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The Nonprofit Crowdfunding Craze
A fresh look at the fundraising phenomenon that can help you attract more donors
and dollars for your cause.
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All the cool kids are doing it.
It seems like crowdfunding is everywhere, from
the stay-hot forever coffee beans raising money
on Kickstarter to campaigns for support of victims
of disasters like Haiti and the Boston Marathon.
Nonprofits know it’s cool, and they know those
upstart Millennials love these kind of campaigns,
but is this “new” form of fundraising worth your
investment of time and talent?
Yes! And you’re probably already equipped
with most of what you’ll need to be a great
crowdfunder without even knowing it.
In this guide, we’ll show you how tapping the
power of the crowd can yield big results.
Are you in?
About the Author
This crowdfunding primer was written by Jamie McDonald, Chief Giving Officer of Network for Good and founder of GiveCorps. In 2013, Jamie spearheaded a highly successful campaign that raised $5.7 million in one day for Baltimore-area nonprofits. In this guide, she shares insights gained from her experiences with peer-to-peer fundraising, mobilizing communities, and the giving habits of young donors.
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Nonprofits are the original crowdfunders. Crowdfunding has
been around for ages—we just hadn’t coined the term until
recently.
Those red Salvation Army buckets outside every store during
the holidays? Crowdfunding.
The jogathon at your kid’s school, where you and
your neighbors pledge money for every lap she
runs? Crowdfunding.
Right now, your Facebook feed probably has at least one
nonprofit crowdfunding post: a friend raising money for a charity run, the Red Cross soliciting funds
for hurricane relief, or a local food bank asking for donations to help feed hungry families.
You give, you share, others give and share, and so on.
At its core, crowdfunding is just great fundraising – the kind you do everyday:
∞ Defining an audience.
∞ Understanding what inspires them.
∞ Clearly explaining how they can make a difference.
∞ Making the ask.
∞ Showing sincere gratitude.
∞ Asking donors for their suggestions of others who may be inspired.
Or boiled down
Set a goal, tell your story, inspire your community to donate and help spread the word. Pretty simple,
right?
Crowdfunding: a tradition with a modern spin
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Crowdfunding has always been about building support in a community to meet your fundraising goal.
What’s different today is the wider set of tools and technology available to nonprofits to tell richer, more
compelling stories and to harness the power of the crowd.
Online giving platforms like Network for Good’s crowdfunding solution, GiveCorps, offer user-friendly
tools for telling irresistible, shareable stories via words, photos, and video. They offer donors a quick and
easy way to contribute to causes that matter to them or that strike a chord in the moment. And these
donors can easily share your appeal with like-minded friends and colleagues, who then donate and
share, and so on.
Why do donors get excited about crowdfunding campaigns?
They feel good. Initially, it’s the glow of being part of something good and important.
They also feel a sense of purpose as they share your story with friends and watch the
donation ticker move toward its goal.
They make an impact. Donors feel like they MATTER, even if they are not wealthy, when
they know they’ve helped your nonprofit achieve its crowdfunding objective: a new
school in Guatemala, a house for a homeless family, or comfy beds for every dog at an
animal shelter.
It is fun. In a broader sense, a crowdfunding project done well sets the entire tone for
your nonprofit as an organization and as a brand. It’s like an exciting party that brings
people together in a fun, purposeful way.
They’re in it together. Crowdfunding creates a community that supports your
nonprofit and goes way beyond the old boundaries of traditional one-to-one
fundraising campaigns.
Technology has changed the game
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There are probably skeptics on your team and your board about the importance of younger
donors, so let’s take a look at the arguments for engaging Millennials and other digital givers.
When asked, “Why should we focus on Millennials, whose resources are small relative to
older supporters?”
It’s simple. They have the power to generate passion, engagement and donations for your
organization. (And, in less than 5 years, the oldest among them will be moving into their peak
earning years.)
Here are a few key stats:
Engage and inspire younger donors
Further, the strategies for engaging Millennials are no longer just preferences. They have become the
norm for effective communication with all ages.
As Derrick Feldmann, Founder of the Millennial Impact Project, puts it when discussing the social
sector, “It is not overstating to say that a big part of the nonprofit sector’s future relies on its ability to
respond to these young people’s charitable inclinations.”
By the year 2020, Millennials will make up 50% of the workforce 50%
Nearly half (47%) of the Millennials surveyed had volunteered for a cause in the past month 47%
22%
91% of the female Millennials surveyed donated to charities
84% of male Millennials surveyed donated to charities
91%
84%
22% of Millennials surveyed gave more than $500 to nonprofits in 2013
12%12% gave more than $1,000 to nonprofits in 2013
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Crowdfunding is the new wave in annual giving
Time to grab your surfboard.
The future of Annual Giving is online. And today’s digital donors are the
lifeblood of your organization’s success in the long haul.
Traditional annual giving campaigns use personal solicitation, direct mail,
email and phone calls to raise unrestricted donations. Crowdfunding can be a
powerful tool for building unrestricted giving also – it just requires a shift in thinking.
Every program and activity in a nonprofit can be reframed as a “project” that contributes to your mission.
Here are a few examples of how to reframe your ask into inspiring projects:
➊ If you serve 500 people a year with a $1 million budget, frame your annual fund
around the $2000 it takes to serve each client.
➋ If you don’t provide direct services, but are an advocate for a cause, frame
your annual fund ask around the number of people you reach each year with
your message.
➌ If you are an arts organization, consider annual fund outreach around how many
visitors you have in a year.
➍ If you are an environmental organization, structure your annual fund around the square
miles of the area you focus on or the number of people in your catchment area. For
example, a local environmental organization works to clean a series of streams that are
five miles long. They needed to raise just over $1 million each year. We recommended
creating a campaign around providing support for a yard of the stream. The math
was easy: $1,100,000/8800 yards = $125 per yard of the stream. This kind of creative
thinking repositioned their annual fund for success.
Remember
At its core, your organization is about changing lives, and this needs to be made real and tangible.
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Online crowdfunding technology,
like Network for Good’s GiveCorps
platform, is central to creating
efficiency for your team as you
reinvent your annual giving efforts.
Your online giving platform should
make it easy to launch crowdfunding
campaigns without requiring your
development team to become
computer programmers.
The right technology is key
• A giving site customized with your
brand, colors, images, and stories
• Cloud based, with no IT or
programming required
• Easily customizable fundraising
project pages
• Fully-mobile giving experience
• Unlimited project pages and
searchable giving opportunities gallery
• Personalized coaching to get you up
and running quickly
• Peer-to-peer fundraising tools for
individuals and teams
• Easy-to-use photo and video uploads
to create visual storytelling
• Built-in social sharing
• Shopping cart functionality to drive
donations to multiple projects, and
saving of cart items for future
• Saved payment credentials to
speed checkout
• Easy recurring giving capability
• Reliability, security, credibility of an
industry leader
Here are a few key features to look out for when choosing the right technology:
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Case Studies
How does crowdfunding play out in the real world?
This all sounds great on paper, right? But how well does crowdfunding really work? Check out these
powerful crowdfunding moments that turned ordinary fundraising into extraordinary events with a
lasting impact.
United Way of Central Maryland: Project-based givingEmergency Fundraising for a critical need
The Need
During an unusually cold 2014 winter season, the State of Maryland
tasked United Way of Central Maryland to lead an unprecedented
emergency fundraising effort for the entire state, across United Way
territories to help heat the homes of families in need. The State
of Maryland specifically chose United Way of Central Maryland to
spearhead this effort because their GiveCorps giving site allowed them
to rapidly create regional giving pages and begin their outreach in a
matter of days.
Goals
United Way of Central Maryland needed to work across United
Way territories to turn on digital fundraising initiatives quickly and
efficiently; allowing them to rally supporters and donors during a
critical moment of need.
Results
United Way of Central Maryland rapidly placed 24 regional fundraising
pages online in under a week to support families in need. Custom
donation pages allowed for a seamless marketing effort, from
solicitation to donation, with the same images, same story, same ask,
and the same impact.
GiveCorps also made it easy to archive the campaign, removing the
donation pages from the public view, while still storing all campaign
history, including donor data, for retrieval at year end.
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Turning supporters into fundraisers with a bike ride
The Need
In 2014, Moveable Feast, a nonprofit that provides nutritious
meals to people living with HIV/AIDS, cancer, and other
life-threatening conditions, incorporated team-based
crowdfunding in its Ride for the Feast bicycling event. More
than 3,000 individual donors joined together in teams to
raise over $70,000 from their peers. Team members bicycled
140 miles—the exact distance a Moveable Feast driver travels
to deliver meals to the nonprofit’s farthest client—adding a
compelling layer of meaning to every mile they rode.
Moveable Feast leveraged the peer-to-peer “team projects”
available on GiveCorps to allow riders to fundraise on behalf of
Moveable Feast.
Goal
Moveable Feast wanted to allow riders to create unique,
personalized fundraising pages to support their annual Ride for
the Feast event.
Results
• Moveable Feast’s riders raised $71,118.29 from
3,139 donors.
• Moveable Feast experienced strong participation
and robust social media exposure.
• Campaigns were run by over 30
individual fundraisers.
Moveable Feast: Peer-to-Peer Fundraising
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Board Member Birthday Raise with a Matching Gift
The Need
Crowdfunding isn’t just about lots of donors giving lots of small
gifts; a small group of donors can do tremendous things.
A Board member and passionate supporter of the Center for Urban
Families, a nonprofit that helps fathers and families achieve stability
and financial success, wanted to do things a little differently for his
50th birthday. Using a personal fundraising page on the GiveCorps
site, he asked his friends and family to help raise $25,000 for
Center for Urban Families in honor of his birthday. If his $25,000
goal was met, he then promised to match it with a $25,000 gift of
his own.
In this case, peer-based fundraising combined with matching gifts
generated big results.
Goals
The passionate fundraiser wanted to raise money while
simultaneously exposing Center for Urban Families to his social
network, allowing him to enhance awareness for his cause.
Results
• The fundraiser raised $25,406 from 61 donors.
• The fundraiser contributed an additional $25,000.
• Center for Urban Families gained 61 new
supporters that they can now engage for future
fundraising efforts.
Center for Urban Families: Peer-to-Peer Fundraising
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What crowdfunding lessons can I put into action right now?Want to test the crowdfunding waters? Instead of jumping in head first with, say, your big
end-of-year annual appeal, try applying this quick and easy crowdfunding checklist to a
targeted campaign.
1. Set a single goal.Rally donors around a single goal that’s relevant to your organization. Let’s use the
example of renovating the kitchen at a local homeless shelter.
2. Tell your story—better yet, show it. Using the shelter kitchen as an example, make a short video of the current kitchen along with renderings of the renovation. Include interviews with volunteers and people who benefit from the shelter’s hot meals. (Not ready for video? Photos can have just as much emotional impact.) Post it with a brief yet engaging explanation of your goal on your crowdfunding page, on social media, your website, and in e-newsletters.
Encourage readers and donors to share it with their circles as well.
3. Match your goal to an impact statement. How much money do you want to raise? Offer levels of gift opportunities—$10,000 for
a commercial stove, $100 for child’s high chair, $50 for staff aprons.
4. Update and inspire with strong visuals. Update your crowdfunders along the way with photos and video of your project’s
progress and its current impact. Great visuals will encourage them to share your story.
5. Celebrate milestones and encourage your community to build momentum. Donors want to feel like they’re part of your movement. When they do, they’ll spread the word on your behalf. Publicly thank them on social media and “donor rolls” on your website. Invite major donors to special events (like the ribbon cutting of our
hypothetical shelter’s new kitchen).
You can achieve all of these steps quickly and easily with online tools like GiveCorps, from Network
for Good.
Now that you understand the basics of crowdfunding and all the amazing things it can do for your
nonprofit, you can start building its core concepts into your overall fundraising strategy.
$
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How can I learn more about crowdfunding and take my campaigns—and my nonprofit’s brand—to a higher level?
To learn even more about this powerful form of outreach, stay tuned for Network for Good’s full-length ebook, The (Definitive!) Guide to Nonprofit Crowdfunding, coming soon!
Or better yet, contact us today to get started:
(855) 229-1694
www.networkforgood.com/givecorps
About Network for Good
Network for Good powers more digital giving than any other platform. Since 2001, we’ve processed
over $1 billion for more than 100,000 nonprofits. We are Level 1 Audited PCI Compliant and our
Donor Advised Fund is accredited by the Better Business Bureau Wise Giving Alliance, meeting all 20
of its standards for charity accountability. Plus, we’re registered in every state for online fundraising.
We’re a mission-minded organization, like you, and we’re passionate about seeing good causes
succeed. We also believe in the power of communities to do great things. That’s why we’re happy to
introduce GiveCorps, our easy-to-use online crowdfunding platform that attracts new donors and
lets supporters raise funds on your behalf.
Just like our full suite of online fundraising solutions, GiveCorps comes with all of the support and
coaching you’ve come to expect from Network for Good. We’re here to help you connect with
donors and create successful fundraising campaigns.
