For organizations looking to raise money by the end of this calendar year, the heat is on. In any election year, driving donations is tough, but this year it is especially difficult with so much of the news cycle dedicated to the presidential race and the impact that is having down the ticket in local elections. With so much to compete with for people’s time and attention, it makes it even more important that nonprofits carefully structure giving campaigns. Utilizing themes in your outreach is one way that can help your ask stand out to your supporters.
Fundraising is an act of activating your organization’s branding and demonstrating the impact it is making. By digging into the specifics of what makes your organization unique through its positioning, personality and promise you reinforce the brand identity. Successful fundraising campaigns pair this with specific measurable outcomes that make it clear for the donor to see how their contribution will make an impact. Uniting these two ideas through the use of a theme can be highly effective for a number of reasons.
Themes Create a Sense of Unity and Purpose:
A theme can help to unify your fundraising campaign and give it a sense of purpose. It can also help to create a sense of community among your donors and supporters.
Themes Make Your Campaign More Memorable:
A well-chosen theme can help to make your campaign more memorable and stand out from the crowd. This can be especially important if you are competing with other organizations for donations.
Themes Can Help You Raise More Money:
A compelling theme can help to inspire donors to give more money. This is because it can make them feel like they are part of something bigger than themselves and that their donation can make a real difference.
Some examples to consider:
Vashon Center for the Arts- Wiggly Feet
At Vashon Center for the Arts the first end of year giving campaign to feature a theme focused on the theme of wiggly feet. This came from an interview with one of the young students who had been taking dance lessons at the center. He shared that his “wiggly feet” had gotten him in trouble at school, but when he was in dance class at the Center he was encouraged to move those feet and found joy and acceptance through dance. The campaign wove this story throughout all the communications efforts.
Charity:water - Nothing is Crazy
The 2015 annual theme for charity:water’s September campaign was Nothing is Crazy. The theme was very effective because it had two meanings. First, it referred to the idea that doing nothing to help provide clean water around the world was “crazy” and additionally, it inspired people to get creative in their fundraising.
Where to look for themes and how to develop them
So now that you are convinced that a theme would be helpful for your upcoming campaign the best place to start developing ideas is with your staff. Hold a brainstorming meeting to get different perspectives about what themes might resonant internally. As the most important champions of your organization, staff members need to be bought into the concept early on. After getting staff input, pick one or two themes to develop. Consider seeing what stories you can tell based on those themes and create some rough branding concepts. Then, go back and test those themes with a different set of staff members. You could also consider testing with board members or major donors as part of both a soft launch and relationship building experience.
When using a participatory process such as the one outlined above, it is critical that you give yourself enough time. Starting anywhere from six to nine months before your campaign launches will give you the opportunity to consistently work on development while also balancing the other projects and tasks on your plate.
Have you created a themed fundraising campaign before? If so, what worked best? I’d love to hear your story.
Comments