If you read the CauseVox articles often, it’s possible that you have heard us highlight Spur Local (formerly Catalogue For Philanthropy). And for good reason! Over the last decade, this nonprofit has raised over $57 million dollars and helped over 500 small nonprofits in their community do world-changing work.
By partnering with CauseVox, Spur Local created a tailored, dynamic online fundraising experience for GivingTuesday 2023 with their “Give Local” campaign. Their interactive and well-designed fundraising website made it easy for their nearly 6000 donors to support multiple nonprofits in one seamless transaction. This resulted in Spur Local raising over $1 million dollars from their campaign. Here are 5 key takeaways from their campaign, and what we can learn from them.
1. Branded Campaign
Spur Local brilliantly leveraged the user-friendly editing and customization features in their Give Local campaign to create a professional and engaging donor experience. By utilizing CauseVox’s design editor, they tailored their fundraising page to make their campaign visually appealing. The custom branding made it easy for their supporters to get involved by ensuring that each donor could easily connect with and support the causes they cared about most.
Custom branded fundraising page
2. Donation Counter
Spur Local’s automatic donation counter was a game-changer in their Give Local campaign. It added a dynamic and exciting element to the fundraising effort. This real-time feature allowed donors to see their contributions immediately impact the overall total, creating a sense of community and momentum.
As donations poured in, the counter kept ticking up. This offered a friendly competition among donors and nonprofits alike. This visual representation of the collective effort boosted participation and added some spice to the giving experience, encouraging even more generosity!
For your next campaign, consider adding a dynamic element like the donation counter to your fundraising page to boost excitement. This is especially helpful on GivingTuesday when you are attempting to fundraise a large amount in a short time span. It creates urgency and excitement among supporters and makes them feel involved in the process.
Spur Local Donation Counter
3. Optimized Donation Form
Spur Local’s optimized donation form is a masterclass in making giving simple and stress-free. Just like on the campaign page, they kept branding consistent across the form, ensuring a cohesive experience from start to finish. This keeps your donation page looking both aesthetically pleasing and professional; in fact 76% of donors are more likely to donate on branded donation pages.
Spur Local also designed their donation form to be fast and user-friendly, with diverse payment options like credit cards, mobile wallets (including Venmo and PayPal), and even pledges.
CauseVox offers donation forms that allow donors to give once, monthly, or a pledge.
By offering multiple payment methods, they made it easy for anyone to contribute. In our Giving Study, CauseVox found that 75% of donors are more likely to make a donation if the giving process is easy. Bottom line: making sure your donation form is optimized is essential.
CauseVox donation forms provide easy ways to give, ensuring there are no barriers to your donors supporting your cause!
Automated donation receipts were another smart touch. It simplifies record-keeping for donors as well as making them feel appreciated! These thoughtful features made giving feel effortless and accessible for everyone involved.
4. Dynamic Tools
Interactive features like leaderboards, automated matching, power hours, and prizes can significantly boost fundraising efforts for individual nonprofits by adding excitement and motivation to campaigns.
Leaderboards
Incorporating leaderboards into your campaign encourages friendly competition among donors or fundraising teams. This visibility can be especially effective in peer-to-peer fundraising, where individuals are motivated to outdo each other for a good cause. The public nature of leaderboards generates buzz, driving more engagement and ultimately increasing the total funds raised.
Spur Local’s Give Local Campaign Leaderboard
Automated Matching
By incorporating a matching gift into your campaign, you can encourage donors to give by offering the allure of doubling donations, making each contribution feel more impactful. With CauseVox’s automated matching feature, donors can see in real time the power of their gift as it doubles!
CauseVox’s automated matching in action
If you are not sure where to start or how to secure your matching grant, we have a detailed guide to help you secure that gift so your fundraising efforts can be multiplied.
Power Hours and Prize Incentives
Power hours and prizes put the fun in fundraising (in my opinion at least!). A power hour is a specific time when donations are encouraged by offering special incentives, like matching gifts or bonuses for the most donations within that hour. This creates a sense of urgency and enthusiasm, motivating donors to give immediately.
Spur Local’s Power Hour
Prize incentives, such as awards for top fundraisers, add a fun, competitive element that encourages participants to push harder for your cause. These tactics not only help you increase donations in the short term but also engage supporters in a more dynamic way, making them feel like active contributors to your organization’s success.
These strategies can be particularly powerful in peer-to-peer fundraising, where supporters are motivated to outdo each other, amplifying their overall impact. We can all learn from Spur Local’s success by integrating these tools into our next campaign, especially with GivingTuesday right around the corner!
5. Community Partnerships
At the heart of Spur Local’s mission is a commitment to bringing the community together, and their Give Local campaign perfectly embodies this. Their Gratitude Crawl, which is a partnership with local businesses, is a perfect example of how they strengthen community ties.
This creative event invited people to shop at participating local small businesses on Small Business Saturday, and those businesses donated a portion of the proceeds to local nonprofits! Then, on GivingTuesday, Spur Local hosted several “Power Hour” events at restaurants around the city where people could donate to local nonprofits in a specified time to create more engagement. It is also a great way for community members to connect over something meaningful!
Gratitude Crawl on the Give Local Campaign
For your GivingTuesday campaign, consider how your organization can collaborate with the community to expand and deepen connections locally. This may look like partnering with local businesses as Spur Local did, and can also take other forms. Community engagement can take the shape of corporate partnerships, matching gift programs as mentioned, or volunteer programs that allow community members to see firsthand the impact your organization is making.
By collaborating with community members in various ways, your organization can amplify their impact, create deeper connections, and nurture a more engaged, supportive network around your cause.
Get A Head Start On Your GivingTuesday Planning
Spur Local’s Give Local campaign is a fantastic example of effective, engaging, community-driven fundraising. By combining tailored online tools with strong partnerships and dynamic fundraising elements, Spur Local created an engaging, successful campaign. Now there is nothing stopping you from doing the same! If you are looking for ways to boost your impact, especially with GivingTuesday right around the corner, you can draw on the valuable lessons from Spur Local’s approach.
Ready to get a headstart on your GivingTuesday and year-end fundraising?
