How to Fund Your Next Mission Trip with Social Media

Social media is a powerful platform and we’re luckily at a point where churches are no longer asking if they should be on social media, but how. When it comes to your church’s fundraising goals and missions, social media can prove extremely beneficial — and there are all sorts of innovative, creative, and unique ways to make use of it. Here’s how social media can help your church fund your next mission trip.

Best Practices of Online Fundraising

As you set out to launch your social media fundraising campaign, don’t forget these best practices:

• Use a short, memorable link to the donation page.
• Keep the donation form short and sweet.
• Include the link to donate in all the relevant posts and areas.
• Promote the campaign across platforms and in-person.

Introduce Digital Gifting to Fund Mission Trips

If you are hoping to put social media to work to fund your next mission trip, it’s critical that you first lay the foundation by introducing digital gifting to your congregation. Whether you already have a digital giving platform set up, or you plan to do it for this upcoming trip, the launch should be anything but silent.

Far too many churches make the mistake of adding digital giving options, only to find that no one uses them. Simply having a donation form on your website isn’t enough — your church needs to actively introduce this new option to your followers and get them excited about it. Let them know that it’s an option, tell them why they should use it, and show them how to go about it.

If you’re just now adding digital giving as an option, you can introduce digital giving amid announcing your next mission trip. However, you’ll ideally already have digital giving set up, in which case your upcoming mission trip is a great opportunity to share infographics and tips, reminding people how to use it and where to find the digital giving options.

Explain The Mission Trip and Cause

Once you have digital giving laid out to enable donations for your mission trip, you need to create content that introduces your social media followers to the mission and the cause. Ideally, you’ll plan out this content in advance so that it’s coordinated. Planning your content helps to avoid redundancy and ensure that the meaning of your message isn’t lost in random, last-minute posts.

If you think it’s going to take two months to fully fund the trip, then you should start planning two months’ worth of posts. These posts should be unique to each social media platform you’re active on, and you should also incorporate various forms of content.

For instance, you might share a relevant statistic on Twitter. On Facebook, you post a short video explaining the cause. On Instagram, you might share a photo of the volunteer group that wants to go, a photo from your last mission trip, or another relevant image.

As you plan out your content and work to explain the mission, always ask yourself: Does this center on God’s word? Everything in your church’s messaging should come back to God and carrying out the mission. If you think that your content starts to lose focus on that at any point, re-evaluate it accordingly.

Mobilize Your Followers

When you decide to launch the fundraising campaign, you need to take calculated action to start getting donations right away. The best results will come from following the fundamentals:

• Set a reasonable, specific dollar amount and an end date for collecting all the funds.
• Include detailed messaging on the fundraising page explaining more about the mission.
• Get specific about why you need donations and what impact a donation will have.

Mobilizing your followers from day one of your fundraising campaign is key to getting the most donations in the shortest amount of time. Campaigns see the bulk of their donations within the first few days of the campaign and the last stretch as the campaign nears its end goal. It’s essential that you plan content to market the campaign so that you can get up the momentum and, hopefully, keep it going.

If you end up reaching your goal early, you can always set a stretch goal to make use of any momentum you still have regarding the campaign. Ideally, you’ll calculate a goal that’s the right number to begin with — it shouldn’t be reached too easily, nor should it feel impossible or like an extreme challenge. Keep it reasonable to inspire donations and make everyone feel like it will matter when they pitch in.

Keep The Focus on Fundraising

As you begin to talk about the mission trip, don’t stop. Until you reach your fundraising goal, it should remain in the spotlight across your social media channels. While it’s bad form for all of your posts to be requesting donations or asking for money, it should be prevalent on your channels in between your other valuable content. Just don’t confuse the issue by asking for donations to multiple campaigns at once. Keep the focus on one campaign at a time.

Meanwhile, you should be encouraging donors and supporters to do their part by sharing your campaign and the relevant messaging. Every share averages another $15 in donations, yet only about 1 in 5 people will share most campaigns. You might consider running a friendly competition to encourage people to share and get their friends to donate.

What matters the most is that, throughout the funding process, you keep the tone upbeat and positive. Donors want to know that the dollars they give are able to make a real impact, so be responsive to questions about your campaign and the mission. Offer statistics, infographics, and sharable content that helps reinforce donors’ gifts and encourages them to give more and share.

If you’re not sure where to start with your donation campaign, Donorwerx can help. We work with church leaders every day to help them get past common hurdles and start an open discussion about tithing and financially supporting God’s mission. Are you interested in learning more? Schedule a Discovery Call today.