5 Ways to Raise More Money with Your TapKat Nonprofit Sweepstakes Fundraiser
Here at TapKat, we focus exclusively on sweepstakes fundraising for nonprofits. That focus has enabled us to help hundreds of nonprofits raise meaningful funds for their cause, and through the years, we’ve observed, noted and helped expand on the strategies that seem to raise the most money (don’t worry, they’re all fun!)
In this blog post, we’re going to look at the top five ways your organization can raise more with your next TapKat sweepstakes. If you have a sweepstakes in process at the moment, great! These tips will still come in handy. Most of them can be implemented at any time. Let’s dive in!
Strategy #1: Choose a Great Prize
We talk about choosing a great prize often here at TapKat because it makes such a huge difference. These days, donors are savvy, and the best way to incentivize them to enter and inspire them to share your sweepstakes with their friends is to make sure that your prize is something they really want!
A great prize is an item or experience that someone might not purchase for themselves normally. In other words, it’s a splurge! This can be something as simple as a gift card to a spa franchise, an indulgent vacation to a tropical locale, or a beautiful sports car that someone might not normally feel they could (or should) purchase for themselves.
The special nature of the prize gives it a feeling of exclusivity and makes it feel like a “once-in-a-lifetime” type of experience, which really excites donors.
When you’ve selected your prize, be sure and include great photos of the prize on your sweepstakes site. This is important because it shows off the prize and helps your donors visualize themselves winning.
We often suggest that nonprofits to source their prizes on consignment. If you’re curious about what this means and how to do it, read more here.
Strategy #2: Use Promo Codes
When it comes to promoting your sweepstakes, promo codes are absolutely key to honing in on the best ways to share your sweepstakes with the world. What is a promo code, you ask? Great question!
You’ve probably seen promo codes often if you shop online. But unlike retail promo codes, which offer the shopper a percentage discount, TapKat promo codes offer a donor a percentage more entries to the sweepstakes for the same price. So, instead of entering the sweepstakes at $25 and receiving 18 entries, a 25% promo code will give that person 18+5 entries for the same $25.
This accomplishes three things:
The donor has an extra incentive to enter the sweepstakes (more chances to win),
The nonprofit raises the same amount of money,
The nonprofit now has a method of tracking which marketing methods are the most successful via the promo code.
When you’re logged into your TapKat dashboard, you’ll easily be able to track which promo codes are raising the most money. This is why we strongly encourage our nonprofits to put separate promo codes on every promotion they do! For instance, if you send out an email to your base, create a special promo code for that. If you post on Facebook, create a separate promo code for each post. If you purchase a print ad, that needs its own promo code, as well.
After all those promotions run, you can easily look back and see which ones generated the most donations, and then repeat the most successful promotions going forward.
Strategy #3: Run a Flash Contest
Flash Contests are really fun for donors and for the nonprofit, and they most often result in a boost in donations to the sweepstakes. Essentially, a flash contest is “a sweepstakes within a sweepstakes,” where you offer an additional prize to everyone who enters your sweepstakes within a certain period of time.
For example, let’s say your grand prize is a brand new snowmobile. Since you know that your donors are definitely interested in snow sports, your flash contest could be a $300 gift certificate to a company that sells snow gear (like cool new jackets, helmets, etc.) When you select the flash contest prize, you then tell your donors, “Hey, everyone who enters our sweepstakes between now and next Sunday at midnight will also be entered to win this gift certificate!”
Your TapKat dashboard has an entire page dedicated to making the flash contest process easy for you and clear for your donors, including a simple way to promote the flash contest on your sweepstakes site and a quick way to draw the winner when it’s time.
Strategy #4: Enlist Your Sponsors, Board Members, and Volunteers
When it comes to sweepstakes fundraising, one thing is clear: The more people that know about your sweepstakes, the better!
Enlist your community to get the word out about your fundraiser. Ask your sponsors to share the news to their email list, on their social media platforms, and if they have a brick-and-mortar location, via flyers and posters (and don’t forget to give them unique promo codes for all their promotional activities so you can track its success!)
Board member involvement will make a big difference in the success of your sweepstakes. Encourage board members to send personalized messages to their network about the sweepstakes, or entice them by putting together a friendly competition to see which board member can bring in the most donations (you can track this via promo codes, too). Make it extra easy on them by pre-writing messages they can copy and paste on social media platforms and send out to their friends.
Don’t forget about your volunteers! These are folks who really believe in your mission and make incredible advocates for your cause. If all they do is share a social media post with their friends and family members, that’s fantastic. The more people who know about your sweepstakes, the more successful it is likely to be.
Strategy #5: Look for More Ways to Share, All the Time
The nonprofits that are most successful with sweepstakes are those that continuously look for new and interesting ways to engage their audience and reach new donors. That means running flash contests, looking for new avenues to get the word out about their sweepstakes, and generally being open to new ideas and strategies for promotion.
Sweepstakes fundraising is a lot of fun and is incredibly rewarding. If you’re ready to dive in, apply for a TapKat account today.
