We recently sat down with PR expert Shonali Burke at the Non-Profit 2.0 Conference in DC. Her mantra on telling stories and community building really resonated with our thesis on fundraising. She asked us for tips on how to run better fundraising campaigns and here’s an excerpt from her article. Check out the full version on SocialBrite.
Tips for better fundraising campaigns
Tell your stories! According to Wu, a lot of nonprofits make the mistake of not telling their story effectively enough. Typically, organizations will write a whole bunch of text and content on their website and then assume that the visitor knows what they’re trying to do. That doesn’t work. Instead, what nonprofits needs to focus on is how they can tell a compelling story and make it visually engaging online.
Don’t focus on the transaction. Wu says he sees a lot of nonprofits that don’t think about the broader strategy of their fundraising campaign and end up focusing too much on getting the money. His advice is to focus first on building your community and identifying who your most passionate supporters are.
Cultivate your biggest fans. Once you’ve identified your core group of engaged followers, Wu says you want to provide ways for them to get involved in your campaign. You want to be telling your story so well that your community feels compelled to go out and tell it for you. The more you can get your supporters to spread your story, the easier fundraising becomes.
Given that organizations are constantly trying to figure out the best approach to their public relations and communications strategy, Wu’s advice really resonated with me. Ultimately, it comes down to the simple principle of telling our organization’s stories to the right people, in the right way, and at the right time.
