The results? Let’s take a look.<\/p>\n
![\"Casa](\"https:\/\/causevox.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/casa-congo-cv-1024x563.png\")
<\/p>\n
Campaign Snapshot<\/p>\n
- \n
- Amount raised (so far): $19,290<\/li>\n
- Fundraising staff: Casa Congo\u2019s team of 13 people all pitched in<\/li>\n
- Duration: 3 months<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
About Casa Congo<\/h2>\n
El Astillero is only a few miles from Chacocente, one of the largest fragments of tropical dry forest left on earth. Casa Congo aims to conserve and protect Astillero\u2019s natural areas and ecosystems. By empowering locals to create sustainable assets from the natural resources around them, Casa Congo promotes conservation and communities.<\/p>\n
The School of Conservation will be a meeting point for the community, as well as home to Casa Congo\u2019s programs. \u201cOur vision is to create a knowledge center where different cultures from all over the world can come together to learn skills, share ideas, and have an active hand in sustainable development,\u201d says Lily Keenan, Art and Media Director. \u00a0The school will be Central America\u2019s first-ever 100% sustainable bamboo structure.<\/p>\n
As Casa Congo prepared for their first public fundraising campaign to raise $20,000 towards the project, the team knew they needed a fundraising platform that would allow them to tell their story, operate globally, and offered the flexibility they needed. They launched their campaign with CauseVox.<\/p>\n
Nonprofit Crowdfunding: The Power is in Your Community<\/h2>\n
Casa Congo\u2019s campaign demonstrates just how far the influence of your community can take you. Literally. Thanks to the power of the internet, donations came in from all over the world to help fund their nonprofit crowdfunding campaign.<\/p>\n
The organization is registered in Canada, but the team has networks in Nicaragua, Canada, Australia, Rome, and England. \u201cWe really needed a platform that was flexible, and would allow us to tell our story creatively and with a maximum impact,\u201d said Keenan.<\/p>\n
One of the fundraising challenges the organization faced was logistical: processing payments. \u201cLast year, our programs were funded by private donations from family and friends,\u201c said Keenan. \u201cThis required a lot of face-to-face conversations, and coordination via email and international money transfers!\u201d<\/p>\n
They knew a fundraising platform would streamline their campaign. \u201cWe decided that Causevox was the best service to go with as it allows us to keep whatever we raise, has flexible monthly plan options and allows the fundraising campaign to be managed by different funders at once,\u201d said Keenan.<\/p>\n
The Keys To Casa Congo\u2019s Success<\/h2>\n
How did such a new organization have so much success with their very first public campaign? They concentrated on three important things:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Compelling content<\/li>\n
- Personal connections<\/li>\n
- Social media<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\u201cOur mission involves showcasing the unique value that protected environments hold, and foregrounding the resilience of the communities we work with,\u201d says Keenan. Casa Congo was joined by videographer and photographer Tim Nathan, who spent a month making videos and taking pictures in Astillero. \u201cVideos are a powerful communication tool, Tim\u2019s video content has been the spearhead of our fundraising campaign,\u201d said Keenan.<\/p>\n
A peer-to-peer fundraising campaign<\/a> relies on your community’s networks, and the Casa Congo team went above and beyond to cultivate theirs. \u201cEach of our team members compiled a list of potential and existing donors in their network and wrote a personal letter explaining our Conservation School campaign,\u201d said Keenan. She credits this personal connection with helping the campaign stand out among causes and helping the fundraisers to convey their passion truly. \u201cSome of our biggest donations were achieved through personal communication such as this,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Casa Congo has been very intentional about their social media presence. \u201cSocial media is absolutely key,\u201d said Keenan. \u201cThis means not only having great visual content but also maintaining a consistent and engaging conversation online. Our Social Media Specialist Mattia does a great job at growing our social media community, engaging with people who align with our sustainability values.\u201d<\/p>\n
Casa Congo has been active on social media for less than a year but has already attracted almost 4,000 followers. They promoted the campaign with educational videos and visual content and shared milestones with their social media followers.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s Only The Beginning<\/h2>\n
These conservationists aren\u2019t slowing down. In addition to building their school,\u00a0 future plans include cultivating and educating supporters around the world. \u201cWe are looking into holding more awesome events in our team countries all over the world, really highlighting the creative element of our organization and spreading the word in a fun way,\u201d said Keenan.<\/p>\n
They\u2019ll keep their campaign conversations going by thanking their donors. Every donor will receive a t-shirt or an art print from one of the team\u2019s artists, and a personal thank you note. All donors are invited to visit Nicaragua.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s great to see the support pour in from all over the world,\u201d said Keenan, \u201cOur focus may be in Nicaragua, but we feel that conservation is a globally unifying goal.\u201d<\/p>\n
We can\u2019t wait to see the School of Conservation in action, and to watch Casa Congo grow!<\/p>\n
Click here to learn more about CauseVox and how our tools can help you simplify and grow your online fundraising.<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Casa Congo is a new organization that seeks to empower communities through conservation. Tourism can be a blessing and a curse to developing areas. It can improve local economies but often devastates local ecology. A sustainable approach to development protects both people and the planet. This year Casa Congo will begin construction on their School […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":51271,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article"],"acf":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Casa-Congo-600x400.jpg","featured_image_src_square":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Casa-Congo-600x425.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"Olivia Hosey","author_link":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/author\/ohosey\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10459\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}