Guest Post by Lomesh Shah, CEO of NonProfitEasy
Crowdfunding is one of the most influential campaigning techniques to come onto the fundraising scene.
A technique that harnesses the power of social media, sharing, and personal networks, crowdfunding allows anyone to create their own fundraising campaign.
This means anyone can raise money for causes close to their hearts through peer donations.
While anyone can construct a crowdfunding campaign, not all campaigns will reach their target goals.
Why? Because their crowdfunding campaign is lacking in its design for social media sharing and outreach.
A crowdfunding campaign on social media should incorporate the following design tips in order to drive donors to support your cause and surpass your target:
- Inspire action with video.
- Create confidence with consistent branding.
- Portray your cause in the best light.
- Stay in touch with your supporters.
Now that you know what you have to do to design the best crowdfunding campaign for your cause, let’s dive into how you can achieve it!
Bonus! If you’re unfamiliar with crowdfunding, visit Fundly’s Crowdfunding 101 guide to supplement your knowledge.
Lights, camera, inspire action!
If a picture is worth a thousand words, just think what a video can be worth! A video is a powerful tool that can capture the imagination of an audience and instantly resonate with them. Videos utilize the essential elements of nonprofit storytelling and persuasion to visually and verbally stimulate an audience into increasing their empathetic engagement with your cause.
By incorporating videos into your crowdfunding campaign, your organization has the capacity to reach new audiences and inspire prospective donors to enhance your dream with participation and donations. You just need to make your crowdfunding video an outstanding one.
You don’t need a fancy camera to create a powerful message, either. Any device from your smartphone to an industrial camera can do the trick, provided that you invest time, effort, and meaningful thought into planning your video prior to filming.
Once the planning process is complete, check off the items from this list to design the perfect crowdfunding video:
- Keep it short, sweet, and subtle. Do not allow your video to exceed 4 minutes. Stick to the key points you wish to make without overselling your cause. Although you are introducing your cause, your video should not feel like an overt advertisement. Let the importance of your cause be the selling point and your call to action be the transaction.
- Draft a script and stick to it. Not only will drafting a script eliminate many unnecessary outtakes, unapproved improvisations, and other tangential time-wasters, it will also keep your video focused. The more poignant your organization’s video is, the more progress your crowdfunding campaign will make.
- Establish trust with your audience. Share your story in a way that allows you to build an alliance with your audience. By authentically presenting your organization and your plan, your audience will be compelled to join you in your fight.
- Ensure your video is visually stimulating. Videos are comprised of sounds and sights. Neglecting either will debilitate the impact your video has on its audience. Try including text in your video to complement the words spoken. Let your audience see the problem and recognize your organization as the best solution.
- Don’t forget the call to action. The call to action, or the “ask,” is your way of converting prospects into donors. After identifying the problem and outlining the solution (your organization), it’s time to encourage your audience to engage with you and inspire them to join your fight.
For more advice on crafting the perfect crowdfunding video, check out these tips. While videos can help instill an initial sense of trust and create a bond between your organization and your audience, they are most effective when you are properly and consistently branded.
Branding is a vital facet of any business venture, nonprofit and otherwise.
Without a consistent and customized brand, your target audience has no visual aspect they associate with your organization. So, before you even consider creating a crowdfunding campaign, ensure that you establish a brand.
If you’ve never designed a brand to raise money online, you may be wondering:
What comprises a “brand”?
Customization and individuality. Show why your organization is unique and why your cause should be widely supported. Customize your brand to signify your values, your mission, and your voice. To create and incorporate a custom brand:
- Use your nonprofit’s logo, color scheme, symbols, or other elements that your audience identifies as emblematic of your brand.
- Incorporate these visual appeals into your crowdfunding page to increase your trustworthiness to prospects and donors alike.
- Add images to effectively illustrate the benefit of your work on your community.
What should a brand accomplish?
Centralize communication to your audience of prospects and donors. Your brand should tell your audience what your organization is, what your mission is, how you are going to achieve it, and why they should support you. By crafting a cohesive brand, your design will inspire your audience to trust you.
What are the branding essentials?
Features that must consistently appear throughout your crowdfunding campaign. Incorporating consistent visual messages that make lasting impressions and promote credibility will optimize your fundraising success. There are many features that you can add to your branding design, but here are some of the top design elements you want to include:
- Headers and campaign-driven images to emphasize the impact of your mission, your goals, your incentives, and your story. Campaign-driven images should emulate the vibe of your brand and be the point of cohesion for any visual graphics used.
- Consistent style throughout the campaign to not only solidify the connection your audience makes between a specific image and your organization but increase the trust your audience has in your organization’s ability to stick to your goals.
- Symbolic brand assets and color schemes to increase associations made with your audience and brand visibility.
Even if you manage to craft the best brand to consistently incorporate into your crowdfunding campaign, no one will see it if your cause is portrayed in the dark.
Do not keep your audience in the dark.
According to Fundly’s crowdfunding statistics, $65 billion have been added to the global economy through crowdfunding. Don’t you want your organization to increase that number? You can if you show your supporters to the light!
By portraying your cause in its best possible light, you are optimizing your visual marketing tactics and highlighting the worthiness of your organization and the incredible work it accomplishes.
Brick-and-mortar stores or in-person fundraising allow buyers and supporters to get a physical, tangible sense of the product they may invest in. With online fundraising and crowdfunding campaigns, that is not the case. Potential supporters must rely on images, digital renderings, or other visual graphics to convey your organization’s worth.
With crowdfunding campaigns, you need to have images that convey the importance of your organization, how you will achieve your mission, and how you relate to your supporters’ lives.
How many tips does it take to portray your cause in the best light? Let’s count:
- Help your supporters visualize their impact and identify how your organization fits into their lifestyle.
- Ensure your visuals are clear, focused, and well-lit.
- Utilize videos, testimonies, and other infographics to convey your message beyond words.
- Keep your design structure straightforward to keep it from getting confusing or overwhelming.
With only four tips, your organization can portray your cause in the best light to interest supporters! And while a sleek and illuminating design can certainly garner a solid backing for your organization, it cannot keep it.
Up until now, your organization has perfected its design process to convert prospects into donors. But, how can you keep them in the long run?
Maintain sustained contact with your donors.
A major factor in your overall design process for your crowdfunding campaign on social media, maintaining contact with your donors is important, whether it’s through consistent email campaigns or updates to the campaign itself.
Provide pertinent and relevant information.
To keep supporters engaged, it is vital that your organization provides your supporters with pertinent and relevant information about its progress. Sharing updates on your campaign, your financial goals, your milestones, or your tactics will keep your current supporters interested and entice new supporters to give to your cause.
Boost donor trust.
By extending the effort to establish consistent communication, your organization shows potential supporters that you care about your mission, are working hard to reach your goals, and are worthy of supporters’ trust.
Offer exclusive rewards.
Offering tiered rewards gives donors the opportunity to increase their impact and receive more in return—an immediate sense of gratifying selflessness and a tangible reward! Incentives allow donors to see the impact they have made instantaneously and entice them to donate more.
Include your branding design.
Do not lose sight of cohesive branding when you send updates to your supporters. Consistency with branding is key to developing trust and recognition.
Streamline your social media.
Optimize any branded visuals for social media to enable seamless sharing as you transition from one platform to the next. Try incorporating:
- Facebook giving. Donors can give directly to your campaign through Facebook, which makes supporting your cause a breeze!
- Automatic sharing. Embed automatic sharing into your crowdfunding design. Once a donation has been made, a “share” button will automatically appear alongside a thank-you message. With this, you can encourage your donors to spread your crowdfunding campaign’s call to action and boost the support you receive.
- Extraordinary emails. Email is still a powerful form of communication and should not be underestimated. With emails, you can continue your cohesive branding, emphasize your importance, remind supporters of deadlines, keep donors updated, craft confidence, and cultivate relationships with your supporters. Practice with crowdfunding email templates to hone your craft prior to sending emails out to your supporters.
Remember, an efficient, effective design for crowdfunding on social media is one that can not only intrigue initial support, but invest in eternal support.
In the age of online fundraising where crowdfunding is king, it’s time to get your organization into the crowdfunding castle! Now that you know the best design tips to drive donors to your social media crowdfunding campaign, you can start your organization’s journey toward becoming crowdfunding royalty.
Here’s a helpful list of crowdfunding legends to help guide you along the way!
Comments 1
Pingback: Crowdfunding on Social Media: 4 Design Tips to Drive Donors -