Tips for Executing a Six Week Campaign

Six weeks can make all the difference.

We want your campaign to be successful! Here are 5 tips to that'll help your 6 week campaign meet or exceed!) your goals.

Make Personal Contact

Early on, have your staff and board personally contact big donors, potential donors, and your organization's other invested supporters, and let them know about the campaign. Donor relations should always be highly relational, and personal phone calls or coffee meetings make a big difference.

Be Clear About What You're Asking For

"Calling all donors: we can now accept donated vehicles" isn't as clear as "Give your car this month and help us reach our goal of 100 cars (which will send about 100 kids to camp)!"

Make sure your audience knows exactly what you're asking for and where the funds from their donation are going. Clear is more important than clever when writing campaign content!

Tie Gifts to What They Typically Fund

Take some of the guesswork out of noncash giving by telling your donors what their donation could fund. So, if an average car donation is worth $1,600, let donors know "A typical car donation will fund 400 lunches at our shelter" (or whatever the donation has the potential to fund for your organization).

Create Great Content

When it comes to content, show instead of tell. What we mean is, don't just tell your donors "we provide access to clean water"-- instead, show that you provide access to education by sharing stories of how your new water well impacted a community. Effective use of stories, videos, and pictures is the kind of content that can motivate people to give!

Segment and Target Your Audience

Know your donor base and target them effectively. Good targeting makes people less likely to unsubscribe or ignore your communication. It's okay if some of your campaigns are targeted at only some of your potential donors. As your donor base grows, you can even create different content for different groups of donors and speak specifically to different demographics.

Benefits of a Six Week Campaign

6 weeks is a great timing structure for a fundraising campaign. Here are some reasons a 6 week campaign is beneficial.

• Build Momentum - Continuing a campaign over the course of several weeks allows you to build momentum. It's enough time to introduce your campaign, create enthusiasm, and give people time to respond.
• Keep Interest and Enthusiasm - You want your campaign to be long enough to build momentum but not so long that you lose it. A 6 week structure lets you maintain interest throughout your campaign.
• Evaluate Strategy As You Go - A 6 week campaign gives you time to evaluate how things are going, check out your analytics, and make changes to your strategy if you need to. If you aren't picking up momentum in the first two weeks, determine where the breakdown is happening (email open rates? click rates? conversion rates?) and make changes to your strategy.

Sample Six Week Campaign Calendar