Professional fundraisers use direct response marketing techniques to maximize the success of their fundraising. You can use precisely the same techniques and not have to spend any money. Here’s how.

SocialWish provides you with essentially the same tools that professional fundraisers are using for the latest and hottest trend in fundraising…social fundraising.

Let’s use the example of raising money for a playground. Before you set up your campaign, consider the following details:

• Think about a realistic sum you want to raise.
• Can you find a corporate partner who will match the amount you raise? For example, let’s say the playground costs $3,000. Maybe ABC Corporation will donate $1,500 when you raise $1,500.
• Write down what’s important to the people who are going to donate – safety, fun for more children, a better location further from a busy road, etc. Remember what’s important to you, the fundraiser, may not be important to the person who is going to donate, so put yourself in the donor’s shoes.
• Break down the amount you want to raise into realistic pieces. For example, if the amount you want to raise is $1,500 you could say, “we need just 100 people to give $15.”
• Clearly define what the money will fund.
• Take some photos of the old playground focusing on the parts that are worn out.
• Go to the playground company’s site and see if they have photos, testimonials, and other marketing materials…videos even.

Now that you’ve done your homework, it’s time to set up the social fundraiser. Create your campaign on SocialWish and start filling in the details.

• Include photos of the old playground and the new one you’re going to fund.
• Write a benefit-driven headline. For example: Morgan Elementary’s playground is falling to pieces and will be unsafe. Let’s raise $1,500 for a new one with the latest safety features.
• Include a sub-head and give a reason to act now. For example: We need just 150 people to donate $10. The ABC Company will give us $1,500 when we raise $1,500 by June 15th. So donate now!
• Write a short description of the problems with the current playground, followed by the benefits of the new playground.
• Include a testimonial from the principal or the head of the P.T.A. and something from someone at the ABC Company.
• Make the description a conversation between you, the fundraiser, and a fellow parent you’re trying to persuade to donate.
• Use the same techniques in emails, Facebook pages, and other social media.
• Use vivid descriptions and language. For example…instead of “the playground is unsafe” write…The slide is rusted and made of old materials and your child could be on it when it collapses.
• Create anticipation and excitement.
• Include plenty about the happy outcome…When we have our new playground, we’ll have the safest playground equipment made and more children will be able to play longer. And we’ll be providing a playground for generations to follow at our school.
• Always TELL the parents and others precisely what you want them to do…go now to this page and make a donation…

These are just a few of the techniques professional fundraisers and direct marketers use.

Remember these key items:

• People buy for emotional reasons backed by logic.
• People give money because they want to help a group solve a problem.
• People respond to compelling offers.

In the past, fundraising often involved setting up parties, events, fashion shows, phone-a-thons, and selling anything from donuts to wrapping paper. While effective, these methods take a lot of time and energy. Modern fundraising tools, like the ones found on SocialWish, make raising money significantly easier and enable you to conduct a successful fundraising campaign directly from your computer.

How?

Simply leverage the power and scope of your social network to raise awareness for your fundraising campaign. For example, let’s say you’re a parent and the P.T.A. has put you in charge of raising money for a new playground.

Let’s say your school has 500 children. That’s approximately 1,000 parents. Each parent has an average of 125 people in their social network (a conservative estimate) through LinkedIn, Facebook, their email database, address book, and more. So that’s at least 125,000 people you can ask for donations for the playground. And that’s before including teachers, uncles, aunts, grandparents, and everyone else who would like to help with the playground.

A social fundraising platform like SocialWish can help you leverage the power of your social network AND collect donations quickly and easily. Simply create a campaign and share the link with everyone in your database and the P.T.A.’s database. Better yet, host the campaign directly on the school’s website and have parents with blogs put the campaign on their blogs. Pretty soon you’re multiplying the number of people that see your campaign. The more you engage your network of followers, visitors and supporters, the more likely you’ll meet or exceed your fundraising goal.

Besides saving time and energy, a social fundraising campaign saves valuable resources and money. Fundraising events like bake sales or galas rely on assistance and coordination from volunteers, staff or other members. Such events also rely on goods to be provided for sale at the event. Plus, don’t forget the cost of the event space itself. This all equals to a large investment of time, money and resources that can be used elsewhere.

And what about all those people that can’t attend your event? Perhaps they have a scheduling conflict or they don’t want to pay the cover charge for the event (and see only a portion of it go towards the fundraiser). Don’t miss another opportunity to raise money for your campaign! Let your supporters “attend” and “give” at their convenience. A social fundraiser gives everyone access and the ability to donate at any time and from anywhere.

Fundraising is about solving problems. It’s about connecting with individuals, communities, and associations who care about this problem and are motivated to help. To cultivate an audience, think crowdfunding with value and follow these six fundamental steps for effective donor development.

1. Stake Your Ground
Identify the problem. Explain your objective in simple language. Your mission statement should be clear and concise, informing donors about your need and how they can help. Does the library need tables and chairs for the new children’s room? Does a local artist need crates to ship paintings for a gallery show?

2. Offer a Value
Be frank. Explain how your organization is unique. Highlight your expertise and experiences in order to illustrate how you are qualified to manage this fundraiser. By emphasizing your specialization, you showcase how you are aptly skilled to solve this particular problem.

3. Keep Communications Open and Two-Way
Once you’ve crafted your message and begun focusing on donor development, keep communications open. Consider feedback both positive and negative. Your donors are more than a source of crowdfunding. They are people who care about your objective and are willing to help. Cultivate a sense of community by listening to and acknowledging feedback. Let them know their opinion matters.

4. Diversify Your Communication Methods
Communication is key. Your audience wants to know the latest developments in your fundraiser. Build off standard offline methods of direct mail and phone calls. Become interactive by employing online tools. Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and social bookmarking are dynamic ways to disseminate information quickly. By utilizing multiple channels of communications, you can reach a wider array of demographics.

5. Share Your Content
Showcase your experiences and real world results. What hardships and obstacles have you faced—and overcome? How have you succeeded? What accomplishments are you most proud of? Which case studies would effectively engage and interest donors?

Then, consider how to share these experiences through pictures, video, and well-written stories, or vignettes.

6. Show Your Gratitude
Regardless of the contribution, show your gratitude. Acknowledge donors who’ve subscribed to your newsletter, posted on your Facebook fan page, or simply spread the word about your campaign. Through the community’s support and fundraising efforts, you are able to meet your objectives. Through their help, you succeed. In exchange, your gratitude acknowledges their part in that success.

There’s fundraising and there’s project based fundraising. In a general fundraiser, the campaign collects money for an organization as a whole, such as the Girl Scouts, a community clinic, or a business fraternity. Money is raised and then donated to these groups who use it as needed. Project based fundraising is different and simple.

Create a Distinct Goal

Project based fundraisers define their goals as an item, supply, or need. These campaigns utilize the power of crowd funding to collect donations for a specific purpose. Donations are earmarked for a particular need such as the community clinic’s new x-ray machine or the business fraternity’s scholarship that provides tuition assistance for members in need. So instead of giving money to the Girl Scouts in general, funds are directed toward the purchase of new vests. As a result, the drive’s objective become extremely transparent to the donor.

Break Down the Goal

By implementing a project based campaign, organizers of a campaign can diversify their goals into monetary and tangible parts. So, if a school needs $1,000 for new art supplies, organizers can compartmentalize the needs into $500 for paper, $300 for paints, and $200 for clay. When goals are identified, donors know where their money is going. They don’t feel as if they’re throwing it away. Instead it becomes a gift.

Think Crowd Funding for Individuals, Non-profits & Associations

Both groups and individuals can execute project based fundraisers. Non-profit organizations such as orphanages can raise money for pajamas and books. Individuals such as writers, filmmakers, and musicians can amass capital to market new books, movies, and albums. Religious communities can sponsor afternoon programs for school-aged children. By implementing project based principles, goals become manageable and attainable.

Evaluate Donor Trends

During these campaign drives, organizers may also evaluate which projects appeal to donors the most. Are people donating to disaster relief? Park benches? Abused animals? A project based fundraiser can identify trends, enabling organizers to predict future behaviors while continuing to service community needs through social philanthropy.