5 Ways To Use CauseVox To Power Your Year-End Fundraising

At CauseVox, we realize just how vital (tedious, wonderful, stressful, worthwhile, etc.) year-end fundraising is for your organization.

As a former fundraiser myself, I know that when the energy started picking up each year around September and October, December 31st was just around the corner. Going full-throttle for the last 3 months of the year is simply the nature of the job.

And there’s no doubt that you’ve been working hard throughout the year to bring in the money. But as you know, this is the time of the year when fundraising efforts peak and new ideas and techniques are often pushed aside.

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We recognize that fundraising is hard, so we built a platform to help you overcome some of the biggest challenges you face. Our platform will make your fundraising experience easier, more streamlined, and empowering for your donors.

Here are 5 ways that you can use CauseVox to power your year-end fundraising.

1) Annual Campaigns

Annual campaigns are the bread and butter of nonprofit fundraising. You need them, they’re comfortable, and some nonprofits can even anticipate the results before kicking off. You’ve probably run your annual campaign the same way every year.

Which is why you are probably wondering how you can use crowdfunding software to power your annual giving campaigns.

In fact, we’ve seen many nonprofits amplify their annual giving campaign using CauseVox. Let’s take a look at the Carlisle Family YMCA campaign. This nonprofit was able to use the power of crowdfunding to bring their campaign in front of a broader online audience, specifically targeting millennials. At the end of the campaign, they raised $10,000 more than the previous year.

Here are 3 reasons why we know you’ll see great results running an online annual giving campaign using CauseVox:

• Bigger Donor Pool: Your online donor audience may differ slightly than with a traditional phone or direct mail annual campaign, helping to increase your population of potential donors
• Customizable Design: You can personalize the entire online campaign using your branding, logo, and url. At the end of the day, your donor will never know that they’re not on your website.
• Communicate Easily: Try updating the blog feature as often as you’d like to keep your audience in the loop about the campaign status, client stories, or stellar donors. The sky’s the limit!

For more information on ways to power your year-end fundraising with a CauseVox Annual Giving Campaign, start here.

2) #GivingTuesday

5 years ago, no one could have ever guessed that #GivingTuesday would grow into what it is today. And it’s not just nonprofits that know about this day of giving — it seems a though everyone’s “in the know.”

Instead of posting a couple tweets or Facebook updates and keeping your fingers crossed for a few donations to trickle in, amplify your #GivingTuesday campaign using CauseVox.

We’ve seen one-day crowdfunding campaigns work extremely well on our platform. Longtime partner Project Renewal has used CauseVox to power their #GivingTuesday campaigns since 2013, and they’ve seen their campaign totals stay strong year after year.

Here are a few features that are producing results for Project Renewal and we think they’ll work for you too:

• Impact Metric: Let your donors know exactly what they’re funding using the CauseVox impact meter. With this tool, you can quantify donations any way you’d like.
• Storytelling Features: We believe that a good story can make or break a campaign, which is why we provide the space and resources to help you share your story with your audience.
• Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Options: Instead of doing all the work yourself, ask your most loyal supporters to fundraise for your organization for #GivingTuesday.

This webinar will help you make the most of a#GivingTuesday campaign run with CauseVox.

3) Year-End Peer-To-Peer Fundraising Campaigns

At CauseVox, we believe that using people-based fundraising makes your organization stronger. And we know there’s no better way to do this than with peer-to-peer fundraising.

We strongly encourage you to leverage the power of your supporters to spread the word about your campaign to meet your year-end fundraising goals. By choosing to run a peer-to-peer fundraising campaign, you’ll mobilize your current supporters (engaging them in the process) and get your campaign before the eyes of a huge prospective donor base.

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World Bicycle Relief (WBR) uses peer-to-peer fundraising with CauseVox as part of their year-end fundraising plan. The team at WBR knows that by promoting the campaign early to supporters, they’ll be able to get in front of many prospective donors over the course of the campaign.

Below, you’ll find some peer-to-peer fundraising suggestions that we think will benefit your cause.

• Engage Your Donors With Personal Fundraising: We’ve seen thousands of donors become better connected with an organization once they’ve taken the leap to become personal fundraisers. Think of it as a built-in donor engagement tool for your nonprofit!
• Promote Gifts as Donations: Ask personal fundraisers to swap out presents for donations this holiday season. After setting up a personal fundraising page, fundraisers can easily share their site with friends and family.
• Create A Strong Toolkit: We provide most of the tools you and your personal fundraisers will need to run a successful fundraiser. However, it’s always best to work with our team to develop a Personal Fundraiser Toolkit that answers any questions your supporters may have.

Start planning your year-end peer-to-peer fundraising campaign by checking out the features that may benefit your cause.

4) Special Event/Challenge Appeals

What better way to connect donors to your cause than with a challenge or cause-related special event? When you run a holiday or year-end event using CauseVox, you’ll be motivating your audience to not just donate, but to act!

Children of Vietnam hosted a great special event fundraiser that is definitely worth talking about. Aside from using CauseVox to power their fundraiser, the nonprofit requested that all donors live off of $2 per day (the average budget of a child living in poverty in Vietnam). This extra level of engagement really got the attention of donors and helped strengthen their campaign.

Holiday-themed special events can range from campaigns asking for donations in lieu of gifts to a “Santa-esque” beard-growing challenge.

After brainstorming event/challenge ideas, set a goal and begin working with CauseVox to put your website together. We can help you:

• Set up team fundraising pages and providing support for an unlimited number personal fundraising pages
• Create a personal fundraiser toolkit
• Customize fundraiser registration forms

Special event/challenge fundraising is the perfect way to put the “fun” in your year-end fundraising. For more information, check out our Peer-To-Peer Fundraising Primer.

5) December/Last-Minute Fundraising

For the average nonprofit, 30% of annual donations come in during December, so it just makes sense to focus a majority of your attention to fundraising efforts in the last month of the year.

If you’re looking to run a last-minute fundraising campaign to reach donors looking to give before December 31st, then consider using crowdfunding.

Here are a few ideas to build on for your December fundraising drive:

• Urgency: Encourage donors to get their gifts in by year-end for tax reasons using urgent messaging and a strong call to action. Better yet, start donation requests slowly at the beginning of the month and ramp up by New Year’s Eve.
• Personalized Requests: Send personalized emails and messages to current and lapsed donors about your last-minute fundraising campaign.
• December-Themed Campaign: Run a 31 Days Of Giving Campaign, encouraging donors (and personal fundraisers) to ask a different friend or family member to give every day of the month.

When you use CauseVox to drive your last-minute fundraising campaign, we make it easy for you to:

• Customize your campaign website and personal fundraising pages
• Track campaign progress with staff and donors
• Communicate deadlines to donors using a countdown timer
• Connect your campaign to your social media and email audiences
• Gather donations from donors using mobile devices using our mobile-optimized interface

December is the perfect month to really push for those year-end donations. You can find more ideas and best practices regarding year-end giving in our 60-Day Year-End Fundraising Planning Guide + Checklist.

2017 will be here before we know it and we believe we can help you elevate your year-end fundraising to the next level.

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Our CauseVox team wants to help you raise money, expand your reach to new donors, and make sure that people see the good you’re doing in the world.

If you’re ready to power your year-end fundraising, start by requesting a 1-on-1 demo.
We look forward to working with you this fall!