I have a Cunning Plan

In the words of the “A” team, “I like it when a plan comes togther”!  And it’s always pleasing when it delivers the desired results (and more)!

To have enough money to construct eight borewells we needed to raise $10,300 from our very first Crowdfunding campaign – quite a challenge! However, we had a plan and explained it to Club members in the weeks leading up to the campaign. Everyone knew exactly what was wanted of them and when.

Exploiting the System

The first goal was to time our donations to earn the maximum bonuses available on Bonus Day (December 9) and during the Regular Donor Drive (December 14-18).  Our other goal was to win two other prizes on offer.

Examining winners in previous campaigns, we could mount a serious challenge for the ‘most donors on Bonus Day’ and ‘most Regular Donors’ prizes.

First was Bonus Day. I watched excitedly as donations started coming in from members, their families and friends who they had primed to donate this day. By late morning we were top of the leader board for ‘most individual donors on Bonus Day’ (our target prize) plus unexpectedly also leading for ‘most funds raised’. Could we win both?

Some You Win........

Sadly not, as 30 minutes before the end, two huge donations ($1,750) were made to the ‘number two’ project to snatch the ‘most funds’ prize from our grasp. Still, we had won the $1,000 ‘most donors’ prize, we’d received 243 donations totalling $7,651, earning a $1,027 bonus.

Next came the Regular Donor Drive.  Each member was to find two or three Regular Donors during this period. Our tactic worked. No other project was recruiting significant numbers of Regular Donors and we won the $1000 prize with almost three times as many as our nearest competitor. Also, as planned, most of our Regular Donors signed up during the Regular Donor Drive, contributing a double-bonus towards our Regular Donors bonus of $1,004.

Plus Gift Aid

The big surprise was that we found ourselves in contention for the $500 third prize in the ‘most donors overall’ competition. However, with three days to go the project below us was catching up fast. We asked our local Rotary Clubs if any of their members could make a minimum donation and it was thrilling to see many familiar names donating over the final two days, helping us to hang on to the prize.

A fantastic result, way beyond my expectations!  $10,575 in donations, $2,031 in bonuses, $2,500 in prizes, and with Gift Aid we will have raised over $16,000. Making a Real Difference

By Les Sheppard