How to write a successful fundraising page

Let’s face it; there is so much need in the world. There are so many causes vying for attention; so many mouths needing feeding, so many sick needing to be healed. Against this clamour, this crying out from all quarters, how then do you make sure that your hand reaches the highest? How do you ensure that your plea stands out?

How do you get your campaign noticed?

The answer is simple and yet strangely hard to achieve. To get a fundraising need met, you need to have your story heard and, more importantly, felt.

Successful fundraising pages create an empathetic connection between the cause or person in need and the potential donor. This shared feeling is the impetus which makes one human being reach out to help another.

If you want or need the helping hand of a stranger, the key is to write your campaign right in to their hearts and minds.

How do you do it? You need to tell your story. These nine tips should help:

1. Create a connection by giving some of yourself

You need to tell your potential donors who you are and a little about your life. The key is to allow strangers feel as if they know you (or could know you in a different life) and to help them see you as the human being that you are rather than a problem or an objective cause. If you are fundraising for another, tell your readers about them too. Fundraising for an animal charity or for a general cause such as cancer research, tell visitors to your page why you are doing this and why it is important to you. You are the main character, the hero in your fundraising story. Your audience needs to feel you.

2. Structure your page with a good narrative

A good story has a beginning, a middle and an end. You may not be writing a novel but you do have to take visitors to your page on a journey. After you have introduced the character and created the connection, next it is time for the action. What is the problem to be overcome, what is the adventure or quest that lies ahead and how will it resolve. You need to get your potential donor to invest in achieving the ‘happy ending’. It may not seem natural to write real life as a story; but it works.

3. Highlight the commonality in your cause or situation

Bad things happen to good people and tragedy strikes where it chooses. We can all suffer illness or pain. We could all find ourselves with insufficient to provide for those we love. We are all sons and daughters and, if lucky, many of us are or will be parents. Very few of us will not have loved and lost a pet. There will be something in your story that touches a common chord and it is necessary to tap in to this. Many charitable acts are inspired by a feeling of “there but for the love of god…” or by the ability of the donor to feel themselves in your shoes. A good story has the ability to touch us all.

4. Emphasise the uniqueness of your need

No, this is not a complete contradiction of the above advice! Unfortunately you need to try to do both simultaneously. It is perhaps easiest to illustrate this with an example: if you are seeking funds for an operation for your son, the commonality is parenthood, the love of a parent for their child. The uniqueness is in the tragic situation of your child being ill. You need to draw attention to both strands of your story. A gentle word of advice is not to over-dramatise either element. A moving story is often simple and honest.

5. Be clear about what you need, why it is needed and by when

A fundraising page which states $5,000 is needed to help an animal shelter will not get very far. Break that sum down in to specific, achievable goals. What is needed urgently to feed the animals next week? State what is needed to provide a single cat or dog with vaccinations. How many cats or dogs are there?

Do you need to raise $20,000 for life-saving treatment? It helps to break down the amount in to smaller steps, each with a specific purpose. What do you need for each step on the road to recovery? Start with the first steps. Giving clear details will help donors see how their money will be spent. A good story-teller takes the reader along with them, every step of the way.

6. Be specific about the difference that each individual donation will make

The potential donor needs to know that their contribution is really going to make a difference. It is important that the donor gets to feel satisfaction from their charitable act and to know that their contribution, however small, is valued. This is the reason why ‘buy a brick’ campaigns have been so successful. No one donor can build the whole hospital (unless they are Bill Gates) but they can own the feel-good factor attached to one brick. A good story doesn’t lose its reader before the end.

7. Give updates on your situation and the progress of your campaign

When a potential donor visits your page it helps if they can see what has been achieved with other previous donations. This has the benefit not only of making your page feel alive and your campaign dynamic but also helping you to build rapport with past and future donors (see above re connection). Your story is an ongoing one. Don’t leave your readers in limbo, not knowing the end.

8. Give thanks

That stranger who has just given you $50 could instead have donated it to another cause or indeed spent it in a shopping mall. Just as good manners matter in real life, they matter online. In fact, expressing gratitude is a fundraising imperative. Make your ‘thank you’ personal and from the heart. If possible use a visible message platform on your fundraising page (such as the GIVE.asia comments section).

9. Be concise!

You have a lot to get across on your fundraising page — who you are, what’s happening in your life, what you need, why you need it, what difference any donation will make and how grateful you are to receive it. But you must be concise. It takes time to write concisely; to get a message across simply and effectively. Take time crafting your fundraising page. It will pay off.

Lucy-Ann Dale