Donors and potential donors are everywhere, and getting your message in front of as many people as possible is part of running a fundraising campaign. But how do you reach those donors on the multiple platforms they use without running yourself into the ground?

In this article, you’ll learn how to run a multi-channel fundraising campaign as efficiently as possible. Let’s go!

First tip: be selective about what channels you use

Have you had a board member bring up fundraising on Snapchat? Are you wondering if you should start a TikTok like the nonprofit down the street? Do you ever worry that you’re missing out on donations because you haven’t updated Twitter in a while?

Don’t worry! You don’t need to be on every channel out there.

Let me repeat that: you don’t need to be on every channel out there!

You have two goals for your multi-channel fundraising campaign. The first goal is to raise money and, hopefully, recruit more donors. The second goal is to do that without stressing yourself out too much. You need to get your message in front of as many people as possible without spreading yourself too thin. You can do that by choosing to share your messaging on the channels you know are popular with your donor base and skipping the channels that will get little or no traction.

As you choose which channels you’ll use for your campaign, ask yourself:

• Where do you get the most engagement from your donors?
• What channels have been successful in the past?
• Have you used any channels in the past that did not work for you? Can you replace them or remove them from your plan?

What does this look like?

Lakeland Food Pantry is getting ready for their year-end fundraising campaign. Their small development team knows the majority of their donations come from direct mail and email appeals, so they’ll prioritize those channels. They know Facebook and Instagram have historically been a great source of engagement with their supporters, so they’re going to post regularly there, too. Twitter hasn’t been a big source of donations or interactions for them in the past, so they decide to pull back to posting once a week or so instead of launching a full-blown Twitter campaign.

Second tip: focus on creating content that you can use on multiple channels

If there’s ever a time to embrace the phrase “work smarter, not harder,” it’s when you’re planning a multi-channel fundraising campaign. The best thing you can do for yourself is to plan content that you can use (and reuse!) multiple times on multiple channels. So what does that look like?

Plan and take photos you can use throughout your campaign

Photos are powerful assets on every single channel out there. Direct mail appeals are most effective when reinforced with photos. Email appeals? Photos! Social media posts? Photos! 

After you choose your campaign’s theme, messaging, and story, take some time to either gather existing photos that you can use or schedule time to take supporting photos. Once you’ve got them, here’s an important step that will save you a ton of time later on: name all of your photos with brief descriptors and put them in a single folder that’s accessible to everyone who might need to use them. Nothing will slow you down on a busy day like looking for the right photo in a file folder full of images with names like “DCSLR-0020915.”

Blog articles are going to be your best friend

Okay, I hear you: blog articles take a long time to write. Way longer than a simple Facebook status or even an email update, but blog articles are some of the most versatile assets you can create - and you can get a ton of mileage out of them.

Once you’ve got a blog article, there are a zillion different ways to use them. This article (and all the other ones you create) are meant to help you raise money, so be sure it’s easy for donors to get to your donation form from the article itself. Include a donate button at the top and bottom of your article, then start spreading it around. Try:

• Using quotes, statistics, and excerpts from your article in social media posts, then linking readers to the full article.
• Including a summary or teaser for your article in your newsletter, then linking to the original article for readers who want more information.
• Creating an image or infographic that summarizes the key takeaways from your article, then pointing people to the full article if they want to learn more.
• 
  

Blog articles take more work than jotting down a Facebook status, but they’re so useful!

Plan and record video

There’s a time and a place for live streaming video, and I’m not saying you shouldn’t use them. What I am saying is that having some pre-recorded videos is going to be a good move for you.

Now, before you panic: your videos do not need to be highly produced or professional quality. If you want to go all out and hire a video production company to create a campaign video, go for it! But technology is amazing, and you can use your phone and free (or nearly free) software to create a video to support your fundraiser. 

Once you create a video, you can use it in tons of different ways. Include it in your newsletters, use it to reinforce appeals, send it to new donors as part of a welcome email series—the possibilities are nearly endless.

Create case studies and collect testimonials from clients and supporters

In Qgiv’s 2020 research report, donors said that they’re highly motivated by knowing their donations are used wisely, understanding that their gifts made an impact on real-life people, and seeing positive testimonials from friends and family. When you create and share case studies, testimonials, and stories from your supporters and the people you help, you’re showing your supporters exactly what they want to see.

What does this look like?

Lakeland Food Bank creates a case study that highlights a local mom who relied on their services while she was between jobs. They publish the case study on their website, and they want to get the most possible mileage from this resource! Once it’s live, the Food Bank uses it a few different ways:

• They include quotes from the case study in both their direct mail and email appeals.
• Quotes and pictures from the case study appear regularly on their Facebook and Instagram feeds.
• While they’re interviewing their client, they film some of her responses; that video is shared on all of their digital channels.

With a little creativity, Lakeland Food Bank can share their video in lots of different ways to reach individual groups of donors.

Third tip: embrace the art of the repost

Did you know that the average post by a Facebook Page only reaches ~5.5% of people who “like” that Page? If 10,000 people like your nonprofit’s Facebook Page, around 550 people will see that post (unless you pay to boost or promote it). This may seem discouraging at first—you want people to see what you have to say!—but there’s a silver lining: if only 5.5% of your fans see your posts at any point, there’s some room for creative reposting.

You don’t have to retire an asset—a photo, an article, an appeal—after using it once. Chances are good that almost 95% of your fan base didn’t see it the first time you shared it, which means you can share it again without worrying about being repetitive.

We’re going to focus specifically on social media channels in this section, but keep in mind that some of these strategies may also work for channels like email and direct mail. Get creative!

If you have a post that performed really well with your audience, take a few minutes to evaluate it. What kind of content did you share? How did you present that content? Did you take a playful, conversational tone, or did you speak with urgency or authority? Did you highlight a client story or an important appeal? Understanding common trends, themes, and elements in your popular posts will help you create posts in the future!

Feel free to re-post and re-share your popular content. You can either share the post exactly as it was the first time you shared it, or you can tweak it a little to make it less repetitive. Post a new quote or statistic from a case study, draw attention to a video you’ve shared before—get creative! Once you’ve reshared your post, asset, or resource a few times and engagement starts to drop off, retire it for a little while. You may be able to use it again in the future!

“Unpopular” posts—posts that didn’t reach a large audience or inspire much engagement—can be re-shared, too. If you created a post you’re really proud of but didn’t get much traction, try sharing it again at a different time or different day of the week. If that doesn’t work, try looking back at the recurring themes and elements you identified in your popular posts. Which of those elements can you apply to this post? Can you adjust your post to be more story-driven, conversational, etc.? Try adjusting your approach, then re-sharing that content.

What does this look like?

The case study Lakeland Food Pantry created performs really well on Facebook; there’s a ton of engagement the first time they post it, and several people clicked through to make a donation after reading the study.



Because they know it’s compelling to their growing audience, Lakeland Food Pantry posts a different quote from the case study once a month or so. Since they know it’s inspired some donations, the team pays to promote one of their appeals that includes quotes from the case study. They also use quotes from the case study to reinforce appeals that they send via direct mail and email, and they’ll make sure to include elements from the case study in the appeals they make at their upcoming event. A snippet from the case study also appears in their newsletter, and readers can click through to read the full case study if the snippet catches their attention.

Don’t get us wrong: running a multi-channel fundraising campaign is a lot of work. But it’s possible, especially if you spend some time planning the different phases of your campaign.

Choose a handful of channels you know are popular with your donors. Forget trying to maintain an active presence on every social media channel available; go where you know your donors will be. If a new platform will not move you decisively toward your goal, you don’t need to spend your time there. Then, plan content that can be shared on multiple platforms. Instead of writing a long-form Facebook status, write a blog article and share it on multiple channels. Instead of using Facebook Live every time you want to share a client story or testimonial, film one yourself and share it multiple places. If something you share performs well, that’s wonderful! Adjust and reshare it periodically so more of your audience has the opportunity to see it. If a post doesn’t get the traction you wanted, don’t discard it! Adjust it, re-post it, and see if its performance improves.

Are you looking for more information on creating and promoting a fundraising campaign? You’re in luck! Check out this article for tips on putting together a top-notch giving campaign. 

Get FREE advice for your next multi-channel

fundraising campaign on January 19, 2022 @ 2pm EST.

About the Author

Abby Jarvis

Abby Jarvis is the Nonprofit Education Manager at Qgiv, a company providing online fundraising solutions that empower nonprofits to thrive and grow. In her 8 years at Qgiv, Abby has become passionate about understanding industry best practices, learning how to help nonprofits be more effective, and sharing that information with fundraisers. When she’s not working at Qgiv, Abby can usually be found digging around in her garden, hiking around nature preserves and parks, or visiting local breweries with her husband.