Now today, what I'm going to talk about is tips to run an online fundraiser on a super low budget. We help some of our clients run their online fundraisers and obviously they have a budget because they can hire somebody like us. And then there are others where we advise them and we help them put something together they can spin out quickly. Now some of these tricks are marketing tricks and others of them are just really inexpensive ways to get the functionality you need to run an online fundraiser. So I'm going to tell you some of the tricks we use to help them get that done without breaking the bank.

 

 So my tips today fall into two buckets. The first bucket is cost-effective marketing tips. And then the second bucket is functionality tips. Cost-effective platforms are ways that you can run your event online. And really, all of these things make me really excited because if you know me, you know I love a deal. I love shopping at thrift stores, second-hand stores, garage sale, and finding the diamond in the rough. So in my business, I'm always trying to find these awesome services people are literally giving away for free so I can pass them along to my clients. 

 

I'm going to start with marketing. I'm going to give you three marketing tips right now:

Lean Into Your Current Assets

Use Free Canva Templates for Your Creative Assets 

Set up a free MailChimp account.

Bonus Tip: Use Facebook 

Marketing Tip #1: Lean Into Your Current Assets 

We're going to start with the first one, which is to lean into your current assets. Marketing assets are any of the things you have access to within your organization that allow you to build reach. They allow you to connect with people and contact them and make friends, build relationships. 

 

There are so many different assets we have that we don't even think about. When we are planning an event and we don't have a lot of money to put into it, we need to use the assets we already have. So for example, if you have a great Facebook following, a list of mailing addresses, phone numbers, or email addresses, those are things you would use in your marketing to promote your event. Building new assets takes time and time is money, so you're going to use the things you have. 

 

Turn your assets into more assets!

One of the things I really want to encourage you to do is think through how you could build those assets into more assets while you're doing this fundraiser. For example, let's say all you have are phone numbers of your donors. A phone number means you’re going to be calling people, now as you have these conversations with them about donating or your event, you can also ask them: 

for their email address

to follow you on Facebook

for their mailing address

All those things can be cross-promoted from one to another. 

 

I know you feel like becaus