,710 and all that from only 125 donors!
The head teacher of the school, Judah Sikamikami wrote:
“I want to thank everyone for helping make this dream a reality. Sooner rather than later, the senior secondary school will be up and running at Mukwashi and this will help change the lives of thousands of kids who will pass through this beautiful school!”
Which brings me back to relationshipsand kindnessand why I believe that they are essential to a successful fundraising campaign. I believe that the reason people have given so generously to this campaign is because of the strength of the relationships that I have cultivated with them over my lifetime. We give to those we love because we trust in their intentions.
So my best advice to people who have big dreams is to remember that dreams are never realized alone. We need each other. Be kind, truthful and know that in the end all we have is who we are and the bonds that we’ve created with others.