Last year, the ALS Association (ALSA) seemed to strike gold with its Ice Bucket Challenge campaign. The campaign saw tremendous media coverage as it went viral on Facebook feeds around the world.
And, despite concerns to the contrary, the campaign was a financial success. The national chapter of ALSA received more than $100 million with regional branches seeing an additional $13 million.
If it wasn’t already clear, The Ice Bucket Challenge illustrated that we have entered a new era of fundraising. In this new era, we need to be creative and clever. Thanks to social media, streaming video, and the democratization of content, we have so many more options when it comes to creating an online fundraising campaign that goes beyond website donate buttons and regular email blasts.
The opportunities to see tremendous fundraising success in the online space are endless.
To get your creativity flowing, we’ve rounded up 5 ideas that put the fun back in fundraising based on real-world examples of organizations garnering incredible attention (and, in many cases, huge dollar amounts).
Last summer, many compared the Ice Bucket Challenge to a gigantic, virtual chain letter.
In case you need a little refresh: the Ice Bucket Challenge took place in the summer of 2014 on social media, largely on Facebook. Each participant was challenged by a friend to dump a bucket of ice on his or her head and then challenge more friends to do the same or donate to ALSA (many donated anyway).
The awareness that the campaign generated was staggering. Search traffic for ALS increased by more than 100% during the campaign. And, as we mentioned, the success of the campaign in terms of funds raised was equally huge.
So how can you make this idea work for you?
Just because the Ice Bucket Challenge has been done, doesn’t mean you can’t take inspiration from the idea and learn from its challenges. Here are a few takeaways from the Ice Bucket Challenge that you can put to work for you:
Every August, thousands of people in more than 100 countries participate in Gishwhes (which stands for Greatest International Scavenger Hunt the World Has Ever Seen). They build or join teams and accomplish tasks on a very intense and very large scavenger hunt list. Friends reach out to friends for help and people break world records. Everyone gives a little something back along the way and every year the word spreads farther.
Thanks to platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and now Periscope and Meerkat, scavenger hunts are not restricted to one, physical space.
Interested in how a scavenger hunt might help you but missing the fundraising connection? Here are a few hints:
The online quiz dates back to the days of dial up. And, if you’ve spent more than a minute perusing Buzzfeed, you know that it hasn’t gone anywhere. People love to pass a little spare time answering a series of questions and then posting their results for friends to see.
And this can work to your fundraising advantage.
Here’s how:
Want to see a great 1-question-a-day format? Check out 10Q.
In 2013, Water is Life took note of the increasingly popular #firstworldproblems. Once growing conversation on Twitter about the mundane struggles of life, Water is Life turned #firstworldproblems into a conversation about it’s own mission, it’s work, and the people it helps. It created a movement by jumping into a current conversation on an existing and well-established platform.
So how do you hijack a hashtag? There’s no one right or wrong way but here are a few tips:
This September, CharityWater ran the #nothingiscrazy campaign. Challenging people to do something crazy to raise money for it’s cause (clean water, worldwide), the organization ran the campaign with a simple hashtag, quick video, and the power of its supporters to act and share.
Sometimes simple is all it takes to get attention and create movement online.
What are your big online fundraising ideas?
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