Have you noticed that it’s getting increasingly difficult to meet the needs of your entire donor base? It seems like we have so many different ways to connect with our donors, but all that noise often drowns out the impact.
Even if you cater to each donor’s communication preferences and fine-tune your fundraising, there’s still a chance you’re missing out on much-needed funds from some of your donors.
So, how do you ensure you reach as many supporters as possible?
The answer may lie in DIY Fundraising.
DIY? Tell Me More!
Here at CauseVox, we often describe DIY fundraising as having “Unity in the cause, but a diversity in the ‘why.’”
By combining the power of peer-to-peer fundraising with the appeal of personal flexibility, DIY campaigns are perfect for generous nonprofit supporters who:
- Care about your cause
- Want to fundraise outside of a typical campaign window
- Desire fundraising flexibility in a structured environment
DIY Fundraising often looks something like this:
Sarah is an occasional volunteer living in your community. She loves your cause and wants to find a way to give back in celebration of her upcoming birthday. After poking around your website, Sarah learns that she can raise money for your nonprofit online. She clicks on a link and is prompted to create an account and set up a fundraising website. After reading through materials you provide to help make the setup easy and painless, Sarah adds her own personal story to her fundraising page, along with a couple of pictures and a video explaining why she supports your cause. Finally, she shares the website with her social media followers on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, and emails a few friends and family to directly ask for support. As her birthday nears, Sarah is thrilled to share the great news that she’s reached her goal to support your nonprofit!
Providing Sarah the option to fundraise on her schedule and the resources to do so boosts your nonprofit’s finances and reach, while also engaging your loyal supporter (Sarah).
It’s a win-win-win for everyone!
6 Stellar DIY Campaigns
Over the years, nonprofits and charities from around the world have used CauseVox to power their personalized DIY fundraising campaigns.
CauseVox-specific features like one-time campaign setup, branded websites, and custom domains help organizations create long-term fundraising solutions, even with limited financial and staff resources.
The six nonprofits highlighted below are prime examples showing the power DIY fundraising has on an organization and its supporters.
AMIGOS
Amigos de las Americas is a Houston-based nonprofit offering volunteer opportunities for students wishing to travel and serve abroad for two weeks up to nine months. To help fund each student’s travels and other expenses, Amigos relies on student-driven DIY fundraising.
Amigos views fundraising as a way for students to remove the financial burden from their families and also build leadership skills.
How Amigos Supports Fundraisers
The organization provides substantial oversight and assistance to help students fundraise for their trip, including access to the CauseVox online fundraising platform, a fundraising webinar, and an additional guidebook.
Student groups are encouraged to fundraise as a team.
How Amigos Fundraisers Succeed
Each student joins the Amigos program for different reasons, including leadership experience, learning about a different culture, and helping others.
Take Gerardo P., a 16-year old student from Portland, Oregon looking to fund his summer experience. He used his personal fundraising page to explain his intentions for joining the program.
“With your support, I will be able to make a journey across Latin America and help other communities in the Dominican Republic by putting leadership in motion and starting a sports league in their community.”
Then there’s Arielle P., who’s eager to visit Costa Rica to gain real-world skills. She explains:
“I am not going as a tourist, but will live with a host family and share their day-to-day life. Combined with my community-based project, this authentic cultural and language immersion will allow me to make a positive impact in a community while gaining real-world leadership skills.”
Each fundraiser’s story is different, but it relates to Amigos’ mission to create a world where each young person becomes a lifelong catalyst for social change.
How DIY Fundraising Helps Amigos
DIY fundraising allows participants to raise money to fund their own trips while reaping the benefits of the organization’s trust name and robust support system.
Features such as templated fundraiser stories/content guide students as they create what is likely their first fundraising campaign. At the same time, Amigos as an organization knows that their branding will remain intact thanks to CauseVox’s customizable websites.
World Bicycle Relief
World Bicycle Relief works to bring bicycles to needy people and communities around the world. For $150, the organization can place a high-quality bicycle which can improve a person’s access to food, water, education, and employment.
A large portion of World Bicycle Relief funds come directly from DIY fundraising campaigns.
How World Bicycle Relief Supports Fundraisers
World Bicycle Relief encourages supporters to get creative when it comes to their own fundraising efforts. Their main fundraising website states:
“Host a dinner, sell lemonade, organize a bike ride…do whatever inspires you to make a difference. Whether you want to mobilize one entrepreneur or provide bikes to an entire school, we can’t wait to partner with you.”
A stellar toolkit including prompts, marketing materials, and best practices, supports fundraisers who need extra guidance.
How World Bicycle Relief Fundraisers Succeed
Individuals and groups create personalized fundraisers for World Bicycle Relief.
April and Michael Joyce created their fundraiser to coincide with the 4-day pro-am charity challenge Trois Etapes Giro. They set a goal of $50,000, and raised enough money to fund 342 bikes!
Although Nathan R. hasn’t run a marathon in over eight years, that didn’t stop him from committing to the Illinois Marathon and raising nearly $8,000 for World Bicycle Relief in the process.
“I am striving to raise funds for 52 bikes, or 2 bikes for every mile of the marathon!” he wrote on his website.
Regardless of the size and scope of each campaign, every dollar earned rolls up into the organization’s main goal, creating a bigger, more significant impact.
How DIY Fundraising Helps World Bicycle Relief
DIY fundraising isn’t a new technique for World Bicycle Relief, but they have fine-tuned their process over the years.
The fully-branded and customized websites, automated welcome emails, and real-time data tracking help the organization comfortably manage hundreds of campaigns at a time, and leave them room to help each personal fundraiser make the most of their campaign.
The Autism Community In Action
Because of The Autism Community in Action (TACA), families across the United States receive essential support and education about autism. In 2017, their work reached nearly 55,000 families!
The organization relies on community-driven fundraising, particularly DIY fundraising, to support its vast programming efforts.
How TACA Supports Fundraisers
Everyone arriving at TACA’s online fundraising page is directly asked to give and consider fundraising in honor of someone they know impacted by autism, and the organization offers to help fundraisers get their website up and running.
These DIY campaigns happen any time and aren’t necessarily tied to a special event like a birthday or anniversary.
How TACA Fundraisers Succeed
Fundraisers are asked to share their own story on their personal fundraising page. Many TACA fundraisers are family members of those with autism who’ve found support and hope through the organization.
A great example of the power of DIY fundraising comes courtesy of #TeamJordan, a family that raised over $22,000 from 87 donors in honor of their daughter. Jordan’s family shared her journey and highlighted how TACA played a role directly on the website.
#TeamChristopher’s family used their fundraising page to share a video of their son. They also wrote a story about their autism journey and directly asked their friends and family to consider a gift.
Stories make up the core of TACA’s DIY fundraising campaigns and are effective because they’re real and speak to the good work of the organization.
How DIY Fundraising Helps TACA
With each campaign, big or small, TACA’s work in the autism community becomes more recognizable. At the same time, the organization raises money and families can talk about the struggles and successes they experience along the road.
Endure to Cure Pediatric Cancer Foundation
There’s no real way to describe the emotional, physical, and financial stress and pain pediatric cancer have on families. To assist those most impacted, Endure to Cure Pediatric Cancer Foundation invests funds into research and treatment, and provides direct support to patients.
Online donors give to a DIY fundraiser to support two major initiatives. Small Miracles gives patients gifts and experiences as they go through treatment, whereas Travel for Treatment Assistance proves invaluable financial support for treatment-related expenses.
How Endure to Cure Supports Fundraisers
With the click of a button, fundraisers can start their campaign through a CauseVox-powered fundraising website. A vast majority of Endure to Cure fundraisers are marathon runners who train and compete in support of the organization.
Fundraisers either participate as part of Team E2C on a scheduled hike/run or on their own.
How Endure to Cure Fundraisers Succeed
Fundraisers are given access to an online fundraising platform fundraising tools and tips, and impact stories about beneficiaries to help build out their own web page.
Jackie B. is scheduled to run in the London Marathon and raised a whopping $9,554 (and counting) toward her efforts. Jackie writes on her fundraising page, “At the London Marathon, I will once again push the limits of physical and mental endurance to reach the finish line, 26.2 miles from start. Only this time, my inspiration will come from children who struggle with cancer each and every day. And knowing that our donations can make a difference.”
Ben M. uses a personal impact story in his website copy, and writes about why this cause is so important to him.
How DIY Fundraising Helps Endure to Cure
DIY fundraising directly engages philanthropic-minded athletes looking to support a cause that directly impacts lives. Connecting the fundraising process with an in-person activity such as hiking or running a marathon helps increase buy-in and sends a real message to prospective donors that the cause is worth all that effort.
eSight Eyewear
eSight is a revolutionary eyewear product designed for those who are visually impaired. According to the company, “There are 441 million visually impaired people in our world today, but with eSight’s breakthrough electronic glasses they can engage in virtually all Activities of Daily Living.”
But with a price tag of roughly $6,000, many individuals needing these life-changing glasses must fundraise to raise enough money.
How eSight Eyewear Supports Fundraisers
To help the low-vision community, eSight partners with CauseVox on a continual DIY fundraising campaign. Eyewear recipients can set up a fundraising account and start raising money for their own product in a matter of minutes.
In addition to the online platform, eSight also gives fundraisers advice and a thorough toolkit to reach their goals.
How eSight Eyewear Fundraisers Succeed
For eSight, a majority of the fundraisers creating campaigns do so to support the purchase of their own set of glasses, including Emily A., who shared her story and rallied 23 donors to support her eSight purchase.
However, some individuals and groups create campaigns in honor of a family member or their own journey, such as Christy P. After raising enough money to pay for her own set of glasses, she “kept the momentum going” by continuing her campaign.
Similar to the Amigos fundraisers, each eSight story reads differently depending on the fundraiser’s individual journey, but the solution remains the same.
How DIY Fundraising Helps eSight Eyewear
Per eSight Affordability Manager Jamie Silverberg, finding a simple, user-friendly platform to host their DIY campaigns was a primary concern. “ At eSight, one of our core values is simplicity, and we love how simple it is to navigate through CauseVox, both from an administrative, and a consumer perspective,” he explained.
Customer service was another priority for eSight. Since they’re working with upwards of 600+ fundraisers at every given time, the organization needed to know they had technical support on the backend.
The eSight team knew that DIY fundraising was the right solution, and they found a good fit with CauseVox.
Innovation: Africa
Committed to bringing Israeli innovations to impoverished areas of Africa, innovation: Africa uses the funds they raise to provide light and power to children, doctors, and entire communities.
Online fundraising, particularly DIY fundraising, helps inspire grassroots donors and spreads the organization’s message amongst potential donors.
How innovation: Africa Supports Fundraisers
There are no limitations when it comes to DIY fundraising for innovation: Africa. They welcome everyone to fundraise.
‘“Maybe you’re running a race, climbing a mountain, remembering someone you love or celebrating a special event. Or maybe you just want to turn an average week into an opportunity to do something good. No matter what your reason, we invite you to sign up today. Let us help you build a campaign you can be proud of.”
Innovation: Africa created a strong webpage on their main website that explains the fundraising process, tells the organization’s story, outlines the importance of social media in fundraising, and highlights a handful of stellar fundraising page examples.
How innovation: Africa Fundraisers Succeed
Ranan L. used the resources provided by the organization to create a DIY campaign for his Bar Mitzvah tzedakah. He included a personal story, explained innovation: Africa’s work, and engaged 174 donors in the process. A timely update announcing that he met his goal of $18,000 helped keep momentum strong!
Entire groups can also create a DIY campaign, as was evidenced by Congregation Beth Torah and the Miami Chapter. By combining efforts, groups can fundraise to support large-scale efforts such as community-wide irrigation or solar systems.
How DIY Fundraising Helps innovation: Africa
Innovation: Africa provides the website and the resources, but it’s because of the loyal fundraisers who work hard engaging their friends and family that the organization was able to raise $324,000.
As you can see, DIY fundraising gives your nonprofit supporters the autonomy to share their own story and fundraise when they see fit, but with structure and resources supplied by your nonprofit. This helps keep your organization’s message streamlined while giving your supporters the freedom to share their story of “why.”
Everyone benefits with DIY fundraising.
CauseVox strives to make the DIY fundraising process easy and painless. With one-time setup, personalized sites, custom receipts, smart notifications, and full ownership over donation processing and donor data, you can keep up with your fundraisers without hiring extra staff or incurring added stress.
To learn more about how CauseVox can help you and your supporters with DIY fundraising, request a demo.
