We all have circles of connections in our lives. Robin Dunbar is a psychologist who created a theory about the idea of having inner, middle, and outer circles of relationships–each with varying degrees of closeness. We’ve listed out some ways you can share your fundraiser to connect with each circle:
Alert your inner circle
Your inner circle knows you the best. They likely already know why you’re fundraising and need little convincing to help. Let them know about your fundraiser directly: talk to them face-to-face, give them a call, or send a text.
You should also consider this group as partners on your fundraiser. You might send them co-organizer invites so they can actively participate. You can also enlist their help to share your fundraiser with people you might not know personally. Here are some ways you might ask your inner circle for help:
- Have them generate a GoFundMe sharing poster with the "Share" button on the fundraiser page, and ask them to post it along with a personal story on their social accounts (Facebook, Instagram, etc.)
- Print QR code fliers and ask them to share them with groups they're a part of. For example, a pickleball group, school community, or book club.
Connect with your middle circle
For your middle circle, these are people you speak to often, but they might not know what’s happening in your personal life. This is where you’ll start sharing on social media and in more public ways. You’ll share more information as you explain what’s happening and how people can help.
This is a good time to take stock of what communities you’re a part of. We interact with more people than we might initially think. Some examples of community groups that might fall into your middle circle are coworkers, extended family in other states, high school or college alumni groups, sports leagues you take part in, faith-based groups, etc.
Take advantage of group forums (Facebook pages, Slack groups, Newsletters) and call on the connection you have with them. Leaning into your connection and shared experiences is what will inspire potential supporters to learn more about your cause and lead to more donations. Let’s look at two different ways to share with different communities:
Your high school alumni group
“Hi all, it’s been a while since I’ve talked to some of you, but I wanted to take a moment to share the GoFundMe I’ve started [Insert Link]. I’ve already felt a great deal of love and support from the generous people who’ve donated, but we’re still working towards reaching our goal. I always felt our graduating class had a strong connection, so if you’re able to spare a moment to read through my story and consider donating, I’d deeply appreciate it. Hope you’re all doing well, and go Tigers!"
Your faith-based group
“Hello. Some unforeseen circumstances have led me to need to lean on my church family for support. I’ve chatted to and volunteered with many of you, and I feel so welcomed by this congregation. If you’re able, please read more about why I’m raising funds and consider making a donation: [Insert Link] I’d also greatly appreciate if you could share my fundraiser with your friends and family. Please feel free to reach out and ask questions at our next service.”
Reach your outer circle
If you’ve already had some success, it's time to start focusing on your outer circle. Keep in mind that repetition is important for connecting with people in your outer circle and beyond. They might need to hear about your fundraiser a few times before they fully understand and connect to your need. Let’s look at some specific ways to share on and off social media to reach your outer circle.
Offline
- Take advantage of the QR flier GoFundMe provides within your sharing options. Print a few copies and post them on bulletin boards and other (legal) public places.
- Talk about your fundraiser. Word of mouth works, so continue to bring your fundraiser up in conversation.
- Put together a pitch for your local news outlet.
- Use Instagram stories where links are clickable. They’re the first thing people see when they open Instagram, and they disappear after 24 hours, so posting multiple times feels natural.
- Stories are the perfect place to use the GoFundMe sharing posters because they're a great visual, and you can easily add your link below the poster.
- Add your GoFundMe link to your Instagram bio, and be sure to reference it when posting to your grid so viewers can access a clickable link.
- Post once or twice to your grid, and then reference those posts in your stories. Choose encouraging and uplifting photos since photos of smiling people tend to lead to more donations.
- What to post:
- Use your stories to post goal updates.
- Share anecdotes about what your fundraiser means to you.
- Tag and thank donors to show your appreciation.
TikTok
- Keep it short and sweet. Include important details about why you’re raising funds, be sure to include your link, and ask people to share your post and fundraiser link.
- Ask people to leave comments with details and words of support for your cause. Comments are highly favored in TikTok’s algorithm, so they’ll help boost your post.
- Keep your posts fresh. If your video is more than a week old, it likely won’t show on feeds, so post at least once a week or so.
- Post at the right time. The best time is usually in the afternoon to evening, when more people have time to scroll.
- Use trending hashtags or sounds that relate to your fundraiser. This will help TikTok surface your video to people that might resonate with your content.
- Share to Facebook groups you’re a part of. This is a great way to reach more people compared to just posting to your own timeline.
- Post at the right time. Studies suggest that mid-morning, between 9am-12pm EST, on weekdays tends to be the best time to post.
- Post multiple times a week to reach those who might miss your posts, or to remind those who saw and were too busy to take a look.
- Create a Facebook event, include your link in the description, and invite your Facebook friends to it.
- For other helpful tips, check out our Blog post with Facebook Fundraising tips
Remember, you’ll need to share often and in multiple places for the length of your fundraiser in order to meet your goal. Hopefully these tips will help you to connect with potential donors within your widest circle of acquaintances, but it’s also important to ask other people to share so you can reach their potential connections as well. For more fundraising tips, check out our collection of additional guides and videos.