Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Fundraising is fundamentally the empowerment of your organization’s constituents to raise money on your behalf. Sometimes identified as Independent Fundraising Events (IFE) it’s similar to a traditional peer-to-peer model of fundraising. Your organization and team provide the tools for constituents to fundraise for your mission, but the DIY part allows flexibility for a supporter whereas typical run/walk/bike event might not have. They can be creative with the type of event they manage and do something that is personal and more aligned with their lifestyle.
Large-scale run and walk events, while still impactful revenue streams for several organizations, are not seeing large year-over-year growth in new donors and participants. DIY events offer a way for your most enthusiastic supporters to get involved and raise money to fulfill your organization’s mission. The bonus of this structure is that it has limited extra work put on your existing staff. As long as you have a point person for communication and constituent support, the constituent can drive the success of their own event. The participant, not the nonprofit, manages their event.
Two great examples of organizations that support successful DIY events for their constituents are The Humane Society’s “My Humane” campaign that encourages you to “Save Animals Your Way” and St. Baldrick’s Foundation “Do What You Want” fundraising campaign. Both campaigns follow three simple steps to ensure success for their supporters.
- Give ideas, but let the creativity flow. It’s always good to provide inspiration and ideas for people to follow, but encourage them to use their imagination and personalize their fundraising efforts. By providing a list of ideas like donating your birthday parties, hosting a neighborhood tag football match or a car wash, you will inspire people to find their inner, personal fundraising event.
- Make it easy to manage. On your website, provide a simple step-by-step guide on how your supporter can set up, manage and be successful in their fundraising event. Invest in a user-friendly DIY/P2P platform to manage fundraising efforts and provide resources (email templates, social media content, etc.) to coach them through their fundraising journey.
- Provide staff support to constituents as needed. Adding a DIY fundraising experience to your existing fundraising plan shouldn’t add a lot of strain to your existing team, however, you will want to have a dedicated resource available to manage any supporter questions and offer support as needed.
By following these three steps, you can ensure you will have a successful DIY fundraising arm within your organization. If you would like to talk to a Kimbia representative to review our P2P fundraising products and get started with DIY giving, please email us at info@kimbia.com or request a demo!