Top Tips For Creating Your Campaign’s Communication Plan 7713

Top Tips For Creating Your Campaign’s Communication Plan

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An effective communication plan helps you strategize, coordinate, and effectively execute your campaign’s purpose to internal stakeholders and external audiences. Today, we break down five tips to help you go from published page to profitable programming.

Build a unique plan for every campaign

The one thing 2020 taught us was that when life throws you a global pandemic, you have to recreate everything. Anyone else learn how to look at something with fresh eyes? While you may have a tried-and-true comms plan that you use for most (or all) initiatives, I encourage you to reconsider your formula before publishing any campaign. Ask yourselves the following questions to help narrow down your audience segments, mediums and delivery.

  • What audiences were underserved that we can target this time?

  • What segments performed well and how can we engage them again?

  • What channels were underutilized in the past that we can leverage now?

  • How can we diversify our ways to get involved?

  • How should we speak on each platform?

  • What is working or not working right now?


Launch on time

Creating a communication calendar is critical to the coordination of your kickoff. Whether you track this in Word, Excel, Google Docs, or your favorite leather-bound notebook, rest easy- these do not have to be fancy or complicated. I recommend starting at the end of your campaign and then working backward; this ensures you can identify the dependencies and prep work required for each communication. Some milestones or topics to consider:

  • Thank you email

  • Thank you video that announces the final results and next steps

  • Embedding the thank you video on your campaign’s story

  • 100% towards goal announcement on social media

  • 75% towards goal announcement

  • 50% towards goal announcement

  • 25% towards goal announcement

  • Ways to get involved

  • Get involved/take action now posts, emails, letters, etc

  • Save the Date mailer or email


Promote with purpose

Each channel you use is likely to have a different demographic or persona. Each of these personas may prefer to take action in different ways. For example, it is more compelling to have a call to action to “Share on Social” on your Instagram post then in your direct mail piece. Identify the various channels you are using and who your target audiences are. If you don’t know, take your best guess or work with the appropriate team or contractor to leverage analytics. Our favorite channels are:

  • Your website- Consider a pop up, slider, landing page or microsite to prominently feature your campaign.

  • Email- Remember to segment based on history. For example, volunteers and sustaining donors make great targets for personal fundraisers. You may want to suppress someone who gave in the last X number of days.

  • Direct Mail and Phone- You can target former P2P fundraisers and give them a personal invitation to get involved again.

  • Newsletters

  • Social media

  • Texting

  • Posters, flyers, postcards and other printed materials. Did you know you can create a QR code to print on these assets? Learn more here.

  • Ads, Local news coverage, radio commercials, etc


Recruit your fundraisers

Now that you have the master timeline and mediums figured out, it is important to talk about who you want to take action and when. Let’s assume your donor prospects will be moved to give because of the amazing communications you provided through the various channels above. The same may be true for fundraisers, but what we have seen is that this audience likely needs a stronger nudge than just a sentence in an email to get them to take action. For any peer-to-peer fundraising campaign, I recommend having a “pre-game” and “post-game” approach.

  • Pre-gaming: Ever notice the tip jar always has at least $1 in it? The same applies for P2P pages. Before you launch the event, reach out to previous fundraisers, current volunteers, staff members, board members, and advocates to see if they would be willing to fundraise on behalf of your organization. Provide clear instructions so they know what is expected of them and when. Take a look at our Fundraiser Toolkits if you need some inspiration. If they are not interested in fundraising, ask if they would be willing to complete a different action like record a video of support, make a donation, provide a matching gift, deliver items, share on social media, etc. The key to pre-gaming is to make sure some action has already happened; warm up your campaign’s muscles before you get out on the field.

  • Post-gaming: Did you know almost 20% of a campaign’s funds come through in the days that follow the event? We are all well-meaning individuals but sometimes, time gets the best of us. For anyone who is fundraising and has not reached their goal, provide a sample email and social media post they can repurpose that asks for a donation one final time. It should have a sense of urgency and be compelling to help you collect the last of your donations. You can also ask the folks who have reached their goal to provide coaching, tips, or encouragement to the other fundraisers. My favorite is when organizations will segment their fundraisers in emails or a private Facebook group and use those opportunities to celebrate success, motivate others, and support their fundraisers throughout the initiative. At the end, they can send out one last plea. Leave the pages up for a few days after and watch the donations continue to come through. It’s like stretching after the big game.


Say thanks. And then say it again.

Besides the general “The campaign is completed, and this is how much we raised” email, consider other ways to show appreciation. Leverage multiple mediums on various channels and a variety of voices to connect with your audiences. Let your creativity run wild here!

  • Thank all donors and fundraisers for supporting your campaign

  • Call fundraisers and thank them for their participation

  • Encourage fundraisers to record videos expressing why they got involved and thank you to those who gave to their page

  • Have recipients of your funds submit pictures, posters, videos, etc of how the money will better their lives. This makes for a great way to say thanks on social media!

  • Update your donor acknowledgement letter for those who gave to individuals. Try adding the fundraiser’s name so it feels even more personalized.

  • Record a video and embed it on your campaign page’s story with a message of thanks


There you have it! Five tips for building your communication plan. Let me know... is there something you do that is super effective? Share it in the comments below!

News JustGiving® from Blackbaud® Blog 06/17/2021 9:00am EDT

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