Name: Mary Blake Brock
Location: Leeds, UK
Role: Political Affairs Intern
Amount Raised: $9,789/£7803

 

Fundraising Breakdown:

  • Social Media: $46.85 (0.48%).
  • Grants: $1300 (13.3%)
  • Donor Emails #1: $18.88 (0.19%)
  • Donor Emails #2: $8,423.27 (86%)

Total: $9,789

 

Mary’s Tips and Strategy

  1. Spread Fundraising Message Across all Social Media (ie Instagram & TikTok).
    • Rebrand your social media to reflect your advocacy message and your fundraising campaign, do NOT make brand new social media accounts for the purpose of fundraising. This allows your message to spread to followers you already have relationships with AND you don’t have to start from the ground-up to establish a following! 
    • Your first post about The Borgen Project should be the longest! It should give background into the Project and introduce your fundraising campaign! Explain the impact that $1.00 has and ask your followers for low amounts of money–not every person wants to donate $5 or $10, but people may be inclined to give strategic $1.00 donations IF they know how $1.00 benefits the political campaign! Furthermore, not every post has to be a long or detailed message! Alternate between longer and more informative posts and shorter and trendier messages. On Tik Tok especially, my videos with the most views about The Borgen Project are shorter and coordinated with popular trends. 
    • Post semi-regularly! Do not be afraid of the number of likes, comments, or shares your videos/posts get. Instead, focus on the message you are portraying: if you are passionate about reducing global poverty, make that OBVIOUS! Repost informative stories about current events correlated with global poverty. The more informed your viewers are, the more likely they are to donate! 
  2. Don’t Be Afraid of “No.” 
    • When you are making your donor lists, think outside-the-box. Try to send letters and talk to way more than 15 people. Write the letters even when you are not confident that certain people will support your efforts – you’ll have donors who surprise you! 
    • Keep a brave face! You will be told NO – don’t sweat it! The surprising yeses far surpass the rejection that comes along with the no’s. 
  3. Send Multiple Letters. 
    • The first letters I sent were too long and gave extensive information about The Borgen Project…these were NOT successful! Two weeks later, I sent a second email that was personalized to my specific donors with bullet points about the campaign–I received over half of my fundraising goal from these emails! Keep it short, keep it simple, and keep it concise–ask your donors for strategic $1, $5, and $10, donations and watch as they exceed these amounts!
    • I did NOT send paper letters! I was finishing my post-grad work in England and my donors were from the US. I sent emails and included links to the success tracker and to my fundraising page. People loved this! They were shocked at how fast & accessible the donation links were.