Fundraising is tough! As a non-profit, you have a great cause, and most people generally feel for that cause, but when it comes to collecting donations, it can be as difficult as closing a deal. In some ways, fundraising is very similar to selling, sometimes harder because you are asking for an individual’s money, not their companies.
We all know that if you’re asking someone to part with their hard earned money, face-to-face meetings are best. But in person meetings are difficult to schedule and often times unavailable. And, because asking for donations is undoubtedly intimidating for most, a lot of us don’t mind hiding behind our emails… because it’s easy to type out a template and click send. The problem: no one on the receiving end of that email is going to truly hear your conviction, feel passionate about your cause or care enough to pull out their credit card and donate.
So, how do you engage people without meeting every single one in person? Videos! Correction… personalized, professional, branded and trackable videos. Sure, you may not be able to elicit a large donation with a short video, but letting someone “hear” what you have to say, “showing” your face and “being” authentic and genuine will definitely increase engagement and responses to your outreach, and thereby allowing you to book more meetings or have a more meaningful phone conversation because the potential donor feels they are connecting with a real human vs. a computer.
The OMID Foundation has shown us that it works! Shiela Rahimian, co-chair of the OMID Foundation Bay Area Committee, sent out a mass email to over 200 potential donors, encouraging ticket sales for a recent fundraising event, as well as donations and sponsorships. Engagement and responses were meager, only two! A month later, she decided to use a personal video using OneMob. She recorded an OMID branded video and sent the message to the exact same recipients. The results were incredible! Her OneMob generated a 73% oThe numbers speak for themselves. OMID had an incredible event and they surpassed their $50,000 fundraising goal! Check out Shiela’s video below! Watch Video
