by Shannon Mastey
For a fundraiser to be successful, it needs to reach a large audience – this means it has to be promoted as much as possible. The prevalence of social media makes it a critical aspect of fundraiser marketing. Here are 6 tips for effectively using social media in a fundraiser.
1. Get students involved
Most middle and high school students have social media like Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook, where it’s easy to post links and photos. By getting students involved in promoting the fundraiser, you can reach a much larger audience than you otherwise would. Classmunity makes it easy to share fundraisers on social media – you simply have to copy and paste a link.
2. Use photos
Photos help to make a fundraiser more appealing to potential donors. Including an image of the club/organization running a fundraiser or the project being funded creates a recognizable brand for the fundraisers and allows donors to see who/what they’re impacting by donating. It catches the eye, as well as being helpful for social media like Instagram and Snapchat, where photos make up the substance of a post.
3. Give periodic updates
Updates on your fundraiser continually remind your audience to donate and allow existing donors to see the effect their donations have made, leaving them with a more positive view of your campaign. For example, Classmunity’s campaign pages make it easy to take a quick screenshot of your fundraiser’s progress and post it to give people a clear idea of where your fundraiser is.
4. Create a hashtag
Using a hashtag on social media makes your fundraiser more memorable and creates a database of all campaign posts on a given social media platform. Hashtags also allow you (and donors) to see a fundraiser’s progress over time.
5. Make it easy to support your fundraiser
People are more likely to donate to a fundraiser if it’s convenient. It is easy to say “I’ll donate later” and then forget, so removing obstacles to giving is key. Your promotional material should include a way to donate online, such as a link to a campaign on Classmunity or other online tool.
6. Recognize donors
It adds a nice touch to your fundraiser to show donors that you appreciate their support. This is as easy as making a post at certain points in your campaign (like halfway, 75%, and 100% funded) mentioning and thanking every donor so far, or making individual posts thanking donors as they donate.
In the era of online fundraising, social media has become crucial in attracting support for your cause. These tips can help you attract attention (and donors!) to your campaign and make it your most successful fundraiser yet!
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