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Organizations‎ > ‎Campaigns‎ > ‎

Campaign Appeals

If you are reading this, you have probably been asked by an organization to help by lending your voice to a fundraising campaign.  As a supporter, you can bring a perspective that validates the work of the nonprofit and personalizes the message.  You can help create broader awareness by sharing your story with friends and family.

It's all about the Story

One of the powerful ways to make campaigns more effective is to utilize Appeals. Appeals provide a way to involve supporters, like existing Donors, Board Members, Volunteers, Alumni or Clients to get involved and tell their story of why they support an organization. These personalized stories can then help reach specific segments of supporters and the personal networks of the Appeal writers. 

The great thing about the Appeals is that they bring a personal voice to the goals of the campaign. In some cases Appeals may have their own goals like in the case of a Match Challenge or Alumni Appeal. Appeals also provide a way to let supporters get involved in a deeper way beyond their own financial support for the organization and tell about what has motivated them to get involved with an organization.

Create

There are two basic steps for Appeal Managers (or Campaign Managers) to create the content and appearance of an Appeal.

  1. Fill out the Appeal profile information
  2. Add any media and adjust the look and feel

Appeal Profile

The Appeal Profile is where you set up all of the Appeal details, which are used to configure what your Supporters and Donors will see. Below is a detailed explanation of each field and how it is used.


Appeal Name

The Name that the Campaign Appeal will be publicly known as. Examples could include an individual's name, or a segment of Supporters (ex. 'Class of 2000', 'Board of Directors', 'A Volunteer's View').

Status

This will either be Assigned or Unassigned and is based on there being an individual associated with it as the Appeal Manager.

Owner Name

This is the name of the Appeal Manager if they are assigned.

Owner Email

This is the email address of the Appeal Manager and can be clicked to send them a direct email.

Tags

Tags are words associated with your appeal (e.g., environment, education) that will help supporters find your appeal as they search.

Goal Amount

This is the amount to be raised by the Appeal is the campaign manager has allowed Appeal specific goals. There is no need to input commas, decimals, or dollar signs - we'll take care of that for you.

Short Description

This description is a short summary of the Appeal and shows up when on the right-hand side of the public Campaign page. Think of this a way to summarize the thoughts of the Appeal and inspire people to want to read more.

Appeal Letter Title

An example might be - "A note from Rachel Carlson", if Rachel is the Appeal Manager.

Appeal Letter

The Appeal Letter allows the Appeal Manager to tell in their own words why the organization is important to them or maybe why this specific campaign is so important from their perspective.  Remember - it's all about the story and it's more important to be genuine and conversational than to make sure it's perfect.  Make sure it's something that you would want to spend time reading.

 

Appeal Layout

The Appeal Layout is where you configure how the Public Appeal page will appear.

Header Section

The Header section is setup once for the Organization (in the Organization Profile) and is used for all of the Organization's Fundraisers.

Main Section

The Main Section consists of two elements, Media and Note. By checking the boxes on the right these elements are either displayed or not.
The Media section: Is defined in the Media Section at the bottom of this page.
The Note section: Is the Appeal letter that you defined in the Appeal Profile.

You can also change the order that these are displayed on the page by dragging the associated boxes on the left.

Sidebar Section

This controls the elements that are displayed on the right hand side of the Public Appeal page. By checking the boxes on the right these elements are either displayed or not. You can also change the order that these are displayed on the page by dragging the associated boxes on the left.

GetInvolved: This element has links for your Supporters to Share with a Friend and Donate or Pledge.

Appeals: This element displays all of the Appeals associated with the Campaign.

Thermometer: The thermometer displays the real-time progress towards the appeal goal.

CampaignThermometer: The thermometer displays the real-time progress towards the campaign goal.

AboutMe: This element displays information from the Appeal Managers Personal Profile. This can include their profile photo if they have chosen to upload one.

DonorWall: Displaying the Donor Wall will allow your supporters to be recognized for donating. Donors still have the option of having their name and donation amount listed. The Donors that will be listed here are the ones that have given to the specific Appeal.

Media Section

The Media section allows you to upload images or link to a video or slideshow. Adding Media to your Appeal can really reinforce key messages in your appeal with a visual element.  People like to be entertained, so give them something interesting to look at that will inspire them.

Adding a Single image
Select the Single picture option in the Media Section. You can then Browse to find an image on your local computer. Finally just select upload and the image will be added to your Appeal and resized if required.
If you already have a few images uploaded, you can just drag the one that you want to the area where the current image is displayed.

Adding a Slideshow
Select the Slideshow option in the Media Section. You can then Browse to find an image on your local computer. Finally just select upload and the image will be added to your Appeal and resized if required. Continue to follow this process until you have all of the images uploaded that you want included in the slideshow.

The images will display in the slideshow in the order that you upload them.

If you want to remove an image from the slideshow, just select the X next to the file name and the image will be deleted.

Adding a Video or other slideshow
Select the Embedded video option in the Media Section. You can then paste the Embed code from your favorite photo or video site in the field. Finally just select Update and the video/slideshow will be added to your Appeal.

What Next?

Promoting Appeals