Are you looking to launch a GoFundMe Campaign?
GoFundMe can help you to raise money for things like:
- Charity
- Personal causes
- Education
- Travel costs
- And much more!
In this post, we’ll show you how to start a GoFundMe page step-by-step.
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For now, let’s give you a text version of step-by-step instructions for launching a GoFundMe!
Getting Started With GoFundMe
The first step to creating your GoFundMe campaign is through creating an account.
Once you’ve done so, you’ll be prompted to decide how much money you want to raise — also known as your funding goal. Check out this helpful article for assistance in selecting a funding goal that is right for your project.
Most successful GoFundMe campaigns raise somewhere between $1,000 and $1,500.
GoFundMe campaigns that you see in the media raising tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars aren’t the norm — most projects are much smaller.
Titling Your GoFundMe Campaign
The title of your GoFundMe is the most important element of your project because it’s the first thing potential donors will encounter with your campaign.
Spend some time writing different titles out to brainstorm what might resonate best with donors.
Your title should:
- Use specific keywords that describe your campaign
- Deliver a promise, if possible
- Provoke an Emotional response
You only have 50 characters, so get creative!
Additional Preliminary Information
Now that you’ve titled your campaign, there is some other information GoFundMe wants to know before you get started creating your project page.
- What are you raising money for?: Are you raising funds for yourself / someone else or are you creating the campaign on behalf of a nonprofit / organization? Based on the answer you select, you’ll pay different fees.
- Category: GoFundMe has many categories in which you can launch, so just choose the most relevant, even if you have some overlap.
- Solo or Team?: You can choose to raise funds as a sole organizer or invite others from your team to fundraise with you and have administrative access to your campaign.
Uploading a Cover Photo / Video
Once you’ve taken care of all the preliminary info, GoFundMe will prompt you to add a cover photo or video for your campaign.
To do this, you can:
- Select a photo from Facebook
- Upload a photo
- Add a Youtube or Vimeo video
We recommend that you upload a video that explains what you are raising money for. This is a sure-fire way to connect with the audience and build trust in a way that a stagnant photo just isn’t capable of.
Make sure that your video is relevant to your campaign specifically and tells the story of the project you’re working on. People want to feel personally connected and called upon to join your mission!
Telling Your Story
So now you’ve nailed down the two most important elements of your campaign
- The headline / title
- The cover video
Now it’s time to unpack the larger story for your donors through writing!
Some good things to include in your story are:
- How you came to GoFundme; circumstances, challenges, etc.
- Why you believe the campaign is worth running. Why should people care?
- What you want to do with the money raised.
Your campaign story should be somewhere around 800-1,000 words.
Also be sure to use functionality such as bolded text, hyperlinks, and embedded images to highlight important ideas that you want to communicate with donors!
For some killer GoFundMe writing tips, check out this video.
Sharing Your Campaign
Your campaign page is all set to go! It really is that easy.
But your project isn’t going to receive much traction if you don’t drive traffic to the page. Sharing your GoFundMe project on Facebook can increase donations by as much as 350% — you need to be calling on your network!
On the GoFundMe dashboard, there are tons of places that you can easily share the link to your campaign:
Send it out to people directly and share it on your social platforms! This is how you’ll actually generate donations for your mission.
Important Takeaways
Just because a GoFundMe campaign is super easy to create doesn’t mean that it’s equally as simple to actually receive donations.
Luckily for you, there is a proven method for maximizing your opportunity on GoFundMe through:
- Using a descriptive and provoking title for your campaign
- Uploading a cover video that connects with donors
- Telling a compelling story
I have a great course out there for you to help you do just that:
GoFundMe Cash Machine: Get Donations For Your Campaign!
I also have an awesome book for you to check out that goes way more in-depth as to launching an amazing GoFundMe project:
Nonprofit Crowdfunding Explained
I hope that this blog post and those resources will be helpful for you.
Good luck with your campaign, and thanks for all the work you do to make this world a better place!
