Grassroots Charity Campaigns

Before he dropped out of the election campaign, Bernie Sanders exemplified how grassroots fundraising could be successful if you hit the right note.

In January 2020, his campaign announced that they had raised $34.5+ million in the final quarter of 2019. These funds came from 1.8 million individual donors, and the average gift size was $18.

Such grassroots fundraisers show that no fundraising goal is too big if enough donors are mobilized. They encourage political campaigns, nonprofits, and advocacy groups to maintain focus on their small donors and undertake grassroots fundraising efforts.

Let’s look at the methods and top-performing grassroots fundraising strategies to help your donation box stay sufficiently full.

What is grassroots fundraising?

“Grassroots” is when a movement, effort, or campaign derives its resources and reason from a community/region/people with common interests. Grassroots activism, for example, is when individuals of a community unite to provoke a political or social change. Grassroots lobbying is the mobilization of common folk to bring out legislative change. Similarly, when the desired amount of funds is raised with ordinary or small donors’ contributions, it is grassroots fundraising.

Political campaigns, nonprofits, and advocacy groups undertake grassroots fundraising for different reasons.

Political campaigns: When a candidate or party doesn’t have significant PAC support, media exposure, or big donor support, they rely on individual grassroots supporters to raise funds. They can also turn to such fundraising methods when their campaign opposes powerful lobby groups that influence the political party nomination process or when they want to rely on the communities they represent instead of corporations having a hold on them.

Nonprofits: Charities and nonprofit organizations take the route of grassroots fundraising to minimize their dependencies on a few big donors, to cut the risk of volatility and unpredictability, and to level out potential dips in the funds raised in every cycle.

Advocacy groups: Advocacy groups are “for the people,” and so, their grassroots fundraisers, too, are “by the people.” Raising monies from the community solidifies their relationship with the people, keeps them engaged in the cause, and can even increase their donor and supporter base (through relational organizing, when a supporter or volunteer mobilizes their social circle to join them.)

Why is grassroots fundraising important?

1. Networking: Peer-to-peer solicitation (or P2P fundraising) forms a major part of grassroots fundraising. Volunteers and employees reach out to existing donors and their families and friends, asking for charitable contributions. Conversely, fundraising at the grassroots level helps you expand the existing network when you use the current donor base to encourage similar people or communities to join them. Ultimately, it helps increase your organization’s support base, which is a primary concern for a grassroots group.

2. Minimizes dependency on a single source: When you have many donors giving small gifts, you encounter low risk even if a few people stop giving. Of course, you must still undertake donor retention strategies for them. But at least for now, you haven’t suffered a significant financial blow. When your only source of funds is big donors, you put yourself at high-risk. Even if one of them stops contributing, you suffer a substantial financial loss, retention is more challenging, and you may have to invest financial resources for retention, thus giving yourself a further financial setback.

3. Keeps focusing on your goals, not on donors: A few months before his triumphant announcement about his 2019 fundraising efforts, Sanders had spoken about his “working-class campaign” with Rolling Stone magazine. The “grassroots candidate” said that the small individual donors enabled him to keep fighting for his causes- those of corporate corruption and greed. This shows how a thousand different donors, each giving a small amount, can help your campaign, nonprofit, or advocacy organization focused on your goals. When your finances depend on a few big donors giving lump-sum amounts, they also come with the liabilities of prioritizing their wishes over your cause, the awkwardness of going against what they endorse, and the threat of funds being withdrawn if you upset donors.

Grassroots Fundraising Methods

Grassroots fundraising is all about reaching out to the masses and inspiring them to contribute financially to your cause. This means you are going to encounter a hundred different personalities, each with different preferences.

The three common points in every fundraising effort are:

1. Building trust in your work and organization
2. Igniting a personal connection with the potential donor
3. Showing them that their contribution will have a positive impact.

However, the way you approach donors to communicate these factors varies. While some people love having a conversation in person, the more reserved people may prefer text solicitation.

So let’s understand the different ways your organization can reach out to grassroots supporters for funds:

1. Face-to-face solicitations

People will usually not give money unless organizations ask for it. Even then, several factors play a part in determining whether a solicitation is successful or not.

In-person solicitation ensures detailed and deep canvassing that increases your chances of securing donations. It could be in the form of door knocking, group meetings with existing donors or peers, soliciting during an event, etc.

Best used for:
– Securing large gifts from new donors
– Upgrading donors and increasing the gift size of existing contributors
– Raising large sums for long-term campaigns like capital campaigns

Solicitation requirements:
– Walk lists and set turfs with names, addresses, and other relevant information about potential donors, if available (for door-to-door solicitation)
– A solicitation script to help volunteers (especially first-timers) to guide the conversation
– Donor history for personal meetings with existing contributors
– Knowledgeable volunteers and employees who are comfortable advocating for your organization to strangers
– Canvassing software that helps you cut turfs, prepare walk lists, manage teams, and streamline donations

2. Personal phone calls to grassroots supporters

Phone calls are the next best thing to face-to-face solicitation if you want to have a personal, detailed conversation with potential donors. They are often used to initiate conversations with potential donors, keep in touch with existing contributors, and follow up with supporters.

Phone calls allow you to have a direct conversation with these supporters and address their concerns or objections that may be keeping them from donating (or keeping donors from fundraising for you).

Best used for:
– Increasing gift size from current donors or getting them to enroll in recurring giving
– Reaching out to a large group of new or current donors with limited human resources
– Upgrading supporters to donors (e.g., those who have joined your contact lists but haven’t contributed yet)
– Remote grassroots fundraisers (where you can’t meet people in person but want to engage in detailed conversations)

Solicitation requirements:
– Mobile or landline numbers of supporters (political campaigns and businesses may require prior permission to be called)
– At least one agent to call numbers from your contact list
– A solid cold call script
– A call center software, like CallHub, that:
– Enables quick outbound dialing
– Sets call disposition for unanswered calls, bad numbers, machine answers, etc.
– Has a callback feature, so you don’t miss out on donors when calls aren’t answered
– Allows you to send automated follow-up texts (so you can send donation links without fail)

3. Text fundraising

Text-to-donate enables supporters (who have opted in) to give by simply clicking on a donation link and filling in their desired gift amount.

You send a solicitation text in response to the opt-in, complete with an introduction of the agent, details of the cause, and a donation link. The person on the receiving end only clicks on the link, fills in the details, and voila! Your cause is $x richer!

Alternatively, campaigns can also send a text blast with the solicitation message even if the supporters opted-in to receive updates (and not to donate specifically).

Text-to-give is another way nonprofits or political campaigns solicit funds from supporters. The organization or campaigns partner with telecom companies for this grassroots fundraising method. When a person sends a dedicated keyword to a shortcode, a predetermined amount is added to their mobile bill and donated to the organization or campaign.

Best used for:
– Repeat donors
– Acquiring new donors
– New supporters who have opted in to donate
– As the first point of personal solicitation (before you call/meet those who didn’t donate or who have upgrade potential)

Solicitation requirements:
– Mobile numbers of supporters and their consent to receive donation appeals
– Volunteers (at least 1) to send texts and communicate your requests efficiently
– A shortcode and keyword for people to opt-in
– A text messaging software, like CallHub, that:
– Integrates with various CRMs so you can directly import your contact lists
– Allows you to send bulk MMS (add images, gifs, and videos) to make your text messages pop
– Can create mass texting campaigns for new opt-ins
– Can enable P2P messaging for people who have engaged with you previously

4. Peer-to-peer fundraising

P2P fundraising upgrades your existing donors into fundraising agents. They reach out to their social network, advocate for your cause, and ask for donations. It’s like a pyramid scheme, but for a good cause and with no risk for participants.

For a good P2P fundraising campaign, look out for two types of people: “Sneezers” – people whose reach is far and wide, and those who are excited to advocate for your cause even among a small social group.

Best used for:
– Expanding your donor base
– Solidifying the engagement of your current donors
– Turning micro-donations into recurring donations

Solicitation requirements:
– A base of loyal donors who are excited to take on more responsibility
– A P2P fundraising plan detailing channels to utilize, scripts to follow, rules and responsibilities
– A call center software, text messaging software, and email software to centralize the operations
– Managers to oversee and track progress

5. Email marketing

Email marketing for nonprofits and advocacy groups remains a popular way of reaching out to new donors and making gift appeals to old ones. Grassroots fundraising, too, can benefit from this outreach channel.

Best used for:
– Acquiring new donors
– Driving traffic to your donation links or websites
– Solicitations when email IDs are the only contact info you have
– Mixing advocacy and grassroots fundraising since emails allow you to include detailed texts, donation links, and images/videos in one place

Solicitation requirements:
– Email marketing tools that allow the creation of donor journeys and donor nurturing
– Email IDs of people, with their consent to be contacted for donation appeals
– An account on fundraising platform(s) or payment gateways
– A donation page—the link for which you add in your email body

6. Events

Events go beyond grassroots fundraising and can also introduce new people to your work and impact, build a sense of community among attendees, and get publicity and media attention for your organization.

Best used for:
– Strengthening relationships with existing supporters
– Raising large sums of money from grassroots supporters
– Upgrading existing donors (as more frequent contributors or as fundraisers)
– Increasing their gift size
– Diversifying grassroots fundraising by adding new ways to raise money like ticket fees, selling merchandise during the event, etc.

Solicitation requirements:
– The venue, volunteers, catering, and theme for the event
– Advertising, promotional resources
– Money to fund the event

7. Social Media

Social media is your megaphone for grassroots fundraisers, with millions of active accounts and a reach that no other channel can guarantee. In addition to making donation appeals, it also increases engagement on your profile, makes strangers aware of your work, and enables P2P fundraising among current followers.

Best used for:
– Acquiring new donors
– Covering a broad base of potential donors in a short time
– Appeals for micro-donations or small donations (<$100)
– Online fundraising events

Solicitation requirements:
– Content (images/videos/text) with the potential to go viral. We recommend recruiting professional content writers and graphic designers
– Budget for paid advertisements
– Accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other popular social media platforms
– Accounts on fundraising platforms, payment gateways, and a donation page (the link for which will be added in your copy)

Grassroots Fundraising Strategies and Ideas

Once you know the grassroots fundraising methods you want to adopt, the next step is to understand strategies that work for solicitation and include them in your plan. Here are five such strategies and tips for a successful fundraiser:

1. Write a good CTA: An ideal CTA is inspiring, specific, and urgent. It should inspire the reader to take action, provide specific directions, and convey a sense of urgency.

2. Enable recurring donations: Enabling recurring donations ensures that opted-in first-time donors automatically convert into recurring donors. Make sure to plan a nurturing flow that shows the impact of their donations, recognizes them for their help, and motivates them to give again.

3. Make timely donation appeals: Build resources to act upon incidents that give no warning quickly. Create a content calendar to build fundraisers around recurring events. Leverage strong emotions like anger, sympathy, and patriotism for your grassroots fundraisers.

4. Segment your donors and target them with different approaches: Categorize your donors based on their level of engagement, preferences, and history. Mobilize appropriate resources for each segment and tailor your fundraising efforts accordingly.

5. Mix advocacy with fundraising: Give supporters options other than donating funds. Offer opportunities for advocacy, spreading the word, and sign-ups to keep them engaged and involved with your cause and organization.

6. Track and analyze your campaign constantly: Continually track and analyze donor behavior to understand your supporters and their level of engagement. Use call center tools and other software to track metrics such as answer rates, conversions, and preferred modes of contribution. Use this data to segment and target your grassroots fundraising efforts effectively.

By implementing these strategies and utilizing the various grassroots fundraising methods discussed, you can maximize your fundraising efforts and build a strong base of grassroots supporters for your charity campaign.