Exposing the secret sause!

FanAngel, as well as just a few other platforms, have found that infamous secret sauce for sports and school fundraising.  In just a few words, the secret comes down to one major concept:

Most donors don’t actually care that much about your program.

I hate to be the one to break it to you, but that’s the reality. Once we’ve swallowed this pill, we can now work to figure out how to make the most with the least.

So, what do donors really care about?  They care about their connection with the program – which usually means the athlete or student they support.  This makes perfect sense once you think about it: Grandma from three states away only cares about her grandchild. So, in reality, they aren’t giving to your Team or School…but to their grandchild. 

This means we MUST make the fundraiser about their grandchild, cousin, friend, whatever. 

How FanAngel does this is two-fold:

1)    Properly target the athlete’s close network – typically 20 high quality email address from each athlete. This buy-in is paramount.

2)    Customize the donation page and emails with the Athlete’s or Student’s HEADSHOT PHOTO, PERSONAL GOAL and PERSONAL EMAILS/MESSAGES. Remember, they AREN’T giving to your program…they are giving to their family member or friend. 

This second point is extremely important – more than you may think. I just can’t emphasis it enough. In fact, I’ve written about it extensively more than once (https://pages.fanangel.com/blog/power-tip-fundraising-contextand https://pages.fanangel.com/contextualized-fundraising-for-sports).

The short version is that a headshot, personalized message, and personal goal combat a psychological concept called the Bystander Effect, also called Bystander Apathy.  The Bystander Effect stops many people from donating. Here's an example of how it works:

Consider Uncle Joe who is asked to donate to a campaign with a $10,000 goal.  If the team has only raised $2,000 thus far, then the remaining $8,000 seems very far away. Uncle Joe’s gift of $50 seems a drop in the bucket and thus won’t be missed…so he skips it.  However, if each athlete has a $150 goal, which is clearly displayed to Uncle Joe with a headshot and personal message, suddenly the same $50 has real merit. Uncle Joe is contributing substantially and helping their athlete in doing his/her part.

So, that’s the secret sauce. Don't dare try to run a crowdfunding campaign WITHOUT leveraging this information. Regardless if you go with FanAngel, another provider, or try to do it yourself, you now have a power weapon to use.