How to promote a fundraiser: 12 strategies to raise more

Putting in the time to create an engaging landing page for your fundraiser is a must, but even the most beautifully designed campaign won’t raise a dollar if no one sees it. With the right promotion plan, you’ll bridge the gap between a campaign that hits its goal and one that falls short.

This guide covers 12 straightforward tactics for getting your fundraiser in front of the right people at the right time, plus a simple promotion schedule to keep you on track.

Before you promote: 3 things to set up first

Before you send any emails or post on social media, make sure you’re set up for success. Rushing ahead is why so many fundraiser promotions underperform.

1. Build a campaign page worth sharing 🔨

Your campaign page is the destination for every promotion tactic you use. If it doesn't convert, nothing else matters. A fundraising campaign worth sharing should include:

• Story 📖 A specific, emotional story about why you’re raising funds and the impact you’ll have (Answer the question: “Why should someone donate to this particular fundraising effort?”)
• Goal 🌡️ A concrete goal with a visible thermometer
• Visuals ✨ Photos, short videos, and/or graphics that help tell your story
• Giving levels 💛 Clear suggested donation amounts

Givebutter’s fundraising pages and events include all of these features, from a customizable story section and goal thermometer to verification badges, easy media uploads, and suggested donation amounts that guide donor decisions.

⭐️ Pro tip: 75% of donors look for concrete information about a nonprofit's achievements before deciding to give. Build your credibility on your campaign page by including your EIN number, linking to your website and/or news coverage of your work, and sharing real photos from your programs—not stock images.

More to explore

Donation page setup guide with real examples →

2. Segment your audience 🎯

Not everyone on your list should get the same message at the same time. Break your potential audience into three segments or tiers:

• Tier 1️⃣ Warmest contacts, including board members, staff, major donors, and active volunteers
• Tier 2️⃣ Broader donor and supporter list in your CRM
• Tier 3️⃣ Coldest audience—social followers, wider community members, people in your board's networks

Tier 1 contacts should hear about your campaign first and give early to establish momentum and provide social proof that makes the other groups more likely to give.

3. Build a promotion schedule 📅

Before launch, map out your full campaign window into three phases:

• Pre-launch 🔈 Build anticipation, warm up your list, recruit peer-to-peer fundraisers
• Launch week 🔈 Maximum activity across all channels
• Mid-campaign & final push 🔈 Sustain momentum and create urgency

Many nonprofits over-prioritize launch promotion, leaving significant mid-campaign and end-of-campaign donations on the table.

Download your free fundraiser promotion schedule & checklist

As you go through the promotion ideas in this article, map the ones that work for you into this campaign schedule and checklist to ensure you stay on track toward your goal.

Freebie alert!

Download your free fundraiser promotion checklist →

12 ways to promote a fundraiser

With your campaign optimized and contact list segmented, you’re ready to decide what promotional tactics you’ll use to spread the word about your campaign.

1. Start with personal outreach 🤝

The highest-converting promotion channel isn’t a mass email or a social media post. It’s a direct, personal message from someone the donor knows.

Identify 15–20 people who should hear about your fundraiser first (your Tier 1 list!), including close friends, major donors from past campaigns, and your most engaged volunteers. Send personal emails or texts, and ask board members to do the same with their own contacts.

A personal ask converts at dramatically higher rates than any broadcast channel, and it generates early donations that build the social proof you need to bring in everyone else.

2. Activate peer-to-peer fundraising 🙌

The most powerful promotion amplifier available: turning your supporters into fundraisers. Peer-to-peer fundraising (P2P) lets your donors create their own pages linked to your main campaign. When they share with their networks, every click lands on a donation page, so you're not just reaching your audience—you're reaching their audience.

Recruit from your Tier 1 list of passionate donors and volunteers, equip them with directions to personalize their fundraising page and a quick ask script, and send periodic progress updates to keep them going!

Freebie alert!

Download your free peer-to-peer fundraising toolkit →

3. Send a strong launch email 📧

A well-crafted launch email to your existing list is your highest-ROI broadcast tool. The highest performing emails will include:

• A subject line with emotional pull or urgency (less "Announcing Our Annual Campaign" and more “Be a part of the solution for homelessness”)
• A brief but specific story or impact statement
• A single clear ask with a donation link
• A deadline

Schedule this first donation request letter for launch day. Then, follow up with a separate email to non-openers within 3–5 days. This step alone can drive a huge increase in email-driven donations.

⭐️ Pro tip: Givebutter includes built-in email marketing tools, so you don't need a separate software solution.

4. Post consistently 🗓️

The keyword here is consistently. While social media alone rarely drives massive donation volume, it keeps your campaign visible and warms up cold audiences.

Schedule social posts into your promotion schedule, say three posts per week during an active campaign. Pre-writing posts before launch eliminates the "What do I post today?" paralysis that can quietly kill mid-campaign momentum.

Content types that perform include:

• Emotional story posts
• Milestone announcements ("We just hit 50% of our goal! 🎉")
• Donor shoutouts
• Countdown posts ("3 days left—will you help us get there?").

Use short videos when you can—they outperform static images across every platform. And always include your campaign link!

5. Make your fundraiser searchable online 🔎

Most nonprofits focus entirely on email and social media, but SEO (search engine optimization) can drive donations, too.

If someone Googles:

• “[Cause] fundraiser near me”
• “[Organization name] campaign”
• “How to support [mission]”
• “Donate to [program]”

Your fundraiser should be easy to find! Here’s how to improve discoverability:

• Use clear, descriptive titles on your campaign page
• Include your organization name in the headline
• Add keywords naturally in your story (what you’re raising for, where, who benefits)
• Share the campaign link across multiple platforms (Google indexes links shared publicly)
• Ask partners to link to your campaign from their websites

If you’re using a platform like Givebutter, your campaign page is publicly accessible and indexed—meaning it can show up in search results. That’s free, ongoing visibility beyond your email list and social media followers.

6. Send mid-campaign & final push emails 💌

Don't stop at one launch email. A mid-campaign update ("We're halfway there—here's the impact your donations are already making") and a final push email ("48 hours left to hit our goal") consistently drive significant donation spikes.

Mid-campaign updates work because progress is contagious. Seeing that 62 people have already donated makes the next person more likely to join in. The final email is often your single highest-revenue send of the campaign.

7. Send a text/SMS appeal 📲

Open rates for text messages average over 95%—dramatically higher than email. If you have mobile numbers in your CRM, a brief mid-campaign or final push text with a direct campaign link can meaningfully move the needle.

Keep it short (Givebutter Plus text messaging is limited to 450 characters, including emojis!): Who you are, one line about what you're raising for, the link, and the deadline.

Example: "Hi [Name]—we're just $3K from our goal and have 2 days left! Can you help? [link]"

⭐️ Pro tip: Givebutter Plus includes both SMS messaging and an advanced drag-and-drop email editor with hundreds of pre-built templates designed for nonprofits that make your emails stand out in supporters’ inboxes.

8. Ask board members to share personally 🗣️

Outside of formal peer-to-peer fundraising, board members and other core supporters sharing your campaign on their personal social media and emailing their own networks is one of the most underused promotion levers in nonprofit fundraising.

The ask is simple: Share with 10 people personally (not just a social post) and post to their own social channels.

Make it easy for them by providing a pre-written social caption they can personalize, a short email template, and a direct link to the campaign. This isn't just about reach—it's about credibility. A message from a person carries more weight than one from an organization.

9. Reach out to local media & community groups 📰

For community-based fundraisers, a local newspaper mention, a neighborhood newsletter feature, or a post in a local Facebook group can meaningfully expand reach beyond your existing audience.

Write up a simple press pitch that includes who you are, what you're raising money for, and why it matters locally. Include the campaign goal, your deadline, a photo from your campaign, and a link—done!

Community channels like local Reddit boards, Nextdoor feeds, Slack channels, and religious or civic organization newsletters are often overlooked and surprisingly effective for community-based campaigns.

10. Partner with local businesses 🤝

A corporate sponsor that shares your campaign with their customers—via email, social, or in-store—can be a significant reach multiplier.

When approaching a potential partner, frame what's in it for them (e.g., community goodwill, social recognition, customer engagement), make the ask specific ("Would you share our campaign link in your next email newsletter?"), and make it easy by providing ready-to-use content (a sample social caption, a short email blurb, or a printable flyer).

This approach is especially effective for events, giving days, and cause-based campaigns with strong local relevance.

Freebie alert!

Download your free corporate sponsorship request letter →

11. Leverage your events 🎉

If your fundraiser is tied to a gala, 5K, auction, or community gathering, the fundraising event itself is a promotion vehicle, and so is the lead-up.

Promote your fundraising goal by:

• Adding the campaign URL and scan-to-donate QR code to event day signage
• Include a brief campaign appeal from the stage (and share your easy text-to-donate shortcode via live display!)
• Follow up with attendees post-event with a final donation ask ("Thank you for being there—we're still $X from our goal. Can you help us close the gap?")

Attendees are your warmest in-person audience and often your best last-mile donors.

12. Celebrate donors publicly throughout the campaign 💛

Public recognition is a promotion strategy—not just good stewardship. Seeing others give creates social proof and triggers that special kind of FOMO that motivates people on the fence.

Post donor shoutouts during the campaign (with permission), share milestone announcements ("We just crossed $10K—thank you to everyone who donated!"), and thank your biggest supporters visibly.

This recognition keeps the campaign top of mind for people who haven't given yet, and it rewards donors in a way that encourages them to share.

Fundraising & promotion in one easy platform

From personal outreach and peer-to-peer fundraising to emails, texts, and social media, you’ve got everything you need to create a solid promotion schedule for your campaign—and reach your goals faster.

With Givebutter, promotion isn't a separate workflow. Instead, it's embedded right into the fundraising experience.

You’ll find campaign pages designed to convert with customizable story sections, goal thermometers, suggested donation amounts, and built-in social sharing buttons that make it easy for donors to share the moment they give. And with peer-to-peer fundraising, your supporters can create their own pages linked to your main campaign, with a leaderboard showing progress and fostering friendly competition.

Now your launch email, mid-campaign update, and final push text all live on the same platform as your fundraiser—no CSV exports, no switching tools.

Sign up for your free Givebutter account today to see how much smoother fundraising can be.

FAQs about promoting a fundraiser

How do I promote a fundraiser with no budget?

Most of the strategies in this guide cost nothing: personal outreach, social media posting, peer-to-peer fundraising, board member sharing, and community group outreach are all free. The biggest investment is time, not money.

If you have any budget at all, prioritize email (it consistently outperforms paid social for nonprofits) and tools that enable peer-to-peer fundraising (since your supporters' networks do your promotion for you).

How early should I start promoting a fundraiser?

Start warming up your audience 1–2 weeks before launch. A "coming soon" email or social teaser builds anticipation and gets people thinking about your cause before you ask them to give.

On launch day, your audience already knows something is coming, which increases open rates, shares, and day-one giving. Recruit peer-to-peer fundraisers even earlier, giving them time to set up their pages and start personalizing their asks.

How do I keep momentum going mid-campaign?

Mid-campaign slumps are normal. Combat the slump with a milestone email that shows progress and impact ("We're at 60% of our goal—here's what that already means for the families we serve") as well as donor shoutouts that create FOMO, a peer-to-peer leaderboard update if you have P2P fundraisers, and a mid-campaign personal outreach push from board members to contacts they know personally.

Does peer-to-peer fundraising really help with promotion?

It's one of the most powerful tools available—but only if your P2P fundraisers are actually engaged. The key is recruiting people who are genuinely passionate about your cause and giving them simple tools: a personal fundraising page (Givebutter creates these automatically), a sample appeal they can personalize, and periodic updates to keep their motivation high. A P2P fundraiser with 10 enthusiastic supporters can out-raise your entire social media presence!

How to market a fundraiser?

Marketing a fundraiser starts with a campaign page that tells a compelling story, then gets it in front of the right people through the right channels—personal outreach, email, social media, peer-to-peer fundraising, and text appeals. The key is consistency across all three phases of your campaign: pre-launch, launch week, and the mid-campaign push to the finish line.