Dear Willow is a recurring column authored by Classmunity’s support maven, Willow Macy. In it Willow shares some of her most frequently asked about challenges and their solutions.
Hello Willow,
My district has been having successful product & event fundraisers all year, but we haven’t really attempted a letter writing campaign. Do you think this type of fundraising is an effective way to raise funds? Do you have any advice for running a successful campaign?
Thank you,
Athletic Director Daniel
Dear Daniel-
Thank you for reaching out Daniel. I am glad that you have been having success with these two fundraising options and would love to share best practices for a letter writing campaign. As you know, letter writing campaigns are fundraisers where participants (usually students) create personal letters which mention the who, what, and why the fundraiser is needed. This type of fundraising is effective because they are (1) easy (2) fast and (3) highly targeted. Additionally, there is little overhead required to launch the campaign. I’ll walk you through the steps of using your Classmunity platform to create your own letter writing campaign.
The first step is to create the main donation fundraiser page through your district’s Classmunity microsite. When creating your campaign, it is crucial that you set your fundraiser’s duration between four or five weeks so that supporters have enough time to donate while not forgetting about it. Additionally, make sure that your donation goal amount takes into consideration of all the individuals who will receive/participate in it. Note: If you need additional help creating your campaign, you can read more here: https://www.classmunity.com/support/campaign-overview/
The second step is to make sure that your students also create their promoter page so that they may keep track of their funds raised. Through this process, students can create their own personal fundraising goals, upload photos, and write custom messages to the people who donate through their page. Because of this, we recommend that you dedicate a few minutes during a team meeting to let students set up their promoter page which will be located through the “promote this fundraiser” button. You can read more regarding how to customize promoter page settings here: https://www.classmunity.com/support/promoter-pages/
The third step is to share your fundraiser! You can share your fundraiser through our integrated social media buttons, the embed tool, or simply copying and pasting the campaign URL link. By sharing your fundraiser, you gain exposure to your supporters through more commonly used mediums such as Facebook and Twitter. If you’re using promoter pages, students can share out their link for a more personalized message to donors. Tip 1: Set a goal for students as to how many emails or people to ask. For example, have students send 10 emails the first week and then do 10 follow ups the second, etc. Tip 2: Provide students with a template letter or email. This way you know they are sharing all of the key information, and they can edit it to personalize it if they wish. I hope this helps, and if you have any questions drop us a line at support@classmunity.com. Helpfully yours,
Willow
Co-Founder & Director of Customer Relations
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