Guide: Campaign Promotion Best Practices

Online and Offline tools to promote your Livingtree campaign

Jalaj Mani avatar
Written by Jalaj Mani
Updated over a week ago

After you have successfully created and published your Livingtree Give campaign, the next step is to effectively get the word out to let potential donors know about it! If you are a novice at fundraising or a seasoned pro, this guide provides some best practices to promote your online campaign.

For the best chance to receive the most donations for your campaign, it is crucial that you:

  • Immediately begin performing different campaign promotional activities once the campaign is published to the public.

  • Perform campaign promotional activities on a consistent, scheduled basis throughout the duration of your campaign.

In our experience, we suggest doing both "online” and “offline" activities to help promote your campaign. The following are some tried and true online and offline activities that we have found to be effective:

ONLINE – Utilize your Livingtree Give account tools to help promote your campaign

  • Contacts Tool: Load contact information into the system that you have for anyone and everyone that you know. After loading your contacts, you will be able to use other features in your Livingtree Give account to communicate with potential donors. Click here to learn how.

  • Promote/Email Tool: This is a good option if you do not have a subscription to the more robust Communications Tool. This is a “lite” text format mass-email tool that allows you to send quick and simple mass emails about your campaign to contacts. Click here to learn how.

  • Social Media Sharing: Sharing your campaign via social media is a quick and easy way to get the word out about your campaign. Here are two ways to promote campaigns on social media using your Livingtree Give account. During the creation of your campaign, share your campaign with your friends, followers, and connections via social media. Click here to learn how.

  • Create Leaderboard: Creating competition around your campaign is a great way to energize others about your campaign and keep the “buzz” going! This ultimately leads to more funds being raised. Click here to learn how.

OFFLINE – Go grassroots with traditional methods of campaign promotion

  • Distribute Printed Flyers: Let parents and family know about campaigns by sending flyers home with students. The flyers can be printed from your account itself. Tip: Get your students involved by having them help you create the flyers - They will be excited to bring them home!

  • Word of Mouth: This is the easiest way to get the word out about your campaign. Become a "walkie-talkie” and talk to everyone you know and meet about your campaign. Using the URL from the "Copy Link" section on your campaign, print out “half-page flyers” with the name of your campaign, as well as its URL, and hand them out to everyone! Mobilize your ground team - friends, family, work colleagues, etc so you reach everyone they know too!

  • Make Announcements: If you can, make an announcement (or several) about your campaign over your school's public announcement (PA) system, at school or local events, meetings, etc. Think of creative ways to engage students like performing a "skit" or recording a “commercial” about your campaign. Be sure to mention your campaign’s URL!

  • Put up Posters: Notify staff, parents, and school visitors about your campaign by placing posters around the campus: in the front office, cafeteria, or gym (particularly if any public meetings will be held there), etc. Keep your campaign in front of potential donors…Remember, out of sight – out of mind!

  • Contests – Schools could hold contests amongst grades, classes, etc. with prizes for winners (IE - most funds raised) that could include parties, gifts, field trips, a day of wearing crazy costumes, and more. Have fun with it!

Second, be strategic with your activity by following a Campaign Promotions Timeline or Calendar – Now that you know what effective promotional activities are out there, execute them like clockwork by setting up and following a Campaign Promotions Timeline or Calendar. This can be as simple as writing out a plan (IE - campaign promotional activities, and the timeframes or dates) on a piece of paper. Or, it can be a more formal calendar in electronic/automated form, such as setting up events with reminders in your online calendaring tool (IE - Google Calendar, MS Calendar, etc.).

Here’s an example of a 4-week Campaign Promotions Timeline:

Week 1:

  • Load contacts into the Contacts Tool

  • Draft and send “Week 1” mass email via Communications Tool

  • Share the campaign via my social media feeds

  • Post campaign posters within your school

  • Print and send campaign flyers home with students. Hand out flyers at any events

  • Announce campaign on school PA system (if available)

  • Setup fundraising contest for students

Week 2:

  • Send a follow-up “Week 2” mass-email reminder

  • Post campaign flyers at local businesses. Hand out flyers at events.

  • Notify students of current contest standings

  • Post a campaign update to past donors, including how much was raised and the time until the campaign ends

Week 3:

  • Send a follow-up “Week 3” mass-email reminder

  • Send follow-up “reminder’ flyers home with students. Hand out flyers at any events.

  • Post-follow-up “reminder” shared via my social media feeds

  • Announce campaign reminder on the school PA system (if available)

  • Notify students of current contest standings

Week 4:

  • Send a follow-up “Week 4” mass-email reminder

  • Send follow-up “reminder’ flyers home with students. Hand out flyers at events

  • Post a campaign update to past donors, including how much was raised and the time until the campaign ends

  • Post-follow-up “reminder” shared via my social media feeds

  • Notify students of current contest standings

Coming out of the gates quickly and letting everyone know about your campaign with activity once it has been published is crucial to your campaign’s success! Further, executing your activity effectively by following a pre-planned set schedule, puts your campaign in front of the most potential donor, for the most amount of time. This gives your campaign the best chance to raise the most funds, ideally ending in its goal being met, and better yet, EXCEEDED!

Need help? Contact our support team at support@livingtree.com.

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