Fundraising during coronavirus right now seems like a mission doomed to fail. News about overseas donations to Israel in the coming year are more than discouraging. Our donors are distracted and many are out of work, or working, but facing an uncertain future. Most people seem to be tightening their belts now more than ever.
Can non-COVID related organizations fundraise successfully now?
JGive, the online crowdfunding platform, announced that compared with last year’s data, people are actually giving more at this time! 40% more. Clearly, people are indeed digging deep to support social welfare initiatives.
Can other organizations succeed in fundraising after coronavirus? A Case Study:
Here’s a case study of a fundraising campaign held at the beginning of May that I absolutely loved and whose tactics can help Israeli campaigns succeed as well.
Seed is a much-loved Jewish outreach organization established nearly forty years ago. In fact they were coming up to a big 40th anniversary dinner when the COVID-19 crisis hit. More about that later.
They strengthen UK Jewish families with positive Jewish encounters via varied informal experiences and formal Jewish study opportunities. They’re all about “chavayot” i.e. experiences to share Jewish life, rich with learning and values with each other and our families. Their mission is “to provide life tools for Jewish families.”
While not your typical COVID-relief organization, their families needed them now more than ever. So not only did an organization known for Shabbatonim, Sunday family days, and “Babies and Bagels” pivot services from HQ to Zoom, they had to get that balance right, pretty fast, because families were relying on their “support in both practical and spiritual matters to get them through this crisis.”
Within days of closing their doors they launched Seed online, with a veritable Alexandrian library of choices for the British Jewish family to peruse at home, in pajamas. This took investment in time, finances, and tech structure. To top that off, they had to cancel their 40th anniversary gala dinner.
They decided to proceed with the fundraiser and set the target at £600,000 to continue connecting, inspiring and educating UK Jewish families.
Let’s be honest, it was a tough call. We are all oysgezoomt, zoomed out, and over exposed to zoom. Done and dusted. Anything that one produces has to rival NetFlix and social media to hold our attention.They needed to pull off real connection and engagement despite their low-tech production capabilities, the audiences’ fuzzled brains and not being able to work the room.
Power on the Hour was born. April 23, they announced their campaign would proceed as a matched online campaign without the gala dinner, and they revealed a goody basket of live streams in store for viewers at home.
A 30-hour campaign was publicized with short, bite-size sessions for all the family to enjoy, using their beloved home-grown educators hosting international speakers, celebrities and even children’s entertainers.
All the Brits had to do was sign on for large medicinal doses of pure enjoyment and glimpses of the pre-Coronavirus Seed world.
Strategy: All donations tripled by foundations who love them and 166 family teams who have participated in their programming in the last 40 years.
Seed recognized who and what they are and what their families needed. They raised money doing what they actually do!
They’re about communicating relevant and down-to-earth Judaism with fun, vitality and passion. That’s what they brought to people’s screens. They brought personalities that people already loved — the audience would have felt ridiculously guilty for not turning up — and matched them with personalities from across the Jewish world that they wanted to meet and hear. They told stories, they reminisced, they interviewed, they blew bubbles, they swapped jokes. They provided CONNECTION in a time of isolation.
They chatted with well-known personalities including: Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein (South Africa); Rabbi Paysach Krohn — renowned author and lecturer; Charlie Harary – American investor and motivational speaker; Singer Shloime Gertner; Rebbetzen Tzipporah Heller; Leah Kaufman, Holocaust survivor and public speaker; Rabbi YY Rubinstein, author and international lecturer; Ilana Yahav, sand artist; Beattie Deutsch, winner of Jerusalem and Tiberias marathons; Steve Gar, counter terrorism expert; as well as a variety of popular children’s entertainers, illusionists and comedians.
They even threw in a virtual tour of Jerusalem to hit the spot for so many viewers at home, cooped up, dreaming of vacation in Israel.
After what must have been an exhausting pivot and planning process, these two days paid off and they raised £910,000+ from 3391 donors!!
Successful fundraising by a non-social welfare organization that can be looked to as a model for successful fundraising after COVID. Kol hakavod Seed.
So can you run a successful fundraiser now after coronavirus? Depends on how much love you can muster from your community, and how hard you work really. As always. Learn more in this post about effective donor communication during and after the COVID-19 crisis.
