Emergency appeals
Raising a lot of money very quickly
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Today’s article
Last month, we had an email from a Nest Egg reader which included the following:
“We are a Community Benefit Society with 900 members.
We run a community hub providing local support, the post office, micro-library, access to computers, work units for local enterprises, a low-cost food larder, events, a café / rentable space and 5 affordable homes for local people. We’re held together by 4 part time members of staff, 30 volunteers, and a lot of love!
We are struggling financially and without an urgent injection of money, we will go into the red in the next few months. This is due to a combination of costly-to-maintain buildings, increased interest rates on our mortgages, increased costs, increased demand for services, reduced staff capacity and reduced grant income. We need breathing space to focus on reshaping how we operate and to then take action accordingly.
We want to raise £60,000 within 4 months to enable us to keep afloat until March 2024 and will do this via an appeal to our members, press and PR and a crowdfunder.”
Not an uncommon situation and I’m sure many of you can relate, to varying degrees.
We aren’t experts in public fundraising, digital mobilisation or in running short term campaigns. We’ve done our best to make some suggestions for our reader, but reckon that many of you will be better placed to offer your ideas.
Emergency appeals
Raising a lot of money very quickly
by Caroline Danks
Picture description: a small toy Ambulance
Thoughts on emergency appeals and how to help our reader.
Members first
The organisation says they have 900 members and a shortfall of £60,000.
This is £66 per member.
Very simply, they could ask for £66 from each.
A postal appeal combined with email follow up (and some well-timed PR / social media ads) is probably the best approach. You’ll likely need multiple touchpoints in order to motivate people sufficiently to take action.
Explain that all amounts are welcome, that £66 is a guide and that people should only commit an amount that is manageable for them.
£66 is quite a lot for most people and it would be wrong to alienate / exclude anyone, however transparency around the exact amount needed will help to build trust and is a nice antidote to those. fake-urgency appeals (only TWO DAYS left to raise £40 million and save the elephants - yeah yeah…)
Make it easy
Decide in advance how you’ll gather donations – maybe a Justgiving page or donation functionality on website?
Keep it simple and consistent so that when people see your calls to action, they know exactly what they need to do.
Multiple donations options are probably not practical for a very small organisation with a limited budget so pick just one.
Have a campaign email address and invite people to submit questions via this single point.
Think about how you’ll process offers of cash / cheques and prep some wording in advance for people who ask about making a bank transfer.
Segmentation for the win
There will be individuals within your base of 900 members who either have capacity to give significantly over £66 and / or are especially passionate about the cause.
Maybe they’re also volunteers?
Before launching your campaign with all members, approach as many people as you can for one-on-one conversations - focus on those whom you believe might have a greater level of capacity / interest.
Ask them to give their thoughts on your appeal.
Be honest with them about the need for an urgent cash injection, the tactics you plan to use to raise the money, what you’ll do with it and your ideas for shoring up the future of the organisation so that emergency appeals become a thing of the past.
If the conversation goes well and the individuals are receptive, ask them to consider a gift which is over and above the £66, if it feels possible for them right now.
Additionally, ask them to introduce you to their friends and neighbours – or see if they’ll speak to other local supporters on your behalf.
Seek advice around crowdfunding
Crowdfunding is a complex beast and requires some special conditions (different to a regular fundraising campaign) to achieve success. To the best of our knowledge, these include:
A compelling, time-sensitive ask – urgency is everything
A large and engaged audience who are willing to share your content with people who will take action
Engaging content (video is key)
Rewards to entice pledges
Plan B – what if you don’t raise the money?
Be aware that there are software costs and that there will be a fee deducted from the final amount raised – are supporters aware of this?
Is there a way to encourage giving which means that more of the money raised stays with the cause?
We’re not saying that crowdfunding isn’t a great option but make sure you get advice from someone who has done it before if this expertise doesn’t already exist in your team.
If you have the knowledge and the necessary components, then go for it!
Long term thinking
However justified and unavoidable, an emergency should be a rarity.
Supporters will need to be convinced that there won’t be another appeal coming at them 12 months from now.
We appreciate that this feels a little unfair.
Circumstances have conspired against you and a difficult external environment has compounded, leaving you in a very tricky situation. This is the reality for many, especially smaller organisations who don’t have the brand awareness, resources and expertise which they can immediately call upon when shit gets real.
Whilst its important to be honest about the things which got you here, be visionary in describing the way in which you would like to run things in the future.
Invite supporters to play their part.
Are you planning to shift your business model (ask for advice on how to do this)?
Do you need more stability in your funding (ask people to set up a recurring gift for a period of 12 months, or longer)?
Would you like to build your reserves (invite supporters to make an additional, unrestricted gift so that their support extends beyond the life of the campaign)?
Could you create another income generating activity (ask if anyone would consider seed funding or a low interest loan)?
Balancing short term needs with long term vision is one of many realities when running an organisation which helps people and is focused on impact over profit.
Making space to dream big and envision a better world is essential, but feels luxurious when you have no choice but to concern yourself with keeping the lights on.
In solidarity. We’re cheering you on!