Watch me raise $3k for Tender
For the past 3 years, I have been a raving fan of the work Jaycina and her volunteer team are doing at Tender to support single mothers with financial gap assistance.
Have you ever needed to call on a grandparent to watch your kid, asked a mom friend to carpool your child to camp or maybe even needed to eat home 7 nights of the week so that you could use the money you saved to buy something extra? That is what Tender is for mamas who don’t have the social or economic support that they deserve.
For the third year in a row, I am proudly peer-fundraising for this organization to raise $75k - their largest campaign goal yet. Reaching this goal will increasing their monthly financial gap assistance from $6k per month to $10k per month - effectively increasing the impact by 40%. Think about that 40% more mamas served.
My personal goal is to raise $3k which will provide three mamas with rent and groceries for the month of September. Three is my lucky number and I know it can be done!
Because I want everything to be a learning experience with real-life examples, I want to show you exactly what I’ve done so far and will continue to do to reach my $3k goal.
This blog post is a timeline of what I do for my clients as well as what I teach my students in Campaigns that Convert, my one-time a year group coaching program which becomes available August 30th to anyone who wants to raise more money faster this giving season (JOIN THE WAITLIST HERE).
Ready to watch a pro meet her fundraising goal by Monday?
90 days ago:
If you’ve been in my world for a while, you know that I practice something called The Wave Method which is essentially a lead up phase before a campaign kicks off that informs, educates and inspires your audience before you ask them for money.
It’s loosely based on a Japanese business principal called, Nemawashi which is essentially that it is more effective to lay a foundation of information over time verses dropping a bomb (an ask for a donation) out of nowhere.
That’s why, when Tender had some really exciting news back in May, I used the opportunity to share about it. First, I sent an email of gratitude to every single person to donated to the campaign the previous year. I provided an update with impact - letting each person know how their donations were being put to work. I also expressed gratitude. There was no ask in this email.
I also posted this to my LinkedIn network. LinkedIn is a unique social platform because it has a spider effect of engagement. When someone in your own network engages with a post, it may end up on the feed of someone they are connected to thus allowing one or two degrees of separation to see your content.
30 days ago:
After sending the communication listed above, I had a few friends ask how they could support again. I told them the ask was coming (don’t you worry!). 30 days before the campaign kick off, I sent them a note to prep them and alert them to the kick off date.
Campaign kickoff:
A few days before the campaign kick off, I started thinking about my messaging. What story and ask did I want to share? I also used Tender’s incredible peer-fundraising toolkit to have the most recent impact stats, stories, information and more. If you are hosting peer-fundraisers, I highly encourage you to build something like this for your people. If you need a template - you can grab one here.
Day 1 of the campaign:
To officially start asking for money I started with the people closest to me first: my network of other mama friends. This is what I call the Inside Out Method and you can see the email I sent to these 23 women right here. I told a story, I communicated impact, and I made a clear and direct ask.
In addition to the email, I also took to social media. I made a Reel on my personal Instagram page (because Instagram is prioritizing video) and got on IG Stories.
As donations started rolling in, I also made sure to shout out every single donor (and tagging them too!).
Day 2 of the campaign:
On Day 2 of the campaign, I turned back towards LinkedIn. I’ve decided to be unapologetic in reaching my $3k goal and that means going beyond my closest personal network - it means tapping in to my professional one too. This is the post I put out and it’s already resulted in some donations!
In addition to LinkedIn, I’ve put out this blog post and an email to my Out in the Boons email list of 3k subscribers. It provides value and an ask for support.
Day 3 of the campaign:
Tomorrow is Day 3 of the campaign and I plan to share a personal story again to every person I sent an email to on Day 1 of the campaign, but who hasn’t yet donated yet. I will also send text messages with the link to donate included.
Listen, I know it’s summer, people are busy and need a lot of reminders to take action. So until someone tells me to stop asking them - I’m going to keep putting gentle reminders in their inbox.
Day 4 + 5 of the campaign:
On this day, I plan to share stories over on Instagram of the Tender mamas I’ve been lucky enough to meet and the difference Tender has made on their lives. Stories are the power tool of fundraising. They are fun to read and create connectedness.
Of course, I will continue to thank people as donations come in.
Day 6 of the campaign:
Monday is the final day of the campaign and even if I’ve met my goal - I’ll continue pushing hard because every additional dollar goes to support hard-working single mamas.
On this day, I plan to go all in with a final ask across email, social (Instagram and LinkedIn) with a call to action to raise $500 dollars. I’ve been planning to make a $500 donation personally to Tender and so I will use this as a match amount to motivate my network and hopefully cross if not exceed the $3k goal.
I’ll update this blog when those pieces go out so you can see how I word things.
Final thoughts:
I know I’m a professional fundraiser, but I’m also busy. I’ve been planning this fundraising campaign for months. For anyone thinking you can pull off and execute a fundraising campaign without some planning and prep - it will feel just as hard as that sounds.
Tell stories.
Tender has made being a peer-fundraiser super duper easy. I like to put my own twist on things, but if I was short on time - I would use the swipe copy and social images provided to me to make it easy. Remember, when inviting peer-fundraisers to join in - make it no brainer easy for them. Send them updates and reminders. People want to be helpful, but if you make it hard for them to find the information they are looking for - they will skip over it.
When deciding to do a campaign for your nonprofit be unapologetic about asking. I’m truly of the mindset that every dollar raised is going towards supporting single mothers - a community who is notoriously under supported. The ask is not for me, but for Jaycina and the Tender team to continue to do the incredible work that they do.
If you are like me and passionately believe in supporting single mamas join me in supporting Tender. Every dollar raised will go towards providing cash assistance that covers rent, groceries, utility bills, diapers and wipes. More importantly, it lets these mamas know that there is someone in their corner - cheering them on all the way.