Team fundraising is a creative fundraising tactic that helps to engage donors, volunteers, and supporters by encouraging a feeling of “togetherness”. Creating teams to fundraise for your cause can be exciting and fun for supporters and can produce that same sense of camaraderie that athletes on a sports team may have during a perfect season with playoffs on their minds. It can awaken the competitor inside of your supporters and fuel their fundraising spirits as they raise money to support your cause.
The members of their teams can vary, too, keeping it inclusive to all. Anyone who would like to join in on the fun or who your team leaders want to invite to join can. For instance, your team leaders can recruit their family members, friends, co-workers, volunteers, and more to join.
This blog will cover six best practices to add to your team fundraising strategy and efforts.
#1 Include Everyone with Participants and Teams
There are also multiple options you can pursue when hosting an event or fundraiser with team fundraising. The first is promoting participation. When you have participants, either as individuals or within a team they create, they will either sign themselves up or sign their team up for the fundraiser. The fundraising team can then spread the word right from the Team’s fundraising webpage, using social media to spread awareness and gain support. There's also word of mouth, where team members can utilize their contacts to raise awareness and money and take advantage of the Tell a Friend feature.
Furthermore, fundraisers can also choose to join as an individual or independent participants. With the team fundraiser model, there are options for everyone. Whether someone decided to sign up with or without other people, they can join the fundraiser.
The team concept takes the pressure off everyone involved. Instead of one person doing the heavy lifting, everyone relies on one another to boost awareness and raise funds. The team aspect also gives space for others to encourage one another and throw out ideas for raising money. Not only that, but the team's concept also makes the fundraising more social. Team members have the group to interact with and work together, making it more fun.
#2 Increase Competition Among the Teams with Prizes
If you are looking to ramp everyone up for the fundraiser, a great way to do that is by providing incentives. One of which can be prizes. The prizes can vary from something as small as gift certificates to something as big as an iPhone. You can have the prize values increase as the teams hit milestones. For instance, the first $100 raised could come with a $5 gift card to Starbucks, while $500 raised could award the team concert tickets.
There are many different options for prizes out there, but some ideas are team dinners, concert tickets, Air Pod headphones, iPhones, a spa day, team mugs, and so on. However, the milestone-award concept isn't the only way you can utilize prizes. You can also add an extra edge to the competition by awarding the team who hits the milestone first with the prizes, rather than giving prizes to each team per milestone.
Essentially, adding prizes as an incentive can give all participants some extra motivation and increase the stakes. While many individuals and teams will be self-motivated to raise funds and spread awareness, everyone has their own schedule. But, with the prizes as an incentive, others who need more motivation will find the extra time or think outside of the box for the fundraiser.
#3 Team Fundraising Pages
To maximize the reach of the teams and each participant, it's a good idea to set up team fundraising pages. These pages can have information about the fundraising event, the teams, the cause, and more. Each team member can even add things to the pages to make them unique. With a webpage, team members can easily share a link with those who want to donate or learn more about the fundraiser.
Supporters that do not necessarily wish to participate, nor set up a personal fundraising webpage, can choose to give on a page that is a part of the Team Fundraiser. They can choose a team or a participant to support and/or sponsor.
Everyone has their own network between family, friends, colleagues, and people they might know from local clubs, organizations, hobbies, etc. Instead of explaining that they can donate to their team, they can make it easy and have the person support their team through their page. Each donation can get reflected on the team page.
The team's page is also a great addition as it shows the team members and the amount raised. Not only does the team page streamline everything, showing the information about the team, but the team page also has the total amount of donations. It can even encourage the team members to get competitive with one another and hold one another accountable.
#4 Leaderboards
Another great way to motivate the teams to raise funds is through leaderboards. A leaderboard will allow your organization to showcase the Top Teams, The Top Participants, and the Top Contributors. This extra motivation can drive other teams to think of additional creative and fun ways to get donations and raise money for your cause.
#5 Make it Easy for Donors to Help Teams
To increase the amount of money raised and increase motivation among teams, donors will be key. Donors will help the fundraiser raise more money for the organization or cause by donating directly. The donor option is perfect for those who do not want to participate but who also want to help the fundraiser. Donors can also get involved minimally by supporting a team and helping them win prizes and raise money.
You can have the option for donors to enter an individual's name, team name, or both when they donate. That way, the team can get credit for the donation. This credit and the money can go towards the competition for prizes, etc. To boost the presence of the fundraiser on social media platforms, you can even opt to have there be a link to each team's page. Each team member can share the link on their social media and encourage those who follow them or interact with them to donate.
By having donors allowed, you're almost always guaranteed to raise more money. Not everyone wants to or can participate in the actual fundraising event, but many people will be more than happy to donate to their loved ones participating or simply donate to support the cause or organization. With the donor option, people can also choose how much they want to donate. Everything from $1 to $100 is welcome.
#6 Acknowledge and Thank Donors from the Past and Present
If you have a company, organization, or individual constantly supporting your fundraisers, be sure to recognize them or thank them. If you are having an event, you can do this by having a banner or promotion if they are a business or organization. If they are an individual, you can call them up on stage or give them a shout-out.
If the event is not an in-person event and rather virtual or hybrid, you can give them a shout-out online. This shout-out can get done through social media, a newsletter, or posting about the donor on the foundation's website. The goal is to make the recurring or new donor feel appreciated. Their donation, no matter how big or small, makes an impact.
By going the extra mile to thank these donors you form a relationship with them. They might even feel inclined to support the organization in the future and donate again. There could even be opportunities for further partnership or sponsorship in the future. In these situations, they can sponsor your events and vice versa, giving both of you more exposure.
Closing Thoughts
If you have been looking for fun and efficient ways to fundraise for your organization or cause, give team fundraisers a try. They are an important and effective way to fundraise. With the team aspect, you can reach more people, bring added awareness from the community, and raise more money now.
