Crowdfunding Campaign that raised M12000,00 towards MSF in Syria.
In an effort to fulfill one of Rotary's areas of focus; fighting disease, the Rotaract club of Roma organized a crowdfunding campaign to donate to Doctors without borders in Syria. This was a very ambitious goal for the club which had very limited resources.
As the president, I played a strategic role in the planning of the campaign. I set an achievable target of M15000.00 that would be raised between September 2016 - December 2016.
For the campaign to be successful we had to have a compelling message that would lead people to donate.
How would we respond to certain questions that would be poised to us, like, why should we donate to Syria while there is so much poverty in Lesotho? and, How do I know you’re not going to spend the money on yourselves? Where was the money going to and how would it be used?
We carefully crafted our message so that it was not misunderstood. I ensured that we identified our main target audience; Students, Lecturers, and NGOs. The aim was to send a message that appealed to the specific audiences that had been identified. And for each target audience, I assigned a specific club member who would appeal to them.
To Maluti Rotary, for instance, I assigned a member with strong presentation skills to make a PowerPoint presentation that had hard facts and statistics that emphasized the severity of the situation to drive our message through. This is because organizations rely on facts to make decisions. Organizations are concerned about results. The presentation also stressed how the project aligned with Rotary’s core values of serving humanity. The presentation proved to be successful as a considerable amount of donations were made not only by Maluti Rotary but by other organizations as well.
In targeting students, a more empathic approach was used. Even though statistics were still used, emotionally charged presentations in respective classrooms that would evoke empathy and compel students to donate were used.
Furthermore, when presenting to Lecturers, we highlighted how the success of the project would reflect positively on the school. NUL students would be perceived to have an awareness of global issues and were making a positive impact in Lesotho and beyond. This strategy was successful as we received a sizable amount of donations from lectures who eventually supported us by giving us valuable insight.
Students did not respond to our presentations as well as we had anticipated. Only a few students showed interest and ultimately made donations.
All in all, the campaign raised M12000.00; just M3000.00 short of our target. The success of this project strengthened our brand and made it recognizable beyond the school campus. By crowdfunding, we not only raised a substantial amount of money, but we also formed partnerships with relevant stakeholders that would brace our brand.