Fundraising Page Tip: Interview with Jerry Lee

I’ve worked with Jerry for a long time at endPoverty as well as Synergy Ministries. Most recently, he helped Unique Learning Center (ULC) launch an online fundraising campaign. Jerry also took the extra effort to create his own fundraising page and has raised over $1000 for ULC. Here are his fundraising tips and techniques.

Tell us a little bit about who you are.
I’m a California Bay area native now living and working in the Washington D.C. metro area. I worked as an IT consultant and marketing strategist prior to joining endPoverty.org, a international microfinance non-profit, as its Director of Marketing in 2008. My current top interests include rock climbing, Hawaiian food and travel. I just returned from my very first trip to China and I can’t wait to go back!

Why did you decide to fundraise for ULC?
When I first moved to DC, I was looking for a way to get involved with the local community. A good friend told me about Unique Learning Center (ULC), how this small program was making a huge impact and positively influencing the life trajectories of scores of inner city kids. I jumped in and have had the privilege and challenge of tutoring one student, a boisterous 4th grader named Demetrius, for the past three years and counting. When I heard that ULC’s wonderful summer program was in jeopardy, I thought that an engaging and creative fundraising platform like CauseVox was just what we needed to raise some critical support for the Center.

What methods are you using to get people to come to your page?
While Facebook and Twitter have been great in building awareness and recognition for the overall fundraising effort, I’ve found that there is no substitute for personal and individualized emails and appeals to friends and family. This can be a bit more time consuming than composing a short tweet or shooting off a form email with a hundred BCCs, but it seems to result in much higher engagement with the cause and a greater likelihood of donations. I also used a personal match to further “sweeten the deal” and increase the impact for prospective supporters.

What has been the most difficult part of fundraising?
From a campaign organization perspective, it was tough to get enough people signed up as Advocates in order to hit our aggressive fundraising goal. It took a lot of emails and reminders to get all of our potential advocates to put up their own pages and then really promote those pages with their networks. A good campaign “coach” who is an active and persistent communicator is a valuable and necessary asset.

Any tips you’d like to share with other fundraisers?
Don’t be afraid to ask. People like to give to meaningful causes that their friends or family vouch for and/or are personally involved with. I was really encouraged by the positive notes and thank you’s that donors left on our page.