let's crush your fundraising goal!
These are best practices WE've found to be helpful regardless of how you are fundraising:
1. START & CUSTOMIZE YOUR PAGE
If you have not started your fundraiser yet, pick a campaign and start your page here.
Make your campaign feel like you! Hit the Manage button in the upper-right hand corner of your page. Then select the Details tab to add a profile picture of yourself and write a welcoming headline.
The rest of your page already includes a moving video and information about where the money you are raising goes. We encourage you to go to the Story tab and add a couple sentences at the top about why you’re fundraising, just be sure to keep the video and rest of the information if you do.
A profile photo and welcoming headline are critical to a successful fundraising page. Donors have told us that seeing their friend’s face and reading their words is a major reason why they gave. They want to support our Missionary Care Gathering (MCG), but they also want to support you!
2. GET READY TO HAVE SOME FUN!
Personalizing your fundraising campaign to your interests will make your experience more engaging for you and your donors! Here are some ideas to get you started:
Create fun social media donation rewards (e.g. If you give $50, I’ll share who I think your celebrity doppelgänger is on Instagram Stories.)
Set a halfway milestone goal for your donors to unlock a special event (e.g. If you help me get halfway to my goal, I’ll do the ice bucket challenge!)
Set a full milestone goal for your donors to unlock a special event (e.g. If you help me reach my $1,000 goal, I’ll go for a run in a pink bunny suit and share it online!)
Consider a matching campaign (e.g. I will personally match up to $250 of what’s given to this campaign!)
3. GET ORGANIZED & START FUNDRAISING
Download and print our Fundraising Organizer Sheet and write down some close friends and family members who you think will donate. Then send them the link to your page and ask them to give!
The people you are closest to are most likely to donate. You’ll be able to keep up with them over the next few weeks using this sheet. Supporters who use this tool usually reach their goal faster than those who do not.
4. SOCIAL MEDIA & PERSONAL INVITATIONS
After you have secured a few donations, share a link to your page on social media with a heartfelt message asking for gifts. Tag and thank people who give in the comments of your post. This expresses your gratitude and encourages others to give!
If you need a photo to share on Instagram, click here to download social media photos from last year’s MCG. Use your favorite one or use several over time as you make progress on your campaign. If you want to get a bit more creative, download A Jesus Mission‘s Visual Guide and official logos to help you!
Friends and family will still be the most likely people to give. They will usually make the largest donations, too. As you share on social media, don’t forget to keep tracking individual people who you have asked directly to give. Grab another Fundraising Organizer Sheet to make even more direct asks and reach your goal faster!
Friends you personally ask are 5x more likely to give than those who see your posts on social media. Make your asks as personal possible! 🙂
5. AFTER YOU REACH YOUR GOAL...
Congrats on hitting your goal! We’ll send the funds you raised to our designated MCG account immediately. If you want to keep going, here are a few ways to stay involved:
Raise Your Goal. Some people will hold back on giving when they see you’ve reached your goal. Login to your page and raise it by 25% to encourage more donations.
Start A Team. Ask a few friends to start their own pages! This is an especially good option for friends and family who wanted to donate, but may not have been in a position to give.
Join The Gospel Initiative. This is our passionate family of monthly givers who never stop fighting for how we care and send missionaries across the world to equip the found and find the lost. Learn more and join here.
FRIENDS, THANK YOU!
Thank you so much for fundraising for our Missionary Care Gathering. Our missionaries really are our biggest heroes. Because of their sacrificial living, we are daily inspired to provide the tools and resources to keep them in the field. Our friends around the world could not do the work they do without your generosity towards this years Missionary Care Gathering.
Grateful for you,
Pierce Westfall, President of AJM
HAVE QUESTIONS?
We’re here to help! Shoot us a quick message and one of our team will be in touch with you soon.