The Problem: A local church wanted to help a family in need.
The Solution: Targeted Crowdsourcing Fundraising!
A pastor and the staff of a local church had problem – a family from their congregation needed help. The father had been diagnosed with an incurable disease several years ago, and his health was rapidly declining and only a short time left. The mother was a full time caretaker for her husband – while still raising their son and running their household. They needed additional funds to help with the day to day care-taking.
No one in this family was ever comfortable asked for charity, and no one expected money from anyone. But the church wanted to help, and they knew others would too. The original plan was to ask for donations at church, and perhaps send a simple email or letter with instructions on how to send in a check or cash . . . the old fashioned way.
They’ve raised funds in the past this way but it was slow, inefficient and likely not as effective.
A Better Way
That’s when we stepped in. We knew that greater results could be easily obtained with a more modern approach. Blake suggested creating a dedicated campaign, which turned into a page on an online fundraising site – GoFundMe.com. Such sites use the modern approach of “Crowdsourcing” or “Crowdfunding” and have become extremely popular over the years. These modern fundraising platforms are:
- Easy to setup and administer
- Extremely easy for users to donate, and then share. The average online donation takes about 1 minute.
- Provided a place for status updates, centralized communication, sense of community, etc. – all of which are proven beneficial for successful fundraising.
But simply having a platform to setup a fundraising page isn’t enough.
Better Yet – The Crafted Approach
MITO Studios created a concept that was sincere and straightforward. This wasn’t your average ad campaign; this was a real family, with real life concerns! Along with leaders from the church, we carefully crafted a message that told their story, what they needed and how to help. And due to the severity and sensitivity of the issues at hand, we were extremely sensitive to the privacy and personal concerns of the family. Once it was ready to go, we helped the church share that message via email marketing, social media, and good old fashioned conversation.
- Using input and base stories from the family and church, we crafted the Main Story and Messaging to go along with.
- Setup the GoFundMe.com account, designed the fundraising page and setup the funding platforms.
- Developed Email Campaign & Social Media Strategy to help distribute the message.
We created a campaign page on GoFundMe.com
We shared the page via social media and word of mouth
The donations rolled in, providing amazing assistance to a grateful family!
The Results. . . were simply amazing!
The initial goal was in the in the $2-3k range, but we set one a bit higher: to raise $5,000. We purposely set the goal higher than the original request to allow for some padding, as it wouldn’t look good to keep bumping up the goal after the campaign was started. That goal was exceeded within just FOUR DAYS! Within a week, the campaign was shut down and a check was sent to the family for an amount much higher than they would have ever considered receiving.
Imagine how wonderful the family must have felt when they learned of this amazing accomplishment. We were proud to help, and happy that we could expand on the pastor’s original idea to achieve truly remarkable results.
Please note that we have not shared the actual campaign links and/or names out of respect the family’s privacy. If you have any questions, contact us and we’ll be glad to discuss.
Would you like help leveraging a social media campaign or crowdfunding marketing program? Click to contact us!
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