Here are our tips to successfully fundraise for your campaign. You are going to need a bit of strategy, and a whole lot of heart! First impressions are important, as are rewards and your story.
Tip 1. Creating your Campaign
The first step in the process is BELIEVING in your campaign. Choose something that you are passionate about and it will shine through. For most of us, the projects that we are interested in fundraising are long time dreams or passions that we want to make reality. Perhaps your campaign is just step 1 of a bigger goal. Try to hone in on one step at a time and create goals that are attainable. You can always start a new campaign for step 2!
To meet our guidelines, you must be campaigning for something that constitutes a dream or passion project. Make sure you are not fundraising for something like “paying my bills,”. If you are fundraising for “buying a car” that doesn't fit our criteria, however if you are fundraising for “buying a car for a 3 month trip around the country”, then you are on the right track! The campaign must be for a clear achievable goal or project (which could easily be some part of a larger dream).
Setting clear goals is the first step to making your dream(s) a reality, so this step can actually help you as the campaign creator to get more focused on what you are trying to achieve. It also helps to make it very clear to the contributors what exactly the campaign is, whether it is achievable or not, and whether they would like to contribute to it. Be sure to have your goals clearly defined in your campaign description.
The Badge Summary is the short description of your project that appears on your Campaign badge (that's the image, and short info that people click on to learn more).
Tip 2. Rewards
Every campaign is required to have a set of rewards that are given to the contributors depending on how much money they contribute. It is important to have rewards that help people to want to support you and your campaign. Make them fun, exciting, and creative. You may create the rewards from the project, like a postcard from every state you visit on your 3 month trip. Some campaigns don't necessarily result in products, so you have to get a little more creative. Some campaigns may use rewards as a primary way to induce contributions, while others don't. For example, if you are raising money for personal growth, say a week-long retreat, you may consider offering hand written thank-you notes and a photo of you at the retreat. Not all campaigns will have huge rewards, some may simply be heartfelt.
Other examples of rewards:
Products: books, cds, photographs, jars of your homemade jam Service: yoga (after you finish school), photo session, photo lesson Experience: joining you in the studio while you record your album, experience a sunset as you capture it on film
Credit to the Contributor: An acknowledgement in your book, cd, or website
Personal Thank-you: a handwritten note, a postcard from your journey, a photo of you, or a handmade gift
How to price your rewards:
When it comes to pricing your rewards, don't be humble. This is simply the way you can give back to those that choose to support you. You don't want to spend your trip writing a post card from every day of your journey, one from each state would suffice. Take a photo at a significant point of your journey and send the same photo to everyone who chose that reward. Be sure not to overcommit your time, resources or money.
If you choose partial funding, you still have to fulfill the rewards. Make sure that you can do that if you only raise 50% of your goal.
MeNimble was created to help YOU to live your dreams and experience you at your best and happiest. The people who choose to contribute to your campaign will most likely be looking for the same. To support you in your success!
Remember you also want to keep you audience in mind. Who will your contributor be? Your neighbors, social network, or family? What type of rewards will appeal to your target contributors?
Tip 3. Setting your Fundraising Goal
When you create a campaign at MeNimble, you have the opportunity to receiving partial funding. This is your choice. We encourage you to set attainable goals that can be met with 100% success. This gives you the most out of the funds that you raise. It is very important to use the money you raise to fund your project. If you know that you need a minimum amount to even begin your project, you may not want to take partial funding knowing it isn't enough. Instead you may want to refine your goals and start a new campaign.
**IMPORTANT: If you choose to collect partial funding you still have to fulfill the rewards.
If you choose to set a goal that is too high you may also receive fewer contributors if you campaign sits at 2% funded for 30 days. If may be better to run a few smaller campaigns to get 100% funding.
Make sure you've looked at the practical side of accomplishing your project. What does it take to make it happen? If your goal is to start a new company, make sure that you know what your start up costs will be. Again, you may want to create a campaign plan as part of your business plan as well, plan out 3 campaigns to get your doors open or to accomplish your bigger goal.
You can always go OVER your goal as well, with no change in fees. So shoot for the moon when it comes to your marketing. One option that we love is the pay-it-forward reward. Example: If you go over your goal you will contribute a portion to your favorite charity. Another example: If you go over your goal you'll contribute a portion to another campaign!
Your Audience
It is up to you to find contributors to your campaign. Use your social networks, your e-mail contacts, friends, family and any other means that you can think of, you need to find contributors. You may have someone from within the MeNimble network that gives a contribution to your campaign, but don't count on these, look at them as bonuses. We give you tools that help connect you to your favorite social networks, but the real work is yours.
Make sure that your fundraising goal ensures that you can complete what the campaign promised, or you will be forced to refund the contributions, and you will incur fees for this. If you fail to do what you promised and do not refund the money to your contributors, you may face legal action.
Contributing to your own campaign – By law, you cannot contribute money to your own campaign because it is considered a cash advance.
Tip 4: Creating a Video
One of the most important things you can do for your campaign is to add a video. Introduce yourself: This is the most important part! Who are you? This is where you get to let your passion shine through. Consider this the commercial of your life. You can explain with excitement and enthusiasm why YOU want to do “this” or create “this”. It's really all about you and what you believe in, so BELIEVE IN YOURSELF!
Avoid copyrighted material
Make sure not to use any music, images, or video clips that do not belong to you. Feel free to use royalty-free sites to help with music, video clips, or images.
Making your video
Start by making a list of each “scene”, for example: Intro: all about me Project: what is it Why: why is this important to me How: how am I going to achieve my goal once I raise the money Goal: what is me goal and how did I get to this number Rewards: what are my rewards Thank you: thank your supporters
You can put your video together even from you phone! Have a friend help and then use any video editing software to put together your video.
If you really don't like the idea of a video, put together a slide show that communicates your passion for your project.
Posting your video
Once you have your video edited to exactly how you want it, you need to upload it to Vimeo, and then use the unique video URL to put your video onto your campaign page. It takes a few steps, but if you have a good connection, it shouldn't take too long.
Choose your video image
This image is important, because it will also be the image that is displayed on your campaign. Make sure to choose an image that represents your campaign, as well as catches peoples eye.
You can only change this image if you manage the Vimeo account that uploaded the video that you are using.
Some people call these poster frames or preview images. Vimeo calls them thumbnails. To change your thumbnail, log into your Vimeo account, go to the video's individual page, where you read the comments and watch the video. Click on the 'Settings' button that appears under the video. From there, scroll down to 'Thumbnails' and you can select one of the pre-generated thumbnails. If you'd like to upload a custom thumbnail, click on the '+' button and upload your own image. Click 'Save Changes' and sit back and admire your new thumbnail.
Make sure to do this before you submit your campaign, because the MeNimble system stores the first image in its database, and that cannot be changed after submission. Tell the world what you are doing! Make a video!
Unable to make a video?
We require a video or slideshow for all campaigns, unless your physical location is somewhere that just does not have the technology available to be able to create or upload a video. If you have another legitimate reason for why you can't make a video, please let us know. Otherwise, you can use this link: http://vimeo.com/58599177
Tip 5. Your Campaign Page
When you are writing and building your campaign description on MeNimble, make sure to take your time. You've most likely spent more than a week dreaming about your project and how you'll make it happen. Take your time when putting together your campaign. Communicate the why as clearly as you can, this is where your passion shines though. Your excitement will come through. After all, it is your dream! Remember, once you launch you want to be focused on promotion. You only have a limited amount of time to accept contributions (your campaign deadline). The maximum length of your campaign deadline is 60 days.
Naming Your Campaign
Choose a campaign name that communicates clearly what you are doing. If your name is generic people may overlook it. Choose something exciting like “3 month trip across the US to collect gemstones”, or “Expand my Jam to a larger kitchen”, “Writing a Book about Children's Fitness”.
Writing your Headline
This is the short sentence that will appear on your campaign badge along with your title graphic and the fundraising goal. Like the name, this is a very important piece of how people perceive your campaign, and may make or break whether a person chooses to open your campaign page and ultimately whether they decide to contribute or not. This is where you can add your personality, or describe your project more.
Choosing your Campaign Image
This image is important, because it will also be the image that is displayed on your campaign badge. Make sure to choose an image that represents your campaign, as well as catches peoples eye.
You can only change this image if you manage the Vimeo account that uploaded the video that you are using.
Some people call these poster frames or preview images. Vimeo calls them thumbnails. To change your thumbnail, log into your Vimeo account, go to the video's individual page, where you read the comments and watch the video. Click on the 'Settings' button that appears under the video. From there, scroll down to 'Thumbnails' and you can select one of the pre-generated thumbnails. If you'd like to upload a custom thumbnail, click on the '+' button and upload your own image. Click 'Save Changes' and sit back and admire your new thumbnail.
Make sure to do this before you submit your campaign, because the MeNimble system stores the first image in its database, and that cannot be changed after submission. Making your Campaign Description look the best it can.
Adding images to your campaign description helps to add depth and an aesthetic quality to the page. We highly recommend you insert a number of images into your description giving a bit of color to what you are writing. To insert a photos using the instructions above, you need to have an online location of the photo, i.e. a URL. If you do not already have a URL for your image, then go to http://tinypic.com/, easily upload your image and retrieve your URL. Upload and image, then copy and paste the "Direct link for layouts." Return to the MeNimble page, and paste this url into this code:
Writing your Bio
In addition to the campaign description and video, potential contributors may be interested in learning more about you and what you have been up to previously. The bio is an opportunity to expand more on who you are, your past experiences, and the passion for your project or dream. Why is it that you do what you do? It doesn't need to be a whole life story. Keep it fairly short, and relative to the campaigns that you submit.
Tip 6. Promoting your Campaign
There is no limit to the amount of money that can be contributed, but campaign promotion is probably the single biggest factor to getting lots of contributions. Simply, the more people know about your campaign, the more possible contributors you have. You will want to get the word out to all the appropriate networks of friends, colleagues and family, as well as ask them to share it with their friends. Send out your campaign link to everyone your know and let them know what you are up to, and ask them to pass it on! There are a number of techniques for getting the word out, its often best to combine many of them. Here are a few:
Send a Personal Message
The single most effective way of getting people to respond to your campaign promotion is to send a personal message to them sharing your campaign, and asking them to check it out. Start with an e-mail to your friends, family and your permaculture network, allowing them to be the first to contribute and possibly give feedback on your campaign page. Then send it out to anyone you think might be open to checking it out. You could even send out personalized cards in the mail. There are several apps to help with this.
Use Social Networking
Post your campaign to Facebook and Tweet it out! Have a friend blog about it. Go to an online radio show and see if you can promote it. MeNimble makes it easy to share or embed your campaign badge. Invite others to “like” it or share it with their networks. It is generally most effective to post to social networks three times throughout a fundraising campaign: At the launch – introducing the campaign to your friends and contacts.
At the midway point - to give and update and to thank all those people who have contributed thus far.
A week before the project ends – to make your plea to the community to help meet your fundraising target and make this campaign a success.
Consider all of the ways you can get the word out, go to online communities that pertain to your subject. See if you can find someone with a complementary project and see if you can send it out to their network. Write a blog post.
Bring it to the Media
Put out a press release to your local newspaper, TV station or school. Contact like-minded blog writers and seek their support in promoting this effort. Journalists and bloggers are always looking for stories and are eager to help a local or inspiring project to success. Go to your favorite websites and forums and share with the community there. Please don't spam or beg for money. And don't over-do it.
Tip 7. Campaign Updates
The campaign updates serve as the blog for your project. Use this a way to stay connected to your contributors and let them know how you are progressing with your project. Go ahead and take the steps to get organized and ready to hit the ground running once your campaign ends. The more engaged your audience it, the more likely they are to talk about it or even make a second contribution. When your Campaign ends, keep people updated! Once your campaign has ended, you can continue to use the updates to let people know how your project is progressing. You can also keep them informed of new campaigns that you may run in the future. Keep them excited and engaged!
Success!
Be sure to keep people up to date on your success and thank everyone for their support. Have a party to celebrate your success and invite your contributors. Or maybe invite them to opening night! Remember this is now your network of supporters, you want to let them know how they've helped in your success!
Tip 8. Delivering the Rewards
Once your project has ended it is helpful to let your contributors know when they can expect to receive their rewards.
Getting Contributors Information
Once your campaign has ended you will need to contact your contributors and collect all of their information, like t-shirt sizes, mailing addresses, etc into one easy place.
Make Sure to Plan Ahead
Doing your due diligence in terms of knowing how much time and cost it will take to make and deliver rewards is important. The last thing you want is to realize that fulfilling the rewards is going to eat up a much larger portion of your budget that you realized. Start with understanding shipping costs, which is easy to overlook. You can start with some of the information provided online like USPS mailing guide, checklists, and bulk mail info. Explore other options that may work better for you. Beware of International mail rates!
Communicate with your Contributors
As you work on getting all the rewards up, send out frequent campaign updates. The contributors are usually very flexible about when they receive their rewards, but do like to know that you are working on it. Send pictures of the process of creating the rewards, and stories about what went wrong. Keep it fun and honest, and your contributors will be happy to get your messages.
