Coronavirus pandemic has hugely impacted the fundraising industry. Social distancing norms have given a boost to virtual fundraising. In fact, people are also participating in online fundraising drives and interested to Donate Online via various mediums. The best thing is that the organizers, as well as donors, can take part in the virtual events while being completely safe and sound.

If you are having a hard time planning the first-ever virtual fundraising campaign, then this post is for you. We will share the best tips to get you started. Stay tuned!

What is a virtual fundraising event?

In simple terms, a virtual fundraising event is organized online for the purpose of raising money. These events can be live-streamed, or if you aren’t sure about live streaming, then pre-recording can also be done. You can host an event that lasts several days or is wrapped in a single day; it all depends on your goal.

Online or virtual fundraising offers excellent opportunities for you to reach a broader audience base. The best thing is that you do not require a lot of money and other special resources to host online crowdfunding events. Virtual fundraising empowers people to donate money at any time and from any location in the world. Additionally, these events help you save a significant amount of money as you don’t need to spend on the resources like venue, food, event signage, etc.

What are the essential steps for hosting a successful virtual fundraising event?

#1 Define your goals, tasks, and set deadlines

Focus on creating a solid structure for your online crowdfunding campaign as it is the foundation and can make or break your event. It is evident that your aim is raising money but clearly define where that money will be used. What are the causes you will support with that money? Your donors want to know where their monetary contribution is being used. So, it is vital to clear all their doubts through storytelling.

Discuss and plan your process with your entire team. Once you determine your primary goal, it is time to figure out which channels will be used for reaching out to your prospects. Make a roadmap for your team members and assign duties. When every member knows what they will be doing, the execution becomes a whole lot easier. If you have volunteers, assign tasks to them as well.

Now comes the time to set deadlines. Don’t rely on the last minute to make final decisions. You must know in advance when certain activities will happen, so we will recommend using a calendar for your fundraising plans.

#2 Decide on the type of event to host

Attracting the audience is the most important thing to make your virtual crowdfunding event successful. You should consider the main cause as well as your target audience to decide on the type of virtual event you want to host. Answer these quick questions to come up with relevant ideas:

• What inspires your target audience?
• What does your audience enjoy?
• What are the things/causes your target audience cares about?

Write down the answers to these questions on paper, and you will get great help in the process of selecting the type of event. Moreover, you can pick the events on the basis of the audience’s preference, and for that, you can make use of polls. We would highly recommend using some fun-filled ideas that will invoke interest in the audience.

#3 Set your crowdfunding virtual event budget

It is the fact that you need to spend less budget on virtual events, but it still requires setting your budget. Thoughtfully decide on the reasonable amount that you can set and plan the event in a way that you can stick to the budget. It might require some brainstorming to reduce the extra expenses in some areas. It is suggested to create a list of all the event expenses that generally include marketing expenditure, cost of online platforms that you will use for live streaming, cost of the crowdfunding platform, etc.

#4 Choose a streaming platform

Finding an appropriate platform for the virtual fundraiser is a challenging task. You should be focusing on a platform that best suits your event, and budget. Any streaming platform can be used for hosting events like webinars, conferences, virtual shows, classes, etc. You can use social media platforms too for hosting such events for online crowdfunding.

#5 Promote your online crowdfunding event

If you are working on your event to raise money, it is essential to create a concrete plan for the promotions. Always ensure that your promotion strategy captures the attention of prospects. It would be best if you also work on retention strategies to reconnect with the people who have donated in the past. Social media and email marketing are the two powerful channels to pull in the audience to your campaigns and raise money online.

#6 Ensure smooth execution of event through a test run

It becomes embarrassing when there are some issues when you run your event in front of the public. So it is highly recommended to do a test run with your internal event team and ensure that all the tools are working properly. You will be able to detect all of the issues in advance and get the time to fix those without any hassle.

#7 Thank everyone

It is your responsibility to send thank you messages to all the participants whether they donated or not. Showing your gratitude towards the staff and volunteers also provides them a solid reason to connect with you in the future. It will also build trust among the participants and your team.

Since you now know how to create a plan for your virtual fundraising event, we would recommend you to work on it and make it work to achieve your goals. If you are not using an event ticketing platform for these events, you can empower your audience to donate money online via the Best Online Crowdfunding Platform such as Fundingcubes. This platform allows you to run the campaigns in a few easy steps, and creating campaigns is entirely free. You can share your story on the platform and also share the campaigns on other social media platforms for raising funds quickly.