You’ve put months of blood, sweat and tears into this fundraiser and you NEED it to be successful. You know that the fundraising appeal is where you are going to get the bulk of your donations for the night and you want to ensure it is set up for success! Don’t worry, I am going to walk you through how to introduce your fund-a-need so it is engaging and compelling and makes a clear call to action.
How to craft a compelling introduction to a fundraising appeal or fund-a-need.
Introduce your audience to a problem
What is the problem your organization solves? What would the world be like if your organization didn't exist? Why was your organization started? Nearly every organization begins because one person sees a problem in the world and thinks "Someone should do something about that" and looks around and realizes they are the someone that needs to take action. What is the "that" which needs to be taken care of.
Help them care about the problem
Make your guests care about the problem by making it personal. Share a story of someone you served. Share their real trials and their real struggles. What are the stories that get you out of bed every day? That is the type of story you need to share. You know why you are passionate about the work your organization does, so tell them that.
Empower them to be the solution
Share with them how you solve this problem, or how you will solve this problem. Then let them know they have the choice to determine whether or not this problem is solved. You've just spent the last few minutes (or your entire program) getting them to care about the problems your organization cares about and now it is entirely on them whether or not there is a solution. The problems your organization solves cannot be done without the generosity of your donors. Empower them to solve this problem.
Again, I will go into each of these in more detail over the next few days because they will be more valuable to you if we can talk about them in more detail, but for today I am going to talk about logistically how to convey these messages to your audience.
Who should introduce your Fundraising Appeal?
If you hired a professional auctioneer, they will conduct the ask. Whenever I conduct a fundraising appeal, I do hour upon hours of research and studying on your organization so that I know your statistics and values and services which I use throughout the ask to enhance giving, but in order to capture the soul of your organization you should have a more personal introduction before your auctioneer takes the stage. This will help you have a much more profitable fundraising appeal or fund-a-need. So who? There are a few different options that are all impactful.
This introduction should last no more than 5 minutes.
Someone within your organization
This could be your founder, president, executive director, passionate social worker, or anyone else who works within your organization day in and day out who chooses this work every single morning. If this is the angle you take, have them share a story of someone they served that refreshed their spirit and ignite passion for the work they do.
They should keep it short and inspirational. Grateful for the people they get to serve and even more grateful for the donors for sharing in their passions and allowing them to do the work they do.
Short inspirational messaging. Full of Donor gratitude.
Personal Testimonial
The fund-a-need could be introduced by someone you serve. For example. I work with Wayside House which is an addiction recovery center for women and they focus on sustainable recovery which takes much more time than any insurance provider allows. In years past, they've had women who have gone through other, less thorough, programs and had relapsed, but after they went through the program at Wayside, they had the support and tools they needed to stay clean for decades.
Not every person you serve will be brave enough to share their story in person because it is probably one of the scariest things to do, but one of them will be grateful enough to share their story so that others can experience the same success they did.
Have them write out their script for approval first. Otherwise testimonials have the habit of going really long and losing the audience.
Video
I am a huge promoter of video because a good video will draw out the emotions of your guests. You can feature testimonials AND get some inspirational words from your founder, all set to music that will make everyone cry. Then at the end there will be a very clear call to action.
I like to recommend that an organization invests in one new video every year. Have the original edit designed for the fund-a-need at your event where you will launch the video, and then have the videographer make a second video that is almost the same, but with a slightly different call to action to use on your website and social media throughout the year to inspire online giving. This allows you to be as resourceful as possible and see an increase in revenue on both platforms.
A mix of 2 or more of these
You can also mix it up throughout the program, featuring a testimonial AND an inspirational message from someone within your organization. Because you don't want to make your program run too long, you'll want to be strategic about where you share these in your program. If you can sprinkle these throughout your program and put your strongest one right before the fundraising appeal, you will have a successful and profitable night.
Every minute of your evening should be designed to build momentum up to your fundraising appeal so that when the big ask comes, your donors are ready and excited to give.
For more in depth information about how to get your guests excited to give, download my free “Fund-A-Need Framework” to help you in introducing your fundraising appeal.
