A Short Guide to a Successful Campaign

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The goal of your campaign page is to turn visitors into donors. Make sure that a visitor to your campaign page would understand exactly who you are, what you are raising money for and why it is important to do. Someone who reads your campaign description (and watches your video if you have one) should have a very clear understanding of:

• What you are raising money for.
• Who you are.
• Why it is important to do what you want to do.
• Why it is important to do it now.
• Why you are the right person / organization to do this.
• How you are going to use the funds to do what you want to do.

Some examples campaigns with great descriptions:

Proudly support Israel and fight the BDS movement with the ibox
Life-Saving Medication for 8yo Lital (Phase 2)
Let’s add Jewish learning to fun kids crafts, delivered from Israel throughout the year!
Join Bible Raps in cultivating new Virtual Workshop Providers

Images in your Description:

A well designed campaign page with a description that incorporates pictures and keeps visitors engaged will raise more donations than one with an only text-based description. Think about how to incorporate pictures in your description to complement the descriptions and “drive home” your message. Think about how to use the images in a smart way that strengthen what you say with text and don’t overuse it to a point that it distracts the reader from getting the right information.

Campaign Photo

Your campaign photo is extremely important. If you do not use a video pitch, it would appear at the top of your campaign page and will be the first thing visitors to your campaign page will see. Whether you have a video or not, this image will also be used as the thumbnail of your campaign when it is shared on social media (for example, when shared on Facebook). Think about how to use the combination of your campaign image, the title and the tagline to attract people to read more about your campaign.

Some general advice regarding images:

• Use high quality images (read the instructions on our platform). Nothing is worse than pixelated images (low resolution). Your campaign photo ideal size is 1200×628 pixels and description images should be at least 800 pixels wide.
• Do not use images with lots of text in them, put the text in the description and use the images to strengthen your description.
• It is highly advised to use a graphic designer if you can afford one or if you know a good friend with some great design skills. A great set of images goes a long way to help you raising more money.

Here are some examples of campaigns that use images in their description in a great way:

Proudly support Israel and fight the BDS movement with the ibox
Life-Saving Medication for 8yo Lital (Phase 2)
Let’s add Jewish learning to fun kids crafts, delivered from Israel throughout the year!
Join Bible Raps in cultivating new Virtual Workshop Providers

Use this tutorial to embed images in your campaign.

Our experience shows that campaigns with a video pitch raise more money than campaigns without one. Video is more engaging which means that you have a better chance of keeping a visitor on your campaign page and get your message across and thus a better chance of turning them into a donor. A video pitch also means that you seem more serious to visitors (a.k.a potential donors) about raising the money you need and finally, strangers (people who you do not know personally) have a chance to know who they donate to.

A video pitch does not have to be done professionally (like this one). You can create a great video pitch with very little experience and no professional equipment (like this one). Having an amateur video is better than not having one. However, you should always follow the next few suggestions:

• Make it short (it should not be longer than 3 min).
• Make it clear (follow the same advice as for the description above)
• Make it personal, show yourself and speak from the heart. People want to know who they are donating to.
• Make it visually interesting (make sure you do not just speak to the camera for 5 min). Use props and if you can, use slides and interesting transitions.
• Mention a few of your contribution levels (read more about them below) and be clear how they are opportunities to take part in what you want to do.
• Write a script and practice it. Try it (in writing) on friends and family and see what they think. Don’t “wing it”… this time you spend now will pay off with more donations.
• Audio is extremely important. Make sure that people can hear you clearly (turn off fans/AC and test it).
• Do not forget to end the video with “the ask”. Don’t beg for money, but make it clear this is a call to action to support something amazing.

Lastly and very important:

• Make the video about an opportunity to be part of something amazing and not just asking for money. People respond better to this message and tend to share it more with friends.

Here are more examples of some great video pitches:

Ruach Rock: They Tried To Get Us, We Won, Let’s Eat!
Support Emek Kosher Comics for Kids by Kids
Jerusalem Center for Young Adults with Autism
Help underprivileged children celebrate their birthday

People that know you do not need a lot of convincing to donate, however, if you want strangers to donate to you, you must create trust between you and your campaign visitors. A great way to do that is to provide them with other ways to connect with you and learn about you (or your organization) by providing links to your website, social media, media about you and your activity, etc.

You can do so in your profile (where you should connect external links about you and/or your organization) and in your campaign page (where you should connect external links about your initiative or cause).

If you have examples of significant media that was written about you (newspapers and/or blogs) you should include those in your description (we recommend at the end).

Think of your contribution levels as ways to give people an opportunity to be part of your project. People are not coming to your campaign page to “buy” a T-shirt or receive some reward. You are making a difference in the community and the contribution levels should be various ways of getting to be part of the circle of people that are truly part of causing this difference. Great crowdfunding campaigns are less about “they are the donors and you are the creator” and more about “we are all doing it together”. Think creatively how to truly make your donors feel ownership and responsibility for the success of your campaign and then your project.

A couple of simple tips:

• Start your contributions at $5 or $10 to allow people that just want to show support to be able to do so. It might not add much to your total, but if you make them feel special (see later section about engagement), they will share your campaign with others.
• Have 4-5 levels between 0 and $100.
• Use multiples of $18, it might be cheesy, but it works.
• Our data shows that you would get the most number of donations around the $36 level but the contribution level that would bring you the most amount of money is around $100. Keep that in mind when designing the levels.
• Spend time browsing other successful campaigns to get some ideas.
• Try not to have too many levels such that people would not even bother to read them.
• Put some effort into the description of the contribution levels, saying “thank you” might not be engaging enough.

Visitors to your campaign are considering donating to it (if you made it clear). You must make sure that your campaign projects honesty and trust or people would pass along. Your profile is where you answer:

• Who is behind this campaign?
• Why are these the right people to execute this project with my (the donor’s) money?

We highly recommend to show a picture of the people behind this campaign (you can even go further and show the team like in this campaign’s description) and provide personal information.

At the end of the day, you are asking strangers for money. Do not make it easy for them to say “nah” by skiping on a great profile.

Most people who run a crowdfunding campaign for the first time think that the goal amount depends on the idea or cause behind the campaign. That is only partially true, in reality, the amount you raise depends far more on your actions than on the idea itself. Part of what we provide is the strategy behind your campaign so that you would raise more money, however, you are the one executing the plan.

The factors you should consider in choosing your goal amount:

• The amount you actually need and the amount that makes sense. For example, if you are looking to publish a music CD, you probably need around $10,000. If you set the goal at $50,000 for example, it would not make sense to people that visit it.
• The amount of time you can spend on the campaign. Crowdfunding requires time or everyone would be doing it. If you run your campaign well and follow our advice, you will find that it is about $200-$300 per hour which is a great return on your time.
• The initial circle of funders you can have. We recommend to start every campaign by contacting people personally and avoid social media (or newsletter lists). You should reach about 1/5 of your goal from this circle of friends and family. You could sit down and estimate how much money you can raise from this list (as you know them and you should make the list anyways). That can also give you an indication of the final goal amount you should aim for.
• Your current reach. After you contact all your personal contacts, it is time to use social media and any email lists you can use. We estimate that about 2%-5% of those people typically contribute and the average amount they contribute is $35.
• Influencers that join your cause. Influencers are people in the community who have a large reach (e.g. many friends on facebook, followers on twitter, or blog readers). If you know some that are willing to support your cause by sharing it, you can count that as your reach in the calculation above.

Over the years, we have developed a calculator that can help you get started on estimating the right amount for you, you can find it here. Our experts are happy to discuss with you all aspects of your campaign and figure out with you what amount you should put in your campaign page. Do not hesitate and contact us.

Common advice (in Jewcer and outside) is to have a 30 to 45 days campaign. We typically recommend that you spend your first 7-10 days on your “soft launch” (read about it here) and the rest of the days on your campaign publicly.

Generally, yes, it is better to have a shorter campaign than longer one because people get “tired” of hearing about the campaign, however, if you build your strategy right and slowly roll it out, starting first with close friends and family, then social media and later on “friends of”, then it can be longer. In addition, it also depends on the amount of time you have that you can spend on the campaign (for example, weekly).

However, every project is unique and if you want more personalized advice on your campaign length, please email us at help@jewcer.com. You may also want to try our calculator here which will show you the relationship between your goal amount and other parameters such as the time you can spend weekly on it.

9 out of 10 successful campaigns on Jewcer that we surveyed told us that they were using some sort of a plan for their campaign. This should not come to you as a surprise (unless you think that a crowdfunding campaign can run on its own). Our advice to you is:

• Use a calendar for your campaign. If you have a team (you should), use a shared calendar (such as Google calendar).
• Create a list of tasks between the team members and use a shared list (for example, use Wunderlist)
• Plan ahead for the launch and prepare your media and lists in advance.
• The middle of your campaign period is always a “slump” (your team is tired and your friends and family are tired of hearing about the campaign). Think creatively in advance what you can do to “energize” everyone. A great example is some real life event to thank your local donors, friends and family.
• Plan ahead for some updates in your campaign for your supporters, you can create most of the content for it in advance.

The success of most campaigns can be predicted by the way it is launched and gains early momentum.

If you followed the advice in the previous section, you have now spent a considerable amount of time on your campaign and you are eager to tell the world about your campaign and start getting donations.

Rule #1: There is no such thing as “the ideal day/time to launch a campaign”.

The best day/time for you to launch your campaign is when you are ready to implement the advice in this section.

Rule #2: Start with personal outreach

You know the phrase “no one likes to be the first one on a dance floor”? Same applies to crowdfunding. You might have the urge to post about your campaign on social media, but our experience shows us is the worst thing you can do. Before you launch your campaign, prepare a list of people that you know and you think would support your campaign. Then, once your campaign is live, reach out to each one of them individually and personally and get as many of them to donate, any amount. You should continue doing this until you have at least 50 contributions (100 if you are trying to raise more than $10,000). The harsh truth is that if you cannot get your friends and family to support your campaign, strangers will definitely not support it.

What we describe here is the short version of the “Launch List Method”. If you want your campaign to succeed, you should read it carefully and follow it.

The two principles that you should keep in mind are:

Principle #1: The less you know someone, the more effort it would take to get them to support your cause.
Principle #2: The more support you can show, the easier it is to convince others

This is why you should start with personal outreach, individually, to people that you know well before you use social media that might reach people that do not know you well and without earlier support would not be easily convinced to support you.

If you followed the “Launch List Method”, you should have 50-100 donors at this stage. The best way to “go public” is to contact them all, thank them and get as many of them as possible to share the campaign on social media along with you. Now, that is a BANG!

Facebook Groups
A great way to reach many people is to post about your campaign in Facebook groups that are discussing topics related to your campaign (for example, if you are a musician and looking to raise money on Jewcer for an album, a group about “Jewish music” would be a great one to post in). Make sure that you read the groups’ rules and don’t spam the group. Make sure that you add to the conversations in the group and not annoying the members.

“Influencers” are those people that have a large following and can reach a large number of people with relative small effort (compared to an ordinary person). It can be famous people, it can be experts in some field, it can be a person that operates a successful blog or a popular facebook page. Within our community, a rabbi can be an influencer. At the same time, general media such as blogs, newspapers and online news sources are considered influencers as they could have a large reach.

If you have any personal connections to influencers, use them wisely. If not, and you plan to contact people in hopes they will share your campaign (you should), be sure to read and understand the following:

Influencers are not looking to make your campaign go viral, they want to report something that is already viral.

In other words, you have very little chance of an influencer (that you do not know personally) to share your campaign before you proved first that it is very popular (i.e. you raised large support on your own).

When someone decides to donate to your campaign, you should see it as the middle of a conversation (the beginning was telling them about your cause, whether directly or through the campaign page), not the end. Our system allows you to write a thank-you note that is sent along with the receipt to every donor but if you want to reach more people (new donors), your current donors are your best asset.

• Spend time thanking your donors directly and personally (definitely the bigger donors).
• Reach out and learn how people found your campaign (it might give you some ideas how to reach more).
• Update your donors how your campaign and project are going, they showed you very clearly they are invested in it.
• reach out and share your plans for the campaign with your donors.

The more you make your donors feel part of the process, the more they will feel that your success is their success and share it with others. A $5 donor with hundreds of friends on social media can end up bringing your campaign thousands of dollars if you make them feel like part of the project.

Consider your campaign page as a conversation tool with potential donors and those that already donated. In some cases, visitors come a few times to your campaign before they decide to donate. Think of ways to add more content and keep the campaign page feel and look fresh and vibrant, rather than a static page that sites there and waiting. You can accomplish this by:

• Introducing new (and exciting) contribution levels in the middle of your campaign.
• Posting updates to your campaign page with news and announcements to your donors and to visitors.
• If you reached your goal and want to raise more, add a “stretched goal” which is a statement of what more would you do if you raise more (and state the next goal amount).

This might come to you as a surprise (we hope not), but many of the bigger successful campaigns, used some marketing funds to reach new potential donors. When you come across campaigns (on Jewcer and other platforms) that raised a considerable amount of money (over $20,000) you can safely bet that they used money to raise money, i.e. paid for exposure using paid ads on facebook or even Google. We also see many of them using paid exposure on various websites and through purchased newsletters.

We recently started offering ways for you to get more exposure for your campaign that you can see here. If you would like to consult with us on various methods to reach new audiences (both on Jewcer or outside), please do not hesitate and email us to  help@jewcer.com.