Many small businesses are offering rewards on their GoFundMes to incentivize potential donors. Business owners using this tactic have reported a very positive response from their customers, and many believe it has helped them raise more money overall. It can be a very effective way to increase interest in your fundraiser, and is easy to implement.
Your community wants to support you, and this is a great way to give them something in return while keeping your customers engaged.
What kinds of rewards should I offer?
The first step is deciding what kinds of rewards you want to offer on your fundraiser. This is largely dependent on the type of business you run, but here are some examples from real fundraisers:
- Gift cards
- Vouchers for specific goods or services
- Discounts/coupons
- Tickets to future events/classes
- Merch items
- Retail items
- Memberships
You may even consider offering multiple types of rewards at different donation levels. You’ll find a strong example of this in the next section.
How do I let people know about the rewards?
Once you’ve chosen what types of rewards you want to offer, you’ll need to add them to your GoFundMe story. Here is an example from a real small business fundraiser that did this well:
List out all of the rewards you are offering clearly in your GoFundMe story. Associate each one with a specific donation dollar amount so that donors can weigh their options. In many cases, offering a reward can incentivize donors to give more. Please note that offering age-restricted items as rewards, such as relating to alcohol, drugs, and weapons, or offering high value items, is not permitted. You can review our full terms and conditions here.
If you have previous donors to the fundraiser and would like to give them the option to select a reward as well, post an update to your fundraiser letting everyone know about the new reward levels you are offering.
How do I get in touch with donors?
You can contact donors through the GoFundMe platform by using the Thank You feature and requesting their email address for further communication. Alternatively, you can request a spreadsheet of contact information for your US-based donors by filling out this form. If you do request a spreadsheet with contact information, please take care to keep the information private. In addition, on that form, we will ask you to confirm that you will (a) contact the donor only to fulfill the promise you made in your fundraiser, and (b) delete the information after completing your task.
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GoFundMe is not responsible for any offers, promises, rewards or promotions made or offered by campaign organizers or fundraisers. For any donor questions regarding offered rewards, please reach out to the campaign organizer directly, as they are 100% responsible for fulfilling their reward promises.