FundBunch Success Center
Asking for money is hard. We know. That is why we’ve created the FundBunch Success Center to provide you with a few easy guidelines to help you raise the most money possible.
NEW! Are you raising money for a political campaign? Check out our new Campaign Success Center.
Templates and Best Practice:
The essentials for success.
Most individuals will contribute to your event because they:
- Know and want to support you.
- Relate to your event or have a personal experience with it.
- Understand their contribution will have a positive impact towards something.
- Want to be a part of a bigger community that is doing good.
By understanding the motivations of your contributors, there are several very simple things you can do to take your fundraising to the next level.
Tell a compelling story.
You are not just asking for contributions. You are asking people to help make a difference. Use the “Owner’s Message” section of your site to tell this story. Within your personal message, be sure to include the following:
- Why this cause is so important and why the reader should care.
- Why you are asking for contributions.
- What their contribution will provide.
Make the first contribution.
Lead by example. This demonstrates to everyone your commitment. Psychologically, it also gives your site some momentum and visitors can see that others are contributing.
Set a clear goal.
Contributors want to see a realistic target and know they helped you get there. Many contributors will increase their contributions amounts as you approach your goal, or even to exceed it!
- Set a realistic target when you create your site.
- Encourage friends to periodically visit the site to check progress.
- Send occasional updates to your network providing status toward your goal.
- Thank your contributors, both when they contribute and when the goal is achieved.
- Stretch your goal. Once you have reached it, challenge your network to see by how much they can beat the goal.
Be creative in how you ask for contributions.
Offer your time and skills in exchange for contributions. Commit to do something outrageous if your goal is reached. (Just remember to set the goal fairly high if you promise to shave your head). The only limitations are your willingness and your creativity!
Include a picture.
Upload a picture to your site that shows the beneficiary of the contributions, yourself running that 5k, the honeymoon you want to take or any other image that will help contributors connect to your effort.
See some sample sites to see what a great site looks like.
Tell your contacts.
Share your site with family, friends, colleagues; anyone in your community that has an attachment to the story. FundBunch allows you to choose an easy to remember web address for your site, www.fundbunch.com/
yoursite so word of mouth should be very strong. Don’t forget to include this address in all correspondence to your network, including:
- Your social network site, such as Facebook or MySpace.
- Your personal website or blog.
- Your wedding and shower invitations.
- The signature of your email!.
Promote your site.
FundBunch provides you with numerous tools to help get the word out about your site:
Link from your website, blog or Social Networking site with a FundBunch Widgets:
From your site, you can create a ‘Widget’, which is essentially a small image with HTML code that can be embedded within your website, blog or social networking site. When your friends click on this Widget, they will be taken directly to your FundBunch site! Choose the Image that best fits into your site.
Button Layout Widget
Hortizontal Layout Widget
Vertical Layout Widget
You may also connect your FundBunch site to the following networks:
Refer a Friend:
FundBunch offers you a Refer A Friend tool that allows you to take contacts from your address book and send them an email with a personal message that includes a link to your site. This tool is located right on your Fund Hub, so your network can also use this tool to share the message beyond your immediate circle. Of course you can also simply use your own email to send out the message as well. Either way, make sure to reach out to your network and get them involved in the good work you are doing!
FundBunch Fliers:
Not so long ago, people use a technology called “Paper” to communicate. Guess what? It still works! Use our
FundBunch Flier Template (pdf) to create professional quality fliers promoting your fundraising effort. Then you can distribute these in high foot traffic areas like sporting events, malls, parks, fairs and community events. You can also ask your local business to display these fliers.
The press loves a feel good story.
People are doing good things in the community. The media loves to share these inspiring stories. Use this to your advantage. FundBunch provides you with a downloadable
Press Release Template (doc) and
Press Release Sample (doc). Complete this easy template and send it to your local television, radio, and newspaper outlets. Getting the media to run with your story can be tricky, so make sure to review
FundBunch’s PR Best Practices.
Recognize your contributors.
You can choose to publicly recognize your contributors by setting your contributors names and contribution amount to display on your site. You can do this when you set up your account. If you didn’t do this originally, you can always go back and set your site to do this.
FundBunch also allows you to send a Thank You email to your contributors. Site Owners can simply go into their site management tools, select the contributors to thank, and add a personal message letting them know their contribution is appreciated. Of course, this would be in addition to the contribution receipt your contributors will receive from FundBunch.
Keep momentum on your side.
Expect to see the greatest response shortly after you share the site with your community. Keep the momentum on your side through open communication. Periodically send updates on how you are tracking to your goals, how the beneficiary is progressing, any steps forward that are being made. Help keep your cause top of mind and let people know they are making an impact
Do you have a tip that has worked for you?
Please share by
emailing the FundBunch team.