Holiday fundraising is an opportunity to inspire while raising awareness about your mission, but planning and running an effective fundraising campaign can be an intimidating undertaking, even if you’ve done it before. There’s good news though: experts in marketing, strategy, communications, IT, and more are on Taproot Plus right now, ready to share their expertise—pro bono!
Looking for some examples of holiday fundraising projects?
Our Common Pro Bono Projects Catalog: Fundraising Edition gets into the details of how you can use skilled volunteer support to strengthen your fundraising efforts. Below is a short list of ideas about how your team could collaborate with skilled volunteers to make your annual holiday giving campaign a success! We’ve arranged these Projects by how many hours of work they often take to complete. Be sure to leave an extra buffer of time to complete any time-sensitive holiday fundraising work you are planning to accomplish with a volunteer!
12-24 hours (on average) to complete:
- Fundraising Communications Plan – Your communications plan explains your goals for fundraising communications, how you’ll reach them, and how you’ll evaluate your efforts afterward.
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – People have to find you in order to donate! Work with a volunteer to improve your site’s SEO and increase organic traffic.
- Copyediting/Writing – A volunteer can help you develop compelling messaging that will resonate with your audience (and maximize donations).
- Google Ads – Take full advantage of the benefits of Google Ads—review your target audience (potential supporters) and use the right keywords that get your website noticed.
- Photography/Videography – Clear, powerful imagery can really elevate your fundraising appeal! Start projects like these well in advance so you can use the visuals effectively throughout your campaign.
24-48 hours (on average) to complete:
- Business Planning – Work with an experienced business planner to create a business plan that ensures your fundraising goals match your program and operations expenses.
- Public Relations (PR) Plan – Get people talking about you in the best possible way! A plan like this lays out your organization’s PR goals and strategies to achieve those objectives.
- Key Message Development – Use well-crafted key messages to target specific audiences, highlight your unique impact, and make calls-to-action for supporters.
- Stakeholder Research – Find out who your fundraiser’s target audience should be and the best way to reach them—then you can use these details to make better-informed decisions.
- Social Media Strategy – Social media is a great way to reach larger audience! A volunteer can work with you to design a strategy and create content to share.
- Graphic Design – Great design can capture supporters’ attention, so work with a volunteer designer to make marketing materials that highlight your mission and impact.
36-72 hours (on average) to complete:
- Project Management – Implementing project management systems for your work can help you effectively complete fundraising campaigns on time and on budget.
- Marketing Plan – Your marketing plan defines your outreach throughout the year—fundraising campaigns are strongest when tied into that overall strategy. Begin this project well in advance of any fundraiser for the most effective results.
- Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Optimization – Optimizing your CRM database gives you an efficient way to build relationships and track your new and existing supporters.
- Website Design – Your fundraising campaign is going to bring lots of traffic to your site—work with a website design expert to optimize the layout, appearance, and content! Begin this project well in advance to effectively boost your fundraising efforts.
Fundraising Pro Bono in Action: Unity Parenting & Counseling
When Unity Parenting & Counseling started a digital content strategy project with a Taproot volunteer for their art programs in 2017, they hadn’t planned on focusing on fundraising. Then their youth emergency shelter was struck by a serious fire.
“Our skilled volunteer immediately pivoted focus right along with us and threw himself into developing a GoFundMe campaign to assist our shelter in recuperating from the severe fire damage. Our volunteer’s efforts paid off; this initial social media campaign raised over $20,000 from new donors within two months.”
Their advice? “The best results come when your organization is very clear about the goals they hope to achieve from the project.”
