How to plan an online fundraising campaign step by step [+ Sample plan]

You can still plan and launch a fundraising campaign before the end of the year. Read this article to find out which specific steps to think through before you dive into a so-called year-end campaign. You may already have heard a lot on the topic at our webinars or live seminars. We have now summarized it all for you in this article, too.

And remember: start from the situation your organization is in right now. Behind big, successful campaigns there is a lot of work, a well-coordinated team and investment – in advertising, in agency costs (whether for PR or, say, a telefundraising team), in software and graphic design.

Go through the whole article point by point, fill in your campaign brief, and you may find that this year it will be enough to try everything out on a small scale, confirm that it works, and then add improvement after improvement next year, step by step. Good things take time! And nobody was born an expert.

Campaign brief: put everything that matters into one document

At the start of your planning, it helps to go through all the basic parameters of your campaign so that you can evaluate its success once it is over.

You can download a sample campaign brief here.

Start from clear goals

Set primary and secondary goals.

- Primary goals will be, let's say, three or four main indicators of success: CZK 200,000 to build a new community garden, 500 new contacts in the database, better reporting on campaign progress among colleagues across the whole organization

- Secondary goals will be the supporting processes behind the primary ones.

Some of your goals will focus on results, be defined in numbers and be clearly measurable. These are so-called hard goals. For example: CZK 120,000 for new beds for seniors, 1,000 people signed our online petition, 2,500 people e-mailed their MPs, 70 new recurring donors

Other goals may be soft, i.e. ones that cannot be measured as easily and that typically focus on improving internal processes such as reporting, communication and the like. Examples of soft goals: we will introduce a new communication tool that makes it easier to communicate with colleagues, we will set up a system for reporting campaign progress on a daily basis, etc.

These goals should be SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound). Clearly defined goals will help you keep the campaign focused and allow you to measure success.

Audit your contacts and define your target groups

What contacts does your organization have available? You may be in a situation where you have no contacts at all yet, but most organizations have at least some e-mail addresses you can start with. If you already have a base, which segments can you use for which phase of the campaign, based on how passionate they are about your cause?

Remember that during a campaign you move from the most engaged contacts to the coldest ones. So you start, for example, with employees (yes, you heard right – if your colleagues don't believe in your campaign, who else should?), volunteers, the board and your closest major donors. With them, you can arrange matching (multiplying the donations of other donors) or the first larger contributions before the campaign is launched publicly.

You can also try telefundraising in the form of a one-day call-a-thon, where you, your colleagues and volunteers call your contacts and ask them to donate to the campaign. Read how to run a successful call-a-thon in this article.

You only launch the campaign publicly once it has reached a certain stage of success. You continue with your one-time or recurring donors. People on social media and target groups that don't know you yet are invited to join your campaign only in the last few days, when you are already close to your goal.

That is the rough template, which you will adapt to your organization's situation.

More questions: How many contacts do you have in each segment? What is their likely conversion rate? And what kind of campaign communication can you offer them? How will you acquire new contacts during the campaign?

Tip: Try to learn as much as you can about where your target groups spend their time (social media, e-mail, in person) and adapt your strategy accordingly.

Case for Support – why is the campaign happening?

Answer the basic questions – for yourself and for your donors – that explain the purpose of the campaign:

- What do we want to change? For example, “Help 200 seniors in remote areas get regular care.”

- What is our long-term goal? This shows what the “ideal world” looks like once the goal is reached.

- Why now? Identify the reasons for the current need, e.g. “Because of the worsening social situation of seniors.”

Don't go it alone!

Appoint one person responsible for running the campaign and meeting its goals, but try to get your other colleagues on board too, whether from management, PR or, if you have one, the fundraising team.

Colleagues can be among the first people you ask for a contribution in the initial non-public (so-called pre-launch) phase. Does that seem counterintuitive? But who else should believe most in what your organization is fighting for? If even those closest to you don't believe in the purpose of your campaign, you will hardly convince people who are hearing about you for the first time.

Timeline and milestones

When will your campaign run, from start to finish? And what milestones will you set along the way? An example of such a plan, which you will then flesh out according to your specific tasks, might look like this:

October – setting campaign goals, preparing materials and the donation page
November – pre-launch phase of the campaign, approaching and meeting VIP donors, publishing the donation page, the first few e-mail mailings asking for a donation (e.g. to increase a recurring donation)
December – call-a-thon, at least 10 campaign e-mail mailings, in the second half of the month we add social media, closer to Christmas also paid social ads and influencers, we wrap up at the end of the year
January – evaluation of the whole campaign

The timing of the campaign is entirely up to you, though, and although the Christmas season is considered a sensitive time when people are more open to values-based communication, don't be afraid to plan everything your own way. In spring, for instance.

It is worth noting that some organizations stay away from paid advertising around Christmas, when prices climb because of the high competition. Others, however, use this period with success. This decision is up to you – and ideally also to your social media consultant.

Tip: Refrain from any other communication with donors for the entire duration of the campaign and do not distract their attention in any way during this time. This needs to be agreed clearly with your colleagues.

Schedule the specific steps in your calendar

Once you have the campaign ready in the brief, schedule everything in your calendar. Create a spreadsheet shared with your colleagues with specific dates, where you can keep track of the individual phases of the campaign and check your progress.

Tip: If different teams are collaborating on the campaign, it pays to spell out their specific roles. These may be teams from fundraising, communications or graphic design. This ensures that everyone knows their role and responsibility.

Campaign budget

Set a realistic budget and be clear about your investment in advertising. Your approach to the budget should be flexible:

For example: “We will reinvest ⅓ of the donations raised through social media into further ads.”
A proven practice, for instance, is that when a specific Facebook ad brings in CZK 3,000, you take CZK 1,000 and invest it again in another ad. This is how you maximize the reach of your campaign.

Track progress, evaluate success

Larger campaigns run on daily reporting. It is definitely good to have an overview of how the individual communication channels are performing as you go. Use e-mailing tools that show you the open and click-through rates of your e-mails, and also use UTM parameters. You will find data on donations and donors in Darujme.cz.

At the end of the campaign, evaluate whether you have reached the goals you set. You can analyze, for example, the number of donations and donors gained, the effectiveness of the communication channels, internal collaboration and new procedures.

It can be useful to put together a short final report covering the key results and recommendations for next time. The evaluation will also help reveal what worked well and where changes can be made.

Also decide right away how you will keep communicating with the people involved in the campaign and what experiences with your organization you will offer them over the course of the year.

You've got this!

You have everything ready and can get to work.

Planning a fundraising campaign isn't easy, but careful preparation, a focus on your target groups and ongoing evaluation will help you achieve great results.

With every further step and every experience gained you will get better, and believe us, with each new experience it will get easier and easier.

You may also find our earlier article useful: 17 proven tips for your online fundraising.

We're keeping our fingers crossed and we're with you!