Charity guide to virtual events

Get the word out on your digital event

Promoting charity virtual events and fundraising opportunities means making the event easily accessible. Our top tips and checks for advertising events include thinking about the below questions:

1. Have you advertised on your own website?
2. Is your campaign message clear?
3. Is there a dedicated Facebook page?
4. Have you advertised on social media channels, including Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and Reddit?
5. Have you sent out ‘teasers’ to give audiences a glimpse of what they can expect?
6. Have you asked your audiences to spread the word?
7. Are you updating your channels with new content tailored for the event?
8. Have you personalised e-mail marketing campaigns?
9. Are you keeping audiences updated on your news?
10. Do you have a blog available to post on?

 

Charities with high-profile supporters benefit from social media mentions. Comic Relief’s Dungeons & Dragons event live-streamed a gaming tournament on Twitch. The charity enlisted British comedians Kumar Nish and Sue Perkins for the cause. Prior to the event, Sue posted her participation on her Twitter account. Using her celebrity status, Sue promoted the event to her 1.1 million followers. When added with the charity’s own Twitter followers, the event reach increased to 1.4 million followers. For those charities who do have celebrity connections, it is worth asking them to post, advertise, and spread the word on upcoming digital events.

 

 

 

Have you planned for audience engagement?

The most successful fundraising events dedicate and allow time for engagement. Hootsuite, the social media management platform offers good advice for audience engagement. To generate more buzz for your charity digital event, remember to:

• Complement your virtual event with online discussions – In addition to hosting the virtual fundraising event, live Tweets and commentary on social media can generate excitement. Hootsuite suggests using Reddit, Discord, and Slack to energise your crowd.
• Add live moderation – Many videoconferencing platforms allow for moderators to control participant video and sound. For seamless events, charity digital moderators should use the function to ensure that the right voice comes across at the right time.
• Add live Q&A – Using built-in chat functions, charity digital leaders can invite audiences to submit questions to virtual event hosts. The ‘hand’ function also allows audiences to interrupt and signal their questions.
• Digital polling – Set aside a few key questions to ask audiences. These polls can be distributed through social media and the chat functions during and after the event. Polling questions can help charity digital leaders assess how the event is going at the time, and later on, can help to gauge supporter preferences.
• Include social livestream – Hootsuite notes that live video features can increase engagement by 6-fold. Most social media platforms have live feeds enabled, including Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok, Twitter Live, and YouTube. Notifications on live streaming can be pushed through the platforms to audiences for ad hoc viewing.

 

On conclusion of the virtual event, charities can also use social media analytics to dig deeper into how audiences have engaged and collect feedback. The data capture can be important for data-driven digital strategies, as participation helps build a clearer picture of charity audiences.

 

 

Digital hosting best practices

The popularity of free videoconferencing services for virtual events and fundraising is booming. Zoom’s tips and best practice are important for all charity digital leaders hosting events. Foremost, charity digital hosts need to check on virtual event logistics. Ensuring that there is a secure internet connection and limited background noise means that content can be delivered smoothly. Zoom also recommends testing hardware and software prior to the event – this could mean that charity digital tech teams need to log on earlier than the set meeting time.

 

The beauty of virtual content means that charities can practice as many times as they need to hit the right notes. Equally, for hosts on camera – dress to impress – choose solid colours over patterns, as these can be more easily seen. To deliver successful digital fundraising events, remember to test and rehearse the production.

 

 

Make it as easy as possible to donate

Virtual fundraising events should make it as easy as possible to donate to the cause. When promoting your virtual fundraising event remember to include ways to donate.

 

On social media, many platforms already have ‘buttons’ which charities can add to their digital content. Instagram’s stickers pass 100% of donations straight back to the charity. Twitch’s platform allows charity digital leaders to add their own extensions from third-party developers. PayPal can also be directly linked to Twitch’s panel. Those broadcasting live can then mention the PayPal address for donations to be sent to.

 

Taking advantage of mobile phone usage, text to donate services are increasingly used to raise funds. Research firm Analysys Mason found that 58% of UK adults used phone-paid services; of that percentage, 6.2 million people used a text to donate service.

 

As part of the overall donation campaign, text to donate options allow charities to select campaign words to be linked to text donations. A service provider, like Donr, then sets up the payment. The donation amounts are then deducted from supporters’ phone bills or credit. The Normandy Memorial Trust used Donr’s text services to raise over £25,000 in just four weeks. Promoting D-Day, the trust advertised its digital fundraising efforts over social media, website, and other communication channels. The text to donate keywords across all channels made it easy for audiences to donate regardless of where they saw the advert.