2018 Year-End Fundraising Campaign

STRATEGY

Showcasing invertebrates’ ecosystem services on Giving Tuesday got us off to a strong start.

The fundraising team was the main driving force behind the structure and strategy of this campaign. However, I got to stretch my wings with a series of Giving Tuesday posts that I built from the concept up. I decided to focus on the various gifts that invertebrates provide us every day. They pollinate our crops, they enrich our lives with beauty and wonder, and they provide us with clean water (thanks to filter feeding creatures like freshwater mussels). By giving to the Xerces Society, our donors were actually giving themselves—and the world—a gift too! They were ensuring that these important aspects of our lives can continue in perpetuity.

Framing the campaign in this way was not only compelling, it was tactical. When you focus solely on what donors can give to your cause, that narrows your potential pool of supporters to people with high levels of altruism, and who are already committed to your organization. It’s great to honor those folks, but it is not strategic to lean on them to the exclusion of other potential donors. Showing your audiences what they can gain by supporting your cause is more effective—both in the short term and over time. By teaching them about the many valuable contributions invertebrates offer the world, you create a whole community of micro-influencers who can then educate their networks, and keep the campaign growing!