How 7 small projects turned into 170 donors and 4x the fundraising goal
How splitting one large project into 7 transformed their end-of-year fundraising campaign.
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Last year, When The Saints doubled their end of year fundraising goal. It all started with a simple decision to do their end of year fundraising a bit differently on DonorSee.
When The Saints (WTS) runs a ministry and compound helping girls who’ve been sexually abused heal and learn vocational skills. With over 62 girls in their care and a staff of almost 90 people, they have a lot of infrastructure and operational costs. Expanding their campus was going to require at least $10,000 in ‘dull’ infrastructure projects.
Rather than do one large $10,000 project, their founder David Peterka, split their end of year campaign into 7 distinct projects - ranging from $760 to $2,720.
One project was for a solar powered water heater so the girls could have hot showers in all the dorms. Another helped upgrade their Lead-Acid batteries to a Lithium Ion - extending their lifespan and helping support a new dorm. My favorite was 6 solar flood lights to keep the compound safe at night.
David posted the first project in early October and had the last posted by the 16th. Then, he started sharing the projects in the WTS e-newsletter, on social media, and with donors he knew.
Five individual donors responded to the campaign - including one major DonorSee donor. Together, they fully funded all 7 projects.
As David said:
“Last year, we launched a year-end DonorSee campaign with 7 projects and a goal of $10,000. By God’s grace, and with your generosity, we more than doubled that goal!"
But, the impact didn’t stop there. With that social momentum, and through the power of stories, 253 individual donors gave between October and December totaling over $40,000 in donations. The push to fund the 7 special projects lead to over 65 OTHER projects getting funded.
As donors in the WTS network gave, the DonorSee community started giving too. Over 170 unique donors from the DonorSee community saw David’s projects and chose to give. Not only did this allow WTS to exceed their goal but it also opened the door to many new relationships with impact-investors and donors.
What might have started as a small gift to a few projects has since turned into recurring donations from those donors as they’ve gotten a front-row seat to David’s work. His success for his end of year campaign started with small actions taken in early October - and he’s still seeing the ripple effect. This year, he’s doing 15 small projects to further enhance the compound and improve the lives of the girls they serve. Check out his projects to be inspired!
David’s success highlights three major takeaways:
- Taking the time to break campaigns into smaller story-driven projects excites donors and prompts them to give.
- When projects on DonorSee are shared broadly with your own network, it consistently leads to donations from new donors.
- Showing donors the impact of is the first step to creating lasting relationships with new donors.
Learn more about how DonorSee can help you exceed your goals, reach new donors, and build lasting relationships at donorsee.com
