It’s a fact: Hunger relief campaigns with teams raise more money and are more likely to succeed. We encourage you to invite library advocates to join you from the start. We also recommend that you recruit donors, engage your friends’ group and other library advocates before your hunger relief campaign goes live.
Break out a calculator as you determine your fundraising goal. How much will you donate? How many other people have committed to making a gift? How much do you expect them to donate? How many other people will you and your team reach? If a third of those people give $50 or $100 each, how much will you raise? Be ambitious, but make sure you can sketch a realistic scenario that gets you to the goal.
Raising at least 15% of your goal on the first day will dramatically improve your library’s hunger relief campaign’s chance of success. Similarly, 45% is a tipping point for many hunger relief campaigns. Hitting this milestone early makes people in your community more likely to spend time on your hunger relief campaign page and more likely to donate. We recommend having a plan that will get you there within the first 7-15 days.
LibrariesFeed is a social and crowdfunding platform and being social is critical to success. Engage your network before your hunger relief campaign launches and have a plan for reaching everyone once it goes live. Social media is vital, so you should have an established presence and know how to use it. You’ll also want to recruit friends, community stakeholders and library advocates to spread the word, amplifying your message and reaching even more people.
Generate buzz about your hunger relief campaign before it launches. Secure commitments from donors and advocates to lend a hand. Once your hunger relief campaign is approved, but before it goes live, you can share the campaign page with people to get them excited about what you are doing.
Running a hunger relief campaign requires daily attention, so launch your campaign when you won’t have too many competing priorities.
Your ‘Story of Hunger’ video is one of the most important elements of your library’s hunger relief campaign. Invest time and effort in making it great, and your campaign will have a major advantage.
But don’t think that great videos need to be fancy. The key is to be engaging, tell your audience the story of hunger in your community and how your library will be engaged.
This is your opportunity to persuade people to join you in achieving something truly important.
In your ‘Story of Hunger’ video on your campaign page, and in your outreach, explain the purpose of your hunger relief campaign and why it is important. You want people in your community to understand how your library’s hunger relief campaign will help today’s kids and youth in your community.
Be specific and describe the impact the money will have on fighting child hunger in your community.
You also want them to feel and share your enthusiasm, so don’t be afraid to show some emotion!
There are a lot of distractions out there, so always put your bottom line up front. We recommend that your “Story of Hunger Video” last no more than 2-3 minutes and that campaign descriptions be no more than 300 words in length.
Emphasize how important everyone’s support is to your library’s campaign. You need them to donate, to spread the word, to join you in solving this problem—together!
No donation is too small to make a difference, and the impact is even greater when donations are combined to achieve a common goal. Emphasize these points and remind people that you want to reach the fundraising goal with the support of as many people as possible.
Donating yourself sends an important signal. We also encourage you to offer a Matching Donation and recruit others to do the same. Matches are a great way to kick things off and to add excitement during the campaign—try to have them offered throughout.
You should be doing this long before your hunger relief campaign launches, but you’ll need to supercharge your efforts once the countdown begins. Be proactive and ask others to help. Launch a social media blitz. Contact everyone you know. Seek out bloggers or organizations that may be interested in promoting the campaign. Engage your library’s friends’ group. Do whatever it takes to reach as many people as possible.
Facebook and Twitter are great, but studies show that many people are more likely to respond to a personal email.
Get outside the bubble and talk to people—in person. Tell them about your library’s hunger relief campaign, what you are trying to achieve for kids and youth in your community and why they should help. Putting a face to the campaign and hearing directly from library leadership can have an incredible effect on people.
Think outside the box and come up with ways to engage people and groups outside your inner circle of friends and family. Enlist your team, other donors, and campaign advocates to help. And don’t be afraid to take chances.
Campaigns that conduct daily outreach (a.k.a. “marketing”) and post regular updates raise more money—a lot more money—than those that don’t. You should never stop spreading the word, and you should not wait until your campaign is almost over to post an update. Regularly share news of the campaign’s progress and remind people of what you’re trying to accomplish. The best campaigns feature updates—including video updates—throughout. These updates keep supporters engaged, encourage them to do more, and help bring in new people.
Think about the people you are contacting and how to most effectively engage them. What words will best convey the importance of your hunger relief campaign to them? What messaging will resonate with their personal experiences? Where are you most likely to capture their attention—on Facebook, over email, on the phone, in person? What time of day is best? Tailor your outreach to specific individuals as much as possible and be sure to vary your content when you post on social media and send group emails.
Express your gratitude early and often. Whether someone donates to or advocates for your library’s hunger relief campaign, you want them to know that you appreciate the support. A personalized “thank you” will encourage them to do more and keep them engaged as your campaign progresses.
The LibrariesFeed team is here for you and can lend a hand before you submit a draft of your hunger relief campaign. Just email us at info@librariesfeed.org and let us know how we can help.
