Through Christian crowdfunding, your congregation can start collecting more contributions from more inspired individuals than ever before.
Even if you’ve never heard of crowdfunding, you’ve likely already contributed to a crowdfunding campaign (or know someone who has). With these popular online ways to give, motivated supporters can contribute to fundraising campaigns or participate by becoming a fundraiser.
Because people can quickly and easily give to crowdfunding campaigns with the click of a button, churches look to crowdfunding as a way to boost tithing among their congregants and their personal networks.
Even better? Crowdfunding has the added benefit of appealing to young people who are more apt to donate online and more likely to encounter crowdfunding campaigns as they engage across social media.
Ready to get started? Let’s go over some of the most effective ways your congregation can gain a better sense of community by participating in Christian crowdfunding.
1. Choose the Right Fundraising Website Platform
While crowdfunding can be a great way for churches to raise money to support their congregation and mission, not all crowdfunding platforms are created equally.
One of the most important things to consider when starting your Christian crowdfunding campaign is the website you’ll host it on. To meet your congregation’s unique needs, be sure to select a platform that puts customization first.
Be on the lookout for some of these useful features from your church’s crowdfunding platform:
- Customized branding. The crowdfunding platform you select should allow your church to customize your fundraising page to feature elements such as your congregation’s logo, imagery, and color scheme. This way, visitors will immediately recognize that the page is associated with your church, eliminating any hesitation they might have before giving.
- Social sharing. Crowdfunding campaigns can spread like wildfire across social media, and when it comes to sharing your church’s fundraising page, you’ll want to be sure that supporters can do so seamlessly. Choose a platform that prioritizes social media sharing and optimizes your page for mobile devices.
- Low overhead. Some crowdfunding campaigns lose much of the impact of their supporters’ donations to high transaction fees collected by their host website. Be sure that your campaign is hosted by a provider with low overhead fees so that your church can make the most of your congregants’ gifts.
Bonus! Check out these top crowdfunding ideas for your next campaign!
2. Engage in Fundraising with a Purpose
One of the unique features of wishlist campaigns is that they typically work best when their timelines are limited, and fundraising is tied to a specific project or event.
When it comes to wishlist fundraising, it can be tempting for churches to set up a single campaign to collect gifts throughout the year. However, “all-purpose” fundraisers like these can quickly lose steam.
Your congregants want to know that their contributions support the church in a meaningful way, so it’s best to anchor your fundraisers around something, such as a marathon, a mission trip, or a much-needed repair project.
In doing so, there will never be any question about how gifts will be spent, which gives congregants a talking point when sharing the fundraiser with friends and family.
Bonus! Get inspired by Double the Donation’s top church fundraising ideas as your congregation decides how to kick off your first wishlist campaign.
3. Tell a Visual Story with Your Christian Fundraising Campaign
Christian fundraising is all about inspiration, and that’s one of the reasons why fundraisers like these work so well for churches.
Since fundraising pages are designed to gain traction online, your church’s campaign should be highly visual. This means you should feature compelling visual content to draw individuals to your page.
Consider some of the following content that your church can share to draw attention to your crowdfunding page:
- Congregant photos. Post photos of members of your church on your crowdfunding page. This way, your congregation will feel more involved in the campaign, and when they share the page on their social networks, it will show direct ties to your individual congregants.
- Impact videos. Inspire supporters for your crowdfunding by sharing impact videos on your church’s crowdfunding page. These videos should show visitors how your church carries out its mission in the real world and feature thankful community members whom your church has personally supported.
- Video calls-to-action. Similar to impact videos, video calls to action should motivate page visitors to give. However, these should quickly outline your church’s specific fundraising needs, how you plan to use gifts to further your mission, and show viewers how to give.
Remember: all visual content your church shares should be high quality and clearly reflect your congregation’s values. Enlist the services of a professional photographer or a talented hobbyist in your community.
4. Break into Christian Peer-to-Peer Teams
Another way your church can boost the success of your fundraising campaign is by choosing a platform that supports team peer-to-peer capabilities.
In team peer-to-peer fundraising, your church can set up teams of congregants to raise funds on its behalf. They’ll share a single giving page that updates their fundraising progress as they raise more and more for your congregation.
Crowdfunding teams offer a fun way to promote good-spirited competition among different segments of your congregation, like book clubs, youth groups, mission teams, and more.
Your congregants can share their team fundraising pages with friends and family, and at the end of your fundraising period, your church can select a “winning” team to receive a prize.
The best part of competitions like these is that, in the end, they all benefit your church and go back to supporting the mission of your congregation.
Bonus! You can also break into crowdfunding teams for projects specific to a segment of your congregants, such as funding a mission trip for teens in your church.
5. Learn From Your Crowdfunding Progress
The success of your church’s crowdfunding efforts over time will be dependent on how well you understand the wants, needs, and habits of your supporters.
For this reason, your church must resist fundraising blindly. Every time you launch a crowdfunding campaign, you need to carefully track your progress to learn valuable lessons for the future.
To monitor how your congregants engage with your crowdfunding campaign online, collecting useful data can be as simple as using a branded keyword or short link when you share your giving page via mobile marketing.
You can measure the success of certain giving appeals or track how beneficial different websites are for sharing your crowdfunding page. After collecting and evaluating data like this, your church can make more informed decisions in the future on how to crowdfund.
Remember: choose a crowdfunding platform that makes it easy to export data to a CRM (a database that manages supporter relationships). This way, you’ll always be able to improve your strategies from fundraiser to fundraiser.
6. Always Show Thanks to Your Christian Crowdfunding Supporters
Showing supporters that their contributions are meaningful to your church is one of the key ways to ensure that individuals continue to give to your congregation over time and that they feel compelled to share your fundraiser with their personal networks.
Following every gift, your church should respond with an automated thank-you email expressing your gratitude for their support. Your church truly appreciates the support these givers provide, so they must know how much their contributions mean to your congregation.
In addition, consider showing thanks to givers through these methods:
- Newsletter recognition. Set aside a special section in your newsletter to personally thank congregants who have given to and who have participated in your crowdfunding campaign between publication periods. This is a great way to encourage support within your congregation and strengthen the ties between supporters and your church.
- Share thank-you videos. Another type of visual content your church can share on your crowdfunding page is thank-you videos. Film videos expressing gratitude to givers throughout your campaign, and then encourage supporters to share these on their social media pages to help spread awareness of your congregation’s fundraising needs.
- Send post-campaign summaries. After the campaign ends, send supporters a message detailing its success. Emphasize how their gifts helped your church reach its goals and extend a personalized thank-you one more time. These messages should be delivered in person, sent via email, and mailed to reach all your supporters.
Remember: supporters will take note when your church goes the extra mile in thanking them for their support, which can come in handy when you make your next giving appeal.
7. Keep Congregants Updated on Your Christian Crowdfunding Campaign
Another way your church can successfully encourage giving from congregants is by ensuring they can keep up with your crowdfunding progress.
As your church accepts crowdfunding gifts from supporters, collect their email addresses to build subscription lists. Then, periodically send campaign updates to subscribers with information on how they can give again.
Your church can also update these subscribers with relevant news, such as when you break ground on your big repair project or when congregants leave for the mission trip you just funded.
In addition to email updates, your church should post updates on your social media profiles about your campaign progress. Share links to your donation page, and as you get closer to your goal, amp up how often you make giving appeals on social platforms.
Bonus! Looking for even more fundraising tips? Check out Double the Donation’s fundraising strategy assessment to learn where your church should focus on improving how you raise money.
8. Enable Text-To-Tithe
Text-to-tithe software is the Christian equivalent of text-to-donate software for nonprofit organizations. Enabling mobile giving for your church’s supporters can be a crucial element in making your Christian crowdfunding campaign a success.
With text-to-tithe software, your church can enable supporters to give to your crowdfunding campaign by sending a branded keyword to a mobile phone number. They’ll then be sent a link to your mobile giving page where they can give in just a few clicks.
If your congregants can give directly from their smartphones, they’re more likely to contribute to your crowdfunder. Similarly, when giving is made easier for supporters, they’ll be more compelled to share your campaign with friends and family.
Remember: since most supporters have their phones with them at all times, you can encourage congregants to give to your crowdfunder via text as you pass the collection plate around at services.
9. Suggest Recurring Gifts on Your Christian Crowdfunding Site
As supporters give to your Christian crowdfunding campaign, suggest that they opt in to recurring giving when they submit their contribution.
Your church can include a field on its giving form to specify the frequency and value of its recurring gift. This way, becoming a recurring contributor to your congregation is as seamless as possible.
For supporters who might not want to give as frequently as weekly or monthly, your form can suggest enabling recurring giving on major Christian holidays, such as Easter and Christmas.
Enabling recurring giving to your church is beneficial because it promotes a steady stream of income to your congregation. Even after your crowdfunding campaign ends, your church will continue to count on this support.
Remember: always give supporters the option of stopping their gifts at any time. This way, contributors will never feel pressured to give or hesitant to set up recurring gifts to your church.
With the right crowdfunding strategies in place, your church’s next Christian crowdfunding campaign is sure to be a huge success.
Additional Crowdfunding Resources
- Fundraising Event Ideas. Looking for more fundraising ideas for your church? Visit our fundraising event ideas page for 70+ original fundraising event concepts to get you started.
- Beginner’s Guide to Online Fundraising. New to online fundraising practices like crowdfunding? Check out our beginner’s guide to learn all you need to know about this exciting subject.
- Jewish Fundraising Ideas. Interested in fundraising ideas for synagogues? Discover even more ideas for Jewish fundraising projects.
