By Brandi McGrath Kong, Director of Communications & Conferences

Now more than ever, Sertoma clubs are increasingly recognizing the importance of diversifying their fundraising strategies beyond traditional events. As the dynamics of donor engagement continue to shift, embracing a multifaceted approach to fundraising has become not just advantageous, but essential. This shift requires clubs to explore new avenues that resonate with diverse donor interests and preferences, ensuring sustained support and engagement. 

One such concept is crowdfunding. Crowdfunding is a fundraising method that leverages the collective effort of a large number of individuals, often online, to raise money for a very specific project, cause, or initiative. It's characterized by its accessibility, transparency, and ability to reach a broad audience quickly.

These opportunities allow nonprofits to create a compelling campaign page detailing their project or cause, including goals, objectives, multimedia elements, testimonials and information on how donations will be used. This works when we can engage potential donors emotionally, whether it is through a tug at the heartstring, the feeling of missing out, nostalgia or just pure excitement,

There are numerous crowdfunding platforms available, each catering to different types of projects, causes, and fundraising goal. This includes Kickstarter, Indiegogo, GoFundMe, Crowdrise, DonorsChoose, Patreon, Fundly, StartSomeGood and many, many more.

Looking for some inspiration to get started? FunRaise has put together 21 example campaigns and ideas that might help your club begin to plan. You can also learn more about fundraising beyond traditional events in our related training. “Diversifying Your Fundraising Toolkit.”