Band Fundraiser Timing: Why Crowdfunding Start Dates Matter

In this post, we’re going to talk about the TIMING of your crowdfunding campaign and band fundraiser, and how that relates directly to success.

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On a very basic level, your crowdfunding campaign really could take place ANYTIME, whether your chosen performing activity is IN or OUT of season. The beauty of crowdfunding is that it can take place anytime, at any place.

 

But to REALLY do it well, and to plan a campaign as a band fundraiser that fires on all cylinders – you might want to think about aligning the campaign with your season for these reasons:

  1. Strike while the iron is hottest – Since your campaign will be asking for a certain amount of effort and mindshare from your students/members, building your campaign probably ought to happen while your group is in their active rehearsal season. This will make what we call “member uptake” the most effective as you’ll have them as a captive audience for urging, reminders, etc.
  2. Don’t sleep on the ‘teambuilding’ effectWe’ve talked about gamifying the campaign process on several occasions, and to take your campaign out-of-season potentially misses out on that great benefit. It would be similar to a winter color guard trying to run a successful campaign over the summer months – it’s possible, but the job is made that much harder when the members aren’t actively rehearsing and working together on a regular basis.
  3. It’s easier to promote with more ‘stuff’ to talk about – Promotion of your campaign is key, and by having your marching band campaign take place within your competitive season will provide you with all the more fodder to use in your messaging. Recent competition scores or milestone accomplishments make great additions to your donor updates.

To that last point, when we originally tested the FansRaise platform with the Genesis Drum & Bugle Corps in March of 2017, the drum corps was still a little out-of-season, but the members were highly engaged via ongoing springtime camps and rehearsals. And since the proceeds were earmarked for covering the costs of their kitchen trailer project, the timing was necessary to get the work paid for before departing for the DCI summer tour.

FansRaise.

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