Looking to raise money quickly and easily? Start a successful digital coffee fundraiser with this easy-to-follow guide! Learn how to develop fundraising ideas, set goals, market your campaign, choose the right platform for your coffee fundraiser, create engaging content to capture attention, and optimize your promotions for maximum results to fund the projects you care about.
How to Run a Successful Online Coffee Fundraiser
Brainstorm Multiple Fundraising Ideas
To ensure the success of your fundraising efforts, think of multiple ideas for how you can raise money and how friends, family, community members and others can contribute. You don't have to be a fundraising specialist; just brainstorm all of the different ways you can encourage people to get interested in the cause that you hold dear.
Think about different levels of contribution and if you will provide rewards for each level. Think outside the box and create unique incentives, such as exclusive content or access to special events, bonus swag or merchandise, or even a discount card or gift card for those that contribute regularly or donate the most money. The more creative you are, the greater the success.
Pick a Known, Successful Fundraiser for Your Online Fundraising Program
Once you have narrowed down a list of fundraising ideas, pick a fundraising system that is easy to execute, keeps people from having to sell products door to door, and focuses on a product or service that is popular, liked and used by a lot of people. This will make it easier for your campaign to be successful.
For example, if you are selling consumer goods, make sure they are items that customers love, that they are high quality products, and that they are easy to sell. Make sure you work with or depend on a wonderful company that is known by consumers, or through which other organizations have done fundraising in the past and have been successful.
Try Out a Coffee Fundraiser to Raise Money
The Great Coffee Project provides an excellent, proven coffee fundraising program. Do you know how many Americans drink coffee daily? Almost 80% of American adults drink coffee daily and more have coffee in their homes. Look no further for most easy fundraising ideas! TGCP's coffee fundraising platform is one of the best fundraising ideas around. Coffee is a product that so many people love, use and are planning to buy anyway!
We provide organizations one of the most successful fundraising ideas for coordinators, participants or supporters, whether you are raising funds for sports teams, a nonprofit, small groups, youth groups, churches or other causes. Coffee's uniqueness is attractive as the product can be easily bought and sold straight from our website, and setting up your fundraiser is quick and easy! Organizing a coffee fundraiser provides a great vehicle to offer something that is roasted fresh, provides for great flavors, and is considered a gourmet snack that people indulge in every day.
Use Subscription-based Coffee Fundraisers to Optimize Your Long-Term Potential
Coffee is a unique fundraising idea because it is perfect for organizations looking for a longer-term commitment to support their cause, with a consistent and steady stream of donations. The idea behind this type of fundraising is that participants buy subscriptions to coffee, rather than just individual coffee bags. By doing so, the online fundraiser provides a means for your organization to benefit each time the subscription is fulfilled, without your or the purchaser having to take any additional steps. It makes our coffee fundraising program both easy and and ongoing source to raise money. Because people regularly buy coffee subscriptions for themselves and as gifts for others, the TCGP online fundraiser makes fundraising over time so simple.
Set Realistic Fundraising Goals and Timelines.
Before you launch your fundraiser, make sure to set realistic goals and timelines. Are you raising funds for youth groups, a sports team, non profit groups or something else? What do you plan to use the fundraiser to support or fund? What does your group, school, church or organization need the money for, and under what time frame? Do the research and decide how much money you’d like to raise and by what date. Will you need to hit a minimum order threshold to achieve your goals? Will you need a minimum number of people to purchase coffee to achieve your goals? We even offer an easy-to-use Fundraising Calculator to help you determine how to best achieve your unique fundraising goals.
Once you've set your goals, create a timeline that outlines each step of the fundraising process and stick to your deadlines. This will help keep your campaign on track and ensure it meets or exceeds its goals.
Create a Dedicated Marketing Webpage.
If you’re running a fundraising campaign, creating a dedicated information page is essential to success. This will be the hub for your digital fundraising drive, and it should include clear information about the mission of your school, nonprofit organization, church, youth group, or sports team. It should also clearly state the goals of your specific campaign, and how donors can contribute. Include steps people can take to support your cause through volunteering if they can't do so monetarily.
Make sure your web page is simple and easy to navigate so visitors don’t become confused and leave without taking action, and make sure it links to the page or pages where the fundraising actually takes place (for example, TGCP's Coffee Shop, accessed through a personalized link tailored to your charity). Your marketing webpage should highlight what your group plans to use the money for after their fundraising success, and how your online fundraiser is easy for people to support.
Utilize Multiple Social Media Platforms.
Don’t underestimate the power of social media when it comes to fundraising. By utilizing all the platforms available, you can reach a much larger audience and encourage donors to contribute. Start by creating a campaign hashtag that will be used for all communication about the fundraiser. Then, create content like images, videos, tweets, and posts that explain why someone should donate and what their donation can do for your cause.
Don't be afraid to use paid promotions on the different platforms to help spread the message even further. While this might be a small cost, it will reap dividends in the end. Also make sure your social media posts drive people to the order form or order site and highlight that your fundraiser includes great pricing for what they are going to get.
Leverage the Power of Engaging Imagery.
Creating powerful, impactful imagery is essential to catching potential donors’ attention. People are more likely to engage with visuals than they are with words: when creating digital fundraising promotions, focus on effective visuals that explain the mission behind the campaign.
Images should be evocative and convey your cause without being too cluttered or overly detailed. Additionally, remember to include a call-to-action in your visuals that encourages donations and makes it easy for people to give. Use your group, school, organization or non-profit's logo (where allowable) to provide great imagery for your posts.
Stay On-Message with Consistent Content Updates.
Content updates keep your fundraising campaign fresh, interesting, and up-to-date. Post status about your cause on all of your platforms regularly. Share stories and visuals of the people you are helping, successes that have been made thanks to donations from supporters, and compelling facts about the community and circumstances behind the campaign—all while staying consistent with messaging. Provide donors with regular updates throughout the length of the fundraising campaign to show them how their contributions are making a difference.
Look For Ways to Expand on Your Core Fundraising Idea
Don't just stop with your core fundraising idea; find ways to build on it. For example, The Great Coffee Project also sells hot tea, candles, coffee-related merchandise and gourmet snacks like coffee-infused chocolate bars. All of these add-on items that are available in our Coffee Shop are ways to make additional donations without having to do additional marketing!
Let the Product Speak for Itself
One of the best benefits of a TGCP-driven campaign is that it's also a purpose-driven coffee fundraiser. The Great Coffee Project prides itself on the environmentally responsible, sustainable and community-friendly ways in which we operate our business. The people who are interested in supporting your charity will want to know their monetary purchase is supporting not just your good cause, but also doing good for the earth and the world at the same time.
TGCP donates 20% of every sale toward the charity of your choosing. In addition, we also plant a tree with every sale. We also support direct trade and fair-trade products whenever possible, ensuring that our coffee sourcing does not socially or economically disadvantage coffee farmers around the world. These are all benefits worth sharing with your targeted donors. By purchasing The Great Coffee Project coffee in support of your fundraiser, your donors will also be backing an eco- and socially aware company.
Practice What you Preach.
Whatever your cause, make sure you model the behavior you want your donors to follow. If you are asking for charitable donations for a cause, then you should also donate to the cause. If you are asking your donors to purchase TGCP coffee to support your school, sports team, church or nonprofit, then you should also purchase TGCP coffee and share your experiences and opinions on our coffee with others!
Get Other Spokespeople Involved.
Do you know teachers, coaches, students, community leaders or other outgoing or well-connected individuals that are interested in your cause? Ask them and encourage them to be vocal and "digitally social" supporters of your coffee fundraiser. Ask them to talk to others about your campaign, share your social media posts and website details, and mention your fundraiser when interacting with others that might be able to support your efforts.
Create a Tradition.
Make your online coffee fundraiser an annual tradition by advertising it and kick-starting a new goal or campaign every year. Coordinate a physical kick-off event, like a coffee social or an online virtual breakfast. Update your goals and start your new marketing at the same time every year so people become familiar with and start to look forward to your annual announcements and event(s).
Make it Fun.
The more fun you incorporate into your coffee fundraiser; the more people will want to participate and show their support. For example, include things that are flashy, silly, unique or memorable into your fundraising. Host an amateur barista event where top supporters compete, and potential donors vote, on the best concocted coffee recipe. Hold a contest to name the newly concocted recipe. Host a blind coffee tasting event where different types of coffee are brewed and tested to determine a favorite. Hold a coffee bean artwork contest and have donors vote on the coolest or most creative artwork that can be created only by using glue, paper, paper clips and coffee beans. Or host a coffee attire event where everyone has to dress in "shades of coffee" (blacks, browns, creams, and taupes). The ideas are endless, but the point is to give people reasons to think about your fundraising campaign on a repeated basis, and to associate those thoughts with happiness and positivity.
To sum it up, we covered a number of different ways that you can successfully tackle organizing and running an online coffee fundraising campaign. If you have a clear goal, create an engaging marketing strategy, model the behavior you want your donors to follow, and add fun elements to your campaign, you can be sure that your online fundraising efforts will be a huge success. So, get creative and plan ahead for the success of your next online fundraiser!
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