When fundraising, it’s important to first think about your audience. Who are the people most likely to be touched by the cause and therefore, most likely to donate? Consider their lifestyle and habits to identify how you can best get your message to them.

If you’re not using some form of social media, you’ll be missing out on potential donors. It’s a relatively cheap way to attract your target audience so more donations can go to your mission.

·      People in their thirties and over are often Facebook users

·      Women are the bigger audiences on Instagram and Pinterest

·      LinkedIn is best for speaking to professionals, especially men

·      TikTok can be a great platform to reach people in their early twenties and younger

You can do a whole fundraising campaign using social media only. Depending on the type of event you’re putting on, you could also try these suggestions:

·      Posters put around Thanet

·      Emailing your database (if you’ve got the appropriate GDPR permission)

·      Posting leaflets into local letterboxes

·      Signs on the day – if you’re running an event that welcomes visitors

After the restrictions of the pandemic, there are very few people left who aren’t able to use Zoom or some other type of virtual event software. Virtual events are a great way to minimise things like travel time and increase attendance. Auctions, quizzes, even galas, can all be done online. Video fundraisers like the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge can also be very successful.

Recruit the cooks in your community and make the most of the popularity of programmes like Bake Off. You could do it with chilli, cake, jams, or anything yummy. Have people taste the item and put their donations in a pot in front of their favourite.

Involve the furry members of Thanet to attract their owners to participate. You could run a sponsored dog walk. Charge an admission fee and sell merchandise. Make sure you’ve got water stations along the route for human and canine participants. You could even do a dog wash event, a twist on the old bob-a-job week car wash.

Get some arty people together and put on an art exhibition. You could fundraise with an entry fee. You might even be able to ask the artists to agree that a proportion of any sales goes to your cause, too. You could do something similar with younger members of the Thanet community. Ask local schools to do artwork of summer scenes and hold an exhibition with the entries.

What are your favourite ways to fundraise? Let us know by emailing damien@cookeandco.com  so we can share inspiration and do good together.