You’ve gone through the process of planning out your peer-to-peer campaign, created the site using best practices, and are ready for your fundraisers to start creating their pages.
But how do you get people to sign up to fundraise? We recommend sending targeted emails that invite your supporters to get involved and take the next step.
Here’s some tips on recruiting fundraisers via email:
Target The Right Supporters
While you could just email blast everyone on your list to create a personal fundraising page, it’s far better to segment your emails so that you’re sending out the right call to action to a group that’s inclined to take it.
When creating your fundraiser recruitment email, here’s the types of people you’ll want to consider sending it to:
- Volunteers
- Board members
- Long term (repeat) donors
- Recipients of your services in the past (if applicable)
- People particularly engaged with your organization on social media
These people are already your biggest fans and strongest supporters, and peer-to-peer fundraising is the best way for you to tap into their excitement for your cause and turn it into tangible advocacy.
Fundraiser Recruitment Email Structure
Now that you’re familiar with who you’re looking to engage as personal fundraisers and what the basic structure of your recruitment email should be, here’s a detailed look at how your recruitment email should appear:
When creating the email asking them to create a personal fundraising page, you’ll want
to consider adding the following components:
- An eye catching subject line
- Header text that encourages action
- A thank you for your audience’s previous support or an acknowledgement of ongoing support
- A brief introduction to the campaign
- An introduction to your campaign’s central story
- An explanation about how the recipient can get involved
- Call to action asking them to create their personal fundraising page, including the link to the campaign site
Let’s take a look at how World Bicycle Relief structured their fundraiser recruitment email for World Water Day:
Header:
Activate Your Fundraiser on World Water Day
Text body:
Tomorrow is World Water Day, a day of taking action to help the 663 million people living without access to safe, clean water. As you may know, our bicycles mobilize people in rural, developing regions of the world. That mobility includes access to water wells that may be harder to reach on foot.
You can take action on World Water Day by fundraising. To motivate you, here are some creative ideas:
- Setup a water or lemonade stand near a hiking or biking trail.
- Compete with others to be the first to fill up recycled water bottles with change.
- Invite guests to a meat-free dinner party where you ask for donations instead of beverages. Going meat-free also decreases your water footprint.
Whether you take action tomorrow or two weekends from now, you can get involved to make an impact.
Upcoming Events
Call To Action:
MORE WAYS TO FUNDRAISE
Cyclofemme
You’re invited to join a global celebration of women on wheels this Mother’s Day weekend. All funds raised up to $15,000 for World Bicycle Relief will be matched 1-to-1. Mobilize your community to empower girls and women in rural Kenya.
FUNDRAISE FOR CYCLOFEMME >
#30DaysOfBiking
Pledge to ride your bicycle everyday in April. Make it impactful by fundraising for WBR. Have others join you in the challenge or donate to keep you going. Share your adventures on social media with the #30DaysOfBiking hashtag.
FUNDRAISE FOR #30DaysOfBiking >
Let’s break down World Bicycle Relief’s email for further analysis and best practices:
Use Verbs: World Bicycle Relief’s email starts off with the verb “Activate” to immediately put recipients in the mindset to take action, instead of using passive language. Use action verbs in your Header and text body language to prompt action.
Keep It Concise: World Bicycle Relief’s entire email is less than 300 words. Keep your audience engaged by only putting the information they need to take the next step, they don’t need all the campaign specifics- that’s what your campaign site is for! A good trick to help you keep your emails short is to use active voice throughout the email.
Establish Relevancy: World Bicycle Relief immediately started off by introducing their campaign (World Water Day) and established why it was relevant to their mission. You know why you’re fundraising, but answering the question “Why is your organization fundraising?” can help your audience quickly see the importance and get them on board quickly.
Make It Clear: World Bicycle Relief’s email reads “You can take action on World Water Day by fundraising,” which clearly invites the audience to take action by fundraising with them.
It’s important to make it very clear what you want your donors to do and how you want them to do it, to avoid any confusion about the action they’re taking.
Offer Guidance: World Bicycle Relief’s email doesn’t just invite their audience to fundraise, they take it a step further by offering a sense of direction for fundraisers to take. Some of your supporters may have never fundraised before, so some people may be hesitant to fundraise because they’re not sure how to do it.
By offering some fundraising ideas (which could also be fundraising tips), you establish that you’ve got your fundraiser’s backs, and they’re likely to feel confident moving forward!
Include A Final Call To Action: Towards the end of your email, you’ll want to reiterate your call to action using strong language that directly ties your supporters choice to fundraise to impact.
You’ll see World Bicycle Relief also provided other ways to get fundraise, which does give supporters options to choose which kind of challenge they’d like to take and which kind of impact they’d like to make. However, even if don’t have multiple campaigns, you can always drive your supporters to connect with you further on social media or introduce an upcoming event.
Using this example framework and best practices, you can send out an email that effectively engages supporters to become active fundraisers!
