Whether managing a marketing team or hosting the event yourself, these top marketing tips will help spread the word and attract more donors.

6 Top In-Person And Virtual Fundraiser Marketing Tips 

Below are six effective marketing tips that will help you reach your intended audience for both in-person and virtual fundraising events. 

Identify Your Target Audience

Before you can start marketing your fundraiser event, you have to know who your ideal donors are and how best to reach them. You can get this information by identifying the qualities of your ideal donor. In the marketing industry, this is better known as creating a buyer persona.

If you’ve hosted a similar fundraising event before, you can start profiling existing donors. Figure out what their common interests and characteristics are and what demographic details they have in common. With this information at hand, you’ll be able to identify more people that might want to donate to your cause.

To get your fundraising marketing messages out there, be sure to advertise directly to your target audience. You can do this through paid media, organic means, and direct marketing.

Create A Fundraising Website

When hosting an event, be it an in-person or virtual one, the best fundraiser marketing tip would be to create an event website. 

Firstly, a website can act as a landing page that explains what your fundraising event is about and why people should donate.

Secondly, it can urge people to sign up for your newsletter and stay informed regarding your event proceedings.

By having a large email database in place, you’ll also be able to easily market your fundraising campaign next year through e-marketing. 

Additionally, a website can facilitate effortless communication with donors through a chat box and makes it easy to keep everyone in the loop. 

Lastly, if you are hosting a virtual fundraising event, you can also utilize your website to direct people to the link to join the event or to provide other important information. This will help people find everything they need to know easily. 

Be Persistent

When hosting a virtual fundraiser event, you should keep in mind that dismissing your email invitation is as easy as clicking on a button. Similarly, social media posts can easily fall beneath your intended audience’s radar if you don’t make use of paid media. 

So, how can one remedy this? By sending regular requests and reminders to your invitees. 

You can let your invitees know how many people are donating through goal progress posts on social media. Alternatively, you can also ask family, friends, co-workers, and board members to spread the word about your event. 

The key here is to not give up. Come up with interesting ways to explain what your fundraiser is about and why people should invest in your cause or join your event.

Create Your Own Fundraiser Merchandise

If it’s your first time hosting your own fundraiser and you need to get people’s attention in a creative way, then event merchandise might be the way to go. 

This tried-and-tested fundraiser marketing strategy will not only help to raise money for your cause but will also help to spread event awareness. In essence, every person who wears your merch becomes a brand ambassador - free of charge!

If creativity isn’t your strong suit, but you want your merchandise to really catch people’s eyes, don’t fret. Simply ask your existing event supporters to develop a design or host a design competition that’s open to the public. The winner will receive free merch and have his or her designs on display for the whole world to see.

After the designs have been finalized, be sure to promote your merchandise on social media and through your newsletter. Add your items to your online store and be sure to bring extra merch on the day of the event.

Utilize Content Marketing

Investing in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and content marketing is critical if you want more people to discover your long-term fundraising initiative online. 

Firstly, be sure to get your fundraising website indexed on Google. 

Next, brainstorm different content angles that will help to get readers hooked and invested in your fundraising events. After you know what you’ll be writing about, it’s time to implement a keyword strategy that will allow your website to rank high on Google whenever someone searches for similar keywords.

You can also create guest content that you can send to popular blogs or other online news organizations. Once your guest content is posted on other websites, it will link back to your website which boosts SEO. 

Also, when it comes to fundraiser marketing, don’t be shy about asking for event reviews. If past donors vouch for the validity of your fundraising events, more people will be willing to partner with you and attend any future events you host.

Make It Fun

Hosting a fundraising event for your charity or nonprofit organization can be a grounding experience. Not just for you as the host but also for the people attending the event. 

By hosting this event, you are trying to achieve a positive outcome for your cause. But remember to have a little bit of fun with it. After all, people will be much more willing to attend your event if there are interesting activities to partake in.

Why not try to incorporate some fun elements such as networking sessions or games into your fundraiser marketing strategy? 

If you are feeling extra bold, you can invite a local celebrity to make a special appearance and perform a special number in honor of your fundraiser. 

Not only will this give people even more reason to attend your event, but if they enjoy themselves, they are also more likely to donate to your cause.

In Summary

By following these six fundraiser marketing tips and strategies, you’ll be well on your way to hosting a very successful charity event. 

The key is to find out exactly who to target and then use a host of online tools to spread the word about your fundraiser event. 

Be sure to incorporate some fun aspects into your event, like interesting activities and personalized merchandise.