Charitable campaigns often elicit deep personal reactions, as any successful campaign really should. Unlike other promotions, such as brand awareness or marketing campaigns, social campaigns ask us to do more than pay for a good or service. We’re donating money (or time) for what is often an intangible benefit: To better the world. It can be difficult to engage most people in something that doesn’t appear to have an immediate benefit or impact on their lives.
If you’re organizing one for your community, and you want to involve as many members as possible, these three tips can help you out:
Create a story around the charitable campaign that members of your community can relate to. The story should succinctly describe the issue, why the community should care, and what members can do about it.
Be transparent about the campaign — how it started, how it’s being implemented, what the goals are, and how long it will run. Keep pushing updates to promote interest and support. It may even go viral if you make use of hashtags, like #bringbackourgirls.
You can’t be everything to everybody. Your campaign should be catchy and interesting, but not too broad. Come up with something that appeals to the majority of your community while remaining authentic to the cause. If that’s not possible, take the risk of losing some and stay true to the overall mission and vision of the campaign.
My favorite charitable campaign is Movember. The Movember social media team has managed to do a little of all three of the above in creating the campaign. The story is simple enough: A moustache (no matter how spotty or creepy) is a powerful reminder of masculinity. With witty turns of phrase, fun hashtags, and opportunities for hilarious photos, they got ladies in on it, even if it didn’t start that way.
Movember creators didn’t worry about being too overly inclusive, they stuck to what they were all about and let users generate all the fun content. Finally, the Movember team is transparent in sharing where they money goes and, most importantly, why they’re supporting each project. Bottom line: Every November, I wish I could grow a moustache to join in, but I’ll have to make due with silly little finger moustache selfies!
How have you found success in creating a charitable campaign for your community?