Why your fundraising events’ supporter journey is key to success

If you’ve worked with the Killer team before, you’ll no doubt have heard us go on about how important your supporter journey is when it comes to developing and launching a new fundraising product, but it can often be a bit of an afterthought for many charities who are more focused on the front end of campaign planning. 

Below we’ve outlined 5 reasons why we believe that stewardship is essential for campaign success. We’ll also be hosting our next Killer Zoom Room virtual session on Thursday 11th March where we’ll be digging into what ingredients make a compelling supporter journey – tickets are free but selling out fast, so get yours now!

1. Maintains the hype

A typical pitfall for many charities is investing time, money and energy into the development of a fundraising product (although don’t get us wrong, this is super important too) and expecting that once people are signed up they’ll naturally get stuck in – whether that be a bake sale, a virtual run or an abstinence challenge. Unfortunately, that isn’t always the case, especially if you’ve recruited from a cold audience. Having a strong supporter journey that starts from sign-up and gets participants hyped about taking part, including resources and tips to get started, means that the excitement and enthusiasm they had when they first saw that advert/poster/tweet isn’t forgotten quickly when the rest of life gets in the way.

2. Encourages remittance

Another reason to have a solid stewardship plan is that it means participants are more likely to actually take the steps to set up a fundraising page/method of fundraising and make an effort to get donations. Believe it or not, we’ve seen many examples in the past of clients coming to us with products where remittance and fundraising totals have been dropping off year on year and when we’ve looked into their supporter journey, the fundraising ask is almost non-existent! Never assume that participants will automatically start fundraising – your comms should regularly remind people why they’re doing what they’re doing and why funds raised are so important to you as an organisation.

3. Increases fundraising 

Similarly to the above, a well-planned supporter journey provides opportunities for you to encourage participants to reach fundraising goals and push to bring in more. Reminders of why you’re fundraising and what £XX will help the charity achieve, as well as leaderboards and incentives for hitting certain targets, are great ways to increase income from participants. From our experience, we’ve literally seen spikes in fundraising shortly after supporter comms has been sent out, so we know it has a real impact.

4. Builds connection

We’ve talked quite a bit about the importance of the supporter journey on fundraising, and that’s usually the primary objective when it comes to campaigns and events, but in most cases charities also want participants to come away with a better understanding of what the organisation does. Many fundraising campaigns, especially ones targeted at colder audiences, lead with the event or ‘product’ to generate sign ups, but we also want them to understand and care about what it is you actually do as a charity. Carefully planned stewardship allows you to weave cause messaging throughout, sharing important information, statistics and stories that will spread awareness, bring supporters closer to your cause and inspire them to keep going.

5. Encourages deeper commitment

Beyond the campaign itself, stewardship plays a big part in eliciting deeper commitment from participants. An effective, engaging supporter journey increases the likelihood that participants will go on to support you even once the campaign has finished. Ensuring that these people are nurtured afterwards could lead to them becoming repeat participants, regular givers, legacy donors and even potentially lifelong supporters – a very valuable thing indeed!

Fancy joining us and peers from over 10 charities, big and small, at the next Killer Zoom Room? Sign up here.

Want to talk to us personally to discuss how we can help you with your supporter journey? Email Louise, Client Development Manager, at louise.bryant@killercreative.co.uk