Our next Movers & Shakers story comes from a pastor in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
In August of 2014 lead pastor, Kris Hassanpour, and his team launched a fundraising campaign to help ease the often bumpy transition of relocating and rebranding their church. By raising $15,000 they hoped to move to a new building and take on the new name of Anchor Church. Read on to hear from Kris on how CauseVox’s platform played a unique part in raising not $15,000, but $28,000 in less than 30 days.
How did you prepare for this fundraising campaign?
We did a lot to communicate with our people leading up to the campaign. Rather than just focusing them on giving to support our initiative, we made a point to reiterate ‘the why’ behind their every dollar.
In short, we engaged our audience far in advance. This became clear early on in our campaign. We were at 75% of our goal within about eight days of our thirty-day campaign. We weren’t trying to gain new church members; we were focusing on being strong communicators. We knew their confidence and knowledge in the campaign would be reflected in their giving.
What function did CauseVox play in your fundraising campaign?
We noticed our CauseVox page was a place for people to get information about our campaign, and then give money in person. Our CauseVox page served more as a visual tool to “get the word out” than to receive donations directly. Four-fifths of the donations were made outside of CauseVox’s platform! Most people gave at one of our Sunday gatherings, and a few people utilized the text-to-give option.
What is it about Anchor Church that your audience was most drawn to?
I’d say a sense of ownership. Beyond just giving, they felt like their very lives were part of the end result of giving to this campaign. Their connectedness bellowed a sense of excitement and momentum. I think we all want to be a part of something bigger than ourselves and this was a small way to do that.
What aspects of CauseVox’s platform made it easy to fundraise?
The ‘add a manual donation’ feature
Since most of our donations were given in-person on Sundays, we needed a way to reflect that on our CauseVox page. This feature allowed us to go in and list all of the Sunday donations so that people could see the overall progress. We loved that feature.
Shareability
When we first went online we had a dozen people share it. At the jumpstart, it helped to get the word out there to say, “Hey! Our fundraiser’s live!” It was a place to go for information.
Is there anything else I didn’t ask you that you think would be helpful to other fundraisers?
Yeah, we were surprised at how we built momentum by setting our fundraising goal at the minimum we’d need for a new building. You might say, “Well, maybe your goal should have been higher since you nearly doubled your goal.” Maybe so, but maybe not. We found that by setting a realistic goal that we could instill a sense of confidence in the people who are giving because it seemed attainable.
Setting a low goal makes you feel like you’re actually accomplishing something. Not to mention, it would have been a bit de-motivating to not make a goal of $30,000.
Thank you Kris for sharing your fundraising story with us.
Each fundraising campaign is different and Kris’s experience is one of many. Do you have a CauseVox fundraising story to share? We’d love to hear from you.
