{"id":2860,"date":"2014-03-31T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-03-31T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/?p=2860"},"modified":"2024-05-08T17:47:59","modified_gmt":"2024-05-08T17:47:59","slug":"authentic-crowdfunding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/blog\/authentic-crowdfunding\/","title":{"rendered":"4 Ways to Be Authentic in Crowdfunding"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cFake! Fake! Fake!\u201d is what they\u2019ll call you if you don\u2019t focus on telling authentic stories when fundraising online.<\/p>\n<p>You have to give your readers a memorable experience with authentic content. If not \u2013 they\u2019re not going to donate, contribute, or support your project.<\/p>\n<p>Here are four ways you can be authentic in your online fundraising or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/crowdfunding\/\">crowdfunding<\/a> campaigns.<\/p>\n<h2>1. Tell authentic stories<\/h2>\n<p>No matter how pragmatic and bullet-list-loving we are, everyone is drawn to stories. Stories connect us to each other because they <a href=\"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/blog\/2013\/08\/12\/making-audiences-care\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">convey common emotions and challenges<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>You can never go wrong with storytelling \u2013 it is the main currency in being authentic.<\/p>\n<h2>2. Make non-financial asks<\/h2>\n<p>This is especially helpful for people who want to do more than give money. Sometimes people want to support you by donating, other times, they want to support you by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/blog\/2011\/11\/08\/how-to-get-your-donors-to-take-action\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">taking action<\/a> (which can be even more valuable than <a href=\"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/donation-page\/\">donations<\/a>!)<\/p>\n<p>Here are a few examples of non-financial asks:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Invite specific donors or supporters to volunteer their time to a task force of their interest or expertise.<\/li>\n<li>Ask supporters to volunteer for an event<\/li>\n<li>Recruit help with large tasks<\/li>\n<li>Invite supporters and donors to attend relevant training<\/li>\n<li>Ask donors or supporters to provide a training session to staff that\u2019s it their field of expertise<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The closer donors and supporters can get to the work, the more authentic the experience.<\/p>\n<h2>3. Create ambassadors<\/h2>\n<p>Ambassadors champion your cause and organization. This is the best pay-it-forward you could ask for.<\/p>\n<p>People who believe in your mission and participate in your cause are most likely to share it with their friends.<\/p>\n<p>Their firsthand experience with your cause is an undeniable source of passion, and the support of potential advocates and undiscovered donors will be fueled by it.<\/p>\n<p>Again &#8211; creating something authentic, something memorable.<\/p>\n<h2>4. Humanize your team<\/h2>\n<p>Make a video of each staff person rather than doing a write-up about them for your website. Have them speak about their passion for the work \u2013 or their hope for the future of the organization.<\/p>\n<p>Authenticity gets results so go ahead and stimulate your audience through real videos, stories, interactive graphics, and various opportunities. Chances are it will be more <i>memorable<\/i> than content alone.<\/p>\n<p>What do you do to be authentic? We\u2019d love to hear your thoughts!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cFake! Fake! Fake!\u201d is what they\u2019ll call you if you don\u2019t focus on telling authentic stories when fundraising online. You have to give your readers a memorable experience with authentic content. If not \u2013 they\u2019re not going to donate, contribute, or support your project. Here are four ways you can be authentic in your online [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"acf":[],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Team CauseVox","author_link":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/author\/teamcausevox\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2860","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\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2860\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}