How do you find the right audience for online fundraising?

1 Define your goals and objectives

Before you start looking for your online fundraising audience, you need to have a clear idea of what you want to achieve with your campaign. What is your mission, vision, and impact? What are your specific and measurable goals and objectives? How will you track and evaluate your progress and results? Having a clear and compelling purpose for your online fundraising will help you attract and engage the right audience.

2 Know your existing audience

One of the best ways to find your online fundraising audience is to look at your existing audience. Who are your current donors, supporters, volunteers, and beneficiaries? What are their demographics, psychographics, behaviors, and preferences? How did they find you and why did they support you? How do they communicate with you and what channels do they use? Analyzing your existing audience will help you understand their needs, interests, and motivations, and how to appeal to them.

3 Research your potential audience

Another way to find your online fundraising audience is to research your potential audience. Who are the people who share your values, vision, and cause? Where do they hang out online and offline? What are their pain points, challenges, and aspirations? How do they make decisions and what influences them? What are their online fundraising habits and preferences? Researching your potential audience will help you identify new opportunities, gaps, and trends, and how to reach them.

4 Segment your audience

Once you have a good understanding of your existing and potential audience, you need to segment them into smaller and more manageable groups. Segmentation is the process of dividing your audience based on common characteristics, such as location, age, gender, income, education, occupation, lifestyle, behavior, attitude, or interest. Segmentation will help you tailor your online fundraising messages, offers, and strategies to each group, and increase your relevance, engagement, and conversion.

5 Target your audience

After you have segmented your audience, you need to target them with your online fundraising campaign. Targeting is the process of selecting the most suitable and responsive segments for your campaign, and focusing your resources and efforts on them. Targeting will help you optimize your online fundraising budget, time, and energy, and maximize your impact and results. To target your audience effectively, you need to use the right online fundraising tools, such as email marketing, social media, crowdfunding platforms, or online events.

6 Test and refine your audience

Finally, you need to test and refine your online fundraising audience. Testing is the process of experimenting with different segments, messages, offers, and strategies, and measuring their performance and feedback. Testing will help you learn what works and what doesn't, and how to improve your online fundraising campaign. Refining is the process of adjusting and adapting your online fundraising audience based on the testing results and insights. Refining will help you fine-tune your online fundraising campaign and achieve your goals and objectives.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?