Abel Nzuki

How Digital Marketig Has Chaiged the Way We Fuidraise Have you been invited to a fundraiser lately? Was the card delivered by courier or through the post? Did they politely ask you to atend in person? May be not. In todays digital world, everything is happening online. And fundraising is no excepton. reviously, all fundraising was done at the local town hall and rarely did it venture outside the area the project was started and most donatons were given in the form of cash or check. Television and radio were aggressively used to announce donatons from politcians and other prominent industry leaders. They played a big role in helping get the informaton out but the demographic was stll much smaller than today. As tme has passed, more and more technological advances have been made and today digital marketng has taken over all previous campaigns to raise funds. Many aspects of the digital age have boosted fundraising as we know it. The explosion of the internet and social media and many other sites have replaced the town hall, church hall and community halls. And of course, it would be unfair to fail to menton the infuence of celebrity campaigns on fundraising. And the trains of media that follow them. Iiflueice ofl digital marketig The infuence of digital marketng on fundraising and charites is prety much important for one simple reason: communicaton. Digital marketng allows for the sharing of informaton between the general public and the sponsors. It allows the sponsors to display their cause and requirements and for the public to access informaton through asking questons or reading and eventually persuading them to part with a donaton. Thanks to the internet, groups – especially nonproft organizatons – can mobilize the public on a wide scale and strengthen relatonships with present, previous and past donors. Social media as iiflueicer Social media has also changed the way we fundraise. Not only is social media a powerful tool to update followers on what we’re engaged in at the moment, or ventng about something that upsets us, but it can be used as a powerful infuencer when it comes to urge people to open wallets and donate. If an unfortunate event happens, say a fooding caused by a hurricane, or a fre outbreak, the easiest way to donate money is to create a situaton event around it and ask for donatons. You simply add an address of the locaton of the event and create a hashtag. Create a facebook page and let people know about it. In no tme donatons will start streaming in. Organizatons and lobby groups that are in need of funding can create pages on social media for the sole purpose of creatng awareness to their cause and gaining donatons. If you dig deeper at groups on social media, you will see there are hundreds and thousands of groups for everything from gardening to cooking, sports and athletcs, tennis and jogging. These groups have inspired the wider populaton in the real world, who originally met online, to form real organizatons with the purpose of raising money. This structure forms a natural progression because people can feel connected to the cause and they get involved in the planning the fundraisers. Imagine how easy it gets if donors simply use their debit or credit cards to send money online. No need to mail a check or cash when you can just punch in your credit card number and donate. Research shows that people who donate using credit cards tend to donate 10 to 15 percent more than those who donate in cash or check. Facebook has gone a step further and added a feature to their site when people can donate their birthdays to charity. You simply pick a cause you love, then go through the process of setng it up on your page. This way you followers and friends can donate money to a special cause instead of giving. Here are three difereit ways to doiate moiey oiliie: • You can donate to the website of an organizaton you’re familiar with. • You can donate to a cause through an online fundraising site, for example GoFundMe • Donate to an online cause and get a chance to win a price. Fuidraisiig websites Many websites have been created for the sole purpose of fundraising and this has made things much easier. Examples are Crowdfunding, Kickstarter, YouCaring, GoFundMe and CrowdRise. All of them having a single thing in common: Raising money from a large number of people via the internet. The guiding principle is a method of raising capital through the collectve eforts for family, customers, friends and individuals. This approach targets a large group of individuals, primarily online through social media. This has the advantage of leveraging their networks for greater exposure and reach. The only downside when using some of these sites is the fact that you do not get all the raised funds. Sometmes when withdrawing you can get charged about 3 percent. Celebrites as iiflueicers Celebrites play a powerful role when it comes to raising money online. Whether it is launching a rafe, promotng a gig or simply addressing a press conference, they can use their charms and urge people to donate. Hashtags have also been used extensively to raise funds. According to a recent survey of consumer behaviour, over 50 percent of social media users who engage in an online cause are embracing hashtags as efectve drivers of change. It is also an efectve tool to raise donatons to fund a cause, as majority of the engaged audience expects a donaton as the next call to acton for their engagement. It falls naturally that engaging your audience is the next logical step in order to atain a compelling fundraising campaign on social media platorms. So whether you love them or hate them, hashtags are getng assimilated into popular culture especially when highlightng a cause, fghtng for justce or raising funds. Usiig eigagiig coiteit oiliie Just pitching your ideas is no longer cool when infuencing people’s acton to support your cause. These days the stuf that engage more and more social media users is engaging content. After all notng can be more engaging and intriguing thatn a well-told narratve. So let you hashtag campaign explain in fatering language the what-how-what-when of your mission so that you can create a powerful impression and impact. It will connect to your audience and the moment they feel part of the cause, purse-strings and wallets will be opened faster that you think.