How to Sequence Communications for a Giving Campaign
After photos from a fun indoor cycling fundraiser hosted at CycleBar in Meridian, Idaho. Parents, teachers, friends, and their kids rode their hearts out while competing for school-branded goodies and raising funds for the school’s annual fundraiser. (Only half the group pictured.)
You know that running a successful campaign is more than just building the campaign page and hoping for the best. It requires awareness, excitement, and of course, the commitment.
So, once you know you’ll be running a fundraiser, how do you get the ball rolling to generate the momentum you need to reach your goal.
Fundraising can feel a little like party planning. You put in all of this energy and work and just hope that someone, anyone, shows up to prove the effort is worth it. For this reason, we recommend approaching your campaign communication plan similar to a party with pre-hype, hype, and post-hype periods.
If you can, imagine the socialite in your life and take tips from the approach they use to build excitement.
Pre-Hype
Timeframe: Four to nine weeks out.
It’s never too early to start socializing your need if you have an upcoming fundraising event or campaign. Just as a party planner may put their feelers out to assess interest and attendance for say, a holiday party, you can start greasing the wheels with your major donors, board members, and business partners before the campaign even begins.
Businesses: Sponsors and business donors usually need extra time to approve funds for a campaign so they can be released. By reaching out before the campaign begins, you provide that approval time and get early commitments to the campaign, which helps with confidence.
Board members: Board members are important ambassadors for your mission, and as such, can think about businesses or donors they might reach out to for a gift during the campaign. Since they’re usually successful and busy people, extra time is an asset to them. But, be careful. Don’t expect them to remember the campaign because you gave them early notice—remind them again and again.
Donors: Regular donors likely already subscribe to your newsletter or follow your organization on social media. If you know a campaign is coming, provide a little information (not all of it!) to generate awareness so they aren’t caught off guard when you reach out later.
Pre-hyping before the campaign prepares donors that the solicitation is coming so they can begin to consider how much they’re comfortable with. You may even get early commitments or pledges that will help you build confidence.
This leads to what we’ll call the “hype” period.
Hype
Timeframe: One to four weeks out.
As with many communication campaigns, and not just fundraising, we find that the sweet spot to start promoting an upcoming campaign is at least one week out, up to four weeks.
Your donors and soon-to-be donors likely will need to hear your message more than once before they pull out their checkbooks or credit cards. So build in extra lead time. Use a variety of communication tactics and messages, segmenting (tailoring messages to different audiences) to your audience whenever possible.
We like to break the communication schedule into three phases:
Early communication: Set the stage by sharing your call-to-action and need statement. Provide important details like the dates of the campaign, how and where to give, and the overall goal. Get early commitments by phone or in person to set yourself up for early momentum – think of them as your early RSVPs that help convince people to come.
Mid-campaign: At this point, you have some context and resources already. The middle of the campaign is where you want to move people using stories, testimonials, data, and problem-solution scenarios. Try to mix up your approach, so you can appeal to different people’s preferences and decision-making styles. The best solicitations will appeal to pathos (emotion), logos (logic), and ethos (ethics). As you get farther into the campaign, pick up the phone. Reach out to individuals who usually give (last year but not this year - LYBNTS) or who participate in some years but not this year (SYBNTY).
Late communication: This is when you might put on a little pressure. Using the party example, capitalize on people’s fear of missing out and remind them that the end is near.
When the campaign begins to close, wrap it up and close up loose ends.
Post-Hype
Timeframe: Varies.
The people involved with your campaign and your organization want to know how it turned out—just as a party planner might send a thank you and photos after the fact, so should you do some follow-up and as quickly as possible.
Wrap-up: Once the campaign wraps up, recap and follow up. Follow-up messaging can include photos if there were event or in-person components, the final numbers and what the funding will support, and a final thank you. (It’s assumed that you already have a strong donor engagement plan and are thanking regular, and especially large donors, in meaningful ways.)
Give thanks: Write thank you cards, if you haven’t already, and personally thank your staff members, volunteers, and anyone else who supported the logistics of your campaign.
Share the impact: This is an important step that can be easily missed as you get busy with the day-to-day operations after a campaign. When you deliver the goods or use the money you’ve collected, report back to those who supported the campaign. There may be some lag time between when the funds or goods are collected and when they’re used or shared with your organization’s beneficiaries so the timeline for a follow-up to share impact varies.
A basic schedule like this makes your campaign plan feel sustainable and achievable.
Do you know what you need to do but struggle to make it happen? We plan and write campaign communications in your organization’s voice for multiple audiences and across mediums, so you can hit your goals even when time and resources are limited.
Messaging your mission starts with a call; get on the schedule.
