Crowdfunding campaign tips?

[bigchungusmode96]

Is this more of a GoFundMe type campaign or more Kickstarter-esque? Your target audience & demographic will also partially determine how much you can raise. You could also consider pursuing grants / sponsorships if those are possible, but with the ongoing COVID situation that could be tough.

[pdarigan]

If you are keen on keeping with the crowdfunding approach (you could probably combine it with bigchungus’ suggestions), I have a few tips that might help.

The first thing you need to do is get the pitch right – you need to make people care enough to give to the campaign. There are lots of charities and fundraisers out there asking for people’s cash, it’s a competitive space. I’d imagine a good angle would be that you and your group are plucky outsiders, and that this will help raise your aspirations, make a difference to the future of everyone in the group etc.

Congrats on reaching 20k people, that’s good work. It might be that the people you’ve reached so far might not be in a position to donate – if it’s mostly students, I can understand that. If I were you, I’d try to reach local minor celebs, local politicians, and encourage them to share your campaign. You can make this easier by drafting social media messages and email copy that they can use.

Depending on how big your local town is, the local media might also be interested in highlighting your efforts. If your college has a media team/press office, I’d approach them to ask if they can help pitch your fundraiser to local media. If your college doesn’t have a media team, I’d ask students that might be studying journalism or PR to help draft something that you could send in as a press release. If your college doesn’t do journalism/PR, I’d reach out to local media with your best pitch – “Local students aiming for the stars in NASA competition”-type stuff.

One last thought – your college might have some sort of alumni network. There might be a staff member or maybe even a team that manage the network. It might be worth approaching them to see if there are any alumni funds or options for sharing your campaign with the network.

Best of luck whatever way you go.

[jameane]

The number one tip I have heard from successful crowdfunders is that you need to have your campaign start like it is a winner. You need a base of people you know contributing early and often, at launch, to get the ball rolling. No one wants to be the only one to contribute, because it feels risky. The second thing is the PR strategy – who can you get talking about and sharing your campaign to beef up the impact – it needs to feel authentic!

[fakebasil]

Make your objective to collect emails for email marketing. This is great because you’re able to set up a funnel journey so while they may not be ready to contribute right away, you can set up an email campaign to hit them with a variety of content that may entice them to convert down the road.

Different ways you can do this are to host giveaways that go to a landing page to enter, or have a pop-up/form for sign-ups to get a promo code on free shipping if they subscribe.

Good luck!