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Preparing your potential supporters, including your friends and family, for your campaign to go live is an essential component of success!
First Degree of Separation: Your closest friends and family who know and love you, and will support you in your campaign (through donations or otherwise), no matter what. Aside from your team, your first degree are your biggest advocates.
Potential Supporter: Anyone that may support the campaign, but are not in your first degree of separation. These people are still hugely empowering. They could be on a newsletter mailing list, colleagues or classmates, or acquaintances who share your passion.
When to send: 3 days before launch
Subject Line Ideas: Keep the subject line personalized for your first degree of separation, and something eye-catching for people who don’t know you as well.
First degree subject line ideas:
- This is really important to me
- I’m about to start something great and I need your support
Potential Supporter subject line ideas:
- We’re rocking the world…in 3 days.
- 72 hours until it all changes.
- The countdown begins…
Purpose:
- Announce that your campaign is coming
- Ask for support
- Provide example text to send to their friends if you wish.
Your message should be personal and direct. Do NOT send a mass email. You can use the template below as talking points for a phone conversation or personal encounter. The more personal the ask, the better!
Example to your first degree:
Hi Uncle Bill,
How’s it going? How is your knee doing? I miss you!
I’m writing to ask you a huge favor. You know Paulo and I have been involved with the Vineyard Church Community Garden for some time now…we’re about to launch a crowdfunding campaign to raise $1,800 in 2 weeks (June 28 – July 14) to buy a deer fence for the garden (we’ve seen deer droppings regularly). It is truly a miracle that the deer haven’t destroyed all the produce in the garden. We see the garden as a long-term, sustainable way to serve our community, and this is a practical step we are taking towards that goal.
I am asking for your support in this campaign …will you support us with a donation when it launches?
Another way you can really help is to spread the word to your community. Let your friends and colleagues know what we are doing and ask them to support this as well. Could you share our story via email and social media for the next couple of weeks? I’ve written some text below that you can start with.
Also, I wanted to invite you to our campaign launch party on June 28 at the Vineyard Church at 6:30pm. We’re just going to get a bunch of people together, go out to the garden (we’ll have some snacks made with some of our produce!) and celebrate the launch of our campaign! I would love it if you could make it! Let me know if you’re able to come!
I can’t express how much this means to me, I know I can count on you to help me – please let me know if you have any questions…I love you so much! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
I’ll talk to you soon!
(Your Name)
Text to send to friends and family:
The Vineyard Church of the Rockies Community Garden provides thousands of pounds of fresh, organically grown produce every year to the Vineyard Resource Center, which serves hundreds of under-resourced families in Northern Colorado.
They are trying to raise money to build a deer fence to keep the produce safe and growing, and ensure that they will continue to be able to provide nutritious food to families right here.
Please consider helping in any way you can!
Check out the campaign by clicking here!
Example for potential supporter:
Hello Sara,
How’s it going? It was so great to see you at Connor’s party the other night! I’m so glad to hear volleyball is going well. We should definitely grab coffee sometime; Tuesday afternoons tend to work well for me, does that time work for you?
As you may know, I’m involved with the Vineyard Church Community Garden; we provide fresh, organically grown produce to the Vineyard Resource Center, which serves the under-resourced in Larimer County. We’re about to launch a crowdfunding campaign to make our garden thrive, and I would love for you to be a part of this.
We are trying to raise $1,800 in 2 weeks (June 28 – July 14) to buy a deer fence for the garden (we’ve seen deer droppings regularly). It is truly a miracle that the deer haven’t destroyed all the produce in the garden. We see the garden as a long-term, sustainable way to serve and this is a practical step we are taking towards that.
Sara, I am asking for your support in this campaign …will you support us with a donation when it launches?
Another way you can help is to ask you to share our campaign. If this is something that you resonate with, please share our story!
Finally, I wanted to invite you to our campaign launch party on June 28 at the Vineyard Church at 6:30pm. We’re going to get a bunch of people together, go out to the garden (we’ll have some snacks made with our produce!) and celebrate the launch of our campaign. I would love it if you could make it! Let me know if you’re able to come!
Please feel free to contact me anytime if you have any questions, suggestions, or ideas!
I’ll talk to you soon!
