Bonfarado.org fundraising guide

Welcome to the Bonfarado.org fundraising guide

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Bonfarado’s creator often finds himself involved in local community charities and issues, helping out where he can to improve the local area. Seeing the need for help in the local community growing almost daily, he began to think of ideas to help on a broader scale and how to make a handy fundraising guide. This birthed the idea of Bonfarado (meaning Charity in Esperanto), a local free to use crowdfunding platform that ensure’s that as much of the donation as possible reach their destination. Our platform itself will accept donations to help pay server and hosting costs, but these are not required or expected.

Bonfarado is a free fundraising platform created to help those in need those most, a place where charity means charity not business, a place where a small donation can turn ripples into waves. Our mission is to provide a free to use platform that can be used to create a better tomorrow for the local area with various fundraising projects using crowdfunding. We believe that every cause deserves the chance to be supported on a larger scale and that even the smallest voice deserves to be heard and with our fundraising guide, you can help.

So what is crowdfunding?

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Crowdfunding is a unique way for the many to help the few through a series of charitable donations, social media shares and exposure. It’s the easiest and quickest way to get a large amount of people to help provide financial aid for important issues and to help spread awareness.

Using social media platforms and the internet, crowdfunding gives people in need a valuable lifeline against mounting medical bills and unforeseen hardships, even providing the opportunity to create the next world changing business. Crowdfunding enables you to donate to a friend, a community project or start your own crowdfunded project with specific goals.

The benefits of fundraising online

• With the power of social media, you have an unlimited reach
• Create engagement with potential donors and increase awareness through shares
• Be in control of your fundraising project, create goals and targets
• Receive feedback and support from donors through likes, comments and shares
• Gather data that can help you see what is working and what isn’t

So Why Choose Bonfarado?

At Bonfarado we guarantee that all of the funds, minus the payment processing fee, that are donated to each individual cause will 100% go to the creator. We do not refund if fundraising targets aren’t met completely and instead choose to  pay out to the campaign. We believe that every little bit helps, even if it’s not quite enough.

• Easy to use payment options
• Only payment processing fees apply, everything else goes to the creator
• Our flexible funding means you keep what you raise
• Easy to set up crowdfunding pages

How Do I Launch My Fundraiser?

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Fundraising preparation

This is our first major step of the fundraising guide. The best way to begin is to do some research into some other successful fundraisers and see what worked, and how they did it. You may already have a specific idea in mind, perhaps medical bills for yourself or a friend or a local community issue.

Gathering a Fundraising team

Creating a successful fundraising campaign can be done alone with no problem but it’s always good to have a team around you to help with the project. Teams of two or more tend to generate more funding for projects compared to a solo creator as with a larger team you can assign more focus to individual areas of your fundraising campaign.

With a larger team you can gain more ground level exposure by sharing on social media and targeting a larger friend base, so if you can assemble a team we always encourage it.

Creating your fundraising campaign

After you’ve assembled your team or decided to do it alone, the next step to follow is creating the fundraiser itself. With Bonfarado.org we make this process as simple as possible with easy to follow instructions during the setup.

A successful campaign should always contain these three things

• Video or Photos
• An introduction and info about the campaign
• Goals, Time frame and Updates

So let’s start with using images or video for your fundraising campaign.

Using Videos or Photos correctly

Having a visual aid to show exactly what your fundraising campaign is for is the most important part of this process. Using video footage is the most visually stimulating way to showcase your campaign but we understand that not everyone is Steven Speilberg, so if video footage is unavailable to you we strongly advise to take several will shot images of the campaign itself and what it is for.

Fundraisers using a video do however tend to raise a higher average of donations compared to those that don’t. Keep your video engaging and informative but don’t make it too long. It’s an initial pitch that should be around 2 to 3 minutes long. If you as the fundraising campaigner can be in the video itself, even better. It puts a human face to the issue at hand, showing your potential donors that you are passionate about the project. This is why we feel it’s important to include in our fundraising guide.

Note: To include a video in your campaign it must be hosted on YouTube.

What your video should include

• Introduction to the fundraising campaign
• The back story to the campaign
• The aim of the campaign, what are you hoping to achieve
• A call to action, tell your viewers how they can help

What your pictures should include

• A well framed shot of the campaign you are raising for
• A variety of different angles and close ups
• Before and after shots where available, tell your story with images

Writing your fundraising campaign text

The next step of our fundraising guide is the campaign text itself. The text area is where you can go into greater detail about your fundraising campaign going over the project, time frame, donation goals, team details and so on. If I potential donors has made it that far, it’s a good indication that they are interesting in donating so make sure you explain your project well.

You should aim to make your text as relatable as you can. Be passionate about your project and ensure that your story is compelling. Try to present it in a way that will make others want to get involved and be a party of the story and the solution.

Setting your campaign goals

At Bonfarado.org we offer a flexible payment system where the donations come to you directly and in real time, but it is always important to set an end goal. When a potential donors can see a goal they are more inclined to donate if they feel like their donation would make a difference.

When you’re setting a goal it’s important to ask yourself the following questions

How big is your reach? Do you have a large social media following or have access to someone that does or are you able to use paid promotions such as page boosts to get your campaign out there.

Where will the first portion of the donations come from? You should always think local before thinking global as your inner circle of friends and family will generally be the first people that would be inclined to donate to your cause.

How quickly can you start raising? Getting momentum early on is a great way for your fundraising campaign to succeed. When a potential donors can see that a fundraising project is already underway it will fill them with confidence that the campaign is legit and worth donating for.

Your fundraising campaign may already have a specific donation goal and that’s fine to use, especially if you’re raising funds for medical bills or something similar. If you are just raising for a general purpose with no fund goal in mind, it’s important to set a realistic target to encourage others to donate.

A thing to note is that any fundraising campaign can be over funded and often they are. So with an achievable donation goal and an exceptional fundraising campaign, you may see your goals exceeded.

Setting your campaign duration

Setting a long duration on your fundraising campaign doesn’t always mean that you will hit or exceed your target goal. Momentum is an important part of any fundraiser and when a longer duration is set, people may be inclined to think about putting off a donation to a later date and forgetting about it.

Typically the average fundraiser runs from around 30 to 40 days. Be sure to allow enough time between the end of the fundraiser and the date the funds are needed by to allow for transfer of funds. We’d advise around 3 weeks to be on the safe side.

Ready to launch? Let’s keep the momentum going

Creating a buzz around your fundraiser upon creation is the easy part, with the next stage being that you keep the momentum of the project going through a series of updates and social media shares. The aim is to keep people engaged throughout the entire process.

After the initial process of asking friends and families to be involved with your fundraising campaign, you will want to keep them active with donations and social media shares, as well as finding new potential donors.

There’s a few ways to keep this momentum going

Share more information about the campaign: Your initial pitch has been a success but what’s happening in the hear and now. Has their been changes to the situation since the campaign began or have things became more urgent. Let the donors know!

Put the Social in Social Media: Without spamming the campaign link over and over, keep the social media shares going with additional images or video, let people know about any progress being made or alternative reasons why they’d want to help.

Use your hashtags wisely: It’s important to note that just because 1,000,000 people have seen your hashtag, it doesn’t mean that you’ll have any positive return from it. Limit your hashtags to the cause itself, especially on platforms like Twitter where you are more limited to character use.

Raise funds, don’t beg for them: Using rough language and a lot of caps lock, begging and demanding donations is the worst way to get your campaign going. People will want to get involved with a well though out, worthy cause if it’s presented properly as opposed to ready “PLZ SEND ME MONEY FOR THIS!!!”.

If you have a team with a dedicated PR branch, ask them to draft a list of potential social media influencers or press that they can present your campaign too. You may be able to have your campaign featured on the radio, TV or podcast which will help with exposure. We provide you.

Overcoming the final hurdle

The final part of our fundraising guide is to get your fundraising campaign over the finish line. If it hasn’t quite hit the target is to convert the remaining potential donors that have shown interest in the campaign but are yet to contribute. You do this by creating a sense of urgency regarding the campaign coming to a close, normally around the final week of the campaign deadline.

Posting regular updates to your fundraiser and showing progress is a good way to grab that last bit of exposure, your aim is to get people as involved as you are in the project so that they feel they have helped to create a shared goal.

The Do’s & The Don’ts

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Do your research

Search our site and the internet for similar projects like yours, see whats working and what isn’t and find new ways to get your project seen.

Do be active on Social Media

It’s a free marketing tool that people use everyday and a great way to get your fundraising project in front of millions of potential donors.

Do seek out companies and brands

Don’t just limit yourself to asking individuals to donate to your cause. Many big companies could be willing to help their local community or even just to have a bit of free advertising on their donation.

Do update and thank your sponsors

Let your campaign supporters know more about what they’ve pledged too and show your gratitude. Kindness works best when it goes both ways.

Don’t beg

Overusing words such as “help” and “money” will make your cause come off as desperate and may put people off donating. Focus on the project itself, not the monetary gain.

Don’t spam

No one likes to receive a barrage of repetitive emails, texts or messages. Make sure when you contact your supporters or potential investors that it has substance.

Don’t shame

Being passive aggressive or shaming people that you thought would donate will have a negative impact on your cause. Sometimes people can only offer things such as their time or a social media share. Be grateful for any assistance you get, focus on the positives.

Don’t forget about us.

You can always contact Bonfarado.org if you’re looking for tips or help regarding your campaign and we’d love to hear more about your success stories.