Latest / The Nonprofit Podcast / Ep 223| Supporters to Fundraisers: Crowdfunding and Peer-to-Peer

Transcript

Ep 223| Supporters to Fundraisers: Crowdfunding and Peer-to-Peer · The Nonprofit Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, I have a giving season question for you.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_01: And actually, it's a pretty simple one.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_01: How far can one campaign really travel?
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_01: Because we spend a lot of giving season talking about how to get our existing donors to give.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_01: And yes, obviously engaging those donors you already have is so important.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_01: But your campaign doesn't have to stop at the edge of your email list.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_01: A really good crowdfunding campaign gives people something worth rallying around and something worth sharing.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_01: And when you layer in peer-to-peer fundraising on top of that, suddenly your supporters aren't just participating in the campaign.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_01: They're taking it into entirely new networks.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_01: And so that's what I want to get into today.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_01: How you can start with one giving season campaign and use it to cast a much wider net.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_01: The Nonprofit Podcast, powered by DonorBucks.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to the Nonprofit Podcast.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_01: I'm Jenna Lynch, Head of Community Engagement here at DonorBox.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_01: Each week we bring you practical strategies, clear insights, and inspiration to help you raise more, reach further, and take your nonprofit to the next level.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_01: Let's start with crowdfunding.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_01: And I want to start here very intentionally because to me, peer-to-peer makes a whole lot more sense once you have a campaign people genuinely want to rally behind.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_01: And so when I say crowdfunding, I don't just mean putting up another donation page and calling it a campaign.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_01: The real opportunity, especially during giving season, is to create one very clear, very tangible thing that your community can rally around.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_01: So maybe you are an animal welfare organization and you need to fund, let's say, 500 vaccinations.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe you are a humanitarian organization raising money for a specific emergency response.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe you're a church raising money to expand a community program.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe you're a food bank trying to fund a certain number of meals through the end of the year.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_01: Whatever it is, somebody should be able to land on your campaign and understand pretty quickly, okay, this is what they're trying to do.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_01: This is why it matters.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_01: This is how far they've gotten already.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_01: And this is how I can help.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_01: And that's where crowdfunding can be really, really powerful.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_01: It gives people something to grab onto, uh, for a lack of a better way of putting it.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you have a specific goal there, you have a deadline, it's time-bound, you have a story, you can show your progress, you can post updates, they can subscribe to those updates, people can see other people getting involved.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_01: All these things come together into a really great experience.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_01: And importantly, here, you have something that is compelling to share because there's a pretty big difference between sending someone to your organization's, you know, just normal static donation page, your annual campaign, which is great, uh, but just saying, hey, you should donate to this nonprofit versus sending them to a crowdfunding campaign and saying they're aiming to raise$50,000 by Giving Tuesday to do this very specific thing, and they are already halfway there.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_01: Now, the second one gives your supporter a story to stay in the loop with and they can pass it along.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_01: It gives them a reason uh to care right now, again, because it's time bound, right?
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_01: It gives them a reason to send it to somebody else.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_01: And that matters because your audience, and especially right now, because we're talking about giving season, your giving season audience does not have to be limited to the people who are already sitting in your CRM or donor database.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_01: Your crowdfunding campaign can start with those people.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_01: It should start with those people, uh, you know, your donors, your volunteers, your social followers, your board, your congregation, your members, whoever, you know, makes up your supporter base and your community.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_01: But the whole point is that it can travel beyond them.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_01: Your existing audience becomes the starting point here, not the boundary.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that distinction is really important.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_01: Every nonprofit wants to reach new people, especially during giving season.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_01: We talk about that all the time, but finding those people from scratch, it's hard.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_01: It's costly.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, you know, it's a full-time job in and of itself.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_01: You're also competing with a million other messages.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_01: Everybody is fundraising, everybody's emailing, everybody is posting, everybody is prospecting.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_01: But crowdfunding gives you something more specific to put into the world.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_01: And if the campaign is compelling enough, the people who already care about you can start carrying it beyond the audience you already own.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_01: And that is social proof at its finest.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_01: So this is where I want you to look at your crowdfunding page a little differently.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_01: It shouldn't just be your normal donation form with a campaign headline and maybe a prettier picture on top.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_01: This is the home base for the whole thing.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_01: So if I land on this page, knowing absolutely nothing about your organization, I want to know can I figure out what's happening right now for this organization?
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_01: Not the big broad what's happening in general, but what's the goal right now?
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_01: Again, a great page gives visitors immediate visual proof and momentum.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_01: Is there a prominent goal meter showing exactly how far along you are in your goal?
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_01: Is there a live donor wall displaying real-time contributions so that visitors see that other real humans are actively backing this cause?
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_01: Because again, if you you're new to me, I need to know that real people are actually supporting you.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_01: That gives me some peace of mind.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, you know, can they read media rich updates right there on the page?
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_01: Or even click a button to subscribe to updates as you post new milestones?
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_01: Do you have clear impact metrics so that they know exactly what their donation is helping accomplish?
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_01: And um maybe most importantly, again, is there built-in social sharing buttons so visitors can pass it along with just one click?
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_01: And when all of these pieces come together, and I know it sounds like a lot of pieces, but the right platform has all these built right in.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_01: When all these pieces come together, your page isn't just uh a 24-hour donation machine, although that's great.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_01: It's not just taking gifts, but it is creating a community, it is creating a story, something that is living and breathing.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_01: And that is incredibly important.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so let's say you've got this up and your crowdfunding campaign is working.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_01: Your community is donating, they're subscribing to your page updates, they're sharing it, there's some momentum, people can see that goal moving.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_01: And now you can take that same campaign and ask, what if some of these supporters didn't just share it?
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_01: What if they actually fundraised for it?
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_01: And so this is the natural move into peer-to-peer fundraising.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_01: And this is where I get very, very excited.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, so sharing is, you know, hey, here's this organization I support.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_01: Someone can reshare this campaign on their social media, their email, their text messages, whatever.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, here's this organization I support.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_01: That's cool.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_01: But peer-to-peer is, hey, I'm trying to raise a thousand dollars for this organization I care about.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_01: And here's why.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_01: And that is a very different interaction.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_01: Now your supporter isn't just amplifying your message, but they are putting their name on it.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_01: They are telling their story, they're bringing your mission into a network that may have absolutely no connection to your nonprofit yet.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_01: And that gives you access to something incredibly valuable.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_01: Trust you haven't earned yet.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_01: Because I, again, might not know your organization.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_01: I've never been to your website.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not on your email list.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe I don't follow you on Instagram, but I know Sarah.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_01: And Sarah volunteers with you every month, or I know Marcus, and this is the shelter where he adopted his dog from.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_01: Or I know someone on your board, or my coworker, or my sister that supports your organization.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_01: And suddenly I'm not discovering your giving season campaign because your nonprofit managed to get an ad or an email in front of me.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_01: I'm discovering it because somebody I already know said this matters to me.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_01: And then it matters to me too.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_01: And that brings us back to that question of fundraising capacity inside our existing community.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I think sometimes we tend to look at someone and we go, yep, that's a$50 donor.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, fine.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_01: But that person might also know 20 people who have never heard of you.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_01: Your volunteer might not have the capacity to write that$500 check that you're really looking for, but maybe they could raise$500 from uh their friends and family, you know, your alumni, your adopters, your advocates, your recurring donors.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_01: They're not just the people you're trying to raise money from.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_01: They can also be the bridge to the next group of people.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_01: Instead of looking at your email list and saying, okay, we've got 3,000 people here.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_01: How much can we raise from these 3,000 people?
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_01: You can start asking how many more people are one relationship away from these 3,000 people.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_01: Now, obviously, I am not suggesting that every single donor is suddenly going to become a fundraiser.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_01: That would be ambitious to say the least.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_01: Please do not email your entire database saying, surprise, you work in development now.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_01: Woo-hoo! Uh, that is not what I mean.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_01: Please don't do that.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_01: You really do want to be thoughtful about who you invite, who are the people who already talk about your organization, who shows up, who shares your posts, who volunteers, who has a really personal connection to the work.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_01: Start with 10, seriously, or up five.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_01: Heck.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I personally I'd rather have five people who genuinely care about the mission and we'll actually talk about it than send a generic recruitment email to 3,000 people and hope that some folks sign up.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_01: And once this handful of people do say yes, you need to make it easy for them.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_01: I think, well, you know, most of these folks have never fundraised before.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_01: So you have to give them some help.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_01: Put together a little toolkit, give them talking points, a few photos, your logo, your brand guidelines, impact statements, sample social media posts or text messages, uh, things like that.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_01: Tell them what$25 does, tell them what$100 does.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_01: What you're trying to do here is remove as much of the I don't know what to say problem as you possibly can.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_01: But then on the flip, let them sound like themselves because this is kind of where the magic happens.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_01: You don't want 20 tiny versions of your marketing department running around and copying and pasting the same paragraph.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_01: You want 20 actual humans explaining why they care.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_01: Each of these campaigns gets their own subpage with a personal goal meter, their own donor wall, a place to tell their personal story.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_01: But then behind the scenes, every single dollar raised on those individual pages automatically feeds back into your central campaign's main goal.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_01: And if you're using DonorBox or if you sign up on donorbox.org, you can launch a crowdfunding campaign in as little as 15 minutes, maybe even less, and then toggle on peer-to-peer and let your supporters start building out those child pages, those sub pages right away.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_01: And it seamlessly connects every individual effort straight back to your main crowdfunding page.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_01: Before I wrap this up, here's what I think you should do next week.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_01: Take whatever you're currently planning for your year-end initiatives and just look at it with fresh eyes.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_01: I want you to ask yourself, could this become a crowdfunding page?
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_01: Is there a specific goal people can rally around?
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_01: Can we show progress and tell a story someone outside of our current donor base would understand?
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_01: And would our supporters actually want to send this to somebody else?
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_01: And if the answer is yes, great, then I want you to make a second list of five or ten people you trust to carry this campaign into a room, a group chat, a workplace, a family network, whatever that is that your organization cannot reach on its own.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_01: And if you need help setting this up, I've got two great resources for you in the show notes from our donor box library.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_01: We've got our crowdfunding page design guide to help you build that central home base and our peer-to-peer fundraising toolkit to help you equip your supporters with all those little bits and bobs that they may need to start fundraising on your behalf.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_01: Your supporters know people you don't.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_01: They have relationships that you don't have.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_01: So start with the crowdfunding campaign that's worth rallying around.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_01: Give your people the tools to carry it further, and let your existing audience be the bridge to the people you haven't reached yet.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_01: One campaign, a much wider net.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for being a part of the nonprofit podcast community.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_01: Your work matters, and we are honored to support it.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_01: If you enjoyed this episode, share it with another nonprofit leader, leave a review, or subscribe to our YouTube channel.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_01: Until next time, stay inspired.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: That warm feeling when you help someone, it's not just happiness, it's fulfillment.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: And we believe it should be available to everyone, from frontline heroes to first time fundraisers.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: Our tools empower you to help others.
• 14:29
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• 14:30
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