After months of painstaking planning, you’re finally publicly announced your campaign to great acclaim and much fanfare. Wow, mission accomplished! Time to pat yourself on the back and catch your breath. But not for long.
Your communications and marketing efforts are far from complete. You’re likely asking yourself one or more of the following questions:
- What should I be focused on in the short term and planning for in the long term?
- How do I harness the momentum of our successful public launch to propel the campaign forward to its conclusion?
- How do I think beyond the “what we always do” to “let’s try something novel” to reach more people and inspire them to be part of bringing the campaign’s vision to life?
This piece will touch on the things you must do and those that will take your efforts to the next level.
Rallying Broader Support in the Public Phase
In the public phase of the campaign, efforts shift to welcoming all types of donors and gift levels to support the campaign and help you reach or exceed the fundraising goal. Moreover, this phase affords the organization the opportunity to expand its visibility and attract new donors who will support the organization long after the campaign is over.
The public launch—whether live, virtual, or a hybrid—is often the culmination of years of hard work and should be celebrated as such. What’s more, it serves as a tangible celebration of the philanthropy that will impact the organization for years and even generations to come.
The official go-live of the campaign typically generates a lot of enthusiasm and plenty of goodwill. But now you need to figure out how to move forward with intentionality to build on the excitement and ride the wave toward the finish line. Once again, planning is essential.
Using Launch Momentum to Your Advantage
Being strategic and intentional about your communications post-launch is as important as it was before going public. Now your efforts are focused on expanding awareness and reaching out to as many people as possible to create visibility for the campaign and to invite donors of all types to be energized by the vision and get on board.
Here are five ways to seize the moment and build on the momentum to keep your campaign moving forward to the finish line.
1. Plan communications for the days immediately following the launch.
You’ll only get one chance to celebrate the launch of your campaign with event attendees and everyone else to share key messages (including the launch video) and spread the word and the excitement. Make it count with targeted (customized and personalized) email messages and video messaging [https://www.bwf.com/using-video-to-drive-donor-engagement/]. Let gift officers and campaign leaders handle the 1:1 outreach while the marketing and communications team handles outreach to the masses.
2. Implement campaign branding across all touchpoints.
Once the campaign is public, every touchpoint—from proposals, stewardship elements, and giving forms to email signature blocks, giveaways, video endplates, and banners—should be campaign branded. While the previous phase included selected branded collateral for the cultivation and solicitation of leadership-level donors, going forward that branding should be everywhere.
In the leadership phase, those donors were privy to campaign messaging even as you seeded some of it into ongoing efforts to begin introducing constituents to the needs (i.e., the why for your campaign). Now it’s time to incorporate campaign messaging into all of your efforts through an omnichannel approach. This is the prime time to use data to develop donor personas to further customize messaging and outreach. Enewsletters, magazines, print and digital ads, videos, social posts, event remarks, and onboarding for new staff and board members should also feature campaign language and philanthropic opportunities.
3. Provide toolkits for fundraisers and campaign volunteers.
Spreading the message far and wide is an all-hands on deck effort. Equipping your campaign champions for success means providing them with the resources they need to deliver key messaging, articulate impact, and celebrate important milestones. A well-built toolkit should:
- Be hosted in a central, easy-to-use location.
- Be tailored for selected groups (i.e., fundraisers, board members, campaign volunteers, and staff such as hospital leadership, deans/department heads, or the annual giving team).
- Include clear expectations for utilization (e.g., how often to like/share posts, when to use templates, how to use email messages or conversation starters).
- Include elements such as:
- Case for support (full and executive summary).
- PowerPoint overview presentation.
- Email template/header (with instructions on how to use).
- Conversation starters.
- Story bank.
- Shareable social media content.
Aside from social media content they can post, provide campaign champions with regular email messages they can use to send to their donors and friends, customizing as appropriate to suit their needs.
And remember, to optimize their use of the toolkit, send your champions a regular communication (e.g., a monthly email) to direct them to particular items in the toolkit they can use or to highlight new content that is available.
4. Create a drumbeat of content to carry the campaign forward.
A campaign that has gone public affords you the ability to integrate its messaging and branding throughout all of your touchpoints with your key constituents. To ensure the campaign stays top of mind with those who have already made gifts and those yet to do so, ensure that you are intentionally incorporating the campaign into appeals, the annual report, and event remarks while sharing news, updates on giving, and impact stories to keep the campaign at the forefront as you drive progress towards completing the campaign. If there’s a communication opportunity, take advantage of it to reinforce the campaign’s importance and inspire support.
Your content calendar should be updated to ensure you’re providing regular campaign updates and storytelling moments throughout the remainder of the campaign. And your media outreach should include media pitches and interviews, op-eds, and press releases related to campaign milestones and impact, while your social media amplification should focus on regular posts, stories, and shareable content. Your success will be maximized if you get board members and the campaign volunteers to engage with your content (liking and sharing) with their spheres of influence.
5. Develop a community engagement plan to expand reach and visibility.
A community engagement plan can be an important component of a public campaign, helping to build campaign awareness and eventually generate donations by reaching the broadest possible audiences. Build a plan that identifies and prioritizes high-impact opportunities—local events, sponsorships, matching grants, or partnerships—that align with your brand and goals. Start with the opportunities your team and budget can support now and then expand as the campaign progresses. These efforts will broaden exposure for the campaign and help you reach additional audiences you are trying to connect with and engage.
Driving to the Finish Line
Fundraising and communicating throughout an entire campaign can be challenging, especially given the length of some campaigns today. Planning at every stage is essential for staying focused, being strategic, and driving results. Otherwise, you may find yourself—and your campaign—adrift. As French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry once said, “A goal without a plan is just a wish.” Wishful thinking won’t sustain your campaign’s visibility and drive it across the finish line. You can seize the momentum from publicly launching your campaign and keep it in the spotlight. Doing so requires intentionality, maintaining internal enthusiasm for the campaign, and a persistent drumbeat of fresh content delivered through myriad touchpoints—right up until you and your supporters are celebrating the success of the campaign.
